Noel Bristles of jade spear my fingers and hands– tiny droplets of blood stain my skin– green and red– must be Christmas time again. Each year the same confusion and bustle… Putting up the tree– first the hell of picking it out (god i’m cold it’s too small no that one’s too […]
Chicago, IL, December 21, 2018 – TimeLine Theatre Company is pleased to announce that it has completed the purchase of property located at 5033–5035 North Broadway Avenue in Chicago’s Uptown neighborhood. The property, which encompasses a five-story, 45,120-square-foot warehouse building plus a vacant lot near the corner of Broadway and Argyle, is planned as the […]
CHICAGO – The Chicago Fringe Festival announces that after 10 years of celebrating the weird and unpredictable, Chicago Fringe Festival is closing its doors. The annual avant-garde performing arts festival will conclude with a 10- year celebration party Saturday, June 1 at The Windsor Tavern and Grill, 4530 N Milwaukee Ave. Over the course of […]
Review by Kelly Macblane; photo by Austin D Oie I have a complicated relationship with Roald Dahl. I know he is a celebrated children’s author whose books transcend time and have been adapted into performance pieces of all sorts as a result. One of my all-time favorite movies is Gene Wilder’s version of Willy Wonka […]
CHICAGO – Full casting has been announced for Pride Films and Plays’ production of SOUTHERN COMFORT. The musical will open to the press on March 4, 2019 in the Broadway theater of the Pride Arts Center and play through March 31. In SOUTHERN COMFORT, Robert, a transgender man living in rural Georgia among his chosen family […]
Review by Karen Topham, American Theatre Critics Association member; photo by Liz Lauren. Singing and dancing fairies. Giant Hieronymus Bosch-influenced flowers. A Puck who appears in midair. Half-naked lovers. A gigantic sluice in the middle of the forest. Joe Dowling’s tenth time directing Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream brings the classic comedy into the 21st […]
Review by Karen Topham, American Theatre Critics Association member; photo by Chris Popio. There is a reason I have a yellow light category, and Trap Door Theatre’s The Old Woman Broods explains it perfectly. Here is a play that is wonderfully performed and directed with visual and auditory panache, yet it is one that I […]
Top Acting Performances 2018 2018 was a year filled with extraordinary acting performances, and it is inevitable that most of them will not make an end-of-the-year list. You might think that I overlooked a stellar piece of work, but generating conversation about this great year in Chicago theatre is what these lists are all about. So […]
Stella Adler said that “the theatre is a spiritual and social x-ray of its time.” If that is the case, what did Chicago theatre in 2018 tell us about our world? This year’s best shows in Chicago spoke of a world where racial tension is still strong, where women’s empowerment is clear but inconsistent, where […]
Review by Karen Topham, American Theatre Critics Association member; photo by Austin D Oie. Theo Ubique ushered in its new era this week with the opening of both its new cabaret theatre and its 2019 season with The Full Monty, the fun and heartwarming musical based on the 1997 British film with a book by […]