Monthly Archives: December 2019
Go, Go, Go, Go!
Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat – Music Theater Works
As the 2019 holiday season and the year wind down, what better way to celebrate than this joyous, unabashed, sometimes poignant musical comedy? It’s impossible to sit still while experiencing this show. It’s so gorgeously sung, energetically danced and comically enacted that it will stay with audiences long after the final bows. This is a winning show, particularly appropriate for the entire family. It even features a choir of children who add their sweet voices to the chorus, forever encouraging Joseph and the rest of the company to “Go, go, go, go!”
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Not for the Faint of Heart
Dance Nation – Steppenwolf Theatre
The eight pre-teen members of an amateur Ohio dance troupe all have their hearts set on winning a trophy at each of the upcoming district competitions. They passionately hope to eventually work their way up to the National Finals, which will be held in Tampa, Florida. Dance Teacher Pat (played with humorously stern seriousness and an almost callous demeanor by Steppenwolf ensemble member, Tim Hopper), constantly references one of his former young dancers who made him proud, winning the top honors a few years ago, and then going on to dance in the chorus of a Broadway show. Her framed portrait hangs on the wall of his dance studio, where the kids are encouraged to pay homage to her. But the price of such success isn’t easy, as theatergoers are about to discover.
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The Only Certainty in Life
Death Tax – Red Twist Theatre
Maxine is the resident of a nursing home and her health is declining. She believes that her daughter, in order to avoid a looming increase on the estate tax, is paying her nurse to speed up the process, so she offers her a deal: a cut of her substantial estate if she lives to the new year. The nurse, Tina, an immigrant and single mother facing her own family problems, reluctantly accepts. This sets off a chain reaction, the end result of which none of them can predict.
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An Over-Exuberant New Holiday Musical
The Land of Forgotten Toys – Greenhouse Theatre
Amidst a growing crop of holiday productions, Chicago is being treated to yet another new family friendly show. Chirpy, relentlessly over-exuberant and with very few moments of reflection or subtlety, this new holiday musical could really use some layers and a bit of variety. As it now plays in its world premiere, the production is a little overpowering. It’s a little like sitting in the front row of an IMAX theatre: there’s no escape.
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Send in the Clowns
Burning Bluebeard – The Ruffians
Audiences flocking to the theatre these days seldom give any thought to their own personal safety. Even back at the turn of the century, only 30 years after the Great Chicago Fire, there was little cause for alarm…that is until Chicago’s Iroquois Theatre, billed as “absolutely fireproof,” caught fire during an oversold matinee, on December 30, 1903. Who could’ve imagined that a holiday pantomime entitled “Mr. Bluebeard” would result in one of the most tragic losses of life in American history.
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A Tribute to the Common Man
Working – Theo Ubique Cabaret
The dreams, duties and dynamics of the everyday worker are celebrated in this wonderful musical play. A tribute to the common man, Stephen Schwartz’s musical first saw the light of day at the Goodman Theatre in 1977, and eventually opened on Broadway the following year. It was nominated for six Tony Awards in 1978 and has been produced around the world ever since. Continually being updated by the playwright, this latest version of the musical is being given a fresh, gorgeous new production at Fred Anzevino’s Evanston cabaret theatre.
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Still Not an Elf on the Shelf
The Santaland Diaries – Goodman Theatre
The holiday season isn’t always a time for unbridled joy and delight as movies, musicals and television specials would have you believe. Even that crabby old curmudgeon, Ebenezer Scrooge, eventually found Christmas to be a season of joy and renewal. But ask anyone working in the public sector during the holidays, especially in retail or hospitality, where they’ve suffered the indignities and downright rudeness of people at their worst, and you’ll understand how some folks look at Christmas in an entirely different light.
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An Italian Feast for the Eye and Ear
The Light in the Piazza – Lyric Opera of Chicago
Elizabeth Spencer’s beloved 1960 novella about an American mother and her young daughter on vacation in Italy became a popular film just two years later. It starred Olivia de Havilland, Yvette Mimieux, George Hamilton and Rossano Brazzi. Then, in 2003, book writer Craig Lucas and composer Adam Guettel teamed up to develop a theatrical musical version of this heartwarming story. This artistic collaboration began its journey at Seattle’s Intiman Playhouse, completing its pre-Broadway course at Chicago’s Goodman Theatre, a year later.
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We’re All Orphans
The Christmas Foundling – Pride Films & Plays
On a cold Christmas Eve in 1850, high in the Sierra foothills of California, a pregnant young woman stumbles into the crude, cabin of gold prospectors, Hoke and Old Jake. Hoke helps deliver her baby and, before he can learn her name or where she’s from, the woman dies in his arms. Not very learned in the art of childrearing, Hoke and his partner Old Jake at least realize the baby is crying because he’s hungry. They borrow a nanny goat from one of their male buddies and the child, whom Hoke names Tom, thrives.
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A Holiday Reality Show
America’s Best Outcast Toy – Pride Film & Plays
A delightfully original new holiday musical is debuting in the Buena neighborhood and is both nostalgic and current, at the same time. The shift in television entertainment from sitcoms and dramas to reality shows inspired this spunky musical spectacular. With a brilliant book and lyrics by Larry Todd Cousineau and a catchy score by Cindy O’Connor (the team that wrote the Jeff Recommended “All That He Was”), savvy theatergoers have a brand new holiday alternative available to them, premiering this year at Pride Films and Plays.
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