Chicago

SOME FRAGILE  PERFORMANCES CAN’T BREAK MENAGERIE’S  SPELL The Glass Menagerie is getting lots of airtime this summer. Having just been produced in the Steppenwolf Garage, Redtwist Theatre now takes a shot at Tennessee Williams’ semi-autobiographical memory play. Given the current economic climate, it’s not surprising that theatres are tempted to revisit it. The play gives a hard,…

SOMEWHERE BETWEEN PERFORMANCE ART AND DRAMA Without ever denigrating the work of Chicago artist Tony Fitzpatrick, I have to say I never quite got part three of his trilogy of play/art-show/performance pieces, Nickel History: The Nation of Heat. The work is largely autobiographical, with Fitzpatrick and Stan Klein, Fitzpatrick’s fellow artist and longtime friend, contemplating…

IT’S A PLEASURE TO BE IN HARMS’ WAY It’s been quite a year for veteran Chicagoland actor James Harms; after receiving critical acclaim nationally for his performance in The Iceman Cometh at the Goodman, he now gives a dominating performance leading the Light Opera Works revival of Man of La Mancha, in which Harms plays…

TRASHY FUN Audience expectations need to be adjusted for a show like The Great American Trailer Park Musical. The title lets patrons know what they are in for: The topic will be trailer trash’”meaning the musical will feast on stereotypes, low comedy, and political incorrectness’”and the music will not display Stephen Sondheim-ish urban sophistication’”meaning that…

A MONUMENTAL FAILURE The Monument opens with a young man strapped into an electric chair, recounting the actions that led him to the moment of his execution. If playwright Colleen Wagner had ended her work with the switch being pulled, she would have produced a solid solo short play. Instead the show turns into a…

THE ARTISTIC HOME PROVIDES GOOD DRAMA, BUT CAN’T FIX A TROUBLED PLAY Apparently in The American Plan, the name of the game is deception, but no one seems to think they’re playing. In Richard Greenberg’s drama (which, as the title suggests, unsubtly comments on the falseness of the American Dream), all of the characters are…

CARRYING THE ALBATROSS Adrift takes its inspiration from Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s Rime of the Ancient Mariner, which tells the story of a sailor stricken by horrible misfortune after he shoots down an albatross, his ship left stranded on still seas. Things aren’t so bad in David Alex’s modern day play, which makes its world premiere…

GOING UP Piper’s Alley has long been a destination for Chicago comedy fans, with Second City bringing in sold out crowds for nearly every performance. Now you can get even more laughs under one roof by visiting the third floor UP Comedy Club, which opened  last December. The spot hosts nightly shows, plus matinee performances Saturday…

DEAD WRITER’S PRODUCES DEAD THEATRE I’ll admit, I was skeptical from the start walking into the Greenhouse Theatre’s production of Noel Coward’s The Vortex, the inaugural production of the Dead Writer’s Theater Collective (DWTC). Why? The newly formed DWTC states that their plays are presented “as we interpret the authors would have intended their works…

IT’S  ABSURD HOW AMAZING TRAP DOOR THEATRE IS… OR IS IT THE OTHER WAY AROUND? For those of you skeptical of avant-garde theatre, I’d like to kindly direct your attention over to the Trap Door Theatre. This season has been a big one for them, with a strong slew of productions that have gotten raved by…

SOMETIMES YOU CAN GO HOME AGAIN Playwright John Godber grew up in a Yorkshire mining town before going off to college to become a writer. It gives Salt of the Earth, which follows 40 years in the life of family in a mining town, an autobiographical quality, strengthened by the fact that the sections featuring…

GREEK TRAGEDY IN THE ‘HOOD Luis Alfaro’s slant on the Oedipus myth is at no point more transparent than the opening of his play, when several Latinos in orange jumpsuits sit behind bars, nodding their heads as James and Bobby Purify’s lyrics blare from a prisoner’s boombox: “I’ll do funny things if you want me…

REEFER MADNESS IS SUCH A HIGH THAT YOU DON’T HAVE TO BE STONED TO ENJOY IT In 1936, a church group sponsored a motion picture aimed at warning young people about the dangers of marijuana. The film, called Reefer Madness, was a cheesy combination of over the top acting by Hollywood bit players and laughable…

THE STEPS TO SUCCESS They say that timing is everything. Timing certainly is everything in The 39 Steps, the English spy spoof that occupies a delightful, often amazing, and even suspenseful two hours at the Drury Lane Theatre. The antecedents of The 39 Steps go back almost 100 years to John Buchan’s 1915 thriller novel…

IF YOU LET IT, FERVENCY AND JOY COMPENSATE FOR TROUBLING SCRIPT A joyful noise is rising out of the Goodman Theatre this summer. With hearty vibrato and a religious fervor rivaled only by televangelists, writer/director Regina Taylor’s revamped hit Crowns is shaking the rafters, and will have you nodding and tapping and humming for the…

NOTHING BEASTLY ABOUT IT The Chicago Shakespeare Theater is presenting the best musical production of the summer, but audiences will have to see it in the daytime. The production is Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, and while it’s billed as a family musical (a code phrase for children’s show), this show distributes its pleasures equally…

OEDIPUS  REX POTENTLY UPDATED  TO THE BARRIO Oedipus El Rey is Luis Alfaro’s vision of Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex seen through the prism of modern Latino life, specifically gang culture as it melds with the traditions and values of the barrio in east Los Angeles. The drama at Victory Gardens is powerful and riveting, which proves that a…