Chicago

A GREAT, GREEN ROOM YOU’LL NEVER WANT TO LEAVE Chicago Children’s Theatre closes out its 20th anniversary season with a picture(book)-perfect triumph! “I wish I might, I wish I may / go live inside my book / to stay in the great, green room” There have been some remarkably effective immersive sets in Chicago black-box…

WHEN SHAKESPEARE NEEDS A LITTLE HELP Physical comedy drives the laughs—sometimes to excess—in Phillip Breen’s energetic production The Merry Wives of Windsor is not one of Shakespeare’s most popular comedies, and its origins may partly explain why: Falstaff appeared in the Henry plays, and his character became immensely popular. Queen Elizabeth I reportedly commissioned Shakespeare…

THE BLUES THAT BUILT AMERICA— AND THE COST OF SINGING THEM August Wilson’s masterpiece lands with devastating force in a blazing Goodman revival Four black musicians amble into a recording studio in Chicago in 1927. They are met by two nervous white men; one a manager, the other the owner of the studio. Both demand…

A GREAT PERFORMANCE IN SEARCH OF A BETTER PLAY Gary Houston towers in a two-hander that never quite lives up to its premise Outside a run-down cottage in rural Connecticut, a white-haired man in his 80s sits in a pleather armchair. The ground is littered with balls of paper. A few feet from the chair…

THIS SLOW-BURNING, DEVASTATING DRAMA REFUSES EASY ANSWERS The Sugar Wife is a gripping and complex examination of morality and the individual’s responsibility towards society The Sugar Wife is set in Ireland in 1850. That year is very important; the middle-class and poor were right in the midst of the Great Famine, while across the Atlantic,…

ARGUMENTS WITHIN ARGUMENTS A fiercely intelligent play that challenges ideas more than it deepens character A large, welcoming room lined with stained wood bookshelves greets you when you walk into Theater #2 at Theater Wit’s home on Belmont Avenue in Lakeview. There are three study tables with lamps emitting a soft light. The shelves are…

ALL FOR ONE—AND A WHOLE LOT OF MEANWHILES A rollicking, cleverly staged adventure that balances spectacle with comic flair Xavier Lagunas, Jack Sharkey and Boomer Lusink Swash your buckler and brandish your sword! Idle Muse Theatre opens its 20th year with a new production of The Three Musketeers, adapted by local playwright Robert Kauzlaric from…

PHILOSOPHY, FARCE, AND ART UNDER SIEGE Witkiewicz’s dense, absurdist text sparks to life— until unnecessary asides break the spell Gus Thomas and Venice Averyheart Theatre does not get much more high-minded than The Cuttlefish, or the Hyrcanian Worldview, now on stage at Trap Door Theatre in Bucktown. This 1922 play from Polish surrealist Stanisław I….

FOLKLORE, GHOSTS, AND THE WEIGHT OF THE DEAD Matthew C. Yee’s wildly ambitious world premiere dazzles, even as its larger shape remains elusive Death, and coming to terms with it, have been fertile ground for the theatre since its inception. In White Rooster, multi-hyphenate Matthew C. Yee—he writes! He directs! He acts! He composes!—examines death…

A REIMAGINED BUTTERFLY WHERE REALITY MEETS FANTASY What is it about Giacomo Puccini’s Madama Butterfly (1904) that lures audiences back year after year, especially in the United States? Madama Butterfly might be one of the few canonical operas featuring an American character (Pinkerton), but it is by no means a flattering portrait of him. The…

ART, DESIRE, AND SURVEILLANCE IN CASTRO’S CUBA Scheherazade spins a tale of longing in this richly acted production In the middle of the night, two sisters are violently yanked from their beds by armed militia. Pulled into their living room, their assailants scream at them, demanding the location of banned print materials. When their search…