You’d think the monsters of junior high school couldn’t be as horrible as the ones in senior high, but of course they are. In the wistfully charming production of Trevor the Musical now playing at the Writers Theater in Glencoe, they steadfastly do what monsters do and try to destroy a kid because he’s “weird”. …
The question underlying Monticello, a play about Thomas Jefferson and his views on the Declaration of Independence fifty years after its signing, is a fascinating one. What did Jefferson actually think about the value and legacy of this keystone document now that it was embedded in the national fabric? Playwright Thomas Geoghegan’s ambitious work now …
Humankind has never lost the wish to understand and explore the unknown. Seared into our genetic code, curiosity has been the motivating force that stimulated the birth of civilizations. Strangely that curiosity does not always include a desire to understand and appreciate each other. Here we continue to see differences in ourselves as threats …
Chicago Theatre Marathon 2017: A Hero with Class Read More »
Using plays as platforms to broadcast social manifestos is not new. The technique often serves to add clarity to the basis of the playwright’s arguments. Such a truth applies to Megastasis; a story about the crushing odds facing young black men now playing at the Athenaeum. Playwright Kia Corthon has certainly done her homework and …
In a city of millions, you know there’s gotta be a good laugh to be found somewhere. And you’ll find plenty of them at that burgeoning institution of mirth on Broadway at Belmont. The Laugh Factory’s Wednesday night Supply and Demand show may have had a smallish crowd but the laughs bordered on the obese. …
Creating something new and different has been consuming a big chunk of the Neo-Futurists’ mission for decades. But something’s changed. Somebody pushed a button and all Hell broke loose. Now they’re as brilliant as they are funny. Riotously clever, frighteningly talented; a perpetual happening. If their July 1st production of Face/Off is any indication …
Flipping through the playbill and seeing that the subject matter dealt with refugees, my only hope was that Objects in the Mirror not be cheesy. Immediately my heart lightened when I saw Allen Gilmore was in the cast. I remember him most notably from his work with Congo Square and I miss seeing him as …
Lots of people, when they see a soap opera coming down the road, high tail in the other direction. It may be a personal problem. And an unfortunate one because they might miss the decadently delicious Destiny of Desire playing at the Goodman. Telenovelas and soap operas come from the same place and in …
Booty Candy, the play, is probably exactly what you think it is; a sexually infused theatrical force. Booty Candy, the object, will likely not be what you expect. But we’re here to talk about the play. Anybody who loves having their expectations exceeded well beyond the imagination’s boundaries will delight in this production as …
Sometimes you wonder how an idea flowers into a premiere. Victory Gardens production of Queen left a number of us in the audience pondering that question. The play’s concept couldn’t be more noble. Highlighting the global disappearance of bees, it followed the journey of two scientists whose groundbreaking work explaining that disappearance become suspect. If …