Chicago Theater Reviews
The latest reviews and critic recommendations from Chicago.
BWW Review: Porchlight Music Theatre's BROADWAY BY THE DECADE
Porchlight's streaming program BROADWAY BY THE DECADE provides some much needed musical theater cheer in this unprecedented and challenging year for Chicago theater.
BWW Review: TEENAGE DICK at Theater Wit
What does live theater look like during a pandemic? As Americans adjust to the new realities of social distancing and sheltering in place to slow the spread of COVID-19, many theaters across the nation and the world are dark.
BWW Review: WHAT THE CONSTITUTION MEANS TO ME Presented by Broadway In Chicago
In WHAT THE CONSTITUTION MEANS TO ME, playwright Heidi Schreck has pulled off one of the most challenging feats in theater: The seamless blending of the personal and the universal.
BWW Review: MIDDLE PASSAGE at Lifeline Theatre
In Lifeline Theatre's MIDDLE PASSAGE, the intimate Rogers Park venue transforms into the scene of a 19th century maritime epic.
BWW Review: graveyard shift at Goodman Theatre
orde arrington tuttle's graveyard shift, now making its world-premiere following an initial workshop production during Goodman Theatre's 2018 New Stages Festival, is a haunting and beautiful reflection on police brutality against Black Americans.
BWW Review: SUMMER: THE DONNA SUMMER MUSICAL Presented By Broadway In Chicago
While Donna Summer may be 'Hot Stuff' when it comes to iconic songwriting and singing, SUMMER: THE DONNA SUMMER MUSICAL is a lukewarm entry in the genre of biographical jukebox musicals.
BWW Review: A DOLL'S HOUSE at Raven Theatre
Classic plays provide us a snapshot of the time period in which they were written.
BWW Review: AN AMERICAN IN PARIS at Drury Lane Theatre
a?oeHow can you feel liberated when your city's been crushed?a?? In the post-WWII setting of AN AMERICAN IN PARIS, this is the dilemma faced by the people who call the City of Light home--through birth, choice, or the displacement of war.
BWW Review: Tracy Letts's BUG at Steppenwolf Theatre Company
Steppenwolf's production of ensemble member Tracy Letts's BUG is positively skin crawling, with magnificent central performances from Carrie Coon and Namir Smallwood that make the play all the more unnerving.
BWW Review: HOW TO DEFEND YOURSELF at Victory Gardens Theater
Liliana Padilla's HOW TO DEFEND YOURSELF offers a brilliant examination of collegiate life, and, more specifically, the ways in which rape culture and the entirely real possibility of sexual assault affect university students.
BWW Review: SOPHISTICATED LADIES at Porchlight Music Theatre
DUKE ELLINGTON'S SOPHISTICATED LADIES is a classic Porchlight show: an ebullient musical revue showcasing both the esteemed song catalog of Duke Ellington and also the formidable talents of some of the city's finest musical theater performers.
BWW Review: ROE at Goodman Theatre
Lisa Loomer's ROE offers a timely exploration of the history behind the 1973 Supreme Court case Roe v.
BWW Review: THE MOUSETRAP at Court Theatre a Fresh Take on Agatha Christie's Record-breaking Mystery
How do you put a new spin on the world's longest-running play? At Court Theatre, director Sean Graney takes on this challenge with Agatha Christie's classic murder mystery, THE MOUSETRAP.
BWW Review: GREASE at Marriott Theatre
The Marriott Theatre opens its 45th season with director Scott Weinstein's staging of GREASE, the 1971 musical that was born in Chicago and became a Broadway hit, a famous film and a perennial favorite of theaters across the country.
BWW Review: ONCE ON THIS ISLAND National Tour Presented by Broadway In Chicago
The national tour of Michael Arden's Tony Award-winning revival of ONCE ON THIS ISLAND has arrived in Chicago in a blaze of color and light.
BWW Review: STOP KISS at The Buena At The Pride Arts Center
When you live in a big city with vibrant, diverse neighborhoods, you tend to forget that there are still people and places where residents living out and openly can be threatened or harmed.
BWW Review: MEAN GIRLS National Tour at the James M. Nederlander Theater
The first national tour of the MEAN GIRLS musical has arrived in Chicago, and it's totally fetch.
BWW Review: DANCE NATION at Steppenwolf Theatre Company
The Chicago premiere of Clare Barron's DANCE NATION, now at Steppenwolf with direction and choreography from Lee Sunday Evans (who also helmed the original production at Playwrights Horizons), is alternately wild, messy, and confusinga?"much like the experience of early adolescence for the play's ch
BWW Review: Scenario Two's THE LIGHT IN THE PIAZZA at Lyric Opera House
Lyric Opera's special holiday engagement of Adam Guettel's THE LIGHT IN THE PIAZZA, one of the few contemporary musicals written in a style that harkens back to the Golden Age, is beautifully sung with the composer's complicated and melodious score performed by a superb orchestra.
Review: Take a Trip to The Land of Forgotten Toys
CPA Theatricals presents a winning new holiday musical, THE LAND OF FORGOTTEN TOYS.
BWW Review: THE SANTALAND DIARIES at Goodman Theatre
The ceaselessly cynical Crumpet the Elf has returned to Goodman Theatre for the second year in a row.
BWW Review: Q BROTHERS CHRISTMAS CAROL at Chicago Shakespeare Theater
The Q Brothers Collective puts a highly inventive and endlessly delightful twist on Charles Dickens' classic holiday tale with Q BROTHERS CHRISTMAS CAROL.
PF&P's Damaged AMERICA'S BEST OUTCAST TOY
Holiday classic meets reality show parody in PF&P's mix bag AMERICA'S BEST OUTCAST TOY
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Love Story: A Tribute to Taylor Swift Raue Center For The Arts (11/07-11/07) |
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Million Dollar Quartet Stolp Island Theatre (10/07-1/03) |
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Rotary Rocks The Raue: James Garner's Tribute to Johnny Cash Raue Center For The Arts (10/24-10/24) |
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The Christmas Carol Paramount Theatre (11/11-1/03) |
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Topdog/Underdog Steppenwolf's Downstairs Theater (9/17-11/01) |
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Blond Ambition: A Tribute to Madonna Raue Center For The Arts (11/07-11/07) |
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Memphis The Musical Studebaker Theater at the Fine Arts Building (10/24-10/25) |
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When We Were Young and Unafraid Greenhouse Theater Center (11/12-11/29) |
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Handel's Messiah Studebaker Theater, Fine Arts Building (12/11-12/11) PHOTOS |
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Seasons—a celebration The CheckOut (11/07-11/07) |
