Chicago

HAYES’S HARRIED HIT “It’d be nice to please everyone but I thought it would be more interesting to have a point of view.” The incomparable Oscar Levant is the subject of the latest premiere production at the Goodman Theatre. If you are not that familiar with Levant, don’t fret, by the end of the show,…

A WINNING WINNIE Just in time to join in Â the Â celebration of Â the Â 95th anniversary of Â the Â beloved children’s character, Â the Â Mercury Â Theater is making a bold and commemorative move on its mainstage. Never before have Â they put a children’s show in Â their regular rotation. After wonderfully received post-pandemic, yet more traditional productions, including Â Sister Act Â and Â Women of Soul, is Â their gamble worth it? Of course! Disney’s Â Winnie Â the Â Pooh — The Â New…

COMPLEX AND POWERFUL, RELENTLESS LIVES UP TO ITS TITLE After Timeline Theatre Company’s near sold-out run during the winter, The Goodman Theatre is restaging playwright Tyla Abercrumbie‘s ferocious, fierce, determined and monolithic three-hour play, Relentless. Prolific director Ron OJ Parson helms this bold new work focused on confronting the societal pandemic of racism plaguing this…

FAMILY DYSFUNCTION, PAST AND FUTURE Philosopher George Santayana once famously wrote “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” This quote kept bouncing around my head while watching Victory Gardens Theater’s latest world premiere play, In Every Generation. The first show on the mainstage since the pandemic shutdown, this challenging Jewish family…

DISASTER LIVES UP TO ITS TITLE Its not everyday a well-known chef headlines a new play, so it was with great interest I attended the new immersive comedy,  A Recipe For Disaster!  This Windy City Playhouse production has taken over an entire floor of the recently reopened Petterino’s restaurant, dubbing the performance space “The Playhouse at Petterino’s”….

A ROYAL PRODUCTION There is something to be said for a classic musical lovingly restaged for a new generation of audiences. The Drury Lane Theatre should be very proud with their latest, Rodgers & Hammerstein’s The King and I. There is enough here to satisfy any traditionalist and to charm even the sternest of curmudgeons….

WHILE NOT A DISASTER, SOME INGREDIENTS NEED FIXIN’ In 2012 and 2014 the famous Chicago chef Rick Bayless and the Lookingglass Theatre Company joined to present a food-and-show production called Cascabel, which combined music and circus acts with a full meal served to the audience in their seats. Now Bayless is working with the Windy…

DAWN BLESS A BLESSING IN SCALED-DOWN CHURCH After an almost two year pandemic break, the Black Ensemble Theater BET) is back in business and doing a necessary check in on everyone’s mental health. The first show in “The season of healing and joy” celebrates faith, joy, self-esteem and self-worth. It’s Just Like Coming to Church…

COMEDY SET TO A BEAT Tina Arfaee, Cat McDonnell, Uri, Teagan Earley, Breanna Ghostone, Preston Parker Often referred to as the crown jewel of sketch comedy,  The Second City  is unveiling its latest,  The Best Friggin’ Songs of The Second City: Sing Out!  on their UP Comedy Club stage. Over the last six decades, The Second City  has cultivated a…

WINNING ASSIST Back in business after a near two year hiatus, Steppenwolf Theatre Company’s winning new dramady, King James, is a must see for more than just rabid sports fans. Truth be told, I had many a friend snicker when I told them I was going to see a new sports themed play debuting in…

THE BEST OSCAR GOES TO SEAN HAYES From the late 1930s to the early 1950s, Oscar Levant was one of the most popular and versatile figures on the American entertainment scene. Levant was a pianist, composer, radio and television personality, motion picture actor, and raconteur known and enjoyed for his caustic wit. Levant also was…

PAYING ATTENTION TO THE WOMEN Eleanor Burgess’s new play Wife of a Salesman is a riff on Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman. Burgess (The Niceties) has adapted the Miller original into an intimate revision, placing two women as adversaries in their competition for a man, Willy Loman, the central character of Miller’s 1949 play…

SERIOUS STOMPIN’ IN CHICAGO One of the many things I enjoy about Porchlight Music Theatre here in Chicago is no one dusts off a little-known musical for a revamping better than this talented team. Case in point, their latest restaging of the Tony-nominated musical revue, Blues in the Night. Set in a South Side Chicago…