Chicago

BOYS WILL BE MONSTERS William Golding’s 1954 cautionary thriller depicts a world on the edge of nuclear war. But when a plane crashes, a tiny portion of humanity is given a do-over. Tragically, reduced to feral bipeds, they succumb to our worst instincts. Lord of the Flies imagines a deserted tropical island’”a kind of modern…

A PUPPET IN THE WILDERNESS In The Table, a curious creation now on its first U.S. tour, three members of the U.K.’s Blind Summit puppet theater depict a garrulous Bunraku-style hand puppet, a vibrant invention who impersonates no less than the 120-year-old Moses on his dying day on the plains of Moab. The puppet, a…

INDIAN NIGHTS Earlier this fall the Joffrey Ballet revisited the uneasy birth of modern dance with a kinetic revival of Stravinsky’s still-shocking, century-old Sacre du Printemps in all its primitive vitality. As if to balance the ledger, the Auditorium Theatre is now filled with the gorgeous melodies of a late-blooming classical ballet from 1877. With…

THE STANDARD FOR STORYTELLING It’s a coup just to get the theatrical rights to this juicy work, the late, great Paddy Chayevsky’s Oscar-nominated 1956 screenplay. But it’s sensational to pull it off to perfection. Cinematic as its source, John Mossman’s adaptation and staging of The Goddess is a gem of make-believe, an engrossing cautionary tale…

A ZOMBIE MUSICAL THAT NEEDS BRAINS There’s something wrong with a show that demands you be drunk. On opening night the howling fans of this cult phenom, now in its fourth incarnation (if that’s the right word for a flesh-eating farce), managed to outshout even this screamingly unfunny offering. Literally buckets of beer flowed freely…

ROMANCE MEETS REALITY Written early but published posthumously (1817), Jane Austen’s most comical novel, Northanger Abbey, works equally well as a literary satire and a psychologically probing courtship chronicle. Inventively adapted by Tim Luscombe, who has as much fun as the author in contrasting thought and action, Remy Bumppo’s delightful U.S. premiere faithfully follows the…

CLUELESS CORRUPTION Much has been said about Neil LaBute’s work at Profiles, but there’s so much that can’t be given away about Wrecks (2005), a  70-minute solo show by the ever-controversial LaBute, now enjoying his 11th  production at this theater,  that this review will be sparingly short. The setting is a Chicago funeral parlor where the ashes of…

THE TALE OF A LOVE THAT LINGERS TOO LONG Freud said that an unfinished task is never forgotten. But the inability to forget is nothing to the life-long longing of an aborted romance. For novelist Marguerite Duras, a love affair cut short in 1930 fueled her masterpiece  Hiroshima Mon Amour, as well as the novels  The Lover  and  The…

A REAL BEAUTY Reality T.V. meets classical ballet and the latter wins: The stars of the CW’s Breaking Pointe have teamed up at Chicago’s Auditorium Theatre through Oct. 6 to produce a dazzling and faithful version of Tchaikovsky’s sweeping and soaring three-act ballet. Adam Sklute’s staging honors the gorgeous fairy tale and even more sumptuous…

PANACHE, YES’”PASSION, LESS If a story’s strong enough, you just need to rekindle the plot. Edmond Rostand’s timeless love story celebrates the one-sided love between the famous 17th century swordsman-poet disfigured with a humongous schnoz and Roxane,  his beautiful cousin. Roxane is initially infatuated with Christian, her younger, handsome suitor who nonetheless can’t win her without…

VERDI UNLEASHED A DOMESTIC TERRORIST Written in 1845 and seldom seen since, this early opera by Giuseppe Verdi (whose centenary we celebrate) was a promissory note to be redeemed over and over before 1901. Based on an obscure play by Schiller, the somewhat preposterous plot (with libretto by Temistocle Solera) imagines “Giovanna d’Arco,” but not…

A TRAIN TO NOWHERE It’s not enough reason for Joan Allen’s Chicago comeback. She returns to her ensemble-thick roots on the Steppenwolf stage after a 22-year absence during which, among other cinema roles,  she three times pursued Jason Bourne. Now the screen star finds herself in The Wheel, a vehicle that’s both sprawling and stunted. Zinnie…

A SMOKING SAMOVAR It’s a different kind of “spring fling,” much m0re fitting for September when the season has faded fast. The latest installment in the Joffrey Ballet’s “Masters of Dance” season is a revival of their 1987 and 2009 recreations of the seminal and controversial, century-old Sacre du Printemps–a labor of the future by…

BON APPETIT! A welcome return engagement (which is now part of the prestigious Broadway in Chicago subscription lineup), TimeLine Theatre Company’s revival of its 2010 original work To Master the Art remains, even in a much less intimate space and with a higher ticket price, a delicious passion play. As delightfully developed by authors William…

KILLER THEATER Recreating in part the pivotal Civil War battle fought 150 years ago this July, Lifeline Theatre’s labor of hate, powerfully staged by Matt Miller, is as cinematic as theater can get in three dimensions. Commissioned for the company, Karen Tarjan’s 2004 adaptation of Michael Shaara’s much-praised novel (made into the 1993 film Gettysburg)…

AN UNFOCUSED VIEW FROM THE BALCONY In Jean Genet’s The Balcony, authority, sexual desire, and violence are so intricately intertwined that they’re nearly indistinguishable. Outside Madame Irma’s brothel, rebellion licks at the very foundations of civilized society, disrupting the rule of law and overthrowing the monarchy. Inside, cowardly men pose as judges, cardinals, and generals…