Author: Colin Douglas
An Evening of Pure Joy
Beautiful: The Carole King Musical
From the very first moments of this incredible production, theatergoers will find themselves falling in love with Carole King. Actually, one of the reasons can be attributed to talented Tiffany Topol’s honest, layered and loving performance. She makes the audience believe that she’s the actual American singer, songwriter and musician, standing before us on the Paramount stage. Within the next two-and-a half hours, the artist shares with the audience all of the highs and lows of Carole King’s life. Because of Ms. Topol’s brilliant performance, along with her 25 gifted cast mates, this production is an evening of pure joy from start to finish!
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Heaven Can Wait
Judgement Day
Meet Sammy Campo, a corrupt, self-serving, money-grubbing louse of a lawyer. While gloating about how his latest cutthroat scheme is going to make him even richer, Sammy suffers a sudden heart attack. While under the knife in the ER, Sammy has an out-of-body experience. An angel suddenly appears to him, who looks remarkably like Sister Margaret, his strict Catholic school teacher from many years ago. She severely admonishes Sammy for his decades of amoral behavior and provides a vivid preview of his eternity of unending torture in the fiery pits of hell. But it turns out that Heaven can wait.
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Finding Your Own Song
Joe Turner’s Come and Gone
Goodman Theatre’s latest production is a magnificent revival of August Wilson’s second, chronological installment of his extraordinary and ambitious American Century Cycle. This particular drama, set in 1911 Pittsburgh, is one of Wilson’s ten plays that chronicle the African-American experience, decade by decade. The Goodman was actually the first theatre in the country to present all ten of the Wilson Cycle plays, including the world premiere of two of the dramas. After the Goodman’s recent miraculous production of Mr. Wilson’s GEM OF THE OCEAN, set in 1904, we can only hope that soon audiences will be enjoying a remount of MA RAINEY’S BLACK BOTTOM, the next play, chronologically-speaking, and set in the 1920’s at a Chicago recording studio.
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Hope and Healing
Jump
As the lights come up, through the whispy fog we discover a young woman walking on a bridge. She enjoys a draw from her vape pen. Then she throws it away into the dark waters below, only to have it magically reappear in her hand. This moment, like several other incidents in the play, happen over and over again. Very soon theatergoers realize that Charly Evon Simpson’s quirky one-act is set in a universe that’s rife in magical realism. The 90-minute drama, which is enjoying its Midwest Premiere, is a play about hope and healing and just plain being human. It’s told through a nonlinear storyline that’s filled with unexpected surprises and humor, as well as a deep river of sadness.
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What Could Be Better?
Baby
Three diverse couples, all living in a fictional university town and a different sector of that collegiate community, become united in this musical by, and about, pregnancy and childbirth. But as delightful as they are, the diversity of the six characters seems like a purposeful, cross-section of all the coupled, heterosexual members of society. In addition, there’s three very disparate conclusions to these couples’ individual pregnancies. As one couple sings, “What Could Be Better?”
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One Inch From Terrific
Brooklyn Laundry
At the top of this one-act, a perky, attractive young woman named Fran drops off a bag of soiled bedclothes at her local laundromat/dry cleaners. The lady who usually greets her has the day off, but Owen, the owner of a modest three-store laundromat empire, welcomes her instead. Fran paces around, her mind clearly occupied with much more than dry cleaning, and the cheerfully optimistic Owen picks up on this. The amiable laundromat manager is, true to his character, masking his own hurts and heartbreaks. However, Owen choses to look at the positives in life. He observes that Fran reminds him of the fiancee who left him a couple years ago, a woman he describes as being smart, pretty and “one inch from terrific.” Despite gently chiding her for being so gloomy, Owen flirts with Fran and asks her out to dinner.
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A Musical Fable of Broadway
Guys and Dolls
More I Cannot Wish You. No, really! This perfect, professional production is a beautiful Bushel and a Peck of playfulness. Sue Me, if I’m not speaking the truth! If I Were a Bell I’d ring out the great news! They say that everything old is new again and Drury Lane’s resplendent revival of this “Musical Fable of Broadway” is proof positive of this old proverb. So please, do not miss this phenomenal production or, much like the marvelous Miss Adelaide, you’ll be Lamenting it for 14 years.
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An American Musical Classic
The Music Man
Meredith Willson’s very first musical, and his magnum opus, is undeniably one of the best-loved classics of the American musical stage. As one of the most perfectly written of all musicals, it doesn’t simply feature a few main characters backed up by a chorus of nameless, dancing singers who only appear during the big musical numbers. Each and every character in this show is unique individual with his own personality and backstory. And that alone makes this show very special, both as an actor and as a theatergoer.
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Composer, Instructor and Pianist
Monsieur Chopin, A Play with Music
It’s Paris, March 4, 1848, and class is in session. Sit comfortably and get ready for your masterclass music lesson provided by a gifted composer, instructor and piano virtuoso. For the next two hours, Frederic Chopin will offer a fascinating education in the creation and performance of his own classical music. However, lest you think that this class might be boring and too scholarly for the average audience member to appreciate, nothing could be further from what you’re about to experience.
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Change Partners and Dance
Cock
There was a popular song written by Irving Berlin in 1938 for the musical film, “Carefree.” It was sung by Fred Astaire and entitled “Change Partners and Dance.” The song referred to the indecision of dancer Ginger Rogers to accept a marriage proposal and she eventually ends up with Astaire. This Oscar-nominated ballad could also be used as the theme song for this bold battle of the sexes, now playing in a brilliant production on Chicago’s North Side.
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