143 stories by "Bob [cta]"
“A Minster’s Wife” in the 2009 Writers’ Theatre production (left) and at Lincoln Center (right). In my list of top shows for 2009, I ranked Writers’ TheatreR…
Powerlessness. Mob mentality. Virtual worlds. Avoidance. Depression. Escape. These are just a few of the themes explored in German playwright Manfred Karge's subversively dark comedy The Con…
When I turned my phone on after seeing Strawdog’s The Conquest of the South Pole last night, a text popped through. It was a message from my dear friend Jamie, which simply read, ̶…
I love me some flying. I often joke that any show could be improved with a little theatrical aerialics. (“Yes, Death of a Salesman is a great American drama, but you know what would ma…
“We Go Together” — the cast of American Theater Company’s “The Original Grease” Who knew Danny Zuko hung out at gay-friendly Foster Beach? I always knew h…
A Twist of Water is a play about rebuilding and new beginnings, Chicago style. This stunning new work, written by Caitlin Montanye Parrish and directed by Erica Weiss who is also the co-crea…
You know The King and I, right? I mean, we all do. When I saw this title on Porchlight's season announcement last year, I have to admit I rolled my eyes a little. Well, see Porchlight Music …
First, see the list of 2011 Non-Equity Jeff Award nominations here. And then read my three thoughts: Thought one: Of the six nominated best plays, I saw a whopping ZERO of them. Which is som…
Curt Hansen, Alice Ripley and Asa Somers in “Next to Normal” I’d been really looking forward to this one. Not only have I heard amazing things about this Tony and Pulitzer …
Remember this post from last week where I suggested five essential rules for startup storefront theatre companies? Prologue Theatre company is knocking it out of the park with numbers 1 and …
Getting to the Pilson-based loft warehouse venue for Filament Theatre Ensemble’s production of Sarah Ruhl’s Eurydice is a chore — especially on a cold, rainy Friday evening…
Debilitating illness is an equal-opportunity defeater. Not even bewigged kings bedecked in fancy threads are immune to the power of a mysterious crippling disease — such as the the blo…
I downloaded, via iTunes, two wonderful new theatre-related albums yesterday: the Broadway cast recording of Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown and Lisa Howard’s new solo album,…
New storefront theatre companies pop up in Chicago like reality TV shows on Bravo. It seems once every month or so I get a press release from some new company that I’ve never heard of …
Tony award-winner Alan Cumming (and star of CBS hit series The Good Wife, and one of my favorite flicks this year, Bulesque) is bringing his hit one-man cabaret show, I Bought a Blue Car Tod…
Pop-aganda: The cast of “White Noise” rocks out. “Everyone’s a little bit racist,” sang those edgy puppets in another musical. That catchy five-minute tune mana…
Ever wonder what it’d be like to have a boozy Lucille Ball navigate your road trips? Punchy Players brings that fantasy to life: This reminds me of our GPS — a first generation T…
When I interviewed Jim Caruso last week, he joked that the experiment to bring his Manhattan-based Cast Party to Chicago could be a disaster. “It might just be Billy [Stritch] and me s…
Derek Garza is happy to help you in “I Am Montana.” I’ve a love/hate relationship with Walmart. While I hear the arguments that it’s destroying communities, cheats wo…
Jarrod Zimmerman, Jessie Muelle and Alan Schmuckler — three old friends in The Music Theatre Company’s “Merrily We Roll Along.” “We’re opening doors, Sing…
Jim Caruso is what you'd call a "born entertainer." While he made his Broadway debut singing and dancing alongside his good friend Liza Minnelli in Liza's At The Palace! in 2008, the singer/…
The fabulous Sarah Terez Rosenblum interviewed me for her blog, Our Town, which is part of Chicago Sun-Times online. Read on if you want to see how a prostitute formed my early love of…
Billy (Will Allan) and Stevie (Annabel Armour) digest some disturbing news. “You’re f*cking a goat?!” Edward Albee’s 2003 Pulitzer-Prize nominated play, The Goat, or …
It’s rare that I leave a theatre completely ambivalent. I mean, I almost forgot that I saw Steppenwolf’s production of The Hot L Baltimore a few hours after returning home yester…
A friend who works at Chicago Shakespeare Theatre confided to me that the sassy Sicilian diva has signed on to play the caustic Phyllis stone in Gary Griffin’s Fall 2011 mounting of St…
