Third
Third tells the story of Laurie Jameson (Robin Lewis-Bedz), a middle aged college professor whose well-ordered life as a wife, mother and daughter is thrown into disarray when she accuses a student of plagiarism
Latest from Chicago Critic
Hollywood 360 6-06-09
Tom Williams discusses the following stage plays with Carl Amari: The Arabian Nights at Lookingglass Theatre, The Crowd You’re In With at the Goodman Theatre, Pump Boys and Dinettes at Drury Lane Oakbrook Theatre [audio: https://chicagocritic.com/newsite/audio/0606TOM.mp3]
A Little Night Music
A Little Night Music contains a lush, romantic waltz-time score by Sondheim. Director Rudy Hogenmiller has cast superb voices to sing Sondheim’s romantic lyrics. A Little Night Music is a work of theatrical art that appeals to operetta lovers and pure romantics.
Camelot: In Concert
The concert sings quite expertly, with Hearn actually singing Arthur’s numbers with deep emotions. The concert format allows the large orchestra to overwhelm us with the lush score while we still get a glimpse of the story and the interaction of the characters.
Pump Boys and Dinettes
This highly entertaining musical treat is light on story, small vignettes designed to introduce the next song, but long on Southern, small town music. Featuring a nice blend of country, folk, old-time rock ‘n roll, blue grass, Cajun, cowboy and western, blues with gospel thrown in,
Bright Spirit Cirque Shanghai
When the audience isn’t cheering the endeavors, it’s holding its breath: what lithe performers, what contortionists. Everything that seems impossible suddenly is made to look impossibly easy.
Greek
Overall, the opera seemed like it was written by a gifted composer who had not yet solved all the dramatic problems set up by the unholy marriage of punk England to ancient Greek drama.
The Crowd You’re In With
Set in a Lakeview Chicago neighborhood in the backyard of a two-flat (terrific realistic set by Kevin Depinet) on July 4, 2007, we find two 30something married couples and their older landlord couple having a barbecue. They are intelligent, liberal yups engaging in light banter that turns into a heated debate about how are life choices in times of transition shape out entire lives.
Revisiting the Bard: Romeo and Juliet
As with their previous festival subjects, King Lear and Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet is another tale of family relationships and the demands of filial obligations. Highlights of the program, which will cover 13 sessions over three weeks,
Bat Boy: The Musical
The Village Players can’t seem to make up their minds if they are a community theatre company or a professional troupe. Their production of Bat Boy: The Musical is peopled with a collection of rank amateurs who can neither sing, act or dance