Second City opens its 36th revue with a great cast — Aidy Bryant, Mike Kosinski, Michael Lehrer, Tawney Newsome, Andel Sudik and Chris Witaske carrying on the tradition of three men, three women and four chairs. This cheerful, bouncing group easily transcends their material.
Hero is a warm, funny and well sung new musical that, for a world premiere, is ready for life after Marriott Theatre. Kudos to Thielen, Mahler and Bell for creating such a fun new show.
Combining duets and full ensemble harmonies and cute dance movements, Time After Time unfolds as a fun, silky tune fest that showcases the skills Jule Styne possessed making him one of the premier songwriters of the 20th Century.
They’ve got the sound down, but can wearing a mop top make you The Fab Four? Rain can sing the tunes but it’ll never quite be the same as the original.
Inherit The Wind at Oak Park Festival Theatre. The debate between Christensen’s Brady and Hickey’s Drummond is most compelling as Christensen exudes charisma while his outdated and narrow sociopolitical beliefs are destroyed by Hickey’s Drummond.
This smart drama vividly focuses on hurts so deep that forgiveness is difficult. It looks at how on letting go of past hurts can immobilize one emotionally. The play also demonstrates how we often use others sexually for both relief and as bodies that substitute for the one we love.
My first visit to see an operetta by the six year old Chicago Folks Operetta was a most pleasant one. Their fabulous modern German operetta, in a rhyming translation into English by Gerald Frantzen and Hersh Glgov, is a fun time.
When he contorts into one cave too many, he gets both feet stuck under a large slab of rock. After a day or so, his family organizes a search to rescue Floyd. Once his brother Homer (Jon Harrison) finds him, he realizes that Floyd is in trouble. No one except the young reporter, Skeets Miller (the rich-voiced Greg Foster) can slink into the narrow cave opening. The two bond as the rescue attempts become labored.
The sad haunting tone of the folk styled music and the seriously generous use of sung dialogue in a pure operetta motif was skillfully performed giving just the proper tone to this magnificent work. This is quintessential Chicago story told with class in a dynamic trade mark Lookingglass style. The production values and the terrific music and singing make Eastland a “must seeing” show.
The story is the stuff of fable; unhappy husband/farmer Semyon Semyonovich Podsakelnikov is a failure. For a brief time he thinks success may be his if he only had a tuba and there is a humor-packed scene as he tries to master the instrument.