Chicago

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…

WAR IS CONCENTRIC SLICES OF HELL Just as America seems to be expanding rather than concluding our deal with the Devil in the Middle East, Sideshow Theatre Company’s Chicago premiere–a valuable, 100-minute drama–seems all the more topical, valuable and non-negotiable. In the spirit of A Few Good Men, Bill Cain’s pile-driving play 9 Circles exposes…

LOONY TUNES IN EVERY WAY You could call this two-act, two-actor, two-hour romp Irma Vep  meets Singing in the Rain. A charming trifle that’s also a stunning tour-de-deuce, Porchlight Music Theatre’s local premiere features two ostentatiously talented and handsome brothers, Adrian and Alexander Aguilar. They star in a madcap revue created by two very showbiz brothers,…

WHERE BLARNEY GOES TO DIE Who’d have guessed that a 90-minute Irish play would be set in a bar where everyone gets sozzled and crocked much sooner that an hour and a half could ever allow? But in his 1985 exercise in forensic disillusionment, acclaimed Irish author Tom Murphy wants to subvert stereotypes as much…

HEROISM AND ESTROGEN Well worth seeing, this stylized 100-minute tour de theatre nonetheless requires’”and rewards’”an informed audience: It needs eager theatergoers already aware of the story it tells so well. Despite depicting the same tragic tale, Pink Milk is not to be confused with Breaking the Code, Hugh Whitemore’s superb 1986 drama and acclaimed 1996…

AN ARAB ZELIG Supple, swift and slippery, this 80-minute, four-character satire by Jonas Hassen Khemiri (translated by Rachel Wilson-Broyles) skewers Islamophobia and its many mutations. Its trick is to center our self-terrorism on an exotic name borrowed from an old play. Meaning everything and nothing, the fake persona “Abulkasem” takes on as many protean forms…