THE GIFT OF JOY, FROM LONDON TO CHICAGO It's been 37 years–two generations!–since the Royal Ballet visited Chicago and the Auditorium Theatre. They couldn't have come bearing a b…
STAGE NOIR This non-dancing, Tony-winning, cinematic musical by the terrific trio of jazz composer Cy Coleman, bookwriter Larry Gelbart and lyricist David Zippel brilliantly lampoons Hollywo…
OUR FEATHERED FIENDS This is not Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds, a 1963 horror fest about being pecked to death and delighting in Tippi Hedrin and Suzanne Pleshette's contagious distress. It's…
HISTORY IN A HOLE The America Play was inspired when author Suzan Lori-Parks observed a professional African-American Lincoln impersonator hard at work pleasing a crowd. This strange early w…
CLOSET EMANCIPATOR For what it's worth, the other "F-word" is now a play's title, presumably rivaling the "N-word" for shock effect. Well, anything called Abraham Lincoln Was A F*gg*t is not…
PRIVATE DANCERS It's a stunning vote of artistic confidence. The repertory of Hubbard Street Dance Chicago's Summer Series, their latest dancefest at the Harris Theatre, consists of three wo…
COPE WITH HOPE A tale for all ages, this perennially popular musical by Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt (creators of I Do! I Do!) got a major make-over in 1990: The 30th anniversary tour with R…
SIX SINGULAR SENSATIONS No text or context, no name-dropping or dates delivered, no editorials about the art–the songs just sing for themselves. The revue's title–A Marvin Hamlis…
WINDOWS ZERO This could have been a conversation. Employing flashy strips of LED lights, twelve video monitors, and digitalized backdrops, Goodman artistic associate Regina Taylor's stop. re…
NO FLOWERS IN A TOO-SECRET GARDEN It's right that Court Theatre completes its 60th season with this redemptive tale–and it comes just as summer finally delivers its much-appreciated pr…
Tracy Letts and Amy Morton make this latest visit to George and Martha riveting.
THE LAST VICTIMS An urban massacre grabs headlines for days, then burns out as quickly as it erupted. There's always the next shock of the known to deal with: Without meaning to be cruel, we…
DEAF, DUMB, BLIND–AND FABULOUS! Right now there's a lot of noise in the attic–Mary's Attic in Andersonville. The uproarious occasion is Miracle!, a gender-bending, cross-dressing…
A METAPHORICAL MESS "The truth can be cruel." That's the twisty motto of the interactive quiz show within Quiz Show, a maddeningly metaphorical one-act from Strawdog Theatre Company. The U.S…
LIVING A LEGACY At this very moment Islamic State terrorists are on the brink of invading–and possibly destroying–the ancient Roman capital of Palmyra. Loathing any past but thei…
DIRTY DOINGS IN DIXIE In a way The Little Foxes is a complete complement to Margaret Mitchell's antebellum revisionism in Gone With The Wind (which appeared the same year as Lillian Hellman'…
DISTURBED DANCES Two years ago Boris Eifman brought his all-absorbing story recital Rodin to the Auditorium Theatre. It delighted audiences with its stream of 1,000-word pictures: The vibran…
THE ONCE AND FALLEN DREAM It's a continuing crisis seen from the inside out, fleshed out with warmth and truth. In The Project(s), American Theater Company artistic director PJ Paparelli …
BLACK IS BACK The "Man in Black" is back. Actually, it's more like a non sci-fi "Men in Black": It takes both Kent M. Lewis and Michael Monroe Goodman to play, respectively, the mature and y…
BLUES IN THE NIGHT Side Man is a superb title. It fits the story/situation splendidly. Warren Leight's 1999 Tony-winning memory play is narrated by a son named Clifford, its subject his jazz…
PRUDENCE AND PASSION Offhand, sense and sensibility hardly seem antonyms. As the Brits say, it's a distinction without a difference. But in Jane Austen's 1811 novel of the same name (her fir…
ANCIENT LAUGHS TIMES TEN An irresistible mix of Roman "new comedy," commedia dell'arte, and vaudeville, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum rivals The Producers as the funniest mu…
AN OFFER HE CAN'T REFUSE It's easy to dislike this alleged 511-year-old comedy. All's Well That Ends Well (originally Love's Labors Won) is the wrong title: It should be "The End Justifies T…
OSCAR PLEADS FOR MERCY "We are all of us lying in the gutter–but some of us are staring at the stars." This fusion of original sin and the saving power of grace fuels the artful ambiva…
CHICAGO'S CIVIL WAR A grand dream is now completed. Over the last five years City Lit has delivered five old and new works to mark the Sesquicentennial of the Civil War, now finished with th…