Chicago

A SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCE AT THE THEATER First Floor Theater’s Chicago premiere of In His Hands by Benjamin Benn, which opened last night,  is breathtaking from start to finish. Benn’s writing is a poem of the mundane turned miraculous, and the deeply intimate, visually striking production does Benn’s words justice. Alex Benito Rodriguez and Matt Klingler This…

ALICE BY HEART: FULL-HEARTED PRODUCTION; HALF-HEARTED SCRIPT Alice by Heart follows a young girl, Alice (Caitlyn Cerza), during the London Blitz of World War II as she takes refuge in her beloved copy of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Alice and her friend Alfred (Joe Giovannetti), who is deathly ill with tuberculosis, seek shelter in an…

BORED OF THE RINGS In J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, Bilbo Baggins famously states to his nephew and adoptive heir, “It’s a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door.  You step onto the road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there’s no knowing where you might be swept off to.” It’s also a…

THIS PIGEON ADAPTATION IS NOT FOR THE BIRDS My kids love Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!, the popular children’s book by Mo Willems. It’s a simple, comic story about a pigeon that wants to be a bus driver, but whose dreams are thwarted by reality. An incredibly expressive and somewhat sympathetic character, the…

MIDNIGHT IN THE GARDEN OF GOOD AND BAD — GET HIGH FROM A TALL GLASS OF LADY CHABLIS; TAKE A BOTTLE OF BOURBON TO ENDURE THE OTHERS The Goodman Theatre’s premiere production of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil brought the beloved non-fiction book by John Berendt to life in a way that…

ZAC IS ON THE INSIDE TRACK Token Theatre’s world premiere production of Zac Efron by David Rhee  — co-written by Wai Yim  and directed by Alan Muraoka — is not about Zac Efron at all, beyond recognizing that he’s a cookie-cutter hot white man. The play spotlights a gay Asian-American love story and the pair’s rise to…

LITTLE BEAR RIDGE ROAD IS A BRIGHT STAR IN OUR VAST UNIVERSE Steppenwolf’s world premiere production of Little Bear Ridge Road by Samuel D. Hunter  lays bare the reality of two people who feel so much yet are stubbornly unwilling or unable to tear down their walls and allow connection. Laurie Metcalf and Micah Stock This…

MICHAEL SHANNON STARS IN A TANTALIZING TURRET If you had to define the word turret, what would an easy definition be? Well, I love castles, so I know a turret was often the corner where a guard could be positioned. But a turret is also that rotating structure you’ve seen in Star Wars on the…