The first time I heard Lauren Yee’s The Great Leap at a reading, I was close to crying most of the time. Not because the play is sad—it’s very funny—but because the play made me the most homesick I’d ever…
Review | Les Misérables: breathtaking
After a hugely successful two- and half-year Broadway run, Les Misérables returns to the Orpheum for a new take on the musical like you’ve never seen before. The lush score conducted by Brian Eads and innovative new set designs showcasing…
Review | Blackbird: powerful, creepy
The past, as the swamis never tire of telling us, is a meaningless abstraction. Ditto the future. There is only the ineffable Now, the shining wellspring of happiness and contentment. But what do you do when the past is the…
Review | The Wickhams: a holiday treat
If you’re looking for the perfect gift for the Jane Austen fan in your life – and there are many – a night at the theater to see The Jungle Theater‘s production of The Wickhams is just the ticket. The Wickhams…
Review | Dr. Suess’s How The Grinch Stole Christmas: green holiday fun
Ready or not, the 2018 Christmas season has started. How do I know this? It’s because of the discombobulating rush of holiday shows: the big G begins (on Nov 13) its kazillionth production of A Christmas Carol; there’s the myriad…
Review | The Book Of Mormon: singin’ and dancin’ racism
The Book Of Mormon is an energy packed and very funny show now playing at the downtown Orpheum Theatre until November 18th. Its pacing is tireless, starting at the opening song “Hello†when we meet Elder Price, (Kevin Clay) a…
Review | The Clean House: clean, but not clean-cut
Theatre Unbound’s production of Sarah Ruhl’s The Clean House (Theatre Unbound,performing at the Gremlin Theater until November 18) is only one of at least ten productions of this play in the country over the next four months. Some reasons why…
Review | The Laramie Project and The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later
When 21-year-old Mathew Shepard was brutally murdered in Laramie, Wyoming, the victim of an unspeakable hate crime, it shocked the nation and left Laramie unraveled in the midst of a media maelstrom. Forced to both pick up the pieces of…
Noises Off at the Guthrie Theater
Are you ‘bout ready for a good laugh? How about a couple hours of nonstop laughing? That’s what the Guthrie Theater delivers with Noises Off, by Michael Frayn, a classic modern farce (and there sure aren’t many of those!) If…
Review | The Tempest: spare and wondrous
Theatre Coup d’Etat heads into Halloween with spirits and spells in an absorbing and taut production of Shakespeare’s The Tempest. We sit in a square, empty room. Chairs in a circle – one row only. A few dramatic lights. Sound…
Review | Scapin: a servant of no masters
A director friend of mine once said, “A little stupid is funny; a lot of stupid is just stupid.†The Ten Thousand Things staging of Scapin is just the right amount of stupid and it is very funny. (Ten Thousand Things…
Review | I Come From Arizona: beautifully bilingual
What does “Global Perspectives†mean, anyway? Carlos Murillo’s I Come from Arizona (CTC) offers a few suggestions. In this bilingual play, 14-year old Mexican-American Gabi Castillo (Ayssette Muñoz), who, living on the South Side of Chicago, moves to the elite…