HELL IS THIS MUSICAL An achingly forgettable world premiere, Helldrivers of Daytona is a nasty piece of art. Flagrantly referencing those dreadful Elvis movie musicals (thus lowering the bar…
WHITE TRASH DIRTY LAUNDRY Scarcity is a fine title for a play that lacks a lot. Ugly is as ugly does: Lucy Thurber's bottom-feeding modern melodrama, a Redtwist Theatre Chicago premiere, wor…
SELF-RACIAL PROFILING FOR FUN AND PROFIT Reviewing stand-up comedy, as opposed to dramatic monologues or one-man shows, is not my forte. But occasionally a mind-opener like Ultra American: A…
A PLACE CALLED CARIBOU COFFEE INHABITED BYÂ A HUMAN HERD In Mat Smart's decisively named Naperville the setting is the story. We're eavesdroppers, listening in Joe Schermoly's awesomely ac…
THESE BOOTS ARE MEANT FOR WALKING Oscar Wilde supposedly said, "Be yourself. All the other lives are taken." That's defiantly the gospel credo of Kinky Boots, a musical movie spin-off that p…
THE FIRST"AND BEST"NOËL A bravely Noël Coward musical retrospective set in an intimate Art Deco cabaret"what could be more intrinsically suave and sophisticated, equally knowing and f…
THE PRICE OF EVERYTHING AND THE VALUE OF NOTHING Given the amount of sheer transience in 2016, authenticity (as in a lack of fakery) has never seemed more needed–or endangered. Ever se…
ROSE KENNEDY: A PROFILE IN MOTHER COURAGE A catholic confession (in the larger sense), Laurence Leamer's Rose portrays the matriarch of America's most political dynasty"a family as cursed as…
TAME MAME STILL GETS ACCLAIM Few nicknames carry the impact of “Mame,” the free-spirited super-aunt. Appearing first in gay author Patrick Dennis’s best-selling 1954 novel,…
DANCERS DO GOOD BY MAKING ART For a quarter century"since 1991"one summer night of nights in Chicago has raised funds to fight HIV, assist the AIDS Foundation of Chicago and 30 other service…
THEATER NOIR EXPOSES A COLLABORATIVE CRIME WAVE Making its U.S. debut at the Greenhouse Theater Center, the solo saga Bloodshot, by Chicago native Douglas Post, feels as world weary and visc…
BRECHT FORCES YIN ONTO YANG A strong, often infuriating, truth about the protest plays of Bertolt Brecht is how much the socialist playwright pushes the plot beyond the ending: He ends up ac…
HIS HEART IS CRYING, CRYING The latest rouser in Black Ensemble Theater's 40th anniversary celebration/season, The Jackie Wilson Story, a retrospective on an R&B Legend, showcases terrif…
THE GLOBE’SÂ STUNNING PRODUCTION HIGHLIGHTSÂ SHAKESPEARE'S PLEA FOR DIGNITYÂ AS MUCH AS MERCY A decade ago a Chicago critic notoriously concluded his review of The Merchant of Ve…
JAMES CAMERON MEETS CIRQUE DU SOLEIL Cirque du Soleil writes a new chapter in make-believe with Toruk " The First Flight, a not so typical two-hour fantasy inspired (but not based on) James …
A MASON/DIXON CATHARSIS REPRISES ITS SUCCESS Can white trash/peckerwood/country cracker/Dixie doodles rise above their rotten roots? Byhalia, Mississippi is not just a place or a title but a…
AN EX-SLAVE BREAKS NEW CHAINS Eager to be relevant but not quite succeeding, Thomas Klingenstein's Douglass, a world premiere by the american vicarious at Theater Wit, is nonetheless a valua…
A FAR FROM COSMETIC MUSICAL MAKEOVER In the late James Kirkwood's Legends!, two feuding divas–played on a 1986 national tour by theatrical goddesses Carol Channing and Mary Martin&#…
HIPOCRACY BEGINS AT HOME In theater revenge is best served quickly. That's a virtue in David Alex's 80-minute family drama, now detonating four times a week at Chicago's Redtwist Theatre. A …
COLORFUL CHARACTERS AIN'T ENOUGH Between Riverside and Crazy is a 2015 slice of strife from Stephen Adley Guirgis (perpetrator of The Motherf**ker with the Hat and Jesus Hopped The 'A' Train…
A JEWÂ WALKS INTO A COMMUNIST MEETING… Sometimes whistle-blowing can echo from the past. It's never too late for a timely reminder that ignorance is no excuse. A 95-minute solo show …
THE LIES THAT PASS FOR LOVE Many years ago, a half hour into the Body Politic Theatre's revival of The Importance of Being Earnest a woman behind me very softly threw up. It was done so effi…
FREEDOM BEHIND BARS: THE UNREACHABLE STAR JUST GOT REACHED A skeptic might argue that Man of La Mancha succeeds because it lifts the guilt of anyone who never read Don Quixote. (Two hours in…
KEEPING COMPANY–SONDHEIM'S BITTERSWEET BEST It's the first musical in Writers Theatre's sumptuous new $30 million-dollar home in Glencoe, a light-loving complex with a more spacious lo…
BIKINI BOTTOM HITS THE HEIGHTS Upfront confession: I've never seen Nickelodeon's 17-year-old SpongeBob SquarePants animation series. But my ignorance of this aquatic Sesame Street and its fi…