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.
Theatre at the Center kicks off the holiday season with the regional premier of a musical based on Truman Capote’s 1956 short story “A Christmas Memory.” The show does indeed take the form of a memory, and mixes childhood nostalgia with just the right amount of melancholy. The small cast easily shifts through a wide range of music to expand Capote’s story while remaining faithful to his tone.
It was one of those very special nights that can only in happen live, onstage. Over three thousand five hundred people gather to witness an ambitious and thoroughly beautiful production of Gershwin’s masterpiece, the American Folk Opera Porgy And Bess. For me, it was one of the most enjoyable nights I’ve ever spent in the theatre, just like the production of this wonder piece I saw in 2008. The Lyric Opera of Chicago’s second production of Porgy And Bess ranks among the finest opera I’ve seen to date!It is sheer perfection!
Iphigenia in Aulis is the first of three ancient Greek tragedies Court Theatre will perform over the next three years. The others, written by the other two surviving tragedians, will together form a trilogy telling the story of the House of Atreus. It’s an ambitious project that will mainly be of interest to academics and die-hard theatre fans, but it’s off to a strong start.
Mysterious, yet often funny, director Jonathan Berry infuses the classic who-done-it with playfulness
The Mousetrap, running in London since 1952 with more than 25,000 performances, is the world’s longest running stage play! It has also been considered the model for doing murder mysteries on stage. Who can argue with such success? Kudos to Northlight Theatre for mounting a spirited production of the Agatha Christie classic.
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.
William Mastrosimone’s 1985 tale of violence and the quest for personal redemption, Tamer of Horses, is still, unfortunately, relevant in 2014. Teatro Vista has mounted a fantastically powerful drama fueled by extraordinary performances and tight flowing direction by Ron OH Parson.
As a Dickens adaptation, the show is long, and I wish the evening performances didn’t start so late. There are a few plays-within-the-play that could have been left out. Still, anyone who isn’t satisfied just seeing A Christmas Carol this winter would do well to give Great Expectations a try. Given the challenges of a smaller theatre, many of Gerace’s solutions are ingenious. The cast seems to make up far more people than they do, and the whole show is a celebration of the imagination
City Lit Theater, the jewel of Edgewater, specializes “in literature theatre including stage adaptations of literary material.” They return to that mission with a wonderful remount adaptation (by director Terry McCabe) of two of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s short stories: “A Scandal in Bohemia” (the first of a series of 56 short stories) and “The Final Problem” (the intended last of the Holmes short stories—ten years later, Doyle resumed doing more Holmes stories).
The artwork in the studios consisted of painting and drawing, with heavy Chicago Imagists influence. The vibrant colors and patters in these paintings have that hometown feeling. Participating Studio Artists include: Walter Fydryck, Adam Helman, Frank Mascenic, Kirk Rohrbaugh, James Vellner, Luke Carlson. Participating Visiting Artists include: David Bechtol, Nancy Bechtol, Brian Garay, Bohdan Gernaga, Ken Hirte, John Tyszko, Kat Van Horn, Chelsea Witherby.