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. 

Liberté. Égalité. Sororité?

The Revolutionists – Strawdog Theatre

The Revolutionists is a fictionalized account of four women from the French Revolution: Olympe de Gouges, a real playwright, Charlotte Corday, the woman famous for assassinating Jean-Paul Marat, Marianne Angelle, a fictional amalgamation of the women who fought for freedom in Haiti against the hypocrisy of the French Revolution (which claimed freedom for all men… except the ones who maintained the lucrative sugar plantations) and, of course, Marie Antoinette, the ill-fated former Queen of France. The play imagines de Gouges facing a wicked case of writer’s block as the other three come to her for help with their stories. Madame de Gouges wants the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen to include women. Corday wants to stop the bloody pen of Marat and is looking for the final words she will speak as she faces the guillotine for her forthcoming crime. Angelle wants help spreading the story of the injustice crushing her people in Haiti. Marie Antoinette just wants to be the center of attention for as long as possible. The four women’s stories intersect and overlap as they all attempt to survive the revolution while pushing it where they want it to go.

Letters from Home

The Holiday Radio Show of 1943 – Three Cat Productions

Holiday shows have a more difficult job than you might think. They have to appeal to everyone at once and find a way to present songs and stories most people know even if they don’t know they know them. The Holiday Radio Show of 1943, performed in the cozy confines of the Berger Park Coach House, finds a charming way to do that.

Confronting the Past, Dreaming of the Future

HeLa – Sideshow Theater Company

HeLa, a new play by J. Nicole Brooks, produced by the Sideshow Theater Company premiered at the Greenhouse Theater Center this weekend. The play weaves together three stories.  

Inspired by a Magazine Photo

Miss Saigon–at the Cadillac Palace Theatre

Inspired by a Magazine Photo

Throughout its 18 years, the Nederlander’s Broadway in Chicago corporation has grown into one of the largest commercial touring homes in the country.