Monday, 05 December 2022 17:33
Joffrey Ballet's 'The Nutcracker' at Lyric Opera House is a total holiday delight
Sarz Maxwell
The Joffrey is always amazing so I was happy to be assigned this show to review, but I have to admit I wasn’t totally thrilled – I’ve seen Nutcracker several times and I’m just a little bit over it. Imagine, then, my delight as the curtain opens, not in the…
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Abortion and reproductive rights have been major issues throughout my life from the pre-Roe days to the calamitous post-Roe days I’d hoped never to see. I was really looking forward to seeing TITLE X. Julie Proudfood *she/her wrote TITLE X in 2020 in response to then-President Trump’s 2019 gag order.…
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Tuesday, 29 November 2022 13:00
Review: 'A Christmas Carol' at Goodman Theatre
Written by John Accrocco
Goodman Theatre pulled up the curtain on the 45th opening night of their legendary adaptation of ‘A Christmas Carol’. Undoubtedly there are likely thousands of productions of ‘A Christmas Carol’ opening all over the country this week, but Goodman’s holiday tradition feels like a homecoming for the Chicago stage community.…
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“There’ll come a time when they will stop laughing, and that will be the time when our Antigone hits them with her words” John- The Island Two Black men, bound together with shackles on their feet and hands, are brought to a beach on Robben Island. The same Robben Island…
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Sunday, 20 November 2022 13:29
"Follow every rainbow Till you find your dream" - Paramount's 'The Sound of Music' Spectacular in Every Way
Written by Kimberly Katz
From the moment the sisters along with Mother Abbess sang “Maria” in one of the show’s earliest numbers, I knew I was in for a special performance. Their voices soared through the theater with a magnificence beyond what I had hoped. And when Mother Abbess (so richly performed by Susan…
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Theatre in Review
Monday, 21 November 2022 20:00
Smiling's My Favorite; Elf-the Musical Brings Christmas Cheer at Drury Theatre
Written by Kendall Royzen
When I was in college, a roommate shared their obsession with a Christmas movie I had never seen, the 2003 Will Ferrell film Elf. Over the next few years, she would religiously play Elf on replay during each fall semester with proclamations it was the perfect "it’s the perfect cozy…
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Theatre in Review
As we left the theatre my companion said, “I’d give that an A- if I knew what the heck we just saw.” From the mouths of Friends! THIS IS NOT A PIPE is a compilation of several genres packaged together into a 2-hour production. Each of these moieties are excellently…
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What did you do during the 2020 lockdown? Many people I know took on a special project – learning to bake bread, or writing a novel. Me, I took a literary antiracism journey. From the classics like Malcolm X, Bayard Rustin, WEB DuBois, and James Baldwin to more contemporary thinkers…
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Theatre in Review
Monday, 07 November 2022 15:39
Babes with Blades Theatre Company's 'Plaid as Hell' at Factory Theater a queer romp in the woods, with mayhem and manacles!
Sarz Maxwell
I’m not a devotee of the comedic genre and wouldn’t ordinarily choose this show. But I am a devotee – and a fervent one! – of Babes with Blades. With PLAID AS HELL the Babes, as always, bring it off. Written by Cat McCaysh/h and directed by Christina Casano/h, PLAID…
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Friday, 11 November 2022 14:18
A holiday treat! Marriott Theatre's 'A Christmas Story: The Musical'
Written by Ken Payne
What first made its mark on Broadway ten years ago in November 2012, has now become a traditional holiday play for theater goers to attend – when it comes to town. Based on the mega-popular film, A Christmas Story: The Musical is regularly being mounted by theater companies come November…
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Theatre in Review
Tuesday, 08 November 2022 15:47
D&D fan or not, 'The Twenty-Sided Tavern' is a fun new way to enjoy theater!
Written by Kimberly Katz
The Twenty-Sided Tavern is a funny, lively, and very interactive theater experience based on the game Dungeons & Dragons that was first published in 1974 and soared in popularity in the 1980s. And thanks to its devoted following, the fantasy role playing game that takes its players on epic journeys through…
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Wednesday, 09 November 2022 13:27
And Now Something Completely Different: 'The Conspirators 125th Anniversary Jubilee'
Written by Bill Esler
The title alone is the tip-off that “The 125th Anniversary Jubilee” from The Conspirators is out of the ordinary—an irreverent show that is both laugh-inducing and thought provoking. “Jubilee” consists of a sampling of skits from The Conspirators past performances, as well as “imagined” skits from an impossibly distant past…
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Sunday, 06 November 2022 14:05
Review: Porchlight Music Theatre's 'Rent' - Highly Recommended!
Sarz Maxwell
RENT opens with three slides projected one-by-one onto a billowing curtain: rent noun a payment made periodically by a tenant to a landlord in return for the use of a building rent verb [past tense of rend] to tear apart, split, or divide an object or community rent…
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