Dance with the Devil

The Crucible

Though it was written to skewer the McCarthy era red scares of 1950s, Arthur Miller’s classic The Crucible is a timeless show. Set in Salem in 1692, the show uses the historical Salem Witch Trials to explore paranoia and suspicion, and the cost of holding to your principles. A group of teenage girls accuse a handful, then eventually hundreds of Salem residents of witchcraft, leading to hundreds of arrests and eventually, almost two dozen executions. Neighbors turn against each other as they begin to grapple with the reality that it may be safer to accuse their neighbor before he can accuse them.

A Trivial Comedy for Serious People

The Importance of Being Earnest

I normally start a review with a brief, spoiler-free synopsis, but I don’t think I can do that this time. If you aren’t already familiar with Oscar Wilde’s classic farce, I think the fun will be in letting it unfold in front of you with no help from me. And whether you are familiar with the show or now, Theatre Above the Law’s new production, directed by TATL Aristic Director Tony Lawry, will be delightful way to spend an evening.

Cry It Out

Jessie and Lina are both new moms and newly moved into adjacent duplexes on Long Island. Their baby monitors extend just far enough to let them meet in their backyards, but not far enough to go into each other’s homes while their babies take a nap. The mix of connection and isolation of being a new mother is the center of Theatre Above the Law’s new play, Cry It Out by Molly Smith Metzler.

Searching for Forgiveness

Right to Be Forgotten

When Derril Lark was seventeen years old, he made a mistake. Since then, he has done his best to make up for it and be a better person. Ten years later, he has moved on, but the internet has not. His mistake is still the first thing you find when googling his name. He knows what he did was wrong, but doesn’t everyone deserve a second chance? But how can that happen when the worst version of ourselves lives on, trapped in amber for everyone to see?

Once Upon a Time…Later

Grimm – Theatre Above the Law

Theatre Above the Law is bringing back a show it premiered last Halloween season, Grimm. The show features several Grimm fairy tales set inside an imaginary bar with a framing story of Jacob Grimm looking for his missing brother, Wilhelm. A few stories have carried over from the last production and a few new ones have been added. The result was a delightful evening.

Come to the Fun Home

Fun Home – Paramount Theatre

Fun Home is the story of writer and artist Alison Bechdel contemplating her relationship with her father, who she discovered as an adult was gay, like she is. Based on her real family, Bechdel turned the story into the graphic novel of the same name in 2006. In 2013, it was turned into a musical with book and lyrics by Lisa Kron and score by Jeanine Tesori, eventually picking up the Tony for Best Musical.

The Playboy of the Western World

The Playboy of the Western World – City Lit Theatre

At a pub in County Mayo, Ireland in 1907, a young man stumbles and says that he has just killed his father with a shovel. After telling his story, he instantly becomes a local celebrity, with the town celebrating his bravery in standing up to his horrible father. Things get more complicated with the father, apparently only injured, shows up looking for him.

Murder is Such a Drag

A Fine Feathered Murder: A Miss Marbled Mystery – Hell in a Handbag Productions

Hell in a Handbag is back with it’s most ambitious project that I’ve seen. In the grand tradition of Clue or Gosford Park, David Cerda and company are tackling the country manor murder mystery. All the standards are here. The society maven. The aging aristocrat. Servants with secrets. And a quiet but shrewd spinster watching everyone from behind her knitting. The only way you can be sure that you didn’t accidentally buy tickets to The Moustrap is just about all the women on stage are drag queens.

You’ll Be Charmed

Lucy Darling: Indulge – Rhapsody Theatre

Here’s a sentence I haven’t gotten to type very often in the last few years: a new theatre is opening! In the former space of the Mayne Stage in Rogers Park, the Rhapsody Theatre will host a variety of music and cabaret acts in its 200-seat theatre. To kick of their inaugural season, Carisa Hendrix dazzles as magician and all-around delight, Lucy Darling in an evening of magic, comedy, and a large number of martinis.

Tommy on Top

Tommy on Top – PrideArts

I don’t like giving bad reviews. I know how much work and energy go into a show and how vulnerable it makes the people who put in that work. I always try to respect that. I flatter myself that I am not in the class of reviewer who enjoys writing pans to make themselves feel smarter than everyone else who may have liked something. I always try to meet a show where it is and judge it not just for how I viewed it, but also through the lens of its intended audience. Even if something isn’t for me, it’s often for someone, and to me, a well written review looks for that. This is the long way of saying I can usually find something to hang my hat on to recommend a show to someone for some reason. Unfortunately, I cannot do that for PrideArts’ latest production, the Chicago premier of Tommy on Top, a farce by British playwright Chris Woodley. The story centers on hunky, young, and closeted actor Tommy Miller, on the cusp of winning an Oscar, having to deal with the possibility of being outed and the impact that will have on his career.