Author: Kevin Curran
A Romantic Atmosphere
She Loves Me – Blank Theatre Company
At Mr. Maraczek’s perfume shop in Budapest, longtime clerk Georg Nowak and new hiree Amalia Balash are constantly butting heads. Whenever they aren’t finding fault with each other, they’re trying to one up each other selling skin creams and potions to the housewives of Budapest. Little do they know that they are each other’s secret pen pals, connected through a ‘lonely hearts club.’ If the story of business rivals unknowingly falling in love via correspondence rings a bell, it’s because the Hungarian play that this musical is based on also formed the basis for the Tom Hanks/Meg Ryan comedy “You’ve Got Mail,” among a few other movies. It’s an old story, and one often told to be sure, but that’s part of its charm. Everyone in the audience and everyone on stage except the leading couple know exactly how this story ends from the moment the curtain goes up. The pleasure is watching the leads catch up with the rest of us.
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The Power to Choose
The Lady from the Sea – Court Theatre
Court Theatre’s new production of Henrik Ibsen’s The Lady from the Sea was originally set to premier in March of 2020, before having to shut down the night of their first preview. The cast and creative team have all returned to stage the show now, but rather than simply running their lines in the meantime, the Court commissioned a new translation by Richard Nelson. The show is one of Ibsen’s lesser produced shows, but to anyone who has seen his more famous A Doll’s House will certainly find a few similarities. The story centers on Ellida, wife to Dr. Wangel, and stepmother to his two daughters. Ellida is unhappy and anxious, and Dr. Wangel, despite his best and genuine efforts, cannot figure out why. The reason is a man from Ellida’s past, a mysterious sailor whose return has been looming over her for years. Now Ellida must choose between them.
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Ghosts of Chernobyl
Ghosts of Chernobyl – Theatre Above the Law
Theatre Above the Law’s new show, Ghosts of Chernobyl, has been a long time coming. It was originally set to premiere in March 2020. I was particularly excited since I had then recently finished the HBO series about the Chernobyl disaster and gone on a deep dive on the subject. I had my ticket ready to go and even hoped that, after a shutdown we thought would last two weeks, the show could reopen. As well all know now, the shutdown of the world, and theater in particular, lasted much longer. Happily, Theatre Above the Law remembers that the show must (eventually) go on.
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Under the Masks
God of Carnage – AstonRep Theatre
Michael and Veronica, a pair of parents, are hosting another pair of parents, Alan and Annette, in their home to discuss a fight their two 11-year-old sons had resulting in one boy hitting the other with a stick and knocking out two teeth. It begins as four enlightened, urbane parents all coming together to showcase how mature they can be. It turns quickly into a four-way brawl that would put their children to shame.
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Once Upon a Time
Grimm – Theatre Above the Law
Reimagining and recombining fairy tales is a mode of story telling probably only slightly less ancient than the fairy tales themselves. I imagine there is more than one fairy tale I know by heart but have never actual heard or seen in its original format, having just pieced it together from its adaptations. Theatre Above the Law’s new show Grimm, picks a few darker or lesser known of Grimms’ fairy tales, just in time for Halloween.
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Welcome Back
Teatro ZinZanni – Cambria Hotel
Teatro ZinZanni premiered in summer of 2019 at the Cambria Hotel on Randolph Street in Chicago’s Loop Theatre District. My fellow reviewer Colin Douglas saw the premiere and gave it a rave review. Having shut down during the pandemic, the show is back with some old and new cast members and I am happy to add my enthusiastic recommendation to the chorus. I can safely say that the show is unlike anything else you’re likely to see, and in Chicago theater, that’s saying something.
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Bwahaha!
Henchpeople – Theatre Above the Law
Everyone knows about the super villain. Their face on every television screen in the city, or maybe projected from a blimp, threatening the city with destruction unless their demands are met. But what about the little people? The ones who make the death ray so deadly? The ones who antagonize the sharks in the pool under the trap door? And this spandex body suit with floor-length cape won’t clean itself… Theatre Above the Law returns to live, in-person theatre with a show that explores the stories of those unsung anti-heroes: the henchpeople.
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Best Friends Forever
W.o.W – Theatre Above the Law
W.o.W. is the story of a pair of best friends at three different points in their lives: young teenagers getting ready for a party, young adults facing their first grown up decisions, and adults dealing with their consequences. The common thread is that each point the play finds them, they are all hiding out in a bathroom. The setting makes a certain about of sense. It is both obviously very private, but a place anyone who has gossiped with a friend at the mirror knows, a place where you can be open and vulnerable, too.
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Infinite Possibilities
Constellations — Theater Above the Law
Constellations, a play by British playwright Nick Payne that first premiered in 2012, is about two people in a relationship. Or not. The play cycles through dozens of glimpses into the life of the couple, some overlapping, some contradictory. The same moment, such as the first time they meet or the last fight they have, is portrayed multiple times subtly shifting the tone or even the outcome.
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Thank You for Being a (Socially Distanced) Friend
The Golden Girls: The Lost Episodes, Vol. 4 – LOCKDOWN! – Hell in a Handbag
David Cerda’s long-running loving but acid parody of The Golden Girls is back, and like us, the ladies are in lockdown. Set in 1992, the specific disease and the means everyone is using to communicate from quarantine are different (and hand-waved away with classic sitcom ease), but the effects are much the same, and the girls are cracking under the pressure and beginning to take it out on each other.
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