While the storyline is a tad concocted, the performances by the three teen actors was amazingly effective. They all sported fine British accents, including young Gabriel Stern. Reaching the highs and lows emotionally together with the physicality needed here would tax even a season actor yet Lunsky and Cygan (and little Stern) gave skilled and emotionally deep performances. The future is bright for these three.
Read MoreIphigenia 2.0 is a interesting, effective and most engaging production that vividly uses the power of the live stage to get its ant-war message across. Staging it in contemporary times reminds us that we still have not learned the lessons of leadership and the motivations for going to war. As Achilles states: “What chance can an empire have if its actions are to be based on lies and imaginings?”
Read MoreThe first part of Nathan Allen and Chris Mathews’ new trilogy, The Iron Stage King: Part One is a complex epic of crowns and country using elements of the King Arthur and Norse mythology with sprinkles of American fable themes. Utilizing all the House stylistic elements including puppets, miniature models, strong lighting, unique costumes with ample sprinklings of humor, this story has richly layered storytelling that explores the nature of leadership, governance with the unique American struggle to balance personal liberty with actions for the common good of society.
Read MoreThe repartee between these two “friendly enemies” comes across in a solidifying relationship full of respect and fellowship. The atheist (Shaw) and the newly Catholic (Chesterton) engaged in a terrific war of wards that stimulate us with ideas and concepts.
Read MorePlaywright Mia McCullough took a tiny story in the Chicago Tribune about local Glenview women protesting a billboard in their suburb making it into a profile of our complex concepts of the nature of beauty in 21st Century America.
Read MoreAmazingly, the folks at American Blues Theater usually pick stage worthy plays and they knock them out of the park Not here with James Still’s Illegal use of Hands. This dark comedy gets a 15 yard penalty for being boring with few funny lines and a meandering go-nowhere plot.
Read MoreLed by the stunningly emotional and totally honest tour de force performance by Bill Larkin as the nerdy, mentally challenged composer, Edward Kleban, director Stacey Flaster has cast a fast-paced flowing musical with terrific talents anchored by the fabulous work from Bill Larkin
Read MoreDr. Katherine Brandt (Janet Ulrich Brooks), a music scholar is obsessed with trying to solve the Beethoven riddle despite her battle with ALS and her deteriorating relationship with her daughter. Brandt’s drive sends her to Bonn, Germany to the vast Beethoven archives. Kaufamn’s drama is accompanied throughout by a grand piano centered on stage with George Lepauw playing one of the 33 variations during each scene.
As the mystery unfolds, we see Katherine’s ALS render her increasingly debilitated as well as us witnessing Beethoven’s deafness and deteriorating health, But each has a passion that compels them toward solving their mysteries. Her Beethoven is fixated on finishing all the possible variations; for Katherine it is solving the “why” of Beethoven’s fixation.
Read MoreDirector Marc Robin has his cast fully engaged in his fast-paced, well sung back-stage musical about the R & B groups of the 0-‘s and 70’s. Raena White , as Effie, sing her heart out especially in “I Am Changing.”
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