CHICAGO THEATER REVIEWS

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...

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,...

I ruined his life…. Whose life? Frank Sinatra. The newest production at the Studebaker Theater is Elizabeth McGovern’s play Ava: The Secret Conversations. She wrote the play which is based upon Peter Evans’ and Ava Gardner’s book “The Secret Conversations”....

Yes this cast of Grease at the Metropolis Performing Arts Center do go together. The well known musical about life at Rydell High is a joyous, foot stamping, sing along quietly, fun production. The story follows new student Sandy Dumbrowski (Morgan Wolfe in her Metropolis debut) and Danny Zuko (Eric...

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, metaphoric...

The Joffrey Ballet’s current production and premiere at the Lyric Opera House is George Bizet’s eternal Carmen. The late, great choreographer Liam Scarlett conceived a ballet which is both classic, modern and seductive....

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....

Returning to the Windy City for a second term after a critically acclaimed run last August, 44 ('The Obama Musical') already feels like an artifact from a different, more optimistic time. ...

A young Frank Abagnale, Jr. (JJ Niemann in his bravura Marriott debut) wants to live a more colorful life. Thus begins his criminal career. The current production at Marriott Lincolnshire is the musical Catch Me If You Can which is based upon the movie and book of the same name....

The town of Gander, Newfoundland, is called the Rock. The current production at Paramount Theatre is the emotional but uplifting true story Come From Away by Irene Sankoff and David Hein....

While this iteration leans heavily into Finn's chaotic sense of fun, it occasionally rushes through the emotional beats and connections that make the show such a powerful study of illness, hope, and community....

This hilarious show should entertain nerds and newcomers alike, though its rules may occasionally test the patience of less familiar viewers....

What did our critic think of SIDE BY SIDE BY SONDHEIM at Oil Lamp Theater? I’m Still Here. In a career spanning 69 years and countless songs, it is safe to say that 4 years after the passing of one of the greatest songwriters of the 20th Century, Sondheim is still here. The current production at O...

The new production at Music Theater Works at the North Shore Center for the Performing Arts in Skokie is Fiddler on the Roof. ...

Led by two powerful performers and a stunning directorial vision, PARADE marches us into the past to better understand our present....

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

Part of the dialogue from the current production in the BOLD series at Paramount’s Copley Theatre. The late, great Sam Shepard’s 1980 play True West is running through August 31. There is a reason this series is called BOLD. This is an intense, dark and, at times, funny play. There are moments o...

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. Kenn...

Blank Theatre Company shines a light on this underappreciated work in a pleasant production with stirring performances that are only occasionally blunted by the limitations of a claustrophobic venue....

The anarchic world premiere of Tyler Anthony Smith’s QUEEN FOR A DAY is as delightfully wild as it is deeply heartfelt....

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. ...

This is the premise of the current production at the Marriott Lincolnshire Theatre. Chicago native Sandy Ruskin’s Always Something There…, a Peggy Got Sue Got Married/Back to the Future, etc. styled tribute to the 1980’s, is having its world premiere at the Marriott. It is about being able to ...