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!
The ensemble was the finest I’ve seen dancing Ann Reinking-Bob Fosse style numbers. “Roxie,” “Tap Dance” and the show stopper “Razzle Dazzle” were slick and flawless. I’ve not witness Fosse dances better performed. The ladies justify their crimes with the haunting “Cell Block Tango.”….John O’Hurley brings a fine voice and a commanding, self-aware presence to the shyster Billy Flynn.
Read MoreCome to Cahn Auditorium to see a lush, lovely and lively Light Opera Works production of Brigadoon. You’ll see and hear the entire score without any cuts and you’ll witness expert dance numbers filled with grace and charm. This wonderful show is in good hands with Rudy Hogenmiller and the creatives at Light Opera Work
Read MoreRobertson presents the persona of a cop’s wife who raised two children and loyally waited for her man to come home to the safety of their Edgebrook house. Alice Conroy tells us of the time when her husband is fatally shot on duty while investigating an old 1988 “who-done-it” that has taken the lives of several investigators through the years. Alice tells that she simply “knew” the moment when John was gunned down.
Read MoreAnd then there’s the music. The music is simple. I mean, like, really simple. Almost everything is I-IV-V. If you didn’t know any better, you’d think that singer/rhythm guitar player Justin Young only knew the chords C, F, and G, and just moved a capo around to change keys. But you’d be wrong. Because that’s the point. Oh, Justin Young knows plenty of other chords, he just chooses not to utilize them – because those are the only chords he needs.
Read MoreThe clarity of the Newell-Peck production gives our understanding of the angst and pain of the Gullah community a new richness. We feel Porgy’s pain and Bess weakness. We also appreciate the strength of the Gullah community. After seeing several strong productions of Porgy and Bess (including the amazing Lyric Opera of Chicago production) , I must state that this truthful Court Theatre production is a masterpiece of art. It has the best of opera with the strengths of musical theatre.
Read MoreJack and Peg want to convince Gunner to move to an assisted living facility. Gunner, becoming frustrated with his worsening mental state, has an alternate plan to deal with his condition. Gunner has a quite unorthodox plan to secure both Peg’s and Jack’s future. The play deftly deals with the ramifications and ethical dilemmas as Gunner chooses a final solution that will solve everyone’s need for financial security and his need for peace and dignity.
Read MoreCharles Smith’s riveting examination of how memory can lead to totally different explanations of past events that get tainted over time mainly due to how we process such memories. Smith’s work dramatizes how unreliable personal memories can effect public history. It is 1980 and 50 years have passed since the lynching in Marion, Indiana.
Read MoreJim Manganello has set himself quite the task: adapt Leo Tolstoy’s epic War & Peace into an hour-long piece of dance-theater. On the face, it seems almost comical, absurd. But with theater like this, it forces one to strip everything but the essentials away, and we are left with a very raw, very real piece of theater, that somehow, through it all, remains true to the original text.
Read MoreThe setting is a clock and watch repair shop on Chicago’s North Shore (terrific set designed by Simon Lashford). A middle aged man – Jimmy (Thomas Gebbia) is busy repairing clocks and watches. His daughter Dale (Cathlyn Melvin) – a moody 17 year old announces she is not going to college. She thinks she has little time left on earth. Does she know about mortal clocks – which are physical watches everyone has implanted behind the heart that can tell us precisely the time of our deaths?
Read MoreNow in its USA premiere at Stage 773, Calderon’s 1635 powerful work as been hailed as a masterpiece of the Spanish Golden Age. The work reminds me of Shakespeare with its rich, lyrical, almost poetic language and its universal themes of social justice, the use of power and ambition verses personal gain.
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