These are Chicago Critics Must See shows. If you are only going to see one show let us recommend one of these great pieces of true Art!
What a unique and charming expedience to enjoy this one-man — no really one-puppet — show, purportedly covering the last 12 hours in the life of Moses (in real time). The task is no more outrageous than the clever cavorting of the crotchety puppet narrator who — although he has been told he looks Jewish — assures us that he is not made of kosher cardboard. One puppet plus one bare table creates an entire dramatic world.
Read MoreBut, Master Class is essentially Maria Callas’ biography as well as her thoughts about the essence of performing art. Kelli Harrington commands the stage as the fickle diva whose mere presence strikes terror into her students. She delivers Callas biting sarcasm, her vivid facial expressions as well as her glowing love of the beauty in bell canto singing when her students do it correctly – with feeling and respect for the music. Harrington’s performance justifies seeing Master Class- she , indeed, gives her own ‘master class’ on acting.
Read MoreVerdi’s masterful scoring was for the most part beautifully served in the Lyric Opera’s current production. The Lyric orchestra often makes up with warmth and style what it may lack in absolute virtuosity, and it is generally at its most impressive in the later Romantic repertoire, where color is so important. While more incisive articulation may perhaps have been welcome at points, there was little to complain about, and much to commend, in its performance of Otello under French conductor Bertrand de Billy, who is making his Lyric debut with these performances
Read MoreThe haunting tunes together with several rousing show stoppers, makes Once a contemporary folk musical celebration of life and love. Once is original, innovative in its simplicity, yet it is a sophisticated and understated work filled with daring honesty. Anyone who has ever felt the pain of heartbreak will relate and empathize with Once’s tone. This beautiful musical is well staged, well sung and well acted
Read MoreDirected swiftly by Joannie Schultz, Northanger Abbey is a witty, charming and amusing comedy of manners adaptation. It is the first major role for Sarah Price as the precocious 17-year old voracious reader with a vivid imagination. Her performance as Catherine Morland anchors a cast of terrific actors.
Read MoreWe feel Rita’s pain and misery. We see that stardom, riches, and glory are nothing if we suffer from feeling unloved. The Goddes is a beautiful play that demonstrates how an epic film can, and does, work better live onstage especially in an intimate storefront venue.
Read MoreCertainly, Duras lived a colorful life, born in 1914 in Gia-Dinh, French Indochina (now Vietnam), where her widowed mother struggled to bring up Marguerite and her two brothers. She chronicled these early years in several books which detail the plot of the play, candidly exposing her dysfunctional family. Her mother preferred her oldest to the younger children (resulting in a vicious elder brother who tyrannized the whole family). She engaged in an incestuous relationship her younger brother, and later had a memorable love affair with the spoiled young son of a wealthy Chinese merchant.
Read MoreGershwin’s Greatest Hits is a slick well-sung two hour tribute to the genius of Gershwin. This revue is a fine introduction Gershwin to all who are interested in modern music. Light Opera Works has established a fine niche here and using Nichols Concert Hall is a plus. This revue is a “must see.”
Read MoreGroener captures every facet and emotion of this complex and highly sympathetic figure. In a virtuoso performance, he reaches the heights and depths of Cyrano’s passion for his cousin, the lovely Roxanne (Julie Jesneck) and brings us to agony as we empathize with his torment in ghost writing love letters for his handsome, inarticulate rival Christian (Nick Dillenburg).
Read MoreWe meet a young female student (Sarah Wellington) and her lawyer boyfriend (Chris Ballou) as they seem to be touring an old house in New England. The older Irish couple, Amanda Jane Long and Sean Thomas are the caretakers of the house. They convince the girl to role play as Veronica for the sake of an elderly sister who is dying but she believes that her sister Veronica is alive and living in the room they all now find themselves in. The girl agrees to do that and she changes into one of Veronica’s dresses.
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