Review by Karen Topham, American Theatre Critics Association member You never know when a simple decision is going to change your life. You could meet the person you will marry because one day you happen to be walking on the west side of the street instead of the east. (This literally happened to me.) In […]
Review by Karen Topham, American Theatre Critics Association member; photos by Cody Jolly Photography. For the second time this season, a musical about the disastrous fire 45 years ago that killed 32 people in New Orleans’ Upstairs lounge is playing in the Broadway Theatre of Pride Arts Center. It may seem an unusual topic for […]
by Joe DeRosa I’ve never been in love. I’ve dreamt of it day and night, but my heart is like a fine piano no one can play because the key is lost.” –Anton Chekhov, Three Sisters There are moments when the stars align and the clouds blow away, when every note from every […]
Review by Karen Topham, American Theatre Critics Association member; photo by Joe Mazza/Brave Lux. It’s not often that I am challenged as much at the theatre as I was in attending the Neo-Futurists’ new play, Lily Mooney’s Empty Threats, starring Mooney and directed by Krissy Vanderwarker. The play, a full-length feature from the Neo-Futurists instead […]
Review by Karen Topham, American Theatre Critics Association member; photos by Emily Schwartz. I’m not altogether certain that, given good actors and a good director, it is possible to do The Laramie Project poorly. It is a play whose very subject and structure pull at the heartstrings, eliciting all sorts of emotional reactions before it […]
Review by Karen Topham, American Theatre Critics Association member; photos by Suzanne Plunkett. For its final production of this season, Lifeline Theatre is remounting its acclaimed 2010 hit, an original adaptation (by Robert Kauzlaric) of Neil Gaiman’s urban fantasy Neverwhere. Sadly, I never saw the original production; however, I will say that if it was […]
Review by Karen Topham, American Theatre Critics Association member. Much has been written about the myriad ways in which our society puts pressure on women to look a certain way. While some women manage to go through their lives wondering if a Size 0 is too big, far more of us have the reverse problem. […]
Review by Karen Topham, American Theatre Critics Association member; photos by Claire Demos. When you walk into The Gift Theatre to see its latest offering, Shakespeare’s Hamlet, you know instantly that you are in for an unusual night. Instead of a traditional stage, the front of the theatre has been boxed off and enclosed in […]
Review by Karen Topham, American Theatre Critics Association member; photos by Liz Lauren. At the start of Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Suzan-Lori Parks’ 2014 drama Father Comes Home From the Wars, Parts 1, 2, & 3, now playing in its Chicago premiere at the Goodman Theatre, a singer (Melody Angel) enters with a guitar and says […]
Review by Karen Topham, American Theatre Critics Association member; photos by Liz Lauren. Lookingglass Theatre has become renowned over the years for inventive staging of shows, including the use of puppetry. I don’t think, though, that they’ve ever had to tackle a giant squid before. In the adaptation by Steve Pickering (Althos Low) and director […]