Review: PRIMARY TRUST at Goodman TheatreOctober 15, 2024Namir Smallwood’s performance as Kenneth is a real testament to his superb abilities as a performer and the intimacy of PRIMARY TRUST becomes more profoundly emotional thanks to him.
Review: HARRY POTTER AND THE CURSED CHILD National Tour PremiereSeptember 27, 2024HARRY POTTER AND THE CURSED CHILD is three hours of nostalgia-fueled, utterly captivating theater...with heaps of stage magic. The Chicago engagement marks the national tour debut of the eighth installment in J.K. Rowling’s HARRY POTTER series.
Review: INHERIT THE WIND at Goodman TheatreSeptember 24, 2024Goodman Theatre’s season-opening production of INHERIT THE WIND centers on a fictionalized version of the 1925 “Scopes Monkey” trial — at its heart, a debate on creationism vs. evolutionism. Though playwrights Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee make it clear they’re on the side of evolution, it’s still a treat to watch this production’s Matthew Harrison Brady (Alexander Gemignani) and Henry Drummond (Harry Lennix) go head-to-head in a verbal spar.
Review: NOISES OFF at Steppenwolf Theatre CompanySeptember 23, 2024NOISES OFF is lengthy and occasionally redundant because the show literally runs through Act One three times from different perspectives. But it’s also legitimately funny — which is rare and welcome for a Steppenwolf show.
Review: BACK TO THE FUTURE: THE MUSICAL National TourAugust 15, 2024=
BACK TO THE FUTURE: THE MUSICAL is a fun and faithful adaptation of the 1985 film — but it’s overly long and generically scored. With music and lyrics by Alan Silvestri and Glen Ballard (Silvestri composed the film’s original score) and book by Bob Gale, the musical has a typical pop Broadway score — with some 1950s flare when protagonist Marty McFly travels back in time to 1955.
Review: ALICE BY HEART at Kokandy ProductionsAugust 4, 2024While Kokandy Productions’ ALICE BY HEART has some lovely performances, the musical itself is far less imaginative than its ALICE IN WONDERLAND-inspired title suggests.
Review: MIDNIGHT IN THE GARDEN OF GOOD AND EVIL at Goodman TheatreJuly 9, 2024MIDNIGHT IN THE GARDEN OF GOOD AND EVIL is a sprawling, messy musical that weaves together the threads of several characters in 1980s Savannah, Georgia. Composer/lyricist Jason Robert Brown draws on a variety of different musical styles, while Taylor Mac’s book scenes present a series of vignettes for the Savannah residents.
Review: LITTLE BEAR RIDGE ROAD at Steppenwolf Theatre CompanyJune 24, 2024In LITTLE BEAR RIDGE ROAD, Samuel D. Hunter has accomplished a rare and magical feat: He’s given us a play that’s mundane and profound at the same time. With Joe Mantello directing, Steppenwolf’s ensemble of Laurie Metcalf, Micah Stock, John Drea, and Meighan Gerachis make the play yet more fascinating and emotionally raw.
Review: The Second City's 112th Mainstage RevueJune 14, 2024The Second City’s 112th Mainstage Revue, THE DEVIL IS IN THE DETOURS, promises “weird, sexy comedy” in its opening moments. This ensemble definitely hits on the weird and occasionally hits on the funny. I think this revue, while not always consistently funny, gave this ensemble some real moments to shine. And as with past Second City revues I’ve seen, the show’s mix of sketch and improv has lively energy, and the wide variety of sketches presented made me curious to see what comes next.
Review: TURRET at A Red Orchid TheatreMay 13, 2024Levi Holloway’s dystopian play TURRET introduces audiences to an intimate bunker in a post-apocalyptic world. And notably, the play marks Michael Shannon’s return to A Red Orchid. Shannon plays Green, who presides over this mysterious bunker in which he’s holding captive his trainee, Rabbit (Travis A. Knight). At the play's opening, this particular iteration of Rabbit appears to be one of many test subjects within Green’s clutches. The first several scenes of TURRET have a kind of mundanity: Rabbit runs furiously on a treadmill while Green performs a series of tests. The text doesn’t reveal much about the nature of these experiments, and audiences are left to wonder what, exactly, is happening for much of the play.
Review: JUDGMENT DAY AT CHICAGO SHAKESPEARE THEATER at Chicago Shakespeare TheaterMay 2, 2024JUDGMENT DAY may be a world premiere comedy, but it trades in old-school jokes. Rob Ulin’s play is relatively simple and wears its moral heart on its sleeve (Main takeaway: Don’t be a jerk), even if lead role Sammy Campo doesn’t have a heart at all. While JUDGMENT DAY pokes some fun at the Catholic church, the play’s satire is not that deep. That said, this play is swiftly moving and delightfully entertaining, and it fully delivers on the promise of offering audiences a good time.
Review: THE CHOIR OF MAN at Apollo TheaterApril 4, 2024Raise a glass to THE CHOIR OF MAN, a rollicking good time of a show. The show’s a UK transfer and it transports audiences to the fictitious pub The Jungle, modeled after classic Irish and British pubs. Therein, the eponymous nine man choir serves up pop and rock hits on tap. THE CHOIR OF MAN is all about having fun and delivering on its promise of great vocal arrangements.
Review: JERSEY BOYS at Mercury Theater ChicagoMarch 29, 2024Mercury Theater Chicago has staged a “homegrown” production of JERSEY BOYS full of Chicago heart. The bio jukebox musical has graced Chicago tour stages over the years (in fact, I had a chuckle looking back at the review of the first national tour I wrote for my high school newspaper), but this is the first staging to showcase Chicago talent — and it definitely accomplishes that goal.