Rachel Weinberg - Page 2

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? 

Now in its Chicago-area premiere, Joshua Harmon’s Tony-nominated sprawling and ambitious PRAYER FOR THE FRENCH REPUBLIC is a searing and inquisitive look at contemporary Judaism and anti-Semitism.

I usually appreciate when plays show and don’t tell, but THE BOOK OF GRACE really needs more exposition. Directed by Steve H. Broadnax III. Steppenwolf’s production is a new version of Parks’s 2010 play, expanded from its original 100-minute run-time to two and a half hours. Even with the extra run time, playwright Suzan-Lori Parks relies far too heavily on subtext that isn’t revealed to the audience.

Near, far, wherever you are…you need to see TITANIQUE if you love musicals and parody. Porchlight Music Theatre’s production, presented in partnership with Broadway In Chicago, easily passes the Marie Kondo test: This show sparks immense joy.