Chicago

STILL WAITING TO SEE IF THIS DOUGH WILL EVER RISE The Baker’s Wife never made it to Broadway. The musical folded in Washington. D.C. in 1976 before reaching New York City but has since gained something of a cult status in both the United States and England. Area audiences now have the opportunity to see…

TAKING CARE TO CREATE EXCELLENT THEATER The plot of Harold Pinters’ The Caretaker is uncomplicated on the surface and densely complex in its subtexts; it is a melding of realism and theatre-of-the-absurd which places a thuggish and volatile young man, his brain-damaged older brother, and a scruffy old tramp together in a rubbish-strewn room.   From…

PROFILES OF A DREARY EXISTENCE The Profiles Theatre has carved out an essential niche for itself on the local Chicagoland theater scene with sexy, violent, and edgy modern dramas. Recently, playwright Deirdre O’Connor gave Profiles one of its major hits with Jailbait, about a pair of teen-aged girls who venture into the adult world of…

A DREAMBOAT IN DREAMCOAT In just two productions, the Paramount Theatre has elevated itself to the top of the class in Chicagoland musical theater, in company with Drury Lane in Oakbrook Terrace and the Marriott Theatre in Lincolnshire. The Paramount opened with an ecstatically reviewed revival of My Fair Lady in September and is now…

PROMISING PREMISE PRODUCES PREPOSTEROUS PRODUCT Katha and Ryu are a modern married couple fed up with their harried lives: Ryu hates his 60-hour workweeks as a doctor and Katha is discontented with her job in front a computer screen. Plus, she is drenched in depression following a miscarriage. Katha accidentally meets well-groomed, mild-mannered, and middle-aged…

HAND OVER GIST Martin McDonagh, the English dramatist known for his quirky and violent plays set in rural Ireland, sets A Behanding in Spokane in the United States, but the setting hasn’t inspired him to create the rich ethnic canvas that makes his Irish plays such vivid playgoing experiences. Although it is not a great…

A RESONANT AND RESOUNDING SOUND OF MUSIC Although the Drury Lane Theatre extended the run of its revival of THE SOUND OF MUSIC even before the show opened, the laudable theater company might want to consider adding yet another extension. Director Rachel Rockwell returns after her triumphant production of  Sweeney Todd to create an evening that…

I’M DREAMING OF A WHITE CHRISTMAS THAT WORKS It is possible that Irving Berlin’s White Christmas might succeed with audiences. Possible, that is, if they are willing to tolerate a lame, cliché-ridden plot in exchange for large samplings of the Irving Berlin songbook. The musical is an adaptation of a 1954 motion picture (simply called…

‘TIS FOLLY TO OVERPRAISE FOLLIES The buzz in the lobby of Chicago Shakespeare Theater (CST) on opening night of Stephen Sondheim’s landmark 1971 musical Follies was palpable; people from around the world were clamoring to see this rarely produced work – and for good reason. The original Broadway production is legendary: people lucky enough to…

COUNTRY MUSIC PARODY BETTER THAN COUNTRY MUSIC ITSELF Country music can be whiney, right wing, corny, and macho. In the case of The Doyle and Debbie Show, it is also hilarious. I am no lover of country music, but who can resist a revue that includes numbers like “Stock Car Love,” “Barefoot and Pregnant,” and…

PORTRAYALS BRING BUS STOP TO LIFE William Inge was a hot American playwright during the 1950’s, but in the turbulent 1960’s and beyond, his realistic studies of small town Midwestern life became unfashionable. Lately, Inge has reappeared on the radar of important American playwrights, with theaters and audiences again finding pleasure in his sturdy dramaturgy…

TWO PLAYS IN ONE What is the purpose of theater? Some say that it is to reflect reality while being entertaining, enlightening, and/or educating. Yet when Shakespeare wrote that theatre is designed to “hold, as ’twere, the mirror up to Nature,” his character of Hamlet actually used theatre to shape reality, not merely reflect it….

THE SHADOW OF A GREAT PLAY The birth of the Irish Republic occurred around Dublin in 1916. Aiming to end British rule, Irish Volunteers staged an insurrection known as the Easter Rising, a rebellion many Irishmen did not support. However, after quelling the week-long insurrection, the British Government’s hostile reaction – including conscription (compulsory enlistment)…

WHO IS TO SAY WHAT IS REAL? Tom Stoppard is the thinking person’s playwright. Ever since his breakout hit Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead in 1967, the erudite scribe has been earmarked an absurdist, one whose work concentrates on the futility of man’s search for meaning in a meaningless existence. As with all Theatre of…

WHAT WE FIND IN THIS ATTIC IS A CASE OF THE CUTES It was a privilege to witness Snapshots: A Musical Scrapbook at Northlight Theatre, for this reviewer has never seen anything like it before. An omnibus of previously published Stephen Schwartz songs (not trunk songs, mind you, but songs taken from formerly produced shows)…

LITERATURE NOT MEANT TO BE STAGED Halfway through the first act of Brand at Red Tape theatre, it occurred to me that I had no idea what was going on. First of all, it can be argued that Henrik Ibsen’s 1866 dramatic poem (some call it a Verse-Drama) was not written to be staged. The…

LONG DAY’S JOURNEY INTO DYSFUNCTION What becomes a new artistic director? Ambition, with a two-fisted delivery. Timothy Douglas, the new chief of the Remy Bumppo Theatre Company, bravely goes bare-knuckles as the director of Mourning Becomes Electra. The production is Gordon Edelstein’s adaptation of Eugene O’Neill’s play, which updates the story of Orestes by following…

THIS MUSICAL IS MURDER Dear Drury Lane Theatre: Since your production of Sweeney Todd is closing this week, please allow me to write a love letter to you for giving me the privilege of witnessing the finest production of Stephen Sondheim’s masterpiece that this critic has ever seen. My first time was the original Broadway…

A PALE SHADE OF RED The closing stage picture in John Logan’s 2010 Tony-winning Red at the Goodman is about as thrilling and breathtaking as theater gets: as Abstract Expressionist painter Mark Rothko (Edward Gero) examines one of his paintings commissioned by an upscale restaurant in New York, the spectacular lighting (Keith Parham) and set…

REVUE REVIEW Richard Maltby, Jr., and David Shire are not household names among the teams of composers who have contributed to the American musical stage. Although their collaboration goes back to their college days at Yale, they only have two Broadway shows to their credit: Baby (1983), a favorite among regional theaters, and Big (1996),…