704 stories by "Zach Freeman"
RECOMMENDED The bygone era of jukebox music still has something that keeps crowds reveling in nostalgia and "Chicago Dreams" at MCL has a skilled comedic cast that, with a little audience pa…
The slow spread of ticket discounts for twenty-somethings and the barely concealed air of desperation regarding the median age of theater audiences all add up to what a polite Midwestern art…
RECOMMENDED Since the whole God thing is a joke anyway, it makes all the sense in the world to throw some gnarly guitar riffs at the New Testament and call it a musical. Director Fred Anzevi…
RECOMMENDED In Court Theatre's world premiere of "The Good Book" we follow the lives of Miriam (Hollis Resnik) and Connor (Alex Weisman) as they struggle with their personal faith. Miriam, w…
By Zach Freeman There are very few theatrical venues in the world that can boast anything like the history, cachet and all-around tourist-centric sexiness of Moulin Rouge, now celebrating it…
RECOMMENDED Magic is tricky (eh?). If it's not your genre of choice it could be difficult to summon the proper enthusiasm to enjoy yourself. This particular show opens with a montage demonst…
RECOMMENDED Pass through the ornate 1918 façade of the Chopin Theatre, bounce down a few generously carpeted stairs, and you'll find yourself in the gregarious Pregnant Buffalo Lounge. Ch…
Joy is clumsy. It's been known to cause shouting from rooftops and singing in the rain. Art is restrained. Even at its most chaotic"think Pollock and his fractals or Hendrix and his walls of…
Heat Wave/Cold Basement Dramatics RECOMMENDED A mention of the skin-ripping heat plague that either directly caused or contributed to 739 deaths in Chicago in the summer of 1995 still causes…
When I first sat down in the Athenaeum Theatre's third-floor studio, I noticed that Brian Browne's set design for "Picture Imperfect" includes a wall that obscures the view from much of the …
RECOMMENDED Chicago's Uptown neighborhood celebrates the long-delayed opening of a venue for burlesque, cabaret, music, magic and comedy. Located in a bunny warren under the refurbished Walt…
By Mary Kroeck In 2007, the Goodman Theatre gave August Wilson's "Radio Golf" its Chicago debut. With that, the theater did something historic. It became the first theater in the country to …
"The Talky Bore" would be a more apt title for this 2002 play about the birth of psychoanalysis. British playwright Christopher Hampton never finds the dramatic marrow in the tale of Sabina …
The television series "Lost" followed people trapped on a tropical island. Primarily driven by character development, the series ran for six seasons. The Gift Theatre's World Premiere of Mat…
Tenor Brandon Jovanovich has played heroic tenor roles here and around the world but this month is revealing two other sides of himself: playing the role of Walter, a German diplomat and hus…
RECOMMENDED Steven Dietz's brilliant 2008 play, beautifully realized by American Blues Theater, is about the after-effects of 9/11, a catastrophe that produced not only terror and dea…
The legacy of the 1981 film version of "On Golden Pond," with iconic, Oscar-winning performances by Henry Fonda and Katharine Hepburn, weighs heavily on the heads of the actors who take on t…
RECOMMENDED After a successful run at Mary's Attic, Pride Films and Plays has relocated "The Book of Merman" to the Apollo Theater Studio. The extremely intimate space is terrific for a show…
RECOMMENDED "Vandals cover Art Institute of Chicago's wall with graffiti," the headlines read in February 2010. Yet again five of this city's degenerates decided to add to the already five m…
The threadbare line between cynicism and sentimentality gets even thinner at Christmas. TV and movies would have you believe that the world is divided between smoldering Scrooges and gee-whi…
RECOMMENDED Before the production leaves for New York City, TUTA Theatre Chicago's "Music Hall" is a show that you should make special effort to get to. Zeljko Djukic's interpretation of the…
RECOMMENDED The question on my mind as I listened to the second act of Mieczyslaw Weinberg's opera "The Passenger" at the Lyric Opera Tuesday night was: Am I listening to great musical art? …
RECOMMENDED The theme of familial loss, with the potential for reconnection and affirmation, is universal, crossing boundaries of place and creed. As Lyric Opera of Chicago presents the holo…
RECOMMENDED Decades ago when the Neo-Futurists were new at what they do here, I once duplicated scripts or some such documents for them in my arduous and artless role at the Kinko’s of…
RECOMMENDED American Theater Company's production of Marco Ramirez's "The Royale" has as much heart as its title character Jay Jackson (Jerod Haynes). Inspired by the life of Jack Johnson, t…
