Rachel Weinberg - Page 2

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.

“What makes a man try to fly in a lawn chair?” is 42 BALLOONS most repeated lyric. It’s on the nose — and it’s repeated across six interludes in Jack Godfrey’s new musical. Based on the real-life story of Larry Walters, who in 1982 reached a height of 16,000 feet flying a lawn chair accompanied by 42 leather balloons, the musical is squarely focused on that answer.

I chatted with three-time Tony Award nominee Carolee Carmello about leading the national tour of KIMBERLY AKIMBO and her character development process.

Jordan Harrison’s new play THE ANTIQUITIES asks the question, “What does it mean to be human?” It opens with two museum curators inviting the audience to tour a museum displaying relics from the late human era...with the implication that said place exists in a post-human one. This is the first play I’ve seen that specifically tackles A.I. and technology...and the potential ramifications of letting that go unchecked. 

Zora Howard’s BUST: AN AFROCURRENTIST PLAY opens with a mystery. In Huntsville, Alabama, Retta (Caroline Stefanie Clay) and Reggie (Ray Anthony Thomas) witness an all too familiar interaction between their friend Randy (Keith Randolph Smith) and two police officers — Tomlin (Mark Bedard) and Ramirez (Jorge Luna). But in the wake of Randy’s rage at the officers, something mysterious and surprising happens...keeping him safe from harm. It’s tough to write about the specifics of BUST because to reveal some of the play's secrets is to ruin the mystery for audiences. But Howard’s set-up essentially asks the question: What happens when Black rage is repackaged into a magical force and potentially one to keep the person experiencing it safe?