A Wonder In My Soul is a most entertaining, often funny, wonderfully sung (not a musical but a play with songs) and a heartfelt drama about friendship, place and personal commitment as seen through social and political change. The dialogue is smart and witty and the acting is first class with Greta Oglesby and Jacqueline Williams leading the way.
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LLL is a verbose work with punning and allusions coming almost nonstop. This snappy wordplay is funny and keeps you interested in the characters and the story. The wit and charm comes through from excellent cast lead by Laura Rook (Rosaline) and Nate Burger (Berowne) whose punning banter wins our hearts.
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Filled with richly symbolic dialogue that sounds poetic as well as funny in the great Irish tradition of storytelling, By the Bog of Cats is a densely worded tragic drama sprinkled with colorful characters and pure Irish humor.
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Urinetown is a fresh hilarious spoof of Brechtian ‘epic’ theater, of political theatre and a Weillian stretch of operatic from. The result is a fresh, original colorful surprising musical. Urinetown proves once again that almost any topic is grist for the mill of talented musical composers and lyricists. This exuberant show will leave you basking in the glory of the stage’s power to entertain. BoHo’s energetic production delvers.
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The story of the demon barber of Fleet Street revolves around Sweeney Todd’s ( the baritone Paul-Jordan Jansen) obsessive desire to seek revenge on the man responsible for exiling him, destroying his wife, and stealing his child. While awaiting his opportunity for retribution, he and the entrepreneurial Mrs. Lovett (Bri Sudia), become partners in a horrific venture in which Sweeney Todd provides Mrs. Lovett with the pivotal ingredient for her meat pies after giving his customers the “closest shave they will ever get.”
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The Scottsboro Boys – The Musical is presented in the style of the notorious “minstrel show.” By utilizing a strong Brechtian satire motif led by the razor-sharp commentary by Larry Yando (The Interlocutor), the only white man in the cast, the show becomes a theatrically thrilling telling of a sad history factual story of a group of nine teens taken off a train in 1931 Alabama and accused of raping two white women in the Jim Crow South. The woman were both prostitutes.
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This satire isn’t funny and there were only a few laughs on opening night. The twang Texas rural dialect quickly became tedious and the local references a strain on credulity begging the question” who is the audience for this unfunny satirical comedy?
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The History Boys covers the life of eight English boys prepping for their entrance exams designed to get them into Oxford or Cambridge. But playwright Alan Bennett has a much larger agenda than merely a coming of age story or a debate about the purpose and style of education. He tackles issues such as sexual identity, teen angst and the role of teachers as mentors to their students
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Kudos to the creatives at Chicago Shakespeare theatre for commissioning and producing The Book of Joseph from Richard Holland’s publication of his father’s story and the collection of family letters: “Every Day Lasts A Year.” Karen Hartman was commissioned to adapt the Holland letters into a stage play with the help of Rick Boynton and directed by Barbara Gaines. The result is a most compelling and empathetic story
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As this fact-paced 85 minute courtroom drama plays out, we witness the parallel these two young woman as they are, in fact, fighting a similar battle to defend their morals, motives and religious freedoms. Playwright Selina Fillinger skillfully presents both side of the argument: should we aggressively prosecute Americans who try to aid terrorist or only after they actually materially and personally commit acts to aid ISIS?
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