Anyone using a cell phone today, which is pretty much everyone, knows texting in ALL CAPS indicates the texter is shouting. So unsuspecting potential patrons of Broadway in Chicago’s “Rock of Ages” should know first, this hit musical is REALLY LOUD. This second national tour, from producer Phoenix Entertainment, is also REALLY GOOD. It’s a […]
The characters in “Russian Transport” sprinkle their conversations with Russian phrases. Sometimes, they switch over to the language of their motherland for a whole sentence or two. But you don’t need to be fluent in Russian to understand what they’re talking about. The Slavic accents—and the way these émigrés fluidly move back and forth between […]
In-the-know patrons of Chicagoland musical theater would pay good money to hear Jeff Award-winnerCory Goodrich sing the alphabet. Through March 30, they should do just that as she lends her formidable vocal and instrumental talents to an A to Z hootenanny of Johnny Cash hits in Theatre at the Center’s staging of the jukebox musical […]
Often referred to as one of the great American musicals, “Gypsy” is brought to new life onstage in celebrated director Gary Griffin’s current production at the Chicago Shakespeare Theater. With music by Jules Styne, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by Arthur Laurents, the musical grabs you from the gorgeous Overture—filled with snippets of one […]
The promo materials tout six current productions of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “The Phantom of the Opera” around the world. This includes flagship London West End’s production (27 years and counting) and the Broadway staging at New York’s Majestic Theater (approaching 26 years). Producer Cameron Mackintosh’s reimagined North American tour, gracing Chicago’s Cadillac Palace through March […]
Powerhouse Broadway veterans and an ensemble of sexy dancers barely pause this week to genuflect to the city lending its name to their marquee. Their pause is well worth planning around. Because this national tour of the John Kander/Fred Ebb musical “Chicago,” at the Bank of America Theatre through March 2, may be the only […]
A predominantly black neighborhood is gentrifying. Once known as a place to score drugs, it’s now welcoming more and more middle-class residents. However, young African-American men are still loitering on the streets, harassing the newcomers as they walk past. That’s the potentially fraught setting for Tracey Scott Wilson’s “Buzzer,” now at Goodman Theatre and directed […]
Fans of Stephen Sondheim take note—a new production of “Into the Woods” has hit Chicago and the result is spellbinding! The groundbreaking theatre company The Hypocrites has inventively reimagined the Tony Award-winning play. Director Geoff Bunton brilliantly brings the musical to life by incorporating a “children at play” aesthetic, which is as fun and whimsical as […]
Gioachino Rossini’s “The Barber of Seville” is a comedy that just won’t quit. The Lyric Opera of Chicago‘s sunny production, which opened February 1 at the Civic Opera House, mines the comic vein with gusto, enhancing the story’s plot with more physical antics than I’ve seen on Lyric’s stage in years. This is the opera […]
Enchantment emanates from every moment of the Lyric Opera of Chicago’s evanescent production of Antonin Dvorak’s “Rusalka.” The opera tells the story of a water nymph, Rusalka, who has fallen in love with a handsome human prince, who often bathes in her forest lake. She longs to become human and with the aid of a […]
