CHICAGO THEATER REVIEWS

In the opening moments of Nick Payne's new play CONSTELLATIONS-now in its Chicago premiere in the Upstairs Theatre at Steppenwolf-the playwright presents audiences with an archetypal 'Boy Meets Girl' story. But then that moment occurs again and again, each time playing out in a different universe. A...

There's a moment during the ritzy, jazzy smash hit, Chicago, when charming lawyer Billy Flynn compares a murder trial to a dazzling, show-stopping circus: 'Give'em a show that's so splendiferous,' he says. And that Chicago truly did....

For Strawdog Theatre Company's final production in its Broadway home, the company fittingly presents George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart's 1930 comedy ONCE IN A LIFETIME-both play and production are rife with charm and sly winks to the audience. Director Damon Kiely's choice to stage this particular K...

CHESS, Porchlight Musical Theatre's final staged reading in the third season of its 'lost' musicals-as- staged-concert series manages to present the show's glorious, pop opera score in all its glory and nearly succeeds in covering up the fault lines that run through the book....

Under the direction of Lee Blakeley at Lyric Opera (who originally staged this production for Paris's Theatre du Chatelet in 2014), Rodgers and Hammerstein's classic musical THE KING AND I is heightened to the lavish and beautiful spectacle it deserves. This story of British school teacher Anna Leon...

THE HOUSE OF BLUE LEAVES is a mixed bag of tone and theme. It is comedy, tragedy, drama, slapstick and farce and then ends in a dark, dark place. Its themes -- The American Dream, mental illness, religion, loneliness, violence and betrayal -- are played out to varying levels of hysteria, which makes...

Woody Allen's film is promising source material for a musical. This is what we got....

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Capturing the renowned musical retelling of Eva Peron-Argentinian fashion icon, pop culture staple and political powerhouse-is no small task for any theater. Combine that with the incomparable music of Andrew Lloyd Webber and the deeply dynamic lyrics of Tim Rice and you've got Broadway-sized shoes ...

Remember when your little brother re-enacted every 'Star Wars' scene in your basement when you were kids - complete with voice impersonations, sound effects and light saber battles? Fast-forward about 35 years and you'll see him all grown up, onstage, wielding an imaginary light saber and occasional...

Ike Holter's new play SENDER, now in its world premiere production at A Red Orchid Theatre, thrives on the contrast between order and chaos. Or, more precisely in the millennial world of the play, the tension between wanting to remain in childhood and the need to face the realities of adulthood. The...

Porchlight's production of DREAMGIRLS is a theater lover's dream come true....

BroadwayWorld.com Chicago review's Steppenwolf's production of 'Mary Page Marlowe.'...

Victory Gardens Theater's world premiere production of Lucas Hnath's HILLARY AND CLINTON invites audiences to imagine an alternate universe, though similar to our own, in which a woman named Hillary Clinton is running for United States president. And in setting up the play this way, Hnath has crafte...

Folks of a certain age might remember Hazel, the spunky, middle-aged maid upon which a 1960s television sitcom was based. Now, 50 years later, she's on stage, taking care of the same family, only this time she's cracking wise via song and dance....

KILL FLOOR at American Theater Company is truly a killer production. Abe Koogler's intense and poignant new play is in excellent hands in this Midwest premiere directed by Jonathan Berry. KILL FLOOR insightfully examines contemporary issues of humanity, race, and identity, and with its superb castin...

Sound problems mar an otherwise spectacular tour....

If Major General Benjamin Franklin Butler hadn't been a lawyer, he might have tried his hand at psychotherapy, particularly talk therapy. His hyper-focus on word choice and the meaning behind said choices is the first impression we get of this Civil War leader in BUTLER, now playing through April 17...

Eugene O'Neill's blazing masterwork LONG DAY'S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT introduces audiences to the enormously dysfunctional Tyrone family, who over the course of the play's three-and-a-half-hour run time, completely and utterly destroy one another. O'Neill felt that LONG DAY'S JOURNEY was such a personal...

With the tragedy of 9/11, thousands of lives were turned upside down in an instant. Others were faced with a lingering sense of helplessness. As the hours, and in some cases days passed, there were attempts by many to locate loved ones who were unaccounted for in the aftermath. That painful waiting ...

Theo Ubique scores with director Scott Winstein's timeless and topical production of Jonathan Larson's RENT....

It's St. George's Day and a merry band of rural England revelers wake in the aftermath of a night of debauchery. The leader of the pack, a Falstaff of sorts Johnny 'Rooster' Byron, surveys the surroundings outside of his trailer home - a refrigerator, scattered bottles and chairs at a table, and a d...

It's all about the chorus kids in 42nd STREET, the latest national touring company to come through town. And these kids have talent and energy to spare. Better act fast, though, because this Broadway in Chicago offering will be shuffling off to Buffalo -- or wherever it's headed next -- faster than ...

The title character's opening soliloquy sets the tone for the despicable acts to come in William Shakespeare's 'RICHARD III,' but it is a later scene in The Gift Theatre's version that packs the biggest punch....

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