The Adventures of Tapman
Choreographers: Tristan Bruns & Zada Cheeks Produced by Tapman producrions At the Athenaeum Theatre, Chicago Tepid tap triumphs as Tapman
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Search Results for: man in the ring
The Book of Merman
(based on an idea of David G. Zak) Book, Music, and Lyrics by Leo Schwartz Directed by David Zak Music
Read MoreA Christmas Carol (Goodman)-2014
Unlike most reviewers, I’m new to Chicago and had never seen the Goodman’s A Christmas Carol before. Therefore, I can’t say how this production is different from the previous thirty-six years. But I can say it’s well-crafted in every regard, and sincerely tells Charles Dickens’s story as though it were only just written and not a yearly tradition.
Read MoreThe Humans
In this 90 minute one act, the six person cast each have their say with Keith Kupferer and Hanna Dworkin anchoring the work. The celebration of Thanksgiving leads to a boiling point as the underlying tension explodes into truths that threaten the Blake’s core. Take the journey with these folks and you’ll quickly become immersed into memories of your family’s past holidays
Read MoreRemembering Bernie Yvon
Bernie Yvon had just recently celebrated his 50th birthday when he was killed by a Semi truck driving to rehearsal. He was scheduled to play a taxi driver in the musical “Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown” at Theatre at the Center in Munster, Indiana. George Andrew Wolff will assume the role and the production will now open on September 21, with a tribute to Bernie planned following the show. Yvon was fortunate to be a working actor, and it was abundantly clear that he loved what he did as much as audiences loved watching him.
Read MoreDead Man’s Cell Phone
Dead Man’s Cell Phone is a play that is part mystery, based on a “what if” happening and part fable in a naturalistic motif. The play has an electronic character (a cell phone) that is a portal into one life. Ruhl demonstrates how much an extension of our lives cell phones have become.
Read MoreEmerson String Quartet at Ravinia Festival
The venerable Emerson String Quartet opened their Monday-night program at Ravinia with what is arguably the greatest piece for string-quartet by the greatest master of the genre. Op. 131 is part of the series of five quartets that together represent Beethoven’s last major achievement – he was dead within a year of its 1826 completion. Composed in seven movements instead of the usual four, it is perhaps the most ambitious attempt to create a string quartet of symphonic sweep, and the result is at once dazzling and overwhelming: by turns melancholy, mischievous, serene, and tragic. If one can follow the many diverse threads brought together over the course of these seven movements, it is an experience not quite like any other.
Read MoreBrigadoon at the Goodman Theatre
Until Rachel Rockwell and the creatives at the Goodman Theatre have put their considerable skills and assists in use has there been a major remount and revised production of Brigadoon. This 1947 Broadway musical and a hit 1954 film with Gene Kelly, with fabulous Scottish influenced music by Frederick Loewe, upon the lush lyrics and fine book by Alan Jay Lerner, has emerged into a tuneful evening of magical musical theatre! This sweetly charming ethnic fable contains wonderful dances and several exquisite romantic ballads but the sheer charm and wholesomeness of the morality indeed get us to believe that anything is possible if you love hard enough. There is much to love in this fabulous production.
Read MoreJuilliard String Quartet at Ravinia Festival
The esteemed Juilliard Quartet must be America’s longest-running major chamber ensemble, with a career stretching all the way back to 1946. Today’s lineup is, of course, much younger, although Joel Krosnick has been the quartet’s cellist since 1974. And however one feels about their interpretative sensibility, it cannot be denied that these are serious-minded, virtuosic musicians.
Read MoreZukerman ChamberPlayers at Ravinia
I relished the chance to hear Zukerman at Ravinia, joined by colleagues previously unknown to me but clearly trained in a similar tradition (cellist Amanda Forsythe and pianist Angela Cheng), especially given the program’s pleasing repertoire and the interpretative impact to which the virtuosity and musical warmth on display was joined.
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