704 stories by "Zach Freeman"
RECOMMENDED To some extent, every Cirque du Soleil show is dreamlike. Writer/director Michel Laprise's "Kurios"Cabinet of Curiosities" is the first I have seen that makes that scenario expli…
RECOMMENDED Chicago worships its food, from the temples of fine dining to the red-cooler bar tamales. Every resident has food woven inextricably into their life story, whether it's joyful, n…
With the rowdily interactive dinner theater show "We Gotta Bingo" Chicago Theater Works throws itself into the Belmont theater district with gusto, launching a new space (near Stage 773 and …
What better way to pass the dog days than with Shakespeare's canine comedy? This early, patchy and problematic work " whose dramatic summit is the appearance of Crab, the melancholic mutt " …
By Loy Webb "This is turning into a therapy session," says actress Angela Alise as she wipes the tears from her eyes. "Which it always does with Erasing the Distance," Erasing the Distanc…
RECOMMENDED Walking into the MCL Chicago space for "VAMP: A Music Comedy Drinking Show" is like walking into a raucous house party that's just getting started. A four-piece band (Doc McCullo…
RECOMMENDED A brand since 1984, in Chicago since 1987 and in their current digs on Belmont since 2007, ComedySportz has clearly hit on a winning formula, proudly maintaining the title of lon…
RECOMMENDED Something tells me old Anton might have rather enjoyed "Stupid Fucking Bird" if his body had aged as well as his work. Sideshow Theatre Company's lofty yet godless (re)vision of …
RECOMMENDED Ever the crowdpleasers, the folks at Hell in a Handbag follow the touchy and pushy "Miracle!" with a loving tribute to Bette Midler, a longtime ally and prominent cultural icon i…
RECOMMENDED "To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment." Ralph Waldo Emerson's words sum up life's most difficult struggle…
Rarely in my experience has a play that starts so well gone so flat by the end. The opening scenes of "A Perfect Ganesh" are perfectly hilarious, from the moment old friends Kitty (Jeannie A…
RECOMMENDED The idea of a musical tribute to Gertrude Stein is, on its face, overwhelming. Anyone with passing familiarity of the late poet's propensity for playful and often anarchic verbos…
RECOMMENDED Starting a show by making audacious promises to the audience"you will laugh, you will be amazed, etc."is usually a misguided path to disaster. But host/MC Don Hall came off as mo…
By Loy Webb "I choose to reflect the times and situations in which I find myself. That to me is my duty. How can you be an artist and not reflect the times?" A poignant question raised by th…
RECOMMENDED The show opens beautifully, with the witches translated into chic young hipsters who, perhaps having tired of yoga, are now into necromancy. They fuss about with rune stones and …
RECOMMENDED Dream Theatre Company has made a name for itself putting on unique performances that list strongly to the sardonic side, and “Alligator” is no different. Jeremy Menek…
I went to Palatine Friday night to hear Rossini's "Barber of Seville." Telling myself I had no expectations, I had been hoping for at least a fifteen-piece orchestra of solid musicians. That…
RECOMMENDED If a joke is clever and a scene is comedic then by what name do you call an entire production that assumes, with winking sincerity, a conceit so potentially dubious that one migh…
RECOMMENDED Despite being set thousands of miles"and possibly many years"away, I was unsurprised by director Robin Witt's reference to Baltimore in her notes on "Brilliant Adventures," which…
Polarity Ensemble Theatre's eighth Dionysos Cup Festival of New Plays, featuring four plays written by local playwrights, began last night at the Greenhouse Theater Center. Originated in 200…
By Dennis Polkow "You know, you should start thinking about symphonic suites from your shows because you're going to need them someday," conductor and longtime Stephen Sondheim collaborator …
The Gift Theatre announced Monday the addition of nine new playwrights, directors and actors to their ensemble, expanding the group to thirty-one full-fledged members. The new ensemble membe…
Dear theater-goer, as "The Titus Andronicus Project" at The Public House Theatre demonstrates, never pay good money to see any theatrical production with the word "project" in its title. Tha…
"If the thunder don't get you then the lightning will." Or so the song says. If you were to apply that wisdom to "Matawan," the latest from The Ruckus, you might throw in germs, poverty, lon…
RECOMMENDED Still going strong after more than three years (and, in fact, expanded to multiple nights a week since opening), this sixty-minute showcase of Second City's improvisational skill…
