CHICAGO THEATER REVIEWS

MA RAINEY’S BLACK BOTTOM is a well-acted, slow-burn character study. August Wilson’s 1982 play centers on a fictitious 1927 Chicago album recording, as the musicians gather and wait for the notorious Ma Rainey (or Madam Rainey, as she demands they call her) to record her latest album. Ma Rainey ...

Lookingglass Theatre Company begins its 2025/26 season with the world premiere of White Rooster in the Joan and Paul Theatre at the Water Tower Water Works. ...

Theater Wit opens the Midwest premiere of The Ally on March 30, 2026. Originally premiering in February 2024 at New York City’s Public Theater, Itamar Moses’ play was a finalist for the 2025 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Blending dark comedy with urgent social questions, The Ally challenges its audi...

THEATER OF THE MIND is an engaging, interactive, and fun tour through the senses....

THE BRIEF WONDROUS LIFE OF OSCAR WAO is a lopsided stage adaptation of Junot Díaz’s 2007 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. While the first act is tight and focuses squarely on the budding relationship between ultra-nerd Oscar Wao and his freshman year college roommate Yunior, the second act incorpora...

The Joffrey Ballet is celebrating its 70th anniversary this year. The current offering is called Icons. What a gift to the audience. I don’t know if Robert Joffrey had any idea what his company has become. Icons recreate 4 different ballets from different decades over the 20th Century....

When I think of Steppenwolf, I often think of family members crying, screaming at one another, or some combination of the two. So the sparring between spouses Alice and Captain Edgar in August Strindberg’s 1900 play THE DANCE OF DEATH feels right at home. In a surprisingly funny and sharp version ...

What did our critic think of DEAR EVAN HANSEN at Paramount Theatre Aurora IL?...

Royal Shakespeare Company’s HAMNET is a dramatic and languid stage adaptation of Maggie O’Farrell’s 2020 buzzy novel of the same name....

THE OUTSIDERS presents an original and vibrant stage adaptation of S.E. Hinton’s classic 1967 novel about the conflict between Tulsa teen gangs the Greasers and the Socs (short for socialites). The musical — and particularly director Danya Taymor’s inventive and visually dynamic staging — pu...

What did our critic think of ON YOUR FEET! at Drury Lane Theatre Oakbrook Terrace, IL?...

Goodman Theatre continues its centennial season with the endearing and lively romantic comedy HOLIDAY....

What did our critic think of LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS at Marriott Theatre, Lincolnshire IL?...

What did our critic think of DRACULA: A COMEDY OF TERRORS at Lazy Susan Theatre Co.?...

David Adjmi’s STEREOPHONIC pulls back the curtain on making a rock album — with all of the minute details, inane band member conversations, and painstaking, spirited artistic conversations that come with it. It centers on an unnamed Fleetwood Mac-esque band in the late 1970s as they record (and ...

Timeline Theatre and Broadway in Chicago have gifted audiences with a EUREKA DAY that cements the play as one of the most prescient in the contemporary canon while also reaffirming Chicago’s reputation as an ambassador of daring theatrical works....

The 8th AnnChicago International Puppet Theater Festival kicked off with a bang, thanks to Wakka Wakka’s production of DEAD AS A DODO, a visually stunning and absolutely heartfelt piece of theater....

What did our critic think of YESTON & KOPIT'S PHANTOM IN CONCERT at BrightSide Theatre?...

There are 2 artistic performances in Chicago when you know its Christmastime. One is the Goodman’s A Christmas Carol and the other is the Joffrey Ballet’s Nutcracker at the Lyric....

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 f...

This year's timeless and timely production, under the thoughtful yet daring direction of Malkia Stampley, runs through December 31....

Don’t forget where you came from. Words spoken by Sam Phillips, founder and owner of Sun Records, to Elvis Presley. The holiday production at the Marriott Lincolnshire Theatre is Million Dollar Quartet Christmas. It continues the story where Million Dollar Quartet ends. ...

An aptly titled song from one of the greatest songwriters of the 20th Century, Irving Berlin. The holiday offering at Aurora’s Paramount Theatre is Irving Berlin’s White Christmas. Jeff Award-winning director Stephen Schellhardt has created a musical that will stay with you long after the last n...

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 se...

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 i...