Chicago

CLOSET EMANCIPATOR For what it’s worth, the other “F-word” is now a play’s title, presumably rivaling the “N-word” for shock effect. Well, anything called Abraham Lincoln Was A F*gg*t is not meant to soothe the status quo: The questing character in Bixby Elliot’s provocation, a transgressive Chicago premiere from About Face Theatre, is a 17-year-old…

PRIVATE DANCERS It’s a stunning vote of artistic confidence. The repertory of Hubbard Street Dance Chicago’s Summer Series, their latest dancefest at the Harris Theatre, consists of three works by Spanish choreographer Alejandro Cerrudo–including his 14th world premiere for the ensemble. The two-hour presentation focuses fiercely on Cerrudo’s tensile strengths–quirky gestures that come from the…

COPE WITH HOPE A tale for all ages, this perennially popular musical by Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt (creators of I Do! I Do!) got a major make-over in 1990: The 30th anniversary tour with Robert Goulet featured director Rudy Hogenmiller as The Mute in an enlarged version not seen since ’til now. No more…

SIX SINGULAR SENSATIONS No text or context, no name-dropping or dates delivered, no editorials about the art–the songs just sing for themselves. The revue’s title–A Marvin Hamlisch Songbook–says all and enough. Conceived by director Courtney Crouse and musical arranger Aaron Benham, Theo Ubique Cabaret Theatre’s latest treasure triumph at No Exit Café is a beautifully…

WINDOWS ZERO This could have been a conversation. Employing flashy strips of LED lights, twelve video monitors, and digitalized backdrops, Goodman artistic associate Regina Taylor’s stop. reset. asks an interesting if not original question: What have books become? Is the act of reading hand-held, unconnected tomes selfish and anti-social? Does this show of independence cut…

NO FLOWERS IN A TOO-SECRET GARDEN It’s right that Court Theatre completes its 60th season with this redemptive tale–and it comes just as summer finally delivers its much-appreciated promissory note of life renewed. The Secret Garden depicts a seemingly endless winter that engulfs Archibald Craven, a Yorkshire widower who loses his wife and may soon…

THE LAST VICTIMS An urban massacre grabs headlines for days, then burns out as quickly as it erupted. There’s always the next shock of the known to deal with: Without meaning to be cruel, we move on. An aftermath drama, The December Man is Canadian playwright Colleen Murphy’s 90-minute, three-character look at what won’t fade…

DEAF, DUMB, BLIND–AND FABULOUS! Right now there’s a lot of noise in the attic–Mary’s Attic in Andersonville. The uproarious occasion is Miracle!, a gender-bending, cross-dressing romp created by sex guru Dan Savage, the seminal spokesperson (“Savage Love”) for most matters GLBTQ. Losing not a laugh, it was inevitable that Hell in a Handbag Productions, Chicago’s…

A METAPHORICAL MESS “The truth can be cruel.” That’s the twisty motto of the interactive quiz show within Quiz Show, a maddeningly metaphorical one-act from Strawdog Theatre Company. The U.S. premiere of British playwright Rob Drummond’s puzzle piece, this treacherous 75-minute drama morphs like a microbe–from a game show that tests trivia to a lethal…

LIVING A LEGACY At this very moment Islamic State terrorists are on the brink of invading–and possibly destroying–the ancient Roman capital of Palmyra. Loathing any past but their present, their campaign of desecration and vandalism across Ninevah and Mosul, Iraq, as well as precious sites in Syria, echoes the culture rape of the distant Mongols….

DIRTY DOINGS IN DIXIE In a way The Little Foxes is a complete complement to Margaret Mitchell’s antebellum revisionism in Gone With The Wind (which appeared the same year as Lillian Hellman’s mistresspiece). This nasty work also exposes the true South–greed, not glory–half a century later. Hellman’s brilliantly constructed exposé of a monumentally dysfunctional Southern…

DISTURBED DANCES Two years ago Boris Eifman brought his all-absorbing story recital Rodin to the Auditorium Theatre. It delighted audiences with its stream of 1,000-word pictures: The vibrant talespinning depicted a great sculptor and his (outer) inner demons. Less enthralling and more problematic, Eifman’s equally elaborate Up & Down is just that–a roller-coaster focused more…

THE ONCE AND FALLEN DREAM It’s a continuing crisis seen from the inside out, fleshed out with warmth and truth. In The Project(s),  American Theater Company artistic director PJ Paparelli and documentarian Joshua Jaeger create a 140-minute crash course and action meditation on Chicago’s infam0us housing projects. Inspired by Jacob Riis’s pioneering expose How The Other…

BLACK IS BACK The “Man in Black” is back. Actually, it’s more like a non sci-fi “Men in Black”: It takes both Kent M. Lewis and Michael Monroe Goodman to play, respectively, the mature and younger Johnny Cash. Ring of Fire: The Music of Johnny Cash, a sensation at Indiana’s Theater at the Center, is…

BLUES IN THE NIGHT Side Man is a superb title. It fits the story/situation splendidly. Warren Leight’s 1999 Tony-winning memory play is narrated by a son named Clifford, its subject his jazz musician dad Gene and his hardluck mother Terry. Moving laterally from gig to gig, prospering only between Sinatra and Elvis, Gene’s only musical…

PRUDENCE AND PASSION Offhand, sense and sensibility hardly seem antonyms. As the Brits say, it’s a distinction without a difference. But in Jane Austen’s 1811 novel of the same name (her first success) two sisters set each other off (in every sense) by hewing to supposed extremes. Daughters whose father’s death has lost them Norland,…

SISTERS AND SOLDIERS Following their rather loose and unconventional takes on Greek tragedy and Gilbert and Sullivan, The Hypocrites return to a more classic approach with Anton Chekhov’s Three Sisters. What gives the production its freshness is the use of a contemporary, idiomatic translation. This helps smooth over some of the awkwardness of the narrative…

ANCIENT LAUGHS TIMES TEN An irresistible mix of Roman “new comedy,” commedia dell’arte, and vaudeville, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum rivals The Producers as the funniest musical comedy ever–and the future seems no threat. Not seen in Chicago since Goodman Theatre’s lavish 1988 production, the once and future 1962 smasheroo…

OSCAR PLEADS FOR MERCY “We are all of us lying in the gutter–but some of us are staring at the stars.” This fusion of original sin and the saving power of grace fuels the artful ambivalences in Lady Windermere’s Fan. A well-made play with an untidy moral, Oscar Wilde’s four-act 1892 comedy traces the fault…