Rudy Hogenmiller, the artistic director at Light Opera Works, returns to the stage after more than a decade, as the Emcee in Kander & Ebb’s ground-braking Cabaret. Hogenmiller’s performance is a tour de force. Welcome back to the stage Rudy!
Read MoreThe creative folks at the American Chamber Opera Company find a way to makes grand opera intimate, understandable without losing any of the charm and fluidity. They find young classically trained singers and musicians that respect the source material thereby enticing their audience to enter the world of opera. Presenting classical operas like Mozart’s The Magic Flute in English adds to that intimacy. They capture the essence of the whimsey, charm and beauty of Mozart’s genius most effectively.
Read MoreDone with loads of pizzazz and loads of heart, Sergio Trujillo’s smart and sift dance musical faithfully depicts the hit film. Filled with several nicely stage and beautifully light dance numbers including “Flashdance-What a Feeling. ” “Maniac,” “Gloria,” “Manhunt,” and “I Love Rock & Roll,” this Equity national tour of Flashdance – The Musical contains enough fabulous dances to be worth seeing.
Read MoreSo ultimately despite Inventing Van Gogh’s more obtuse qualities, I’ll venture to say that Strange Bedfellow’s current mounting is still worth the price of admission. At times as wildly out-of-control as Van Gogh himself, there’s nonetheless something intoxicating about its particular brand of madness. Never content to simply tell us what it’s trying to say, the play requires that we actively wade through the muck to find it out. And only even then do we find ourselves reflected back at us. Much like the action internal to the play itself, extracting meaning from Inventing Van Gogh is its own form of self-portraiture.
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Khemiri uses wordplay about the term Abulkasem. It means a beloved quirky Lebanese uncle to a term used as an adverb, noun, verb that has multiple meanings including a term for an Arab terrorist. The clever wordplay here demonstrates how the semantics of Middle Eastern -Muslim types can lead to us Westerners , particularly Americans to fear them.
Read MoreSo sure. Kokandy’s Last Five Years is a tad underdeveloped and doesn’t always take dramatic advantage of the openness of its material. But at the same time, it also doesn’t obfuscate or overcomplicate the show’s purposely lean emotional through line. Powerful and resonant when it matters most, more than anything, this production is a solid testament to the enduring power of Brown’s revelatory score.
Read Moren less capable hands than the astute director, Alison C. Vesely, this play would not be believable. Instead, Vesely has selected the perfect cast, and each talently nails their character’s moments of reckoning. You could almost hear the sighs in the audience, and certainly many laughs.
Read MoreOnly Aaron knows what Katie really wants. As the story unfolds, we see how Aaron reacts and comments on all the family dynamics with complete and ofter perceptive candor. During the fast-paced direction by Scott Weinstein, we witness the awakening of each family member as ultimately the underlying love carries the family through their struggles.
Read MoreIt begs questions that no family wants , but needs to address: how do you stop a violent mind? What should you do when all the warning signs are there that your emotionally troubled and apparently sociopath son may express his internal rage outwardly on society. Can anyone stop him before it is too late? Is his play fiction or does it foretell his plan?
Read MoreChicago Shakespeare Theater’s current production, being performed for free throughout the city’s neighborhood parks as part of this summer’s Chicago Shakespeare in the Parks, thankfully fulfills our expectations. This rapid-fire 75-minute adaptation by Jeff Award-winning director David H. Bell eschews too ponderous a conceptual approach in favor of a boisterous and slapstick romp, replete with wild acrobatics, juggling and light-hearted sight gags.
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