897 stories by "Lawrence Bommer"
BLKSÂ — IT'S ABOUT WHTS TOO Nowadays it takes very little "disruption" to make a play a provocation. As Steppenwolf Theatre's press release tersely puts it, "F**ked up sh*t happens."…
WHAT KIND OF STAR AM I? Mr. Wonderful, the Rat Packer, Mr. Bojangles, the Candy Man — there was nothing "junior" about Sammy Davis. The latest retro reclamation by Black Ensemble Theat…
I SAWÂ TREEÂ SHIPS! Anchors aweigh! Twenty-two years after its advent, this show has become as essential to Chicago's Christmas as the LEDs on the Magnificent Mile, the parade on State S…
BURNT BY THE TRAIL HE BLAZED What in theater is ever off limits? And, above all, who? Besides the probability of the part, are there bounds to the roles an actor can play? Believing that mer…
MAKING YOUR MUSIC MATTER If notes make joy, these 150 minutes are the elixir of happiness. Spanning only 13 years of its creator's career (1958-1971), Beautiful: The Carole King Musical b…
FOLLOW THE BOUNCING BEAT Now in a very brief visit to Chicago's Broadway Playhouse, Gobsmacked! is a good title for a show that slaps sounds out of seven performers' fertile heads. It …
HOLY HARMONIC HORMONES! Praise the Lord and pass the parody! Infernally ingratiating and devilishly disarming, Altar Boyz is also sweetly sardonic and packed with pep. This successful …
THE WHIRLIGIG OF TIME If only by virtue of its title, you could call Twelfth Night a holiday love comedy: Epiphany, the twelfth day of Christmas (January 6) is for many in Europe…
THE FICTIONS THAT MAKE FACTS This two-act comedy relishes a cruel contradiction: false facts. Rich with rancid exposés, its 150 minutes indict press-agent "puffery," strategic lies that tri…
BLOOD"AND WAR PAINT"WILL OUT Superbly civic, the vast council chamber created by set designer David Zinn reeks of rectitude. With a coffered arched ceiling, it's festooned with plaques, proc…
A 'PERFECT CITY'—AND A MUZZLED PRESS They're always eager to alert Chicago audiences to dangerous developments here and abroad: Silk Road Rising is a committed company which tells tale…
A COUNTRY/CARIBBEAN ROMP AT CLUB JIMMY It's a jukebox musical that marinates in Gilligan's Island/South Pacific nostalgia. Plus, it's got a feel-good love story that's a creditable excuse fo…
TO THIS WE'VE COME (AGAIN) Playing Chicago t0o briefly at the Studebaker Theatre, historically important and artistically wondrous, this co-production between Chicago and Long Beach Opera is…
PASSIONS OF A PITY PARTY We're born alone. We die alone. But in between we need people"for love or money. That's searingly so for Jordan Berman. The gay anti-hero of Significant Other …
DEATH DANCES TO LIFE'S BEATS It took us from Mozart to Mexico. Now, alas, it's over for another year—Chicago Sinfonietta's much anticipated, annual A DÃa de los Muertos Celebrati…
THE ULTIMATE 'PROOF OF PAIN' "The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away." He certainly doth in the Book of Job. In this brief but telling chronicle, a catalogue of catastrophes is visited on …
WEBBER RETURNS TO HIS ROCKIN’ ROOTS "Out of the guitars of babes": The 2003 film was a four-star charmer: Jack Black, a screen actor with the chops to be richly ordinary, depicte…
START THE PRESSES! Imagine the Hardy Boys times ten or Nancy Drew's crew times five and you're still not close to Newsies, perpetual motion in a blast from the past. Never before witnesse…
HOME HEALING FOR BROKEN DREAMERS How much "home" can first-generation Americans abandon in order to make a new one? Acculturation, assimilation, adjustment"they're not necessary evils but th…
VENGEANCE STALKS THE CENTURIES, ORÂ DO DO THAT VOODOO It's a (forced) marriage made in musicals. You don't immediately think of Marie Laveau and Medea as soul sisters with a common cause: …
THE SPARK OF LOVE, OR CURRENT EVENTS Sarah Ruhl's 2006 drama In the Next Room, or the Vibrator Play ruefully wonders whether sex can be turned on like a light bulb. Or is love the best…
A SEX STRIKE FOR SMALL STAKES, OR JONESING FOR LESS Maybe—dammit!—we get the comedy we deserve, cut to fit and ready to wear. Take Lysistrata Jones (please). Aristophanes' …
HIS FALL FROM GREATNESS By 1980 Tom "Tennessee" Williams was on a constant skid: His last great play, The Night of the Iguana, had premiered two decades before. Ever since, the once-supre…
DANCES OF THE DEAD Both classic ballet and romantic fantasy, Adolphe Adam's 1841 masterwork is for a rightly renewed reason a worthy offering by Chicago's Joffrey Ballet. Playing the gorgeou…
DANCING OUT A DREAM Billy Elliot was born to dance; likewise his cinematic tale just had to become a musical. But it's a case of apples and oranges: If you loved the Universal Pictures…
