Monday, 09 March 2026 15:57
Static, Signals, and Surprises: City Lit’s Changing Channels Tunes In
Sarz Maxwell
The year is 1952. Television is rapidly gaining popularity over radio, to the delight of some and the disgust of others. Senator Joseph McCarthy has just been re-elected and is accusing hundreds of people of having connections to the Communist Party, provoking a nationwide climate of paranoid hysteria. Thousands of…
Published in
Theatre in Review
Monday, 09 March 2026 15:38
Beautifully Produced 'Two Sisters and a Piano,' But Script Misses the Mark
Written by Bill Esler
In “Two Sisters and a Piano” written by Nilo Cruz and directed by Lisa Portes, we soon learn these two women have been trapped for years under house arrest in an aging manor in Cuba. One is a writer, the other a musician —and that’s her baby grand piano on…
Published in
Theatre in Review
Sunday, 08 March 2026 19:39
A Night in Jellicle Heaven: Music Theater Works Delivers a Stunning 'Cats'
Written by Kimberly Katz
Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cats remains one of musical theatre’s most distinctive creations - a sung‑through, dance‑driven spectacle that swaps traditional plot for atmosphere, character portraits, and pure theatrical immersion. Drawn from T. S. Eliot’s Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats, the musical unfolds as a moonlit gathering of the Jellicle…
Published in
Theatre in Review
Tagged under
- Music Theater Works
- Cats
- North Shore Center for the Performing Arts
- Jellicle
- Andrew Lloyd Webber
- T S Eliot
- Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats
- Mandy Modic
- Sam Nachison
- Ava Lane Stovall
- Morgan Schoenecker
- Danny Spagnuolo
- Emma Jean Eastlund
- Daniel Hurst
- John Cardone
- Melanie Saso
- kClare McKellaston
- Kristen Brinati
- Chicago
- Musical theatre
- Musical
- theatre
- Theater
- on stage
- live theatre
- Memory
Wednesday, 04 March 2026 04:18
A Wondrous Production of Oscar Wao at The Goodman Theatre
Written by Maddie Burroughs
Based on the novel by Junot Díaz, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao follows neurodivergent and perpetually lovelorn college student Oscar as he fixates on the fukú – a generational curse he believes has haunted his family’s love lives for decades. Oscar’s college roommate and his sister Lola by…
Published in
Theatre in Review
Tuesday, 03 March 2026 18:40
In Timeless ‘Come Back, Little Sheba,’ American Blues Theater Speaks for Today, as Well
Written by Bill Esler
With spot-on performances across a large cast, William Inge’s 1949 script for “Come Back, Little Sheba” is receiving a definitive production at American Blues Theater’s intimate Studio Theater. Those of us of a certain age had this work buried deep into our cultural formation by the searing film version starring…
Published in
Theatre in Review
Monday, 02 March 2026 12:39
Pot Girls: An Intelligent and Multilayered Explosion of Poetry and Feminism
Written by Kimberly Katz
The Story Theatre’s world‑premiere staging of Paul Michael Thomson’s Pot Girls bursts to life in a vivid, full‑throttle production at Raven Theatre. Pot Girls is a sharp, funny, and thought‑provoking new play that fuses feminist history, artistic accountability, and a rainbow haze of 1980s, weed‑soaked poetry and art. Inspired as…
Published in
Theatre in Review
Tagged under
- POT GIRLS
- TOP GIRLS
- Paul Michael Thomson
- The Story Theatre
- Raven Theatre
- Ayanna Bria Bakari
- Caryl Churchill
- Brenna DiStasio
- Ireon Roach
- Peter Ferneding
- Tamsen Glaser
- Emily Marso
- Maya Bridgewater
- Laney Rodriguez
- Lucky Stiff
- Katelyn Montgomery
- Racquel Postilgione
- Theater
- theatre
- Chicago
- live theatre
- on stage
- Now playing
- feminism
- powerful women
Sunday, 01 March 2026 20:47
The Glitch in the New Normal - Shattered Globe Theatre’s Morning, Noon & Night
Written by Wesley David
Kirsten Greenidge’s Morning, Noon & Night, currently receiving its Midwestern premiere at Shattered Globe Theatre, is an ambitious, mind-bending exploration of the “new normal” in post-pandemic America. Greenidge, a playwright unafraid of tonal hybridity, situates her story at the uneasy intersection of middle-class and magical realism. Under AmBer Montgomery’s direction,…
Published in
Theatre in Review
Sunday, 01 March 2026 14:08
The Play That Goes Wrong at Metropolis Performing Arts Centre A Most Perfectly Planned Train Wreck
Written by Ken Payne
The Chicago Metropolitan area has a soft spot for a beautiful disaster, and The Play That Goes Wrong delivers the kind of exquisitely engineered chaos that feels tailor‑made for this theater‑loving region. What begins as a straightforward 1920s whodunit quickly mutates into a full‑throttle demolition derby of missed cues, mutinous…
Published in
Theatre in Review
Tagged under
- The Play that Goes Wrong
- Metropolis Performing Arts Centre
- Jahanna McKenzie Miller
- Ryan Armstrong
- Eric Amundson
- Casey Ross
- David Blakeman
- Ryan Michael Hamman
- Richaun Stewart
- Teah Kiang Mirabelli
- Natalie Henry
- Angela Weber Miller
- Gigi Wendt
- David Moreland
- Henry Lewis
- Henry Shields
- Jonathan Sayer
- Arlington Heights
- Chicagoland
- Chicago area
- Theater
- theatre
- comedy
- Farce
- live theatre
- comedy theatre
- farce theatre
- on stage
Monday, 23 February 2026 14:27
At Raven Theatre, Churchill’s Top Girls stings harder than ever
Written by Susan Lieberman
When Raven Theatre’s artistic staff decided to include Caryl Churchill’s Top Girls in their current season, they could not have predicted that the opening would coincide with major eruptions in the Jeffrey Epstein scandal. Now, with the former Prince Andrew in jail and the President of the United States bloviating…
Published in
Theatre in Review
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For some, an evening of Chekhov may sound like pure misery, but Red Theater’s “The Seagull” running at The Edge Off Broadway soars. The original adaptation by Red Theater cohort Ian Mayfield imagines Anton Chekhov’s emotionally searing dramady as a chamber play. Under his direction, this faithful version is a…
Published in
Theatre in Review
Sunday, 22 February 2026 14:18
Marriott’s Charlie & the Chocolate Factory Is Pure Imagination
Written by Betsy Schmitt
Beloved children’s author Roald Dahl’s timeless story of the quirky and mysterious candy-maker looking for his heir apparent comes to life in an energetic and magical performance in the Theatre for Young Audiences’ musical adaptation of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory now on stage at the Marriott Theatre in Lincolnshire.…
Published in
Theatre in Review
Tagged under
- Marriott theatre
- Charlie & the Chocolate Factory
- Theatre for Young Audiences
- Roald Dahl
- Lincolnshire
- Willy Wonka
- The Candy Man
- Violet Beauregarde
- Mike Teavee
- Veruca Salt
- children's theatre
- live theatre
- Musical
- OompaLoompa
- George Keating
- Gene Wilder
- Elias Totleben
- Elin Joy Seiler
- Avelyn Lena Choi
- Gordon Henry Heisler
- Amber Mak
- Golden Ticket
- Charlie Bucket
- Kai Edgar
Saturday, 21 February 2026 13:41
Factory Theater’s Kubrickian Features Standout Performances
Written by Lauren Katz
“The story of these characters has already begun.” When you enter the Factory Theater space for Kubrickian, you will notice that the actors are already on stage. Lights are fully up, and the three actors are moving about the stage. One is stretching, another is pacing, and another is doing…
Published in
Theatre in Review
Friday, 20 February 2026 14:16
Definition Theatre Strikes Gold with Black Cypress Bayou
Written by Wesley David
I love when I’m surprised by a writer I assume is new to the scene, only to discover she has been honing her craft for years, quietly building a body of work the rest of us somehow missed. I love it even more when that discovery feels like striking gold.…
Published in
Theatre in Review
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