Marriott Theatre Honors the Classic "Guys & Dolls"
“Guys and Dolls” is a musical fable of Broadway, and this production lives up to expectations.
Liberia’s War-Torn Past Brought to Life in “Eclipsed”
Raw and powerful, Danai Gurira’s “Eclipsed” is a show that will inform audience members. The play recounts the atrocities of the final months of the war in Liberia from a distinctly feminine perspective. Unfortunately, the brutality is much too fraught for children. Telling the story of the multiple “wives” of one of the rebel army’s […]
A Valentine’s Day Playlist
Card? Check. Flowers? Check. Dinner reservation? Check. Back to your place? Check. MUSIC? Check. VALENTINE Be Mine Stoned Love by The Supremes Pretty Eyes by Alex Goot The Luckiest by Ben Folds Who’d Have Known by Lily Allen Lovely Day by Lee Ritenour I Was Made to Love Her by Stevie Wonder You Are My […]
A Super Bowl Playlist
Since most football players are beasts, we had fun using animal band names in this list—a trend in the music industry! SUPER BOWL Let the Rumpus Begin 1. Laredo by Band of Horses 2. Location by Freelance Whales 3. Cannibal Queen by Miniature Tigers 4. 8 4 8 by Young Mammals 5. Coronado by […]
A Conversation with Musician Ella Jenkins
Legendary children’s musician Ella Jenkins recently released a new album and performs in Chicago on February 6. Her new album, “ Life of Song,” offers stories and songs that speak to her years growing up as an African-American child in multicultural Chicago. Jenkins recently sat down with Make It Better to talk about her new […]
Good “Sex” at Steppenwolf
“Sex with Strangers,” a play about a 30-something woman dating a 24-year-old guy, is a libidinous, funny exploration of the Internet generation.
Hip Hop Shakespeare in Funk It Up About Nothin’
You’ve probably seen Shakespeare reinterpreted a hundred ways: transported settings (modern day Berlin), interpretive costumes (Macbeth in Armani), but Claudio as a rap star?much “Funk It Up About Nothin’ ” is definitely a new twist on “Much Ado About Nothing.” Playing in the intimate upstairs theater at the Chicago Shakespeare Theater through Feb. 13, this […]
Goodman's "Trinity River Plays" is an Emotional Ride
“The Trinity River Plays,” which premiered Jan. 24, is a beautifully realized play about family betrayal and family love—about the roots and wrongs that hold people together or wrest them apart. Three related dramas by Regina Taylor introduce us to Iris on her 17th birthday. The occasion coincides with the arrival of the 17-year locust, […]
Music Motivates
One thing is for sure: Music motivates you. It can excite, stimulate, focus or calm you. That’s why you see ear buds everywhere—on Olympic athletes, morning runners, commuters, travelers, students and nappers. The type of music sets the stage, whether it’s pump up jams, dance tunes, theme songs, holiday carols, world music, tribal beats or […]
Deborah Voigt Shines in the Lyric's "Girl of the Golden West"
Puccini’s opera “The Girl of the Golden West” is a real Western—the “True Grit” of its day—packed with the good, the bad and the ugly aspects of the American frontier. The show is set in the Sierra Mountains of California during the Gold Rush of 1849 and has a golden voice at its center. American […]
