704 stories by "Zach Freeman"
We savor our mysteries for that flashpoint moment when all the pieces of the puzzle interlock perfectly. Red herrings can show up to dinner, as long as they make sense in the final analysis.…
The adaption of a novel into a stage play is as delicate a proposition as the spinning of a spider's web. Novels written in the first person may not be as dialogue-driven as those of Jane Au…
RECOMMENDED In 2012 the Chicago Teacher's Union went on strike for a slew of reasons, including objecting to teacher evaluations based on student performance, teacher and school staff layoff…
RECOMMENDED Chicago Opera Theater's "Thérèse Raquin" is the all-around finest production I have had the pleasure to enjoy in any 2014/2015 season, including those at The Met and Lyric Oper…
The four characters that make up the entire cast of Ryan Cunningham's and Joshua Salzman's "Next Thing You Know" are all coming to the end of their days as twenty-something New Yorkers. And,…
RECOMMENDED It is hard to imagine a theatrical world devoid of Sondheim's immense talent. Over the past fifty years he has earned eight Tony awards, in large part due to elevating the expect…
RECOMMENDED A family sitcom isn't normally something one might consider eye-opening or horizon-expanding, yet Rasaka Theatre Company's "A Nice Indian Boy" manages both. On the surface this p…
If you’ve a hankering for the orgiastic feast of a sumptuously designed, dramatically staged, organically acted, and gloriously sung evening of Wagner to warm the frozen tundra of your…
RECOMMENDED Even under ideal circumstances, party planning acts as a pressure cooker for our neuroses and insecurities. We'll never measure up to our passive-aggressive and maddeningly succe…
When worrywart mother Alex (Katherine Keberlein) first hears the term "gender variant play" for her son Jake's predilection for playing princess make-believe, she hears it as child psych…
Gorilla Tango Burlesque has made a name for itself in recent years performing nerd-themed burlesque shows. After parodying "Star Trek," "Indiana Jones" and other properties, a "Game of Thron…
RECOMMENDED Underneath its bass-dropping, high-fashion-flouting, sick-opening-credits-having exterior, David Adjimi's "Marie Antoinette" is actually pretty old-fashioned. It might as well be…
Jenny Yee's "Samsara" is sort of like an inverse of history; it begins as farce and ends as tragedy. However Victory Gardens' world premiere production seems to forget that the tragedy part …
RECOMMENDED The tardigrade is a microscopic life form that generally lives under water, but which can also survive the vacuum of space. In its newest circus show, the Actors Gymnasium looks …
Based on an Icelandic children's book by Andri Snær Magnason, "Blue Planet" revolves around a planet entirely populated by kids who enjoy the simple beauty of life and live forever in a s…
RECOMMENDED Staged beautifully in the comfy confines of the Indian Boundary Park field house, Christopher Durang's absurd comedy "Baby with the Bathwater" offers a sometimes nightmarish, oft…
At first blush, the new musical "First Date," now showing at the Royal George Theatre, presents the guise of a solid contemporary musical. But once the first impressions wear off, you're con…
At the beginning of "DRINK! The Sketch Comedy Drinking Game"Chicago Edition," the performers set a couple of stringent ground rules: you must drink, no puking (complete with directional info…
RECOMMENDED When a play bombs on Broadway after beginning its life in Chicago, one might not expect a terribly triumphant return to the Windy City for that show. However, the version of "The…
RECOMMENDED Just a forewarning: if you are looking for the Chicago featured on marketing postcards and glossy travel guides, you will not find it at Chicago Slam Works' "Redlined." There wil…
The show's setup is simple: the Card Czar (director Angie McMahon, also acting as emcee) reads a Cards Against Humanity prompt and if an audience member"all given three response cards upon e…
RECOMMENDED From my experience, burlesque shows tend to be under-rehearsed and badly scripted variety shows that can be fun, but seldom rise to the level of theater. With their current produ…
On February 3, Chicago Dramatists announced that long-time Artistic Director Russ Tutterow was stepping down. Tutterow has held the role for thirty years and helped shepherd hundreds of new …
RECOMMENDED The hymn "Rock of Ages" echoes through the first half of Horton Foote's domestic tragicomedy, but more apt theme music would be "Money (That's What I Want)." The subject h…
RECOMMENDED The angst of family life is well documented: The rough and tumble bemoaning of love from fathers to sons, and mothers to daughters. There is an element of need. There is also the…
