Tom Williams, Author at Theatre reviews

Pirandello’s Henry IV

One of the main reasons to see Pirandello’s Henry IV is to enjoy the fantastic work by Mark L. Montgomery as the possibly mad Italian nobleman. Montgomery is one of the most skilled actors working on Chicago stages. His ability to articulate and dominate the stage leaving much doubt if his character is cured from his insanity or still mad or possibly playing games with his enablers? With Pirandello there is always doubt as to where fantasy and reality end. Questions of identify, truth and psychology receive unique treatment by Pirandello

Cabaret Music Reviews MUST SEE REVIEWS Tom Williams

Tom Williams

Let Me Entertain You: Jule Styne’s Greatest Hits

Tunes from Funny Girl (lyrics by Bob Merrill) with like know shows that produced songs that became standards, this songfest produces one tuneful song after another. we remember songs like “The Party’s Over,” ” Don’t Rain on My Parade,” I’ve Heard That Song Before,” “It’s Been A Long Time,” “Saturday Night Is the Loneliest Night of the Week, “It’s Magic, ” “Time After Time,” and “Make Someone Happy” and “People” are among the wonderful tunes that not only were sung expertly but presented with their meaning or spirit.

REVIEWS Theatre Reviews Tom Williams

Tom Williams

Apartment 3A

Apartment 3A features a female liberal PBS TV station on air fund raiser in a Midwest town, Annie (Eleni Pappageorge) who is having a bad time. She catches her lover having sex with another woman that makes her leave in rage. She quickly find an apartment in a questionable part of town – Apartment 3A. She takes the place and she immediately meets her neighbor in 2A, Donald (Daniel Smith), a well dressed man who immediately tells Annie not to fall in love with him since he is happily married. Annie has weird attraction to the quirky man who is a landscape painter who loves to cook eggs.

Music Reviews MUST SEE Opera REVIEWS Tom Williams

Tom Williams

Das Rheingold

In a new production, the Lyric Opera of Chicago has mounted the finest staging that I have ever seen of an opera! Wagner, who wanted his Der Ring des Nibelungen to be know as a music drama, would be proud of David Pountney’s stage of Das Rheingold which was based on Johan Engels and Robert Innes Hopkins designs. Below you’ll see a vast array of photos in order for readers to get a feel for this magnificent staging that enhances Wagner’s music drama as a compliment to Wagner’s power score and the fantastic voices from the world class singers.

London Reviews MUST SEE Saul Reichlin

Tom Williams

Chastity Belt

The show is packed with sensational scenes and naughty but very nice suggestion, but principally, it is the last word in brilliant, devastatingly daring acting, singing and mime, in the highest tradition of burlesque. If burlesque is defined as ‘a humorous and provocative stage show featuring slapstick humor, comic skits, bawdy songs, striptease acts, and a scantily clad female chorus’, Chastity Belt is the most sublime burlesque show in this or any other town.

London Reviews REVIEWS Saul Reichlin

Tom Williams

Danger: Memory

Apparently an examination of a fading memory, plus alcohol (she) and a dropping off of professional skills (he), it was, in the end, none of this, merely a superficial recounting of the playwright’s words, with not a thought for any great depth. Arthur Miller did not become one of the giants of 20th century American drama by turning out shallow material. As a result, the supposed climax and highlight, the dance scene at the end, exemplified this. What could have been exquisite nostalgia was simply embarrassing.

MUST SEE REVIEWS Theatre Reviews Tom Williams

Tom Williams

Red Velvet

It is the story of the first African-American actor to play Othello for two performances at the Theatre Royal in Covent Garden in London in 1833. When the famous Shakespearean actor Edmund Kean becomes ill, company manager Pierre LaPotre (Mtthew Klinger) brings on his friend and well qualified veteran actor Ira Aldridge 1807- 1867 (Brandon Greenhouse) to play Othello. This was a daring choice by LaPorte since a black man had never before played Othello on a major London theatre. 1833 was a riotous time in London with the abolition of slavery in England and various social and political reforms being enacted. Change at all levels was being challenged.

REVIEWS Theatre Reviews

Tom Williams

The Room

A Red Orchid Theatre’s production of Pinter’s The Room is, I’d say, recommended for an audience with a mature and sophisticated appreciation for theatre. Not that it’s pretentious or elitist, but, if one is not willing to follow its absurd and esoteric progression thoughtfully, one will likely be frustrated and confused by its conclusion (though perhaps still entertained by its menace and occasional comedy). For it is a sobering production that demands something of you, and you will only get something out of it to the degree to which you give in to it.

REVIEWS Theatre Reviews

Tom Williams

I Am Who I Am: The Story of Teddy Pendergrass

Continuing its 40th Anniversary Season’s playlist of greatest hits, Black Ensemble Theater opened Jackie Taylor’s I Am Who I Am this week, yet another musical homage to one of America’s legendary Soul singers, this time Teddy Pendergrass. Featuring some very fine vocal performances accompanied by the Black Ensemble Band, the production takes us through Pendergrass’ musical career, from his time with Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes in the early ‘70s all the way up through his “Teddy 25” performance in 2007. Shining the blinding light of grace and gratitude, the play side-shuffles the dark side of Pendergrass’ personal tragedies, making it a consummate feel-good tribute that will delight long-time fans and likely entertain newcomers with an appreciation for or openness to Soul music.

REVIEWS Theatre Reviews Tom Williams

Tom Williams

Psmith, Journalist

As the protagonist. Psmith comes to New York in 1910 from Cambridge, edits a newspaper, fights organized crime and loses his straw hat in this wacky wordy comedy of manners. Psmith states: ““the work is not light. Sometimes the cry goes round, ‘Can Psmith get through it all? Will his strength support his unquenchable spirit?’ But I stagger on. I do not repine.” The P that begins his name is silent (“as in pshrimp,” he helpfully points out), but he himself is not. He is wittily eloquent in any situation, always confident that, as he puts it, “with the aid of the Diplomatic Smile and the Honeyed Word I may manage to pull through.”