Author: Colin Douglas
Non Sequiturs Ricocheting Everywhere
The Realistic Joneses – Shattered Globe and Wit Theater
Much like an episode of “Seinfeld,” nothing really happens in this one-act by Will Eno. We glean a little bit of information about each of the four characters but there’s not really a story, per se. The author of such other noteworthy plays as “Thom Paine (Based on Nothing),” “Middletown” and “Title and Deed,” Eno’s 2014 comedy took home a Drama Desk award and earned the title of Best Play on Broadway by USA Today. The New York Times warned audiences “not to come to this play expecting tidy, clearly drawn narrative arcs or familiarly typed characters.” The dramatic comedy feels more like a contemporary Theatre of the Absurd offering with its plethora of non sequiturs ricocheting everywhere. Eno’s actually crafted a single play out of a series of short scenes that almost feel like a series of Second City comedy sketches. However, the developing relationship between two couples adds up to a bizarre plot, of sorts, and an authentic portrait of real life.
Read More
Having It All
Dada Woof Papa Hot – About Face Theatre
In Peter Parnell’s comic drama, which first opened at Lincoln Center three years ago, we get a realistic look at how the Marriage Equality Act of 2015 has altered the lives of many gay and lesbian couples. Its passage seemed to promise the same idyllic life and privileges that heterosexual couples had been enjoying for decades. Gay couples would now be able have it all but, as Parnell shows us, that new life comes with its own set of problems, considerations and complications.
Read More
Vampires Around Us
St. Nicholas – Goodman Theatre
He begins his 90-minute monologue by confessing to the audience, “When I was a boy, I was afraid of the dark.” Interestingly, this unnamed character, a drama critic, makes his living by sitting alone in darkened theatres, observing actors who are bringing to life the characters a playwright has created on the page. Has this writer, who admits to being a cruel commentator on productions about which he has little knowledge, overcome his fear of the dark? Or has he simply learned to endure that which scares him the most and join their ranks?
Read More
Sardines and Slamming Doors
Noises Off – Windy City Playhouse
As elderly housekeeper Mrs. Clackett begins exiting while balancing the telephone, a newspaper and a ubiquitous plate of sardines, she suddenly stops (as does her Cockney accent) and she begins questioning herself. “I take the sardines? No, I leave the sardines. No, I take the sardines…” Audiences unfamiliar with Michael Frayn’s laugh-a-minute farce begin to wonder if the actress (Amy Carle, brilliant as Dotty Otley playing the character of Mrs. Clackett) has lost her way…or her mind. And indeed her character does have problems with all her lines and stage business, but that’s the gimmick behind this play-within-a-play. A so-so farce entitled “Nothing On” is being rehearsed by a third-rate British theatrical company, but the audience only comes to understand that this is a rehearsal when Lloyd, their hard-working director (nicely played with manic mastery by handsome Mike Tepeli) interrupts Dotty’s muttering to provide some much-needed direction from the auditorium aisles. The “dress rehearsal” (or is it “the technical”?) continues to stop and start as each new problem arises. With them come new complications and even broader laughter.
Read More
Violence and Its Aftermath
Cardboard Piano – TimeLine Theatre Company
In small church in northern Uganda, as New Year’s Eve ushers in the new millennium, two young girls prepare to celebrate by secretly exchanging marriage vows in a faux wedding ceremony. Chris is the rebellious daughter of strict, conservative missionary parents; Adiel is a feisty, but romantic African teenager, who’s smitten with her. Their lesbian love, not to mention an unheard of racial relationship, are both taboo and strictly forbidden in Uganda. The couple’s secret union will culminate in a night of sexual romance, before they flee from this repressed country to a city where being gay doesn’t mean persecution and punishment. However, as might be expected, their idyll is about to be violently interrupted.
Read More
The Original American Girls
Little Women, the Musical – Brown Paper Box Co.
This musical is exactly what we need today. Although the show originally opened on Broadway back in 2005, it speaks strongly to what America wants to hear right now. It portrays a loving, tight-knit, resilient family trying, against all odds, to survive during the Civil War. They must endure poor economic conditions, illness, romantic complications and a myriad of trials and tribulations we still face today. The play may be set in the mid-nineteenth century, but it’s a universal story about a community of people who care for each other, and it carries a message that still rings true today.
Read More
Sondheim’s Most Enchanting Musical
Into the Woods – Music Works Theater
The fulfillment of wishes and their consequences, the pain of growing up, parent and child relationships, learning to accept responsibility and the message that no one is alone: those are the themes that Stephen Sondheim leaves us with by the end of this magical musical. Imagine a world in which many of your favorite childhood fairy tale characters all live in the same neighborhood? Suddenly those familiar stories begin to merge and blend together as Cinderella, her Prince Charming, Little Red Riding Hood, the Big Bad Wolf, Jack and his beanstalk, Rapunzel, her witchy mother and many others, all work together trying to survive their enchanted existence. Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s clever interweaving of these stories propel the familiar characters forward on a journey of growth and self-discovery. The first act is frothy and fanciful but, in an unexpected about-face, the second act offers a darker, more sobering and thought-provoking storyline. The result is simply magical, especially in Music Theater Work’s deliciously delectable production.
Read More
Tradition!
Fiddler on the Roof – Broadway in Chicago
This is the evening in the theatre that we most definitely need right now. Given the current climate of this nation, it’s a much-desired story of family, faith and folks making the best of what life throws at them. It’s about life and love and, of course, time-honored traditions. The theatergoer who thinks he knows this show and has already seen “Fiddler…,” one of the world’s best-loved musicals, will be in for a big, pleasant surprise. Settled in Chicago for the next three weeks, this Tony Award-nominated show’s National Tour is a fresh, new staging of this musical classic. So, make no mistake: this is no old chestnut, but a revival that’s as fresh and exciting as the day it was written.
Read More
An LGBTQ Holiday Tradition for All
Barney the Elf – Pride Films and Plays
There seems to be an increase in holiday plays and musicals that feature an elf as the main character. First, we have the snarky, darkly humorous “Santaland Diaries.” Then there’s the big, splashy, tuneful “Elf, the Musical,” about Buddy, the Elf. “Rudolph the Red Nosed (and Red Hosed) Reindeer” both feature an elf in a main role. But another play with music, that’s become a Chicago holiday tradition, has another elfin North Pole citizen as its leading man.
Read More
A Visual and Auditory Spectacle
A Midsummer Night’s Dream – Chicago Shakespeare Theatre
Shakespeare’s fantasy comedy is no doubt familiar to most theatre goers. The comedy weaves together three stories: a quarrel between the king and queen of the fairies, four young Athenian lovers trying to sort out their affections and a group of six rustic actors rehearsing a play for the Duke’s wedding day. All of these plots play out primarily in the forest under a full moon, and ultimately become connected through the marriage between Theseus, the Duke of Athens, and his lovely bride-to-be, Hippolyta. Of course, complications arise and provide the basis for this comedy.
Read MoreRECOMMENDED SITES
