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Head of Passes at Steppenwolf Theatre Company

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… the success of this transition is highly dependent on the performance of McCraney’s leading lady. Thankfully, Cheryl Lynn Bruce as the widowed matriarch Shelah is a revelation, keeping well apace with the broad emotional and spiritual arcs that McCraney sets her on over the course of the play and delivering one of the most inspired acts of self-healing you are likely to see on stage. And Tina Landau’s deeply sensitive direction successfully is well-paced and attuned to the unique formal challenges posed by McCraney’s play. And David Gallo and Collette Pollard’s scenic design—which includes the remarkable onstage collapse of Shelah’s home—is as technically dazzling as it is emotionally resonant.

Danny and the Deep Blue Sea

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This is a wrenching love story with visceral romantic elements. Galatz is memorizing as he exudes all the rage and pent-up anxiety of the totally alienated and violent truck driver. Kingsley is equally effective as the guilt-ridden woman with low self-esteem. This 80 minute drama is engaging and wonderfully acted. While the play presents the bleakness of alienation it also presents the hope that people can change if they only take the changes to embrace change when it presents itself. This show is worthy of an audience.

Oliver! at Drury Lane Oakbrook Theater

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The sustained popularity of Oliver!—loosely based on the classic novel by Charles Dickens (or more likely, David Lean’s 1948 film version)—is largely derived from the virtuosic talents of its composer and lyricist, Lionel Bart, who peppers the rise of Dickens’s iconic workhouse foundling with a rousing score of Old English folk songs, hymns, chorales and dances. From the stirring opening number “Food Glorious Food” to the hauntingly plaintive “Who Will Buy” to the insufferably catchy “Consider Yourself,” Bart’s spirited music continues to move each successive generation of theatergoers fifty years later.

Muti’s Mass in B minor at the CSO

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The Mass in B minor is in a sense Bach’s last will and testament, the product of his very last compositional energies before his death in 1750. Its two hour and 45 minute length is certainly imposing; but though not without majesty this work does not have the sublime, cataclysmic qualities of the last monumental works of such later composers as Mozart, Schubert, and Beethoven. In its most beautiful moments the Mass in B minor has a sort of divine serenity and languor, as of one who had taken stock of his life’s work, and, in sum, was prepared to leave this world rather contented.

South Pacific at Marriott Theatre

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I was particularly impressed with Stephen Bumtrock’s vulnerability and his rich tenor voice which was a welcome change from the usual baritones cast as DeBecque. He and Lanza had a plausible romantic spark that added depth to the romantic flavor of the story. Bethany Thomas nailed her songs as Bloody Mary while Stef Tovar was terrific as the rascal Seabee Luther Billis

In a Garden

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In brief, Korder’s In a Garden is a sophisticated and frequently moving play on the oppressive nature of the state and our often quixotic efforts to be free from it. A lyrical tragedy in the guise of a social drama, theatergoers will be delighted at Korder’s ability to counter our expectations and to keep us on our toes.

Let Them Eat Chaos

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There latest revue, their 101st, Let Them Eat Chaos, follows the classic Second City formula that includes improv, sight gags, physical antics, wordplay, and audience involvement, songs, and vivid video images. This topic is chaos and the six performers do their creative best to give us a funny show for two hours. While Edgar Blackman, Holly Laurant, Tawny Newsome, Katie Rich, Steve Waltien were all terrific comics, I was especially impressed with the talent of Ross Bryan

Maria/Stuart

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Maria/Stuart’stitle is a pun on the rhetorical tragedy Maria Stuart written in 1800 by Friedrich Schiller (whose bust features conspicuously in Grote’s play). Though beyond perhaps slight similarities to the Strum and Drang school, I’m afraid the reference is lost on me. A more apt precursor here would be the family romances of Sam Shepard, most clearly his Fool for Love. Shepard’s own interests in the incestuous family romance, his uses of magical realism, and the ways in which his plays descend from sadness in a menacing uncertainty foreground much of what Grote seems to be gesturing toward.

A Permanent Image

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In A Permanent Image, now in its Chicago premiere at the Storefront Theater, Carol (Janice O’Neill) has found a strange way to mourn he recently departed husband (Jack McCabe) – shoe painted her entire house, furniture and a all fixtures snow white. When he son Bo (Ed Dzialo) arrives from Is real for his father’s funeral, he quickly concluded that his ‘always-strange’ mother has now gone totally insane

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