Areas We Cover
Categories
Theater
-
Theater Review: THE WIZARD OF OZ (Palm Canyon Theatre / Palm Springs)
THERE’S NO PLACE LIKE PCT A radiant Dorothy leads an enchanting journey down the Yellow Brick Road The 1939 film version of The Wizard of Oz is part of our cultural DNA, so whenever it’s brought to the stage, the inevitable question is: How will they pull it off? Miss Gulch on her bicycle, the…
-
Theater Preview: PROOF (El Portal Theatre / North Hollywood)
THE PROOF IS IN THE FAMILY Ed Begley Jr. and daughter Hayden Begley bring David Auburn’s Pulitzer Prize-winning drama to the stage for a four-performance benefit supporting Parkinson’s research Jason Jeske presents a special four-performance engagement of David Auburn’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Proof at the El Portal Theatre, starring Ed Begley Jr. and his daughter, Hayden…
-
Theater Review: TREASURE ISLAND (Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum / Topanga)
WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARRRR A spirited cast and an unforgettable setting help this classic weather a few rough seas in Ellen Geer’s adaptation Driving up the twisty road along Topanga Creek to Will Geer’s Theatricum Botanicum for the first time and walking into the sprawling wooded compound, I was already halfway charmed before the…
-
Theater Review: SAFE LANDING: COYOTE EMBRACE (Authentic Chicago Ensemble / Theater Wit / Chicago)
COYOTES, KILLERS, AND SECOND CHANCES Tim Kough’s unconventional thriller finds surprising humanity beneath its violence Theater comes wrapped in all manner of trappings, and it’s often the works that stray furthest from convention that linger longest in the memory. Safe Landing: Coyote Embrace, now playing at Theater Wit, is one of those productions. Written by…
-
Theater Review: NORTH BY NORTHWEST (The Old Globe / San Diego)
DIAL M FOR META Emma Rice’s inventive adaptation is an enjoyable ride; just don’t expect to be transported The movies lie to us in ways the stage cannot. Alfred Hitchcock’s North by Northwest works because the camera goes where Roger Thornhill goes, feels what he feels, and cuts away before we notice the seams. A…
-
Off-Off-Broadway Review: THE TAMING OF THE SHREW (Shakespeare, Entirely / La MaMa)
A CLASSIC THAT STILL DELIGHTS Strong performances and lively staging carry the day Small Boat and kotto Productions bring Shakespeare’s romantic comedy The Taming of the Shrew to life in La MaMa‘s downstairs Club Space. An onstage bar before curtain sets the tone for the evening, and by the end of the night, you may have…
-
Off-Off-Broadway Review: PORTRAITS OF GAYS IN DESPAIR (HB Playwrights Theatre)
PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS FIVE GAYS Paul Kubicki’s wildly inventive cycle of short plays finds humor, heartbreak, and humanity in unexpected places If Tennessee Williams and Cole Escola had an artistic progeny, the result might look something like Paul Kubicki’s Portraits of Gays in Despair: A Cycle of 5 Plays. Beginning with a vignette…
-
Theater Review: THE GREAT GATSBY (National Tour)
GREAT LOOKS, LITTLE GATSBY Too loud, too repetitive, and nowhere near the Jazz Age The touring production of The Great Gatsby, now at the Citizens Opera House in Boston, gives us Linda Cho‘s Tony Award-winning costumes and great sets by Paul Tate dePoo III, but neither the book by Kait Kerrigan nor the score by…
-
Off-Off-Broadway Review: WHAT A WORLD! WHAT A WORLD! (The Tank / New York City)
NOT WAITING FOR GODOT… WAITING FOR THE DINOSAUR This delightfully confounding absurdist comedy won’t convert skeptics, but devotees of the genre may find much to admire Halfway through What a World! What a World!, a pink dinosaur toy interrupts the action and powers onstage. The actors stop and stare. The toy stops and turns upstage…
-
Off-Broadway Review: PORTRAITS OF GAYS IN DESPAIR (HB Playwrights Theatre)
SAD BOYS, WILD PLAYS Where Peter Thiel, Judy Garland, and anal warts somehow make perfect sense Theatrical experiences often move us with realism. Other times we end up with a musical number featuring an actor in drag portraying Judy Garland seeking treatment for anal warts. That’s the kind of outlandish novelty inside Portraits of Gays…
-
Off-Broadway Review: GIULIA: THE POISON QUEEN OF PALERMO (PAC NYC)
A TOAST TO TOXIC JUSTICE A visually ravishing musical transforms vengeance into exhilarating theater Thanks to director Mary Zimmerman, scenic designer Daniel Ostling, and lighting designer T.J. Gerckens, there is remarkable artistry on display at PAC NYC, where the thrilling new musical Giulia: The Poison Queen of Palermo opened tonight. Topping off this impressive creative…
-
Theater Review: CRAZY FOR YOU (Goodspeed Opera House / East Haddam, CT)
NOTHING CRAZY ABOUT LOVING THIS SHOW This joyful revival earns every smile I admit that I am crazy for Crazy For You, and this feel-good production is quite a delight in Connecticut at the Goodspeed Opera House (now celebrating its 150th anniversary). This merry 1992 musical is a solid, splashy audience-pleaser, stuffed with swell old…
-
Movie Review: HARRY POTTER AND THE SORCERER’S STONE (Shared Reality at Cosm)
THE BEST MAGIC KNOWS WHEN TO STOP Restraint proves more magical than excess Early in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (2001), Vernon and Petunia Dursley barricade the house against the acceptance letters from Hogwarts. The letters come anyway, down the chimney, through the windows, a blizzard of paper that no locked door can hold….
-
Theater Review: SUFFS (First National Tour)
VOTES FOR WOMEN… AND A VICTORY FOR MUSICAL THEATER History marches forward with intelligence, heart, and exhilarating conviction The national tour of Suffs, Shaina Taub‘s Tony Award-winning musical about the fight for women’s suffrage, arrives in Chicago with its urgency, humor, and emotional power fully intact. More than a history lesson, it presents the movement…
-
Theater Review: ICEBOY! OR THE COMPLETELY UNTRUE STORY OF HOW EUGENE O’NEILL CAME TO WRITE “THE ICEMAN COMETH” (The Goodman Theatre / Chicago)
THE HAIRY APE COMETH This gleefully unhinged musical comedy is a strong play’s journey into wisecracks The Goodman closes out its centennial season in spectacular fashion with a big, brash new musical composed by Mark Hollmann (Urinetown), lyrics by Hollmann and Jay Reiss (Spelling Bee), and book by Reiss and Erin Quinn Purcell. Directed by…
-
Theater Review: ANOTHER DISTRACTION FROM THE EPSTEIN FILES (Hollywood Fringe Festival)
THE POLITICS OF MARRIAGE Strong writing and performances outweigh a staging that plays it safe The worst that can be said of Ray Richmond‘s Another Distraction From the Epstein Files at Bad Ladder is that it’s not very “fringy.” Richmond’s smart two-hander is a homage to the works of Clifford Odets (1906–1963), a classic kitchen…
-
Theater Review: ST. NICHOLAS (Black Button Eyes / City Lit / Chicago)
CRITIC’S BITE A gripping solo performance anchors this haunting tale I had not encountered arithmomania in any form of entertainment media in well over two decades. Now it’s popped up twice in a few weeks on two different Chicago stages: in Kevin Douglas’ hilarious Untitled Vampire Play at Lookingglass, and now in Black Button Eyes‘ sharp…
-
Theater Review: NATIVE GARDENS (Theatre EVOLVE / The Den Theatre / Chicago)
BAD FENCES MAKE GOOD COMEDY Big laughs bloom from a tiny patch of disputed ground. In a tony suburb of Washington, D.C., a young upwardly mobile Hispanic couple move into their first house, a charming fixer-upper with a small backyard. Pablo Del Valle (Rio Soliz Ragazzone) is an attorney—the only one of color—in a prestigious…
-
Theater Review: A PEOPLE (Arts Judaica & YI Love Jewish at Theater Wit / Chicago)
THE WEIGHT OF HERITAGE A thoughtful work that doesn’t always come together An unusual and ambitious production, L.M. Feldman’s A People is a sort of theatrical mosaic. Mounted by Arts Judaica and YI Love Jewish and currently playing at Theater Wit in Lakeview, the show attempts to condense five thousand years of Jewish culture and…
-
Theater Review: MEN OF SOUL (Black Ensemble Theater / Chicago)
THE STUFF OF LEGENDS A musical revue that honors both talent and tenacity Nine days after the euphoric high of Juneteenth and the jubilant opening-day celebrations of the Obama Center, Black Ensemble Theater (BE) opened its revival of Men of Soul. Written and directed by Daryl D. Brooks, longtime BE stalwart and now the company’s…
Search Articles
Please help keep
Stage and Cinema going!
