Review by Karen Topham, American Theatre Critics Association member; photos by Liz Lauren. Like most theatre people, I have a huge passion for the shows of Stephen Sondheim. (No pun intended, Sondheim-philes out there enjoying holiday company. OK, I intended that one, and I’ll stop now.) Whether it is Sweeney Todd, Into the Woods, Assassins, […]
Review by Karen Topham, American Theatre Critics Association member. Photos by Michael Brosilow. When you’re a new mom on maternity leave, it’s like The Walking Dead; you just gotta hook up with a crew to survive. –comedian Ali Wong If Hillary Clinton’s three million vote plurality had been enough to propel her into […]
Review by Karen Topham, American Theatre Critics Association member; photos by Liz Lauren. My mother always said that there is a lot we can learn from our elders, and an evening spent with “the Delany Sisters,” a pair of centenarians whose life story is the subject of Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters’ First 100 […]
Review by Beverly Friend, American Theatre Critics Association member; photos by Steve Graue Is it possible to admire a production without actually enjoying it? Yes. Prometheus Bound offers much to admire. Imagine a character who is chained to a rock for hundreds of years being portrayed on stage for 85 comparatively long minutes. Mark Pracht is powerful […]
Review by Karen Topham, American Theatre Critics Association member; photos by Tracy Adams and Jay Stephens. Andrew Jackson was one of our most controversial Presidents, responsible for the foundation of the Democratic Party but also the designer of the Trail of Tears. He is the role model for the current resident of the Oval Office, […]
Review by Karen Topham, American Theatre Critics Association member; photos by Rex Howard Photography, Ltd. At its core, theatre is all about story and the human spirit. Sometimes the story allows that spirit to be chewed up and spat back out, tearing our souls apart with it. But sometimes, as is the case with John […]
Review by Karen Topham, American Theatre Critics Association member; photos by Michael Brosilow. Buried Child, the surreal Pulitzer Prize-winning drama by Sam Shepard, is a difficult play to watch. Not because so much is happening, but because so little is happening. This one is a slow burn: we are introduced to the world’s most dysfunctional […]
Review by Karen Topham, American Theatre Critics Association member; photos by Paul Goyette. The word “fun” has rarely, if ever, been used in the same sentence as William Golding’s The Lord of the Flies. Neither has the word “funny.” Both, however, aptly apply to Flies! The Musical, an unauthorized parody of the award-winning novel now […]
Review by Karen Topham, American Theatre Critics Association member; photos by Paul Goyette. In The Days Are Shorter, Evanston native and playwright Corinne J. Kawecki examines the problems many of us have with aging in a sweet, simple diamond of a play that has heart in spades. That makes sense for a play that deals […]
Review by Karen Topham, American Theatre Critics Association member; photos by Michael Brosilow. What is truth? That seems to be a question that has increasing relevance in an era in which we cannot believe what our media or our government tells us, and it is a question at the core of Tennessee Williams’ one-act play […]