Latest from Chicago Critic

“FIDDLER ON THE ROOF” – Paramount Theatre

October 23, 2022March 10, 2013 by Margaret Eva

Essential to a successful Fiddler is the acting of Tevye, a milkman and the father of five daughters. Imagine the audience reaction when it learns that on opening night the leading role needs the understudy, David Girolmo, for at least a week. His first monologue immediately says that we are in good hands, and if there is any doubt, his first solo song, “If I Were A Rich Man” wins everyone over. His subtle style and a lazy rolling motion causes audible chuckles from most listeners.

“La Dulce Vita” – Music of Corelli, Geminiani, Bach, and Locatelli

March 9, 2013 by Samuel Wigutow

The Baroque Band, a period-instrument ensemble established in Chicago six years ago by British baroque violinist and conductor Garry Clarke, has entitled the mostly-Corelli program it is bringing around the city this weekend “La Dolce Vita,” after the 1960 film, as part of what appears to be a movie-themed season. While it is unclear exactly what this evening’s concert had to do with the movie in question beyond being (mostly) Italian, the title does reflect the refreshing charm and grace that pervades the music on offer.

CCX

October 22, 2022March 8, 2013 by Tom Williams

Jim Lynch is a talented playwright with a keen ear for street talk and a knack for character development. His works begs an audience. CCX is a powerful, in-your-face, Chicago style play filled with outstanding performances particularly by Henri Watkins and David Lawrence Hamilton. The complexity of police work in gang infested Chicago that becomes shades of gray in execution wherein the line between the good guys and the thugs becomes blurred is vividly presented in Lynch’s terrify play.

MATRYOSHKA

March 7, 2013 by Anthony J. Mangini

MATRYOSHKA makes its point. But occasionally at the cost of considerable tedium. For by the time we’re running close to our second hour, the whole experience starts to feel like a nonsensical blur, not quite achieving an absurdist circular structure but nonetheless going nowhere, as though slowly following a geometrical line into an infinite horizon.

Rigoletto

March 7, 2013 by Samuel Wigutow

This production is recommended for its stellar cast and, of course, Verdi’s music, but not for its excessive and gratuitous sensuality; and those who, like this critic, hope that the latter does not end up as the norm for opera productions are hereby warned.

Vigils

October 22, 2022March 7, 2013 by Anthony J. Mangini

Still, Vigils is prone to some heavy-handed and clichéd ruminations on the nature of love, loss and renewal. And its efforts to blend the conventions of a realist drama with more mytho-poetic diction results in several awkwardly mawkish metaphors

See What I Wanna See – Garage Rep

March 4, 2013 by Anthony J. Mangini

And director Lili-Anne Brown manages to turn See What I Wanna See’s overly plodding pacing into an otherwise brisk two hours of beautiful music and stirring performances. LaChiusa, much like Sondheim, never makes the work of the actor or director easy. Refusing the more cloying sentiments of a Rodgers and Hammerstein, his work requires constant focus and subtle emotional turns. Thankfully Bailiwick Chicago Theatre is up for the challenge!

She Kills Monsters – Garage Rep

March 4, 2013 by Tom Williams

Filled with colorful customs, shadow puppets, and loads of stage combat, Qui Nguyen’s ridiculous comedy, She Kills Monsters, is highlighted with much screaming, physical comedy and over-the-top performances. This wild and unworkable mess is the story of a most unlikable lead character, Agnes (Katherine Banks)’s life is tuned upside down when she stumbles upon her late sister’s Dungeons & Dragons notebook

Blacktop Sky -Garage Rep

March 4, 2013 by Tom Williams

In Christina Anderson’s interesting play, Blacktop Sky, we meet 18 year old Ida (Kristin E. Ellis), a resident of a Chicago housing project. she slowly befriends a young homeless man who lives on a bench in the project’s courtyard after she witness police rough up a fellow project resident

The Fall of Heaven

March 4, 2013March 2, 2013 by Tom Williams

The Fall of Heaven can be enjoyed on several levels: it is a morality play (good vs. evil); a human comedy; and a hopeful tribute to humanity. it is also as finely constructed and stage theatrical production. Congo Square proves once more that they produce outstanding theatre. Don’t miss this unique show.