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Chicago
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Theater Review: THE CUTTLEFISH, OR THE HYRCANIAN WORLDVIEW (Trap Door Theatre)
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….
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Theater Review: WHITE ROOSTER (Lookingglass Theatre)
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…
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Opera Review: MADAMA BUTTERFLY (Lyric Opera)
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…
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Theater Review: THE DROWSY CHAPERONE (Theo Ubique Cabaret Theatre)
AIN’T NOTHING DROWSY ABOUT THIS CHAPERONE Theo Ubique’s joyous revival of the Tony-winning musical turned this critic into a tap-dancing, high-kicking fool. Darian Goulding as Aldolpho In a cozy, well-used apartment, a small man sits in a comfortable armchair. With his brow furrowed and his voice riddled with anxiety, he talks to us about music….
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Theater Review: IN PURSUIT OF (Sub Rosa Theatre Collective at Greenhouse Theatre Center)
CRIME, PUNISHMENT, AND TOO MANY SET CHANGES A sharp modern riff on Dostoevsky boasts strong performances and ideas, but it’s a production that won’t stop getting in its own way The opening scene of Zoé Soteres’s In Pursuit Of is a case study in narrative efficiency. A young man steps into a disheveled room with…
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Dance Preview: JOFFREY BALLET’S 16TH ANNUAL WINNING WORKS (Museum of Contemporary Art)
FIVE CHOREOGRAPHERS, FIVE PREMIERES Winning Works gives emerging dancemakers a coveted professional stage—and a glimpse of dance’s next generation The Joffrey Ballet’s Winning Works initiative has quietly become one of the most influential launching pads for emerging choreographers in American dance. Now in its 16th year, the program returns to Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Art…
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Theater Review: TWO SISTERS AND A PIANO (Writers Theatre in Glencoe)
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…
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Theater Review: THE BRIEF WONDROUS LIFE OF OSCAR WAO (Goodman Theatre)
NOT QUITE WONDROUS A Pulitzer winner takes a bumpy trip to the Goodman stage Fans of Junot Díaz’s Pulitzer-Prize-winning novel The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao are in for a bit of a shock with the world premiere of the English-language stage adaptation by Marco Antonio Rodríguez, now being performed at the Goodman. Examining…
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Theater Review: MORNING, NOON, AND NIGHT (Shattered Globe at Theater Wit)
A POST-PANDEMIC RECKONING WITH ISOLATION AND MENTAL HEALTH A moving character study elevated by a nuanced central performance The oddest thing about Kirsten Greenidge’s Morning, Noon, and Night is how fundamentally conventional its construction is. Not that this is necessarily a negative, but for a play that involves eco-doom-scrolling, cheating on exams with Google, and…
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Theater Review: HAMNET (Royal Shakespeare Company at Chicago Shakespeare Theater)
SHAKESPEARE’S NAME, SOMEONE ELSE’S STORY A generic weepie that gloms onto the prestige of Shakespeare while offering nothing of substance in return Rory Alexander and Kemi-Bo Jacobs as William and Agnes Shakespeare Let’s start with a simple exercise: If you were to replace the name “Will,” as in William Shakespeare, with a random name—say, Robert,…
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Theater Review: POT GIRLS (The Story Theater at The Raven)
A SMART, PLAYFUL SPIN ON A FEMINIST CLASSIC Paul Michael Thomson’s witty homage to Top Girls is dazzling—if occasionally too clever for comfort Myah Bridgewater and Laney Rodriguez A world premiere from Story Theatre, performed at the Raven, Paul Michael Thomson’s Pot Girls is a charming update on Caryl Churchill’s Thatcher-era feminist classic Top Girls,…
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Theater Review: TOP GIRLS (Raven Theatre)
A 1982 CLASSIC THAT REFUSES TO AGE Raven Theatre’s revival lets Churchill’s blistering feminist satire land without cosmetic updates Yourtana Sulaiman, Hannah Kato, Claire Kaplan, Luke Halpern, Morgan Lavenstein, and Susaan Jamshidi Almost 45 years after its debut, Caryl Churchill’s seminal play is as depressingly relevant as ever. In 1982, three years after Margaret Thatcher…
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Theater Review: CHARGES (THE SUPPLICANTS) (North American Premiere at Theatre Y)
A CHORUS OF EXILE IN AN ARCHITECTURE OF ISOLATION Theatre Y’s North American premiere immerses its audience in complicity and unease Makai Walker Before we get into the merits of Elfriede Jelinek’s Charges (The Supplicants), now at Theatre Y in its North American premiere, we need to talk about Steven Stoll’s set: a series of…
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Dance Review: AMERICAN ICONS (Joffrey Ballet)
A legacy program celebrating Joffrey’s founders while showcasing the company’s present vitality A richly performed evening where history fuels a thrilling, forward-looking repertory Preternaturally spry and acutely seasoned may be good ways to describe Joffrey Ballet Chicago these days—at least based on the company’s Spring program, American Icons, now in performance at the Lyric and…
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Theater Review: THE SEAGULL (Red Theater)
A LAKESIDE ESTATE OF ART, AMBITION, & UNREQUITED LOVE A richly acted, visually striking Seagull that finally delivers a fully realized Nina A gorgeous and enormous Arcadian painting of a lake, covering almost the entire back wall, is the first thing you notice as you walk into the Edge Off-Broadway Theatre. This splendid reproduction of…
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Theater Review: MISS JULIE (Court Theatre, Chicago)
STRINDBERG UNDER SIEGE A misfire in almost every way possible, this visually aggressive production overwhelms the play’s naturalistic power. “Uh oh,” was my first thought when the wall of lights behind the set for Miss Julie started flashing during the obligatory pre-show announcement to turn off phones. That sense of impending doom only grew when…
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Theater Review: HEDDA GABLER (Remy Bumppo)
IBSEN’S ICONIC ANTIHEROINE STILL MAKES A MESS OF POLITE SOCIETY A sleek, sharply acted production driven by a magnetic central performance, even at a lightning pace Redtwist Theatre may have “Defiant Femmes” as its seasonal theme, but headstrong, prickly, and complicated women are commanding stages all over Chicago at present. For its first production of…
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Theater Review: COME BACK, LITTLE SHEBA (American Blues Theater)
MISERY, MARRIAGE, AND A MIDWEST LIVING ROOM THAT CAN’T HOLD IT ALL A powerhouse pairing turns Inge’s domestic ache into something bruising, intimate, and hard to shake It may be the season of love, but the zeitgeist in Chicago theatre seems to be the season of miserable couplings. There’s Strindberg at Steppenwolf and Court; Ibsen…
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Theater Review: THE HOBBIT (Young People’s Theatre of Chicago at Greenhouse Theater Center)
TOLKIEN’S CLASSIC QUEST BECOMES INVENTIVE ENSEMBLE STORYTELLING A clever, resourceful adaptation that turns theatrical minimalism into maximum adventure. Taking you “There and Back Again” in the best possible way, this sparkling production is a delight. The first thing that hits you when you walk into the upstairs theater at the Greenhouse is Jacqueline Penrod’s gorgeous,…
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Theater Review: HOLIDAY (Goodman Theatre)
A SAVVY, GLORIOUS UPDATE It took three productions, but Goodman’s Centennial Season has finally hit its stride. Pour one out for Richard Greenberg, one of the great American playwrights of the last several decades, who, even after his death last year, has graced us with a stellar update of a screwball gem from 1928. Philip…
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