The final scenes offer emotional arguments from both as the changing roles in the mentor-protege relationship emerge. Often when the protege learns too well, the mentor either feels useless and not needed anymore. That can be difficult for both. In Collected Stories, Margulies layers trust, loyalty, and mutual need into a complex web of circumstances. Is Ruth paranoid or is Lisa an opportunist? And what if a protege takes literally the advise from the mentor and acts upon that advise, is she exploiting and betraying the mentor? See this play and judge for yourself.

This play will grab you and keep you interested throughout as we are surprised by who emerges as the hero and who becomes the villain. All three actors gave fines performances. I was impressed by the nuanced and vulnerable take on Bernard by Mark Smith. The Lake Effect give us insights into Indian American melting pot culture that finds old country values in conflict with the children’s American values.

It has been years since I’ve been able to enjoy this classic Broadway musical, Anything Goes. With all the blandly inept new musicals coming to Chicago over the last few years, it is a pleasure to see the National Tour of Roundabout Theatre Company’s Anything Goes. This toe-tapping nicely goofy show has all the elements of a wonderful musical.

She teamed up with Hershey Felder who adapted and direct Mona Golabek’s one woman show, The Pianist of Willesden Lane, that utilizes Felder’s combination of storytelling with piano music. In this case, the story told by Golabek is the true story of her mother’s flight from Austria to England and eventually to the USA