Chicago

FINDING FOCUS Linda Vista is billed as “an adult comedy about immature behavior.” Surprisingly tender, Tracy Letts’ Steppenwolf stunner examines one man’s mid-life crisis from all sides and, best of all, from inside out. Sardonically struggling against himself as much as the world, Dick Wheeler is Letts’ most developed anti-hero. Named after the San Diego…

A SPADEFUL OF SUGAR As the supplicating ballad puts it, “Let’s hope she will stay.” Not just the quintessentially “practically perfect” nanny, Mary Poppins is a kind of cosmic cure. Given the state of our disunion, we probably need to swallow helping and heaping spoonfuls of sugar: Disney’s aggressively buoyant movie musicalization cavorts across the…

TOIL AND TROUBLE There are no miniaturized marvels, no surprises sprung from trap doors, no white rabbits from a hat. Beyond Caring bears none of Lookingglass Theatre Company’s vintage make-believe. In a major departure from the usual grand illusions, Chicago’s relentlessly undefinable troupe is currently exposing Gold Coast audiences to a reality as bleak and…

A SEASON OF SOAPS IN ONE SHOW An exhilarating, over-the-top, floridly artificial romp, Destiny of Desire is as wonderfully hokey as its title. A Chicago premiere, Goodman Theatre’s co-production with South Coast Repertory is Karen Zacarí­as’ affectionate salute to the romance of the telenovela. Her stylized showcase is a giddy treat that quietly carries an…

DRAMATIZING WHAT CANNOT BE KNOWN Aerobic exercises for the cerebral cortex, Tom Stoppard’s daunting dramas (The Real Thing, Arcadia, The Invention of Love) go for the gray matter. In perpetual motion and unstoppable talk, they ponder, posit, propose, rebut and refute. But none so deliberately as his 2015 screed The Hard Problem. Now in an…

IF ONLY SINCERITY MEANT SUCCESS You really want this play to work. It means so well and maybe so much. But it’s hard to find a worthy resolution in a play about repeated, nation-wide violations of human rights. Maybe that’s the point. But it’s no dramatic advantage. The optimistic title of truth and reconciliation, now…

IN SEARCH OF A STORY Loved ones seen in stasis are probably truer to most families. No clans are ever collectively happy or purposeful, only the members and not, of course, all the time. But, however accurate its depiction   of mutual dysfunction, a play about paralyzed characters is not intrinsically dramatic. Take Sycamore. There are…

ABBONDANZA! What a gem of a jewel is this rarely done masterwork! It’s what Candide was to Leonard Bernstein or Porgy and Bess to George Gershwin, a folk opera to rise above mere musicals. As wonderful as Guys and Dolls and How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying remain (enough to put any composer/lyricist/bookwriter…

CANNED SPAM-ILTON For little more than an hour, Spamilton, an attention-deficit musical travesty, never lets up until we’re let out. Exploding with relentless volleys of unfriendly fire, it bombards us with “in” jokes and manufactured outrage over New York City’s less than Great White Way. With the crowd packed to bursting in the studio in…

KWIECIEŠƒ’S ONEGIN IS EUGENE THERAPY Having brought seven new productions to Chicago this year, perhaps it was inevitable that Lyric Opera would bring an old one out of the woodwork. But what an excellent one to choose. Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin was last heard nearly ten years ago, so this would seem not a season too…

COPELAND’S MOREL LACKS INVENTION Four years ago, Long Beach Opera (Artistic and General Director Andreas Mitisek’s other company) staged Stewart Copeland’s The Tell-Tale Heart, giving the one-act opera it’s U.S. debut. Based on the short story by Edgar Allan Poe, it was an undeniably madcap production with little to recommend itself beyond sheer novelty. As…

THE SOUR SMELL OF SUCCESS Never confuse fear with respect. During the Cold War, when the Russians were less deniably our enemies, op-ed tyro Joe Alsop rivaled gossip czar Walter Winchell in gaining the ears of politicians’”and, sometimes, as with Sen. Joseph McCarthy, other parts as well. For better and for worse, Alsop is the…

SINKING INTO THE STEPPES Running invisible endurance feats, the characters of Anton Chekhov expose what Henry David Thoreau called “lives of quiet desperation.” When the good doctor’s creations, compassionately but uncompromisingly presented, break loose from boredom and emotional paralysis, it’s only to crash into unrequited love. Like T.S. Eliot’s forlorn J. Alfred Prufrock, they measure…

THIS BROTHERS  IS A KEEPER This winner really is a blast from the past. Celebrating America’s most explosive and enthralling tap-dancing team, My Brother’s Keeper’”The Story of the Nicholas Brothers is Black Ensemble Theater’s latest reclamation jamboree, a loving tribute to two brothers who made it big and kept it fun. It’s also a tour de…

A SOUTH SIDE WEAVE The setting is a beloved beauty parlor on Chicago’s South Side. It’s seen better times and may soon see none. Hanging over the storefront is a gallery of famous female African-American singers and pioneers from Rosa Parks to Beyoncé. Instantly we’re more at home than at shop. Playwright Marcus Gardley (The…