Tom Williams, founder and longtime Chicago theater critic at ChicagoCriticTom Williams

Tom Williams founded ChicagoCritic.com in 2001 and spent decades reviewing theatre and live performance across Chicago and its suburbs, from Broadway tours and major institutions to storefront theatre, opera, cabaret and classical music. In 2010, the Society of Midland Authors honored him with the James Friend Memorial Award for Literary and Dramatic Criticism (our 2010 announcement). Concord Theatricals quotes his reviews on its licensing pages for shows including Crazy for You and City of Angels.

Paradise Blue

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With original trumpet jazz music played in part by Al’ Jaleel Mcghee, the actor-musician playing Blue the owner of the Paradise jazz club in 1949 in Detroir’s Black Bottom neighborhood, playwright Dominique Morisseau has mounted a haunting urban drama. This is an enticing work with strong characters each caught in an urban struggle that finds city hall moving to displace a black neighborhood for an Interstate Highway. Black Bottom was home to dozens of jazz night clubs where black musician could play and develop their craft uninhibited.

My Fair Lady at the Lyric Opera of Chicago

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The current production of My Fair Lady was initially directed by Robert Carsen for Paris’s Theatre de Chatelet with this “revival” being staged by Olivier Fredj. With British stars Richard E. Grant as Henry Higgins and Nicholas Le Prevost as Colonel Pickering, this Broadway at Lyric production as a ‘very British’ sensibility. Americans who play Higgins (Nathan M. Hosner, Kevin Gudhal, and Nick Sandys among others) give Higgins a sharper bitter edge than Britishers like Richard Grant do. That is not to say that Grant’s performance as Higgins wasn’t superb, it was. It’s just that he has a the English gentleness that American audiences are not used to. Lisa O’Hare (who did the 2008 American tour produced by Cameron Mackintosh) was splendid as Elisa as she sang well and presented a strong Elisa who stood up to Higgins effectively.

She Loves Me

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Set in a Hungarian perfume shop in the 1930s, the delightful characters inhabit a world suffused with love and longing. The central story revolves around the two feuding clerks, Georg and Amalia, who secretly find solace in their anonymous romantic pen pals, little knowing that their respective correspondents are each other. Made into a good looking jewel box musical, She Loves Me is pure fun, full of fine songs and witty lyrics and cute, loveable characters.

My Name Is Annie King

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Their latest musical is My Name Is Annie King, A New Blusgrass Thriller with book by Krista Pioppi and music and lyrics by Aaron Albert and Katy Rea. Alex Higgin-Houser directs. This new work ambitious, complicated and unique in its musical composition. It is billed as a bluegrass musical but minus the banjo and mandolin, it sounds as much more of a pop/folk score with hints of bluegrass and down-home country.

The Firebirds Take the Field

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The cast has the cheerleaders smartly doing cheers as well as being typical teenage girls. We see the parents are determined to believe that the problem can not be either an emotional or psychological one due to the stigma of a ‘mental problem’ would have on the girl’s future. Kathy Bowan (Tara Mellon) believes that toxic waste and pollution are the root causes.

Not About Nightingales

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At the warden’s office, we meet Jim Allison (Brandon Greenhouse) the trustee with ten years in the prison who has educated himself with “big words.” When Eva Crane comes aboard as the warden’s secretary, sparks start flying between Jim and Eva. Boss Whalen (Jim Spencer) is a pure evil soul who delights in torturing the cons in between drinking and womanising. He has his eyes on Eva but before that can happen the cons start a hunger strike.

3C

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3C attempted to be a perky funny mock of Three’s Company with two weirdly dysfunctional girls living in Santa Monica that need a third roommate to pay expenses so they take a guy as their third. In order to appease their landlord, they have him play as a gay man. But Nick Mikula, as Brad, never convinces anyone that he could possibly be gay. His friend Terry (Steve Haddard) continues to invite him to discos to meet easy girls.

44th Annual Non-Equity Jeff Awards

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The Jeff Awards announced, via a special video presentation, a total of 127 nominations in 26 categories for the 44th Annual Non-Equity Jeff Awards for productions that opened between April 1, 2016, and March 31, 2017. Hosting the video presentation were Alexis Roston and Lillian Castillo, who will be this year’s Mistresses of Ceremonies at the Awards event on June 5 at The Athenaeum.

Shakespeare In Love

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The dynamic of Will casting his Romeo by Thomas Kent (Kate McGonigle disguised as a man) and eventually falling for Kent once hs discovers that Kent is really Viola de Lesseps, a star-struck want-to-be actor. Problem: Will is married and Viola is committed to marry the irrepressible Lord Wessex (Dennis Grimes). This doomed romance fuels the play with clever plot twists that are hilarious. We also hear some famous lines and scenes for Romeo & Juliet including sword fighting scenes and the famous dying scenes.

Disney’s Aladdin First National Tour

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Told with a manic staging and tuneful fun dance numbers including the extravaganza show-stopper number “Friends Like Me,” we are impressed, invigorated and entertained. This show is pure glitz with modern pop cultural comic references presented by a cute genie, a charismatic Aladdin and a host of determined supporting players. This is a fluff piece designed to appeal to fans of the animated film yet also designed more for lovers of Broadway musicals. At 2 hours, 30 minutes, Aladdin may not be for all children?

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