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Chicago Opera Review: SALOME (Lyric Opera)
THIS SALOME IS NO FEMME FATALE Like its source material (Oscar Wilde’s play Salomé), Richard Strauss’ opera Salome has a reputation for being scandalous, decadent, and daring. Unfortunately, Lyric Opera’s new-to-Chicago production is none of the above. This is partly because some elements of the play (premiered in 1896) and opera (premiered in 1905) that…
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Theater Review: KIND STRANGER … A MEMORY PLAY (Zephyr Theatre)
Kind Stranger … A Memory Play, conceived and performed by Rick Simone-Friedland is successful as a historical rendering of Playwright Tennessee Williams’ life. It is also successful as a reconstruction of Williams’ public persona–that calm, lackadaisical soul who answers questions in a slow Southern drawl between lingering puffs on the black ivory cigarette holder. But…
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Theater Review: SOME LIKE IT HOT (National Tour, Broadway in Boston)
A REIMAGINING OF A HOLLYWOOD CLASSIC Frothy fun with an affirmingly progressive perspective The art deco sets (Scott Pask, scenic design), broad-shouldered plaids (Gregg Barnes, costumes), and jitterbugging choreography (Casey Nicholaw, who also directed) are a pleasing eyeful in Broadway in Boston’s energetic rendition of the Tony-award winning Some Like It Hot. But there’s more…
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Off-Broadway Review: DATA (Lucille Lortel Theatre)
ALGORITHMS, ETHICS, AND THE COST OF INFORMATION A sleek, jargon-charged tech thriller that trades in privacy, prediction, and moral gray zones Between ownership battles over data-rich social media platforms (TikTok), harvesting scandals (Cambridge Analytica), and whistleblowers exposing algorithmic harm (Frances Haugen), questions about data ownership, citizens’ privacy, and the exact inner workings of the websites…
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Theater Interview: DAVID ZIPPEL (Artistic Director of rePLAY at the Plaza Theatre in Palm Springs)
OSCAR WILDE, REWIRED FOR NOW David Zippel brings star power and modern snap to Palm Springs Tony-winner for Liza’s at the Palace, David Zippel—one of Broadway and Hollywood’s sharpest comic lyricists (City of Angels, Disney’s Hercules & Mulan)—is bringing his wit and theatrical instincts to Palm Springs as the Artistic Director of the new rePLAY…
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Theater Review: LOUISA GILLIS (North Coast Rep)
WHEN THE DEAD STILL RUN THE ROOM Grief, memory, and the long shadow of unfinished business In this play of four characters, a fifth looms large, though never seen: the titular Louisa, late wife to Steven (James Sutorius), mother to Celia (Faline England), and grandmother to Lucy (Caroline Renee). She’s been dead for nearly forty…
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Theater Review: BIRDS OF NORTH AMERICA (A Red Orchid Theatre)
A DELICATE CHAMBER PIECE THAT WILL BREAK YOUR HEART One of the advantages of a small performance space is that, in the right hands, one can set the mood even before the play has begun. In the Chicago premiere of Anna Ouyang Moench’s Birds of North America, the seating area at A Red Orchid Theatre…
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Theater Review: DONNA ORBITS THE MOON (Scripps Ranch Theatre)
A NEIGHBORLY NICE LADY— WITH BUZZ ALDRIN IN HER HEAD Susan Clausen shines in Ian August’s funny, surreal one-woman ride Reading the press blurb about Donna Orbits the Moon left me scratching my head, wondering what it was actually about. Having seen it now, I get why. Some shows are hard to describe well. That…
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Theater Review: DISPERSION OF LIGHT (Desert Ensemble Theatre)
Desert Ensemble Theater’s world premiere of Rich Rubin’s Dispersion of Light opened this past Friday at the Palm Springs Cultural Center, and it’s a fascinating dive into the 1930s art world. The play centers on 1932—a chaotic year for Georgia O’Keeffe, who was balancing a massive commission for Radio City Music Hall while her marriage…
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Theater Review: BROWNSTONE (Open Fist Theatre Company at Atwater Village)
THREE ERAS, ONE MISSED OPPORTUNITY Brownstone collapses under unfocused, baffling staging Catherine Butterfield’s Brownstone (2008) is built around a solid, even enticing idea: we have three couples, each occupying the same second-floor apartment in a Manhattan brownstone during three eras—1930s, the 1970s, and the turn of the 21st century. Instead of three separate acts in…
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Theater Review: A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE (The Streetcar Project Tour at A.C.T. in S.F.)
EVEN MORE TO DESIRE A stripped-down Streetcar that proves Tennessee Williams needs no scenery. Since struggle for power among the classes is one of the central themes in Tennessee Williams’ still-shocking A Streetcar Named Desire, it makes perfect sense that director and co-creator Nick Westrate would strip the Pulitzer Prize winner down to its rawest…
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Theater Review: CAMELTON (Stephen Cole’s One-Man Show About One Man’s Wild Ride)
THERE’S NO BUSINESS LIKE SHOW BUSINESS IN THE MIDDLE OF THE MIDDLE EAST Stephen Cole’s backstage Qatar saga is stranger than fiction—and just as entertaining In the story category of “truth is stranger than fiction,” and well worthy of inclusion in an edition of Ripley’s Believe It or Not, comes the mind-boggling saga of how…
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Theater Review: THE TRIP TO BOUNTIFUL (Lamb’s Players Theatre)
TENDERNESS IS BOUNTIFUL IN LAMB’S PRODUCTION A Horton Foote gem, staged with patience, grace, and heart The Trip to Bountiful began as a staged-for-TV play in early 1953 and then had a very brief Broadway run later that year, a limited one-month production that yielded critical accolades for Horton Foote’s touching script (Lillian Gish played…
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Theater Review: THE TRAGEDY OF HAMLET (Eddie Izzard; International Tour; Hollywood’s Montalbán)
A SOLO HAMLET BUILT ON PRECISION AND VELOCITY Inside the White-Box World of Izzard: One Performer, Twenty-Two Roles, No Safety Net Suzy Eddie Izzard—formerly known as Eddie Izzard until 2023 and now using she/her pronouns—is a groundbreaking British comedian known for her gender-defying stage persona. Now Izzard has taken up a new challenge, the actor’s…
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Theater Review: EUREKA DAY (TimeLine Theatre Company at Broadway Playhouse)
A PRIVILEGED PTA CIRCUS, THEN A VAXNADO The funniest ten minutes onstage, ever, flanked by a modestly amusing satire. In Jonathan Spector’s Eureka Day, five concerned parents gather around a table in the library of what is very obviously a wealthy and well-equipped children’s school. They form the executive board and are there to discuss…
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Theater Review: AN ARK (The Shed)
THEATRE THROUGH GOGGLES A 47-minute VR encounter turns a gallery into the closest “front row” imaginable. How would you like to attend a play starring Ian McKellen—and be seated front row center? Better yet, what if Sir Ian (along with Golda Rosheuvel, Arinzé Kene, and Rosie Sheehy) played directly to you, making sustained eye contact…
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Theater Review: GREEN CORRIDORS (Trap Door Theatre in Chicago)
FOUR UKRAINIAN REFUGEES NAVIGATE WAR’S AFTERSHOCKS IN A NIGHTMARE OF BUREAUCRACY Natalka Vorozhbyt’s darkly funny, deeply bruising play finds Trap Door Theatre at its most urgent—and most human. Four women push mobile doorjambs around the stage as the audience filters in. Their movement is slow and halting, as if moving through fog. Once the theatre…
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Theater Review: KID GLOVES (Skylight Theatre)
A MURDEROUSLY FUN MUSICAL SEND-UP OF KIDS-TV STARDOM Nathan Wang and Matthew Leavitt turn wholesome childhood icons into gleeful chaos— fast, filthy, and ridiculously entertaining. Sets are declarative. I have walked into theatres, taken one glance at the set occupying the stage, and could have written my whole review then and there. Anthony Lucca, Will…
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Theater Review: LOUISA GILLIS (North Coast Rep)
A FAMILY POISONED BY THE PAST Joanna McClelland Glass’s intimate drama lands like overhearing a quarrel— and keeps paying off thanks to a first-rate cast. Modern American theater does not lack for theatrical, intense plays. These works typically explore family secrets, betrayal, revenge, trust and mistrust, plot twists and turns, and psychological (and sometimes physical)…
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Theater Review: ASSASSINS (Revolution Stage)
AMERICA’S DARKEST CARNIVAL BARKS TO LIFE Revolution Stage Company delivers powerhouse vocals and sharp design in Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman’s unsettling musical revue. Revolution Stage Company has become one of my favorite local theatre companies, and its current production of Assassins (score: Stephen Sondheim, book: John Weidman) features one of the most uniformly talented…
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