Northanger Abbey is a charming coming-of-age novel, filled with wit, humor and insight, and this musical version certainly does justice to the original. For Austen fans, there can never be too many adaptations, but one need not have read the book to enjoy this play; it stands on its own, providing a delightful evening of entertainment.
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There are some images that will never leave your mind, if Lekethia Dalcoe has anything to say about it. The latest product of Congo Square’s August Wilson New Play initiative, Dalcoe’s A Small Oak Tree Runs Red puts a horrifying twist on the concept of a memory play, with the ghosts of three historical lynching victims struggling to remember and come to terms with their experiences.
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The structure of The Good Doctor, with The Writer (Chekhov) himself presiding, offers nothing in the way of insight into Chekhov or Art, but merely serves as a convenience for Simon to string together a series of silly stories that would have been better left in prose. There’s a very probable reason why Chekhov did not translate these stories to the stage, and that reason is this very play. In fact, rather than honoring Chekhov, I feel the play disgraces him by not only associating him with this outlandish sketch show but by making him take part as its ringleader
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While last year’s awards were dominated by Bailiwick’s phenomenal production of The Wild Party, this year a far higher number of shows received recognition as both nominees and recipients.
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Nick Sandy’s in this 2016 performance seemed more confident as Higgins as he was equally terrific to his 2009 take on Higgins.
This production of My Fair Lady looks gorgeous, sounds wonderful and sings beautifully while still having Shaw’s biting social attacks on British society in 1907. Take your family and friends to enjoy one of the greatest musicals of all-time here in a most enjoyable production!
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Caught is a very smart, humorous, and thought-provoking play, and one whose experience will linger with us long after the stage lights rise: I believe its effect actually has the power to transform the way we think because of how it works on us (or, better, plays with us) at the very crux of our thinking, in our acts of conceptualizing and understanding. If you enjoy plays that are highly intellectually engaging as well as entertaining, and you like to have something to talk about after a show, you will not want to miss Sideshow Theatre’s Caught.
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In case you haven’t noticed, the job market is tough. Already weakened by decades of Reaganomics, public-sector unions have taken another hit across the Midwest in recent years, and private-sector unions have declined since the nation’s bicentennial as well. Also, people are eating mass-produced, preservative-laden crap instead of local produce. Playwright Rebecca Gilman sees all these things as connected, and lays them out in her 2014 play Soups, Stews, and Casseroles: 1976.
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So if you enjoy an ambiguous, complex romance with many possibilities, then Constellations will get you thinking. I’m still trying to figure out why this worthy play left me so cold? I sure may be way off about this one. Judge for your self but be sure to read several reviews before seeing Constellations so you’ll be prepared for its uniquely challenging structure. What I can guarantee you is that Jessie Fisher and Jon Michael Hill will give wonderful performances.
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Twelfth Night is one of the most heavily featured plays of the Shakespeare 400 Festival, and is the selection for this year’s Shakespeare in the Parks series. Consequently, Chicago audiences will have plenty of chances to snicker at the Puritanical valet Malvolio. But in this adaptation, written and performed by Tim Crouch, Malvolio finally gets his long-promised revenge. On us, that is.
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Followers of up-and-coming American playwrights will be familiar with Rajiv Joseph’s experiments with a variety of dramatic styles. Though known for highly symbolic and fantastic works like Gruesome Playground Injuries, and Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, in his 2013 The North Pool, Joseph proved that the old fashioned naturalistic play, in which most of the action has already occurred and the characters are simply teasing information out of each other, still has legs. Of course, it helps the play enormously to have a production such as that of Interrobang Co-Artistic Director James Yost and his two perfectly cast actors.
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