MUCH TOO GAY? JUST GAY ENOUGH! This past Thursday evening, Revolution Stage Company presented a dazzling, high-energy celebration of LGBTQ+ pride, self-acceptance, and joy"filled with wit, g…
THIS HOUSE STANDS ON FAITH AND FURY Invictus Theatre's The House That Will Not Stand blazes with wit, grief, and grace Following the smashing success of its production of Angels in America, …
A LOVE LETTER TO THE OBAMAS THAT BRINGS THE WHITE HOUSE DOWN The biggest surprise of the season for me has been 44 the Musical, which opened last night at the Daryl Roth Theatre. Billed as a…
WOOD YOU BELIEVE IT? CV REP'S PINOCCHIO CARVES OUT A WINNER The Conservatory program at Coachella Valley Repertory opens its arms wide to the next generation of theatre lovers with Pinocchio…
NOSTALGIA IN THE SPOTLIGHT, MODERNITY IN THE WINGS At a time when most new musicals chase novelty, Reunions looks lovingly backward. Conceived as a pair of one-act chamber pieces performed b…
POP-UP, FLOP-DOWN: WHEN DINNER UPSTAGES THE THEATER The foundational idea of Suite 524's Pop Up Dinner Theater at Barlume Downstairs is solid " four courses from Barlume's excellent kitch…
SECOND STAR TO THE RIGHT"AND STRAIGHT INTO HILARIOUS DISASTER The La Mirada Theatre's Broadway Series takes a gleeful nosedive into chaos with Peter Pan Goes Wrong, Mischief Theatre's follow…
PLAYING THE CARDS YOU'RE DEALT: THE PILON SHUFFLES LOVE, VALUE, AND IDENTITY Sometimes theater takes you places you never expected " or even wanted " to find yourself. For some, Red Theater'…
HONORING A FAMILY STUCK IN A HOLOCAUST NIGHTMARE Four actors, four moving walls, a wooden table and chairs, and historical projections combine into an extraordinary theatrical experience in …
SHRINKING THE SCALE, NOT THE MAGIC Coachella Valley Classical Voices' recent production of Hansel and Gretel, the beloved 1893 opera by Engelbert Humperdinck, ran this past weekend at Palm C…
THINGS THAT GO BOOM AND JUST RIGHT It's impossible to see a production of Jonathan Larson's Tick, Tick … Boom! without seeing it as a precursor to his Pulitzer Prize-winning musical Rent. …
SWING ON IN! If you want to have the time of your life, you can't do better than get a ticket for Cirque Le Swing, an immersive supper-club experience that combines a three-course dinner, ja…
Play has always been at the heart of human creativity. It is the impulse that drives both performance and imagination"the desire to transform ordinary experience into something meaningful. W…
THIS BAT COMES OUT SWINGING Back in the nineties when tabloids ruled the world, there was one especially erroneous publication: Weekly World News. Presenting stories so outrageously false ye…
GREEN SCALES AND SHAM I generally count on SpeakEasy Stage for stellar productions of innovative and ground-breaking plays and musicals. But that history, along with fine performances and ch…
CELEBRATING THE INDESPENSIBILITY OF CHICAGO'S CREATIVES Glowing cultural vibrancy and great world cities are so often intertwined they are effectively one. Scan the globe and nearly every ci…
FOWL PLAY: WHEN THE TRUTH TAKES AIM IN THE WILD DUCK Henrik Ibsen's The Wild Duck, now at Shakespeare Theatre Company's Klein Theatre (in a co-production with Theatre for a New Audience), is…
A TIME WARP TO THE 1970s WOMEN'S MOVEMENT, REFRACTED THROUGH 2025 EYES STILL SQUINTING TOWARDS EQUALITY "Why does it feel somehow like it's all slipping away? And how do we get it back?" Tha…
THE FIRST OPERA GETS NEW LIFE FROM HAYMARKET AND NEWBERRY CONSORT The origins of opera are somewhat obscure and not well-known. Haymarket Opera and The Newberry Consort, two of Chicago's fin…
SWEET, CHARMING, AND BRIMMING WITH LIFE, HELLO, DOLLY! IS MUSICAL COMEDY HEAVEN It's always extraordinary to hear a live orchestra in a musical these days " a rare and exhilarating luxury th…
BLOOD AND GORE HAVE NEVER BEEN SO MUCH FUN " OR TUNEFUL This Halloween season has seemed to be unusually focused on horror movies so it came as a welcome relief for Revolution Stages to prod…
THE BRIDGE FROM THE GREAT WHITE WAY TO TINSELTOWN AND BACK AGAIN The New York Pops' concert From Stage to Screen at Carnegie Hall promised a night of crossover magic last Friday"songs that l…
TOWERING TALENT ELEVATES A MUSICAL AS SCHIZOPHRENIC AS JEKYLL & HYDE THEMSELVES Next up for Halloween, and my second gothic horror in as many days, is Kokandy Productions' presentation o…
SPOOKY CHARM MEETS UNEVEN MATERIAL The Addams Family: The Musical invites audiences into the delightfully macabre world of America's favorite gothic household " and while the show itself can…
The spotlight dims, curtains rise, and behind the scenes, artificial intelligence orchestrates a revolution in theatrical production. While audiences experience the timeless magic of live pe…