Random thoughts, concerns, ideas, notions or tidbits of information that we thought worth sharing with you. Some may be brief; others lengthy. It all depends on our mood and our subjects.
By Beverly Friend, PHD, Member American Theatre Critics Assn. While I certainly miss seeing plays, I miss reviewing them even more: the excitement of opening night, the thrill as the house lights dim and the curtain goes up, the responsibility of writing a valid assessment of the production which will benefit readers by giving — […]
So this week marks my 500th day and 300th show as a reviewer. (Well, I’m at 298 Chicago reviews as I write this but within two days it will be 300, and I also have over forty USAOnStage reviews, about a dozen of which I wrote.) I’m a number person (meaning I like interesting numbers), […]
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 […]
Today’s review of Treefall marks the 200th review posted by chicagoonstage.com. I realized that yesterday and was momentarily amazed: a site that has only been in existence for about ten months has published that many reviews…and I have written the vast majority personally. What is even more amazing: for all but the last month, I lived in Vernon […]
Just a quick word to let everyone know that, as of today, ChicagoOnStage is expanding its coverage into Raleigh-Durham, an area with over 95 theatres and a thriving community. Our reporter for Raligh-Durham shows is Lauren Van Hemert. She is one of two Raleigh Regional Contributing Editors for Broadway World Raleigh, and we’re happy to have […]
Watching Writers Theatre’s Smart People and the Goodman’s An Enemy of the People back to back this weekend, I was struck by how much these dissimilar plays have in common. Written over 130 years apart and dealing with very different topics (Lydia Diamond’s Smart People focuses on race and Henrik Ibsen’s Enemy is about the environment and government corruption), there is […]
Step into the world of Timeline Theatre’s “Boy” and you walk through an exhibit about the innateness of gender into a theatre divided between two huge wall units packed to the gills with memorabilia of childhoods spent in the wrong one, courtesy of the more than a dozen artists involved with the play who are […]
Nov. 29, 2017 Warning: Do not read this prior to seeing the play. Major spoilers are included. It will ruin the experience for you. When the audience gets to the end of the 100 minutes or so of Tracy Letts’ The Minutes, they pretty much need to stop and take a breath. It is a brilliant play, to be […]
Reviewing plays is a funny thing, as it turns out. I’m feeling a bit guilty these days for an absolutely stupid reason: at this moment I have only one play in my Yellow/Red Light boxes and all of the rest are Green, many with four stars. What gives? I must be so easy!!! Yet I’m not. […]
I’ve been thinking a lot about Miss Saigon ever since seeing the new revival in New York City earlier this month. I’d like to take a moment here to speak about the controversies inherent in any staging of this play: When it first opened, there were all sorts of issues with “yellowface” casting (Jonathan Pryce […]