Author: Colin Douglas
Feeling the Itch
The Hula Hoopin’ Queen
“Today is the day I’m going to beat Jamara Johnson at hooping. Then I’ll be THE HULA HOOPIN’ QUEEN of 139th Street!” Young Kameeka is bound and determined to prove to her friend, Jamara, that she’s no longer holds the title of champion hula hooper. Kameeka is finally going to win the crown today. Then suddenly Kameeka feels the itch, the Hula Hoopin’ itch. Her fingers start snappin,’ her feet start tappin’ and her hips start swingin.’ But Kameeka’s challenge to her hoopin’ friend, Jamara, will just have to wait. Today’s Miss Adeline’s 80th birthday and Kameeka’s planned a special party for the lovable woman who’s been like a grandmother to both her mother and her for many years. But today is also the day Kameeka has planned to win the title of THE HULA HOOPIN’ QUEEN.
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Fanciful Adventures in Space, Friendship, and the Most Unlikely of True Loves
moonwatchers
Taking the tradition of tall tales into science fiction, moonwatchers is a light-hearted romp about opposites in friendship and star-crossed soulmates. The whimsical story written by Nigel Berkely and Corey Farrell, as Directed by Nealie Tinlin, and presented by Lazy Susan Theatre Co. is a high-energy evening of escapism that will lift your spirits. And how better to celebrate the historic Artemis II mission to the far side of the moon than taking in this far out adventure.
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You’ve Got to Be Carefully Taught
South Pacific
Spring has finally blossomed in Chicagoland. And with the bounty of beautiful flowers comes an abundance of new shows, both original, Broadway-bound hopefuls and timeless classics of the musical theatre. Paramount’s latest offering is a polished, beautifully directed, acted and, especially, sung production that harkens from Broadway’s Golden Era. This fine presentation is visually stunning and very entertaining, but a few tiny hitches keep this production of SOUTH PACFIC from totally being “Some Enchanted Evening.”
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Facing The Monster
Octet
In what may be the most original, imaginative and unbelievably creative musical I’ve ever had the pleasure to experience, OCTET is enjoying its magnificent Midwest debut. And this utterly fascinating, superbly electrifying, totally mesmerizing musical is guaranteed to rock you to your very core. It’s very different, fresh and unusual, sometimes funny, very often affecting and supercharged by its honest humanity. This may seem contradictory because the 95-minute one-act musical is about a group of people who are all addicted to the internet. It’s a beast, who they collectively refer to as the Monster.
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Fire and Ice
Loki—The End of the World Tour
The gods and goddesses, as well as many of the legendary creatures, heroes and events from Norse mythology, all come to life on the intimate Lifeline stage. Often spilling out into the house and up the aisles, sometimes even including members of the audience, this epic, ambitious and brilliantly spectacular rock musical may be one of the best shows of the year.
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Born to Entertain
Ruthless!
Sweet, precocious little Tina Denmark is an accomplished and talented young lady…very young, in fact, and very talented. Tina’s only eight years old and already the tiny tyke knows she’s destined to become a Broadway star. In fact, teensy-weensy Tina Denmark was literally “Born to Entertain,” a song the little lady belts out within the first few minutes of the show. Then we learn that Tina’s meteoric rise to fame could begin very soon because her third grade teacher, Miss Thorn, is about to cast the elementary school musical, PIPPI IN TAHITI.
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Family Fugue
Out Here
Self actualization. Being yourself. Becoming comfortable in your own skin. These are different ways of labeling the same act. Recognizing who you are and acknowledging this understanding of yourself and the world around you is usually just the beginning. It’s an act of freedom, of breaking down artificial barriers and starting over again with honesty and pride. This is part of the premise of OUT HERE, a new musical that was developed in a partnership between the University of Chicago and the Arts Lab at the Neubauer Collegium for Culture and Society. This new work is, as the song goes, also a “Family Fugue.”
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No One Ever Wins
Fault
Chicago Shakespeare Theatre is celebrating The Bard’s birthday this April with 66 performances. The productions include FAULT, called “a wickedly dark new comedy,” and is a World Premiere that will have theatergoers talking for years to come. This edgy, energetic and profanity-filled and very adult 90-minute one-act is a definite departure from the typical, classical fare found on the Yard Stage.
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A Most Unique Comedy
Eelpout!
Are you in the mood for a most unique comedy—a funny, fast-paced farce especially made for smart, very liberal theatergoers? How about a surreal story peppered with bizarre characters, unexpected events and filled with non-sequiturs and homely homilies offered by mild-mannered Minnesotans? Have you been hankering for a camp entertainment in which friends become lovers, fish can talk and the sweet mysteries of life can be found at the bottom of a deep, frozen lake? Well then, have I got a play for you!
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An American Dream Decayed
The Great Gatsby
If the title of this glittery, glitzy, jazzy musical sounds familiar, it may be because you’re experiencing flashbacks to your high school English class. For many members of the audience, their first encounter with this American literary masterpiece was as part of their school curricula. A highly readable and entertaining novel, American author F. Scott Fitzgerald set his story during the Roaring Twenties on Long Island, New York. The Great Gatsby is a tragically romantic story of the Jazz Age that’s almost autobiographical. It tells the tale of a man with a dream. When Jay Gatsby was younger he fell in love with a beautiful and wealthy debutante named Daisy Fay. However, since Gatsby wasn’t a member of the elite, wealthy class, the girl’s father forbade their marriage. So Jay enlisted in the Army and heroically went off to fight in WWI, hoping to be killed.
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