Rachel Weinberg

Thanks to Buddy the Elf, ELF THE MUSICAL has plenty of holiday cheer. Jack Ducat has large shoes to fill as the beloved film character Buddy, a now adult man raised on the North Pole by Santa (Andrew Hendrick) and his elves— who must then venture into the wilds of New York City to meet his human father. Will Ferrell’s performance in the original 2003 film is embedded in the holiday movie zeitgeist — so it’s a big ask.

AMADEUS at Steppenwolf Theatre Company is a lively and sprawling production of Peter Shaffer’s play. Director Robert Falls, the recently retired former Goodman Theatre Artistic Director, makes his Steppenwolf directorial debut with one of the best uses of Steppenwolf’s Ensemble Theater I’ve seen.

HELL’S KITCHEN, the Alicia Keys jukebox musical now making its Chicago premiere as part of the first national tour, has a messy storyline wrapped in slick packaging. While the show is loosely based on Keys’s childhood in Manhattan, the storytelling is generic, and the songs are often awkwardly incorporated into the book. Admittedly, Kristoffer Diaz’s book is weak. It’s a flimsy vehicle for Keys’s song catalog. Huge Alicia Keys fans might enjoy hearing her biggest hits performed by musical theater actors, but the plot around them doesn’t hang together.

This new PARANORMAL ACTIVITY play (based on Paramount Pictures’ PARANORMAL ACTIVITY horror films) has terrific stage effects and absolutely creeped me out. Based on the merits of the script alone, there’s not much to recommend in the material. But it leaves plenty of room for creepy effects and terrifying stage surprises — and the inventive and frightful production is definitely the selling point!

HUNDREDS AND HUNDREDS OF STARS comes at an eerily relevant time. While I didn’t think all elements of the material worked, this play is a good reminder that navigating the immigrant experience without making any mistakes is an impossible feat.

REVOLUTION(S) is truly unlike any other show I’ve seen at the Goodman. While I think the material still has some rough edges, that’s fitting of the subject matter. The themes introduced here aren’t neat and tidy, so the material shouldn’t be, either. This musical has a pulsing, urgent energy that is extremely well-matched by Tom Morello’s music and lyrics. 

ROME SWEET ROME, the latest production from the Q Brothers Collective at Chicago Shakespeare Theater, has a cool concept: JULIUS CAESAR, but make it hip hop. Like the group’s previous endeavors, the show takes a classic Shakespeare play and updates it with modern sensibilities. The resulting show, though, is really on the nose, both in terms of parallels to the current political climate (here, Caesar is an authoritarian leader who loves the sound of his own voice) and in the writing itself.

MR. WOLF simultaneously fascinated and repulsed me. This play from Rajiv Joseph, now in its Chicago premiere to kick off Steppenwolf’s 50th anniversary season, is gripping and terrifying.

ASHLAND AVENUE is a genial and charming play set in Chicago. Directed by Goodman Theatre’s Artistic Director Susan Booth, the Chicago setting of Lee Kirk’s world premiere certainly seems fitting for the opening of the theater’s centennial season. But this isn’t the kind of gritty, metaphorical “blood on the walls” kind of play often associated with Chicago-style theater. Instead, Kirk’s story about a Chicago family-owned business is much gentler. 

Kristoffer Diaz’s THINGS WITH FRIENDS is one extremely chaotic, messy dinner party. This world premiere introduces a variety of different flavors that come together for an undercooked meal.

With AMÉLIE, Kokandy Productions has turned an obscure musical into a charming and intimate production sure to give the warm fuzzies.

I interviewed WICKED Broadway veteran Talia Suskauer about her leading role as Lucille Frank in the current national tour of Jason Robert Brown's PARADE — a tour staging of the 2023 Broadway revival starring Ben Platt and Michaela Diamond. 

TWIHARD! A TWILIGHT MUSICAL PARODY should be veritable millennial theater nerd catnip. I admire creator Tiffany Keane Schaefer’s vision, but ultimately TWIHARD needed to try harder at bringing a legitimately humorous parody to the stage.

In Chilina Kennedy, director Marc Bruni and Lauren M. Gunderson have found a tenacious and hard-hitting actor to play the eponymous tennis legend in BILLIE JEAN. The role of Billie Jean King, who tirelessly fought for women to have equal pay in professional tennis, necessarily centers the play. Kennedy’s boundless energy and appealing spunk really give it life.

Kathy Voytko takes on the iconic role of Mrs. Potts in the BEAUTY AND THE BEAST national tour. She reflects on the production, her history with Chicago theater, and working with Stephen Sondheim on THE FROGS.

The new national tour of BEAUTY AND THE BEAST is gorgeous and full of Disney stage magic. Disney Theatrical Group has pulled out all the stops for the first tour of this musical in 25 years.

Though THE COLOR PURPLE has a fair share of tragedy, the ending is heartwarming, celebratory, and puts a pin in Celie’s story — and with Brittney Mack at the lead, this musical makes that range of emotions land. 

Noah Diaz’s YOU WILL GET SICK is an affecting and unusual play. With direction from Steppenwolf Co-Artistic Director Audrey Francis, it closes out the season in a moving and intriguing manner.

The Second City e.t.c.’s CHAOS THEORY OF EVERYTHING is a potpourri of comedy.

KIMBERLY AKIMBO is as oddball of a musical as its name.