CHICAGO THEATER REVIEWS

Northlight Theatre couldn't have chosen a better time to launch this show. The current presidential race is perhaps the most polarizing in U.S. history, but playwright Anthony Giardina's drama, which begins in the late '70s, reminds us that the landscape was shifting long before The Donald promised ...

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If you aspire to see 'Hamilton' while it's in Chicago but have yet to score tickets, you can get a tease of what Lin-Manuel Miranda has to offer this town by checking out Porchlight Theatre's production of IN THE HEIGHTS....

With deft direction by James Yost, Shattered Globe's production of TRUE WEST made for a solid first Sam Shepard experience for this critic. Kevin Viol and Joseph Wiens have cultivated a convincing and powerful dynamic as estranged brothers Austin and Lee, who are holed up at their mother's house in ...

Chicago, fasten your seat belts-the world premiere musical HELLDRIVERS OF DAYTONA has parked at the Royal George Theatre...and it's a bumpy, messy ride. Billed as a spoof of 1960s racing films, composer Berton Averre (known for 'My Sharona'), lyricist Rob Meurer, and book writer Mark Saltzman have d...

'How often does it happen that a secretary's boss wants to marry her? Hallelujah!' These lyrics get to the heart of why shows like HOW TO SUCCEED IN BUSINESS WITHOUT REALLY TRYING can't possibly maintain relevance in modern theater....

When I saw Kinky Boots here in Chicago during its pre-Broadway tryouts, I left the theatre with a huge smile on my face. While the show does have its share of heavier moments, it is also full of so much joy. As it returns for a short run to the Oriental Theatre, I was thrilled to see it maintained t...

Most people know Kevin Smith from the movies he's directed and starred in like Clerks, Mallrats, Chasing Amy, Dogma, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back and Jersey Girl, but others know him as Silent Bob of Jay & Silent Bob with his partner Jason Mewes....

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Evan Linder's new play BYHALIA, MISSISSIPPI begins with a scene familiar to those in the audience: a mother and her adult daughter squabbling. The daughter, Laurel, is several months pregnant. And while her mother just wants to be present for the birth of her grandchild, Laurel has had enough. But a...

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Parts of the plot of Between Riverside and Crazy reflect events and situations very similar to those happening in society today. At times they are so close to home that you could feel a sense of unease in the audience. These elements ring true but don't always have enough strength to sustain the sto...

A daring company takes it easy this summer, which may just be OK....

From the haunting opening notes to the robust finale, there's not a wrong note in Marriott Theatre's latest musical, MAN OF LA MANCHA....

Piecing together a new mythology is an audacious undertaking, and yet it is an act that is at the very heart of theatre-making: the building of a new world, with its own origins and order, that only becomes fully realised when an audience believes in it. THE FIREBIRD attempts just that, telling a po...

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Both Melissa James Gibson's play THIS and Windy City Playhouse's production exist on a precipice. For the characters in Gibson's script, they stand on the ledge approaching forty and the onset of middle age, while also waxing nostalgic about the good old college days.These college friends-Jane, Marr...

To be or not to be … married. That is the question facing Robert throughout COMPANY, the Stephen Sondheim/George Furth musical that concludes Writers Theatre's current season at its spiffy new venue in Glencoe....

Ethan Slater offers a star-making turn as everyone's favorite Sponge....

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Lifeline gives new musical life to Austen obscurity....

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Lookingglass Theatre always brings thought-provoking, visually entertaining work to its stage, and its latest production fits that bill, for the most part....

Chicago's camp theater troupe Hell in a Handbag scores with the premiere of Charles Busch's send up of nun films, THE DIVINE SISTER....