Theater Reviews

In 2006, right after seeing John Kolvenbach’s Love Song in London, Marti Lyons immediately bought the script in the theater’s lobby.   Monday, after experiencing Remy Bumppo’s production of Mr. Kolvenbach’s beautifully expansive take on love at Theater Wit, we can understand why.  This time around though, as Love Song’s Artistic Director, Lyons used the opportunity …

Remy Bumppo’s Love Song Takes a Fresh Look at What Makes the World Go ‘Round Read More »

We’re probably not the only country where aging is seen as an ominous specter, something to be dreaded and even feared because of its proximity to consummate demise.  Such perceptions may not be naïve, but they certainly are narrow and overlook our capacity to experience life’s fullness and wonder throughout all of its stages.  Playwright …

WIPEOUT Proves the Compatibility of Fierceness and Aging Read More »

The act of living means that the present takes up most of our mental space.  Pursuing careers, raising families and keeping up with the day to day doesn’t leave a lot of opportunity to look back and give adequate measure to what was.  Black Ensemble Theater’s (BE) 2024 season opener, The Time Machine:  A Tribute …

BE’s Time Machine Delivers Musical Rapture Read More »

Some say that in any family with two or more children, each child has a different set of parents.  The relationship one child has with either of them is never exactly the same as it is for another brother or sister.  The ramifications of those relationships and the way they’re entangled with history, race, legacy …

Exceptional Play at American Blues Theater Shifts the Focus of History to Honor the Forgotten Read More »

Stories that crouch down and sniff out the human element behind some of our most contentious issues always seem to bring the most satisfaction.  That’s certainly true of The Smuggler, Jackalope Theatre Company’s tiny new powerhouse of a play about what it takes to corner the American Dream.  As we learn while listening to Tim …

Small But Mighty, The Smuggler Showcases Theater at its Best Read More »

When the United States hastily and clumsily pulled out of Afghanistan in August of 2021, chaotic became the single word that reverberated through the news cycle regarding its exodus.  Although both promised and anticipated, the departure proved an abrupt and awkward end to a record twenty-year investment in U.S. blood and U.S. dollars.  Scenes of …

Selling Kabul Lays Bare the Perils of Vulnerable Alliances Read More »

There are a lot of things this world could do with more of and that includes Cole Porter musicals.  Porchlight Music Theatre must have sensed that void when it decided to launch its 90th anniversary production of one of Porter’s timeless jewels, Anything Goes.  Now playing at the Ruth Page Center for the Arts, the …

Porchlight’s Anything Goes Keeps the Magic Firmly Intact Read More »

Arming each new generation with a viable education will always be the overriding mission of our schools.  While fulfilling that goal, schools influence another important objective.  They help prepare students to become engaged, responsible and competent adults.  By any measure, the scale of just one of these goals is massive.  Combined, they are daunting.  A …

Young Playwrights Festival Strikes Gold in Chicago High Schools Read More »

Long noted for the excellence of its live dramatic work, Congo Square Theatre Company branched out and began offering digital content in 2020.   Partly a response to the impact remote learning had on parents during Covid, the company brainstormed outlets for expressing rampant parental frustration during the epidemic.  At the time, director Anthony Irons; the …

Web-series Delivers Humor From a Different Slant and Through a Different Voice Read More »

Worry, concern, indeed dread about the future may be at an all time high.  From the flagging integrity of our institutions to the failing viability of the environment, the issues facing man and womankind threaten profound consequences.  Chief among them center on the feasibility of our species continued existence.  Caveman Play, a work presented by …

Caveman Play May Be Asking the Wrong Question Read More »