Matthew Wrobel Book and Lyrics by Ryan Cunningham Music by Joshua Salzman Directed by Ross Egan Produced by the Refuge Theatre Project At the Den Theatre, Chicago Next Thing You Know Offers Little Insight on Millennial Struggles Coming of age stories often focus on the difficulties of defining “adulthood.” twenty-somethings frequently struggle with the transition from … Read more
However, all of this is lost in the final two acts, light-hearted and full of slap stick. It’s challenging for actors and audience alike to transition from the first portion of this play to the conclusion. The final two acts attempt to find a way to unconvincingly wrap up the tragedy of the first three acts in a tidy bow. However, the cast has the utmost fun attempting to do so. From the beginning of act four, the cast reminds its audience aggressively that “Now is the time to laugh!” Such coddling proved difficult for me. Still, several performances shine through, but the cast could not rise above the uneven source material that is Shakespeare’s Winter Tale.
For those looking for a honest to goodness pick-me-up, a piece of entertainment that has a heart and spectacle, I invite you to see The House Theatre of Chicago’s The Nutcracker. The play begins full of holiday cheer as family and friends gather for an annual Christmas party. This year’s party is particularly special, because the eldest son of the family, Fritz (Shaun Baer), is returning home from service in the Marines.
Hellcab, originally premiering in 1992 as a limited-run late night show, went on to become one of the longest running shows in the history of Chicago theatre, running for over nine years. For the past two seasons, Profiles Theatre has revived the play, this time featuring Richard Cotovsky, who played the Driver more than 200 times in the original run. The play follows Cotovsky as he collects fares in the city of Chicago throughout Christmas Eve, from morning to night. Like a fever dream, the Driver and audience alike bear witness to an electric group of passengers, from bible thumpers to drug addicts, as the Driver collects measly fares to make a living.
Let me step back a moment. Follow me back in time. Pseudo-Chum is a play written and directed by Sean & Carolyn Benjamin. Presented by the Neo-Futurists, the play reveals to us three aspects of Chum, the play within the play Pseudo-Chum. Chum is about a family that makes a trip to the coast of Australia to cull sharks. Beginning with the secret death of the patriarch of the family, lies and betrayal set in early, as the family begins to metaphorically and literally attempt to ruin one another.
When you think of Hell, what do you see? Do you see fire and brimstone? Pitchforks and torture? Or, do you see something entirely different? These assumptions are the groundwork that George Bernard Shaw builds on in Don Juan in Hell. In Shaw’s Hell there is no torture. There is joy, art, and endless pleasure for an eternity, but without contemplation of the purpose of such pleasures, or something beyond this base pleasures, what’s the point? This is where we begin.
The message of Leo Lionni’s book and this musical adaptation is simple; everyone has something to offer to the world. Practical or impractical, technical or creative, everyone fills a part and everyone matters. Together, Frederick and his mischief of mice learn that they are, as a team, greater than the sum of their parts. There were some tears in the eyes of audience members near the end of the play, and I must admit I was choked up, too. As the play came to a close, numerous children were begging their parents to take them back to the mice. Suzanne Miller and the Chicago Children’s Theatre have successfully created a world where children feel happy and wanted. What a beautiful thing to have.