Thursday, 09 July 2026 13:35
Production of THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST Does Not Fully Recognize Its Importance at Oak Park Festival
Kerstin Broockmann
It is possible that Oak Park Festival Theatre’s production of Oscar Wilde’s 1895 “trivial comedy for serious people,” The Importance of Being Earnest, was suffering from some opening night jitters and that the actors will settle in and trust the verbal comedy in the script, but on this beautiful evening…
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Theatre in Review
Tagged under
- THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST
- Oak Park Festival
- OAK PARK FESTIVAL THEATRE
- August Forman
- Chad Bay
- Kathryn Walsh
- Oscar Wilde
- Sonia Goldberg
- Aurora Pennepacker
- Jodi Gage
- Gabriel Armstrong
- Austin Gardens
- Oak Park
- Drew Bos
- summer theatre
- outdoor theatre
- live theatre
- Chicago events
- on stage
- comedy theatre
Friday, 10 July 2026 00:09
The Beautiful Overthinking of Gary Gulman’s 7th Hour
Written by Ken Payne
Gary Gulman brings his new tour, 7th Hour: An All New Standup Show, to The Den Theatre, offering Chicago audiences a chance to see a comic who has spent decades refining the long-form, slow-burn style that has become unmistakably his. His five sold-out shows over the weekend are being recorded…
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Theatre in Review
Suffs is a musical about history, yes, but more importantly, it is a musical about momentum: who creates it, who resists it (and why), who gets left behind by it, and what it costs to keep pushing it forward. Set during the height of the women’s suffrage movement in the…
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Theatre in Review
Tagged under
- Suffs
- CIBC Theatre
- Broadway in Chicago
- Musical theatre
- Suffrage
- Suffragette
- National Womans Party
- Alice Paul Ida B Wells
- Leigh Silverman
- Carrie Chapman Catt
- Marya Grandy
- Maya Keleher
- Woodrow Wilson
- Merrill Peiffer
- Danyel Fulton
- Trisha Jeffrey
- Victoria Pekel
- live theatre
- on stage
- chicago theatre
- Chicago events
- Chicago plays
Wednesday, 01 July 2026 18:55
Absurdist Satire ‘Do You Feel Anger?’ Captures Toxicity in Workplace Today
Written by Bill Esler
Set in a debt collection call center, Do You Feel Anger? captures how a toxic workplace manifests itself in today’s theoretically more “enlightened” world. Much of that toxicity, at least in this 2019 script by Mara Nelson-Greenberg, is propelled by male bonding and power. But it’s not an oppressive tale.…
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Theatre in Review
Tuesday, 30 June 2026 17:11
Goodman’s Iceboy! Is a Full‑Tilt Blast of Comic Mayhem
Written by Ken Payne
Goodman Theatre’s Iceboy! arrives as a gleefully off the rails musical that blends Broadway glamour, Neanderthal chaos, and theatrical myth making into one of the most delightfully strange premises to hit Chicago in years. It’s a satire, a love letter to showbiz, and a playful reimagining of how Eugene O’Neill…
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Theatre in Review
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Tuesday, 30 June 2026 09:35
All The World's a Stage and Chicago Merely The Best Player: 'As You Like It' in Chicago Parks this summer
Written by Kendall Royzen
Is there anything more alluring than a summer night in Chicago? The lakefront beaches, the meandering pathways, the festivals and street foods, the hidden gardens where free art productions are staged, whatever you like, you can find it in the city during summer evenings. There is no shortage of parks…
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Theatre in Review
Tagged under
- As You Like It
- Shes the Man
- William Shakespeare
- Shakespeare
- Shakespeare in Chicago
- comedy
- Comedy Chicago
- weekend shows
- things to do in chicago
- Midsommer Flight
- MidsommerFlight
- Thomas Russell
- Stephanie Mattos
- Ebby Offord
- Beth Wolf
- Chicago
- theatre
- Chicago Park Districts Night Out
- Night Out in the Parks
- Chicago Park Districts Night Out in the Parks
Sunday, 28 June 2026 14:20
Opera Festival of Chicago Delivers an Assured, Full‑Hearted La Bohème
Written by Kimberly Katz
Opera Festival of Chicago continues its season with two mainstage productions - La Bohème and Adriana Lecouvreur - each featuring the Opera Festival of Chicago Orchestra and Chorus and performed at the George Van Dusen Theatre at the North Shore Center for the Performing Arts in Skokie. I had the…
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Theatre in Review
Tagged under
- La Boheme
- Adriana Lecouvreur
- Opera Festival of Chicago Orchestra and Chorus
- North Shore Center for the Performing Arts
- Giacomo Puccini
- Sasha Gerritson
- Sir Emanuele Adrizzi
- Alexandra Razskazoff
- Nathan Granner
- Catherine Antonia Samartin
- Kenneth Stavert
- Jonathan Wilson
- William Powers
- David Greene
- Shifra Werc
- Chicago opera
- Opera
- chicago theatre
- Chicago events
- on stage
- live theatre
- Opera Festival of Chicago
Friday, 26 June 2026 12:04
A Quietly Ravishing Night: Marriott’s A Little Night Music
Written by Kimberly Katz
Marriott Theatre’s in‑the‑round intimacy turns A Little Night Music - which premiered on Broadway in 1973 and later became a 1977 film - into a quietly seductive swirl of glances, secrets, and second chances, the kind of production where the waltz feels like its own character. Under the soft glow of…
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Theatre in Review
Thursday, 25 June 2026 11:23
The Art of Awe: Water for Elephants Balances Spectacle and Soul
Written by Maddie Burroughs
The musical Water for Elephants, presented by Broadway In Chicago and based on Sara Gruen’s 2006 novel, is the rare touring Broadway production that feels like two forms of live entertainment fused perfectly. It is a sweeping musical, yes, but it is also a full-blown circus spectacle – and, more impressively,…
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Theatre in Review
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Sunday, 21 June 2026 02:57
A People: A Sweeping, Soul‑Stirring Journey That Celebrates Jewish Identity
Written by Kimberly Katz
An extraordinary eight-person ensemble fuels the sweeping storytelling of A People - a production presented collaboratively by Arts Judaica and YI Love Jewish - shifting through nearly 80 characters across generations and geographies. Though only one cast member is Jewish, playwright LM Feldman intentionally assembled a diverse ensemble to reflect…
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Theatre in Review
Tagged under
- A People
- Arts Judaica
- YI Love Jewish
- LM Feldman
- Douglas Levin
- Charity Schultz
- Daniel Boughton
- Zach Kunde
- Haley Schenk
- Xavier Mattison
- Freya Churchwell
- Jin Ai
- Avi Hoffman
- Jewish Identity
- Jewish
- heritage
- rabbi
- Jesus
- live theatre
- on stage
- Chicago events
- Chicago plays
- Chicago stage
- Now playing
- Jewish history
- Yeshuah
- Yiddish
- Hebrew
Sunday, 21 June 2026 23:14
Astonrep Approaches Uncle Vanya’s Appeal from a Novel New Angle
Written by Mitchell Oldham
Anton Chekhov, a Russian playwright who was also a doctor, can claim a level of regard few writers achieve and maintain so long after their deaths. Born in 1860, the same year the Republican Party nominated Abraham Lincoln for President, his plays are routinely produced on stages in America and…
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Theatre in Review
Sunday, 21 June 2026 13:48
Couch Penny Ensemble’s An Oak Tree: A Raw, Unrehearsed Descent Into Grief
Written by Angelo Campos
Couch Penny Ensemble, in association with Theatre Arcana, presents the ambitious and experimental An Oak Tree, a raw, unconventional approach to theater that is sure to spark conversations on the nature of grief and the experience itself. In writing An Oak Tree, playwright Tim Crouch wanted to replicate the disorienting…
Published in
Theatre in Review
Thursday, 18 June 2026 14:33
Champions of Magic Captures the Thrill of Live Performance
Written by Maddie Burroughs
One of the things I have always thought that concerts and other live events had over theatre is the energy of the crowd afterward. While people certainly leave plays and musicals moved, impressed, or deep in conversation, there is often a certain reserve to the way theatre audiences spill out…
Published in
Theatre in Review
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