News & Reviews Category
The Music & Life of Fannie Lou Hamer
Fannie – Goodman Theatre
Are you ready for a powerhouse performance that’ll absolutely blow you out of your seats? Well, here she is boys…here she is world…here’s E. Faye Butler! The always impressive, multitalented, much-adored and often accoladed actress is back where she belongs. No stranger to Chicago audiences, the Divine Ms. Butler has starred at the Goodman Theatre in such hits as “Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike,” “Crowns” and “Pullman Porter Blues,” which was also written by Cheryl L. West, the gifted author of this electrifying biographical drama. After first being presented during the height of the pandemic in parks across the city, the actress once again, completely inhabits the titular role in this one-woman production, allowing this historical figure to take over the Goodman Theatre.
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All You Need Is Love
As You Like It – Chicago Shakespeare Theatre
Wowza! Just…Wow! Daryl Cloran’s magnificent adaptation of one of Shakespeare’s most beloved plays is like a fresh, brand-new musical comedy that could easily play on Broadway or in the West End. This genius theatre artist has incorporated almost two dozen of the most popular tunes from the Beatles Songbook into this comedy. What’s so surprising is how perfectly the lyrics sync with the story. It’s as if the Fab Four had written these songs expressly for this comedy. The result is a newly imagined, unbelievably romantic, creatively conceived and perfectly cast and performed production.
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A Fall Favorite Forevermore
The Madness of Edgar Allan Poe: A Love Story – Oak Park Festival Theatre
Spooky Season is in full-swing and besides corn mazes and pumpkin patches we are really itching for something else to fill the days leading up to Halloween. Maybe you want something creepy, but not too creepy, and a haunted house with inflatable aliens popping out in front of you isn’t quite it either. This play, “The Madness of Edgar Allan Poe: A Love Story”, is what I would call a “sophisticated haunted house”. If you are looking for an upgrade when it comes to your standard fall festivities, this is a must-see show.
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Serving Up Food and Farce
A Recipe For Disaster – Windy City Playhouse
Windy City Playhouse, Chicago’s preeminent theatre company for immersive dramas and comedies, is back at the table, so to speak. Playwrights Carl Menninger and Amy Rubenstein join forces with Chicago top chef, Rick Bayless, the master chef behind the Frontera Grill and Topolobampo, to create this new comedy that serves up food and farce at a frantic pace. The result, directed by David H. Bell with the same momentum as “Noises Off,” is a side-splitting, savory treat that’s a real feast for all the senses, particularly the sense of humor.
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The Wait Is Finally Over
Together At Last – Second City
As with every theatre that has been shuttered for 18 months due to the pandemic, the wait is finally over! That much-loved Chicago comedy club, Second City has reopened with its 109th main stage revue. This original, brand-new, two-hour evening of short skits (including intermission) and songs is as topical and timely as we’ve come to expect from this company. The show is clever, funny and fast-paced. It’s crammed full of adult humor and profanity, making it appropriate for audiences over 18 years of age. It addresses such contemporary topics as, of course, COVID-19, the effects of the pandemic on everyone, vaccine mandates, the reluctance by some to getting vaccinated and President Biden and his policies. There’s also parodies about air travel and wearing masks (like everyone in the audience), social media, parent and child relationships, a rowdy Florida school board meeting, a contentious divorce and many, many other topics from today’s news.
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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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Starting Over
This Wide Night – Shattered Globe Theatre and Interrobang Theatre Project
Georgette Verdin, Interrobang Theatre Project’s talented Artistic Director, deftly collaborates with Shattered Globe Theatre to tell a gorgeous, heartbreaking story that feels perfect for our times. Seldom do either of these theatre companies disappoint, and this production, their re-entrance into the much-awaited world of live theatre in Chicago, is as strong as ever. At first, Chloe Moss’ one-act drama doesn’t seem to be about very much. But as the scenes wash over you, the audience finds itself plunging headfirst into this two-hander, discovering that it’s actually about a number of topics. In particular, this is a story about starting over and about our universal need for one another.
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Memories Lost and Found
4000 Days – PrideArts
Michael lies in a hospital bed while his mother sits in a chair next to him. Carol protectively keeps an eye on her son, continually checking for a sign that he’s finally waking up from a coma. Micheal’s suffering from a blood clot on the brain, and it’s been three long weeks since he was conscious. Naturally Carol’s worried, although she appears sedate and self-assured. Michael’s loving partner, Paul, stops in, as usual, on his lunch break from work. He hopes to find Michael’s condition has improved. But the tension in the room between Carol and Paul is so thick you could cut it with a knife; and when Michael’s mother finally deigns to speak to her son’s partner, the conversation drips with venom.
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A Prophetic Musical Production
Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog – Black Button Eyes Productions
Back in a more innocent time, about thirteen years ago, Covid-19 hadn’t reared its ugly head. We weren’t yet imprisoned in our homes for safety’s sake or masked for protection from a pandemic when we had to go out. After theatres shut their doors in March of 2020, live productions ceased to be. Only plays, musicals and concerts that could be streamed online were safe for presentation. Entertainment and enlightenment for an arts-hungry public was limited, but still possible.
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Coming Into the Light
Songs for a New World – Theo Ubique
Most theatres share a commonality, now that we’re finally coming out of the pandemic and presenting live shows. We are seeing more modest, smaller cast productions, typically a musical revue or a one-person show of some kind, that creates an immediate feeling of intimacy between the audience and the performers. At Theo Ubique Cabaret Theatre, this style of show is their specialty, as one can tell from the company’s name. Also, no one in Chicagoland produces a more polished show than Artistic Director Fred Anzevino. This visionary Director and multi-Jeff Award winner is once again collaborating with his gifted, award-winning Musical Director and pianist, Jeremy Ramey. And once again the duo have brought magic to their audiences. Joining these two gentlemen, Theo Ubique newcomer Jamal Howard brings his own talent as Associate Director and Choreographer, to help guide this polished, professional production toward perfection. The result is a 90-minute show, with intermission, that sparkles with a welcoming glow as, after almost two years, we can finally return to live performances.
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