Fiddler on the Roof
The strength of this production comes from musical arrangements by Doug Peck has been sculpted to stress the soulful, Klezmer qualities of Bock and Harnick’s sumptuous score. The ensemble work was excellent.
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Author: Tom Williams
The Long Red Road
We meet Sam (Tom Hardy), a nasty drunk whose life is through the bottle and occasional sex with his live-in girl friend, Annie (Greta Honold). Sam is drinking himself to death as we painstakingly learn, after a long and snail-paced first act, walked away from his injured wife and dead daughter nine years earlier
Read MoreNoises Off
Called “The Funniest Farce Ever Written” by the New York critics, Michael Frayn’s 1982 British farce, Noises Off is a wildly wacky and mind-boggling mayhem of a comedy. It is a cleverly structured play-within-a-play told in three acts using a set that rotates allowing us to see action straight at us and from backstage.
Read MoreThe Damnation of Faust
Berlioz based his libretto on Goethe’s classic Faust legend, in which the eponymous scientist pursues love at the expense of his soul. Berlioz unfolds the drama at the onset of Spring, resonating with what Chicagoans must be feeling in coming weeks
Read MoreThe Ring Cycle
The Building Stage, under the splendid direction by Blake Montgomery and Joanie Schultz, specialize in stretching the boundaries in storytelling through unique adaptations from various media. Their staging of Wagner’s opera cycle, The Ring of the Nibelung–is NOT an OPERA–but a thrilling, totally engaging re-imagining drama (non-singing stage play).
Read MoreThe Rant
Each person’s bias comes rushing out through their statements. Racial, anti-police and sensational news reporting make the truth a sort of bias. Prejudice, hidden agendas, deceit as well as anonymous threats against Investigator Mahnaz filled this fast-paced drama with questions and suspense as we try to sort out the facts.
Read MoreSingin’ in the Rain
What enhances this particular tale are all the splendid songs, the spectacular tap dancing, and the highly talented cast. Memorable numbers include “All I Do is Dream of You,” “Good Morning,” “Broadway Melody,” “You Stepped Out of a Dream”” and “You Are My Lucky Star.”
Read MoreSong For A Future Generation
The folks at Lights Out Theatre Company sure have loads of chutzpah for mounting the world premiere of Joe Tracz’s Song for a Future Generation. This is a weird play that tries to be many things and comment on several themes–and–it almost succeeds.
Read MoreThe 101 Dalmatians Musical
You know a show is in trouble when the high points of a show are the two short scenes that find the real Dalmatians running across the stage and performing dog tricks!
Read MoreCinderella Ballet
In my first experience with the Joffrey Ballet I was blow away by the magnificence of it all; the enchanted venue inside the Auditorium Theatre, the enormity and depth created in the flat set, the exquisitely detailed costumes and the speechless beauty in the Joffrey dancers.
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