Chicago

ADDING DEATH TO LIFE, CHICAGO SINFONIETTA CREATES A GREATER WHOLE Halloween night at Chicago’s Orchestra Hall: This year it meant alternately sinister or soaring sounds worthy of its title Dí­a de los Muertos: The Dance of Life and Death. Yes, there was a costume contest, won by a lady in a spooktacular headdress. Yes, the…

A TILT-A-WHIRL AT THE HARRIS THEATER FUNHOUSE The big news from this weekend’s two-night showcase for the jazz-stepping Giordano Dance Chicago is the world premiere of Peter Chu’s roiling new work “Divided Against.” An American dance designer now with Nederlands Dans Theater 2, Chu brings his gymnastic and cheerleader training to Djeff Houle’s driving original…

MAKING FUN OF OPERA FUN AGAIN This mostly satirical Lyric Opera/Second City co-production contains little irony apart from the title. For while it definitely IS about Wagner, it most certainly IS NOT loud or long (But why louder and longer anyway? Louder and longer than what?). This ninety-minute show comprises a series of interconnected sketches…

COMMUTING TO KILL In The Right Stuff Tom Wolfe described a huge “sea change” when the space race went from fighter test pilots to astronauts. In the 1920s through 1950s, high-altitude records were achieved by derring-do hot shots like Chuck Yeager who could fly “by the seat of their pants.” As their exploits evolved into…

OUR FUNKY FOUNDING FATHERS A hip-hop Alexander Hamilton? A beat-box Father of His Country? A jumping James Madison and a jiveass Jefferson who disses bigtime in a poetry slam? The ten-dollar bill will never be the same (or the dollar note for that matter). A sassy-spunky 2015 blast from the past set to irresistible rhythms,…

PLEASE, SIR, I WANT SOME LAMMERMOOR Perhaps this season’s opening production of Wagner’s Das Rheingold raised the bar too high. Lyric’s follow-up effort doesn’t quite reach those celestial heights. And this comes from someone who much prefers Donizetti’s bel canto score. Indeed, this Lucia di Lammermoor is eminently enjoyable to listen to, boasting excellent performances…

A POLITICAL PROKOFIEV BRINGS R & J CLOSER TO HOME It’s been over two years since its Joffrey Ballet’”and U.S.–premiere. The Chicago troupe’s updated version of Prokofiev’s  Romeo and Juliet again re-roots the lovers in modernistic postwar Italy. Slick and lean, this literally black-and-white world (with a little maroon thrown in to suggest blood as much…

THE MONARCH OF MAKE BELIEVE The Truman Show or The Matrix have nothing on Luigi Pirandello’s puzzle play Henry IV, a double-edged blast from the past (both 1921, its inception, and the 11th century, its pretend era). Imagine a man who, after suffering a concussion falling from a horse under suspicious circumstances, has for the…

GUMSHOE GLORY It’s not as original a burlesque of film noir as City of Angels,  but in less than 90 minutes Wicked City, a musical parody  by bookwriter/lyricist  Chad Beauelin and composer  Matthew Sklar (creators of Elf and The Wedding Singer), delivers tough-talking, if overly clever, hilarity. Even better, the merry travesty shrewdly stuffs Raymond Chandler into Sophocles. A…

THE PARTY IS NOT OVER Whether the words flowed from the terrific team of Betty Comden and Adolph Green, the prolific and dynamic Sammy Cahn, or a very young Stephen Sondheim, Jule Styne was a composer for all lyricists. As supple in his melodies as his writers were in their verse and lifting as much…

THE PAUSES THAT DON’T REFRESH Presaging more darkness to follow, The Room, the first play by the late Harold Pinter, is an hour-long psychological thriller from 1957. Full of dour portent, it’s further proof that Halloween only needs humans for horror. Creepily directed by Dado at A Red Orchid Theatre, this six-person one-act practically patents…

LYRIC BRINGS HOME THE GOLD Wagner’s Ring Cycle has arrived in Chicago and it is magnificent. If you’re like me and you’ve never seen it before, then prepare yourself for an experience beyond imagining. Richard Wagner’s epic fantasy features a cast of gods, giants, dwarves, and nymphs, a plot contrasting love and beauty with power…

THREE CATHERINES, YOU’RE OUT If you were one of his sextet of spouses, outlasting Henry VIII wasn’t just a feat of survival’”it became a political statement. The last and possibly least known of this Bluebeard’s six wives, Catherine Parr was the most learned and devout consort. A shrewd negotiator in domestic and foreign affairs, she…

FRIENDLY FOOLING Is stuff magical only because it can’t be explained? Perhaps it’s more than just the absence of logic, probability, or reason. There’s a presence too: Magic evokes a child-like sense of wonder in the oldest adults, rewarding their imagination more than their ignorance. At least that’s the working philosophy of House Theatre’s master…

LIEBESTOD WAS NEVER DARKER For three performances only, a beloved Chicago movie palace becomes  an opera house. Acoustically accurate but with sight lines that worsen toward the back, the Music Box Theatre, a Spanish Rococo treasure, is currently hosting Chicago Opera Theater’s local premiere of Swiss composer Frank Martin’s The Love Potion (Le Vin Herbé). Dissonant…

T&T&T&T&T&T… There’s a reason why Tony n’ Tina’s Wedding, newly revived by the original New York producers, was a 16-year Chicago hit. Throughout the last century this fake pageant with real fun played to a million not so innocent bystanders. A huge hit showcased in three venues (a bar, chapel and reception room) in Pipers…

BLACKOUT LOVE Winsome and warm-hearted, Fly by Night is an affecting chamber musical which premiered in 2014 at Playwrights Horizon. The two-act labor of love by Will Connolly, Michael Mitnick and Kim Rosenstock celebrates human connectedness, most pointedly in love. In their tender-hearted, tough-minded work’”an Our Town where the place is NYC–the connections are also…

KILLER ROSES AND A HUNCHBACK HORROR As disease follows famine, the 100 Years War succumbed to the War of the Roses. It makes sense that the titles of the two parts of Barbara Gaines’ massive compilation  Tug of War are “Foreign Fire” and, now, “Civil Strife.” Whether a ground-grabbing feud between 15th-century England and France or…

LETTING GO, NOT GIVING UP This is a long and leisurely play that generically examines the leaving of life–as in how, when, why and where to say goodbye. Steppenwolf Theatre Company’s world premiere Visiting Edna, by Tony-winning David Rabe (author of the Vietnam War saga  Streamers), is a major debut for the Tony-winning troupe to launch…

FIVE FINGERS, ONE JOKE Unholy rolling, Hand To God is a one-joke coming-of-age comedy, a Twilight Zone episode on steroids. Robert Askins’ two-act 2011 travesty treats demonic possession as a schizophrenic rite of passage: A twisted teenager suddenly takes orders from the hand puppet at the end of his arm. Hell breaks loose. A Victory…