Chicago

A PARTY WITH TOO MANY UNINVITED GUESTS Insightful, hilarious, and ultimately undone by its own ambitions Phanésia Pharel’s Dead Girl’s Quinceañera, now being performed at the Goodman Theatre, is several genres fused into one wobbly script. It’s a satire of a police procedural, a send-up of true crime podcasts, a coming-of-age story, a socioeconomic study,…

NO CATHARSIS, NO COMPROMISE A fearless musical refuses easy answers Could we compel Raven Theatre to mount at least one unconventional musical every season? After the smashing success of their production of Dave Malloy’s Octet—their first-ever musical—earlier this year, Raven have teamed up with About Face Theatre to mount the Chicago premiere of another offbeat…

WHERE THERE’S A WILL, THERE’S A WAY OUT A son gets the boot, his parents get their kicks, and the audience gets a riot In keeping with the expectation at Trap Door Theatre, when one walks into the performance space, the stage is occupied by performers: stage-center, a stone-faced woman in an enormous apron chops…

THE TRUTH HURTS— AND SILENCE KILLS Shattered Globe Theatre’s gripping political thriller confronts the cost of telling the truth in a world determined to suppress it Can you imagine a country where the president and his government seem physically incapable of telling a simple truth, comfortable with broadcasting obvious lies and meaningless explanations? In the…

BLOWN AWAY Jon Fosse’s haunting meditation on life, companionship, and depression becomes an extraordinary theatrical experience in the hands of two remarkable actors In a misty space, two roughly hewn planks of wood swing from the ceiling, suspended by nautical ropes. Flanking the planks are wide swaths of white cloth stretching from ceiling to floor….

A STREETCAR NAMED BRANDO Johnny Galecki’s marvelous Tennessee Williams anchors an enormously entertaining imagined encounter that offers more theatrical fun than insight In the summer of 1947, an up-and-coming young actor called Marlon Brando hitchhiked his way to Provincetown, Massachusetts, to audition for the part of Stanley Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire, the eagerly…

WITH THIS RING, I THEE KIDNAP A deranged celebrity fantasy gets plenty of laughs from three fearless performers, but Samantha Hurley’s comedy runs out of ideas before it runs out of steam In a basement bedroom in the year 2004, a CRT television blares clips from Tobey Maguire movies on a loop. The wall above…

GIVE THIS MOUSE ALL THE COOKIES! So wildly inventive that even the grown-ups can’t believe their eyes The Young People’s Theatre of Chicago opens its new season with Jody Davidson’s adaptation of the children’s book If You Give a Mouse a Cookie by writer Laura Joffe Numeroff and illustrator Felicia Bond. Skewing to a younger-than-usual…

A LITTLE TOO MUCH CARRY-ON The crew earns its wings; the script, not quite There’s no denying Rivendell’s commitment to the bit in its production of Eliza Bent’s Bonnie’s Last Flight, the final show of their season. The front staff are clad in flight attendant garb. The ushers wear hazard vests. The audience is separated…

THE HOUSE ALWAYS WINS Kenny Leon finds new layers in Suzan-Lori Parks’s riveting battle between two brothers trapped by history, rivalry, and the roles they perform Topdog/Underdog by Suzan-Lori Parks is lauded as one of the greatest American plays of the 21st century, and it’s earned that label through blistering and rhythmic language, tension so…

NO TIME LIKE THE TESSERACT Almost four decades after its Lifeline premiere, James Sie’s adaptation of Madeleine L’Engle’s novel still enchants On Lindsay Mummert’s cool Fibonacci-esque set, a sulking Meg Murry sits, hunched over. She’s gotten into trouble at school again. Her teachers hate her, and her principal is exasperated with her. It’s been two…

A CLASS OF HER OWN Tania Richard recalls being the only Black girl in a white Chicago suburb, with humor that makes the painful memories hit harder “I am not the author of my life, but I am the author of my story.” — Tania Richard American Blues Theater ushers in its 41st season with…

A LIFE IN THE AIR Shana Carroll’s extraordinary theatrical memoir finds wonder in the moments between falling and flying Well, it’s finally happened; I’ve been rendered speechless. The Attic, subtitled Things I’ve Seen While Lying on My Back, is unlike anything I’ve seen on a stage. Is it a drama? A musical? A ballet? A…

FIVE MONOLOGUES IN SEARCH OF A PLAY A sharp, funny satire of academia wrestles with difficult questions—and nearly gets derailed by its sexual detours They’re back! After a four-year hiatus, during which time I’m sure some serious soul-searching was conducted, Victory Gardens Theater returns to the Chicago theater scene with The Humanities, a world premiere…

KOKANDY UNLEASHES ITS HYDE A problematic musical gets a thrilling jolt of theatrical electricity from Kokandy’s powerhouse performers and audacious design Kokandy Productions’ remount of Leslie Bricusse and Frank Wildhorn’s Jekyll & Hyde with Broadway In Chicago has no problem filling the Broadway Playhouse stage with raucous, dangerous fun. Seeing Kokandy produce outside of their…

AN EASY PILL TO SWALLOW The opening production of TimeLine’s first full season in its gorgeous new home in Uptown, the world premiere of Jessica Huang’s The Birth of the Pill, gets off to an inauspicious start. On Regina García’s lovely set, all warm earth tones and tourmaline tiles, a young woman, Ramona Delgado (María…

NO MIRACLE HERE Moments of brilliance cannot make this uneven García Márquez adaptation cohere It has been raining for several days, and in a small house, a husband (Dan Cobbler) and wife (Laura Nelson) are freaking out about the health of their child. He has a fever that will not abate, and the wife believes…