THADDEUS AND SLOCUM Wows at Lookingglass
It is highly likely that THADDEUS AND SLOCUM will be the most delightful entertainment you’ll see this summer. Stacked and packed with song and dance numbers, the new Lookingglass production explores racial inequalities in showbiz at the turn of the 20th century through heartfelt laughter and with vaudevillian proportions.
DIVINE SISTER is Divine at Hell in a Handbag
Chicago theater boasts no shortage of pop cultural parody shows, but Hell in a Handbag’s production of THE DIVINE SISTER rises above this description. In the grand camp tradition, playwright Charles Busch’s witty and raunchy send-up celebrates the peculiar fascination Hollywood held with nuns in the 1960s. And what better subjects could there be for female impersonation? Cloisters of chaste, devout, dramatic, beautiful characters ripe for fictional scandal. Busch’s script takes advantage of every nun cliche in the canon—visions from God, desperate campaigns to build a new school for the children (the children!) and of course, sexual liaisons between the sisters.
Painful Truths in A SMALL OAK TREE RUNS RED
Tiffany Addison and Ronald L. Conner. Photo by Congo Square Theatre Company Review: A SMALL OAK TREE RUNS RED at Congo Square Theatre Lekethia Dalcoe’s A SMALL OAK TREE RUNS RED resurrects history in a manner that should make the living uncomfortable within painful truths buried each day. Directed by...
BAT BOY Provides Delectably Peculiar and Dark Musical Entertainment
Delightfully quirky and darkly comic, BAT BOY: THE MUSICAL makes its Chicago premiere in this Griffin Theatre production with direction by Scott Weinstein. The Den Theatre proves an ideal venue for this strange and wonderful musical with music and lyrics by Laurence O’Keefe and book by Keythe Farley and Brian Flemming. And Griffin Theatre’s ensemble delivers with vocal expertise and keen acting, milking the show’s material for maximum comedic value and audience delight.
Refreshing SOUND OF MUSIC Doesn’t Disappoint
The SOUND OF MUSIC is a show that you either love or you loathe. I happen to be in the former of the two categories despite my inner monologue telling me I should be in the latter. Fortunately, this recent production of THE SOUND OF MUSIC at the Cadillac Palace...
Lifeline’s NORTHANGER Just Misses the Austen Mark
Anyone who has read Austen knows that she is whip-crack smart, that her characters, while often seeming silly or misguided, are beautifully fleshed out, honest to their time, even if they end up being someone we don’t like. The love affair between the heroine and her dashing would-be suitor are...
XANADU is Unadulterated Musical Theater Joy
American Theater Company’s production of the musical XANADU (based upon the flop of a film bearing the same name) bursts with infectious energy and non-stop fun.
OUT OF THE BLUE—Does the Russian Drama Translate?
Adam Zaininger and Will Burdin. Photo: John Jennings. Review: OUT OF THE BLUE at Organic Theater By Tonika Todorova The Russian word goluboi—or light-blue—entered the gay slang lexicon because of the light-blue shirts gay men would wear to recognize one another when cruising in a homophobic post-Soviet Russia. A year...
Interrobang’s THE NORTH POOL—A Pressure-Cooker of a Play
Rajiv Joseph’s pressure-cooker of a play reveals that you are not merely an audience member, but a spectator at a turbulent tennis match—power volleying feverishly between student and teacher. Psychological crucible THE NORTH POOL ultimately culminates in an oddly cathartic detonation, cutting both captor and captive down to their common denominator—maddening guilt.
Poignant Tragedy SPINNING Unearths Haunting Empathy
Connor Burke is a man overcome with regret, clutching at the scraps of life that remain after catastrophe tears apart his world like a tortuous riptide.