CHICAGO THEATER REVIEWS

What did our critic think of LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS at Paramount Theatre?...

What did our critic think of GYPSY A MUSICAL FABLE at Marriott Theatre, Lincolnshire IL?...

What did our critic think of THE PRODUCERS at North Shore Center For The Performing Arts, Skokie, IL?...

Is MJ a fun and entertaining musical that treats audiences to many of Michael Jackson’s iconic hits? Yes. Does MJ also demonstrate why bio jukebox musicals are tricky? Yes. In the musical, MJ emphatically tells fictional MTV reporter Rachel that he wants to be remembered for his music. But can the...

What did our critic think of NEXT TO NORMAL at Copley Theatre, Aurora IL? The production runs through September 3. This is the story of any suburban family dealing with bi-polar disorder, the consequences, the treatments and the after effects. ...

What did our critic think of ELEPHANT & PIGGIE'S 'WE ARE IN A PLAY' at Marriott Theatre, Lincolnshire IL?...

It’s easy to see why Harold Pinter’s NO MAN’S LAND has been categorized as Theater of the Absurd: The play focuses on four male characters in a nebulous space, debating nothing and everything all at the same time. Les Waters directs a game ensemble of actors who wholeheartedly embrace the true...

What did our critic think of BUDDY THE BUDDY HOLLY STORY at Marriott Theatre, Lincolnshire IL? The current production at the Marriott Theatre in Lincolnshire is Buddy the Buddy Holly Story. It was the first of the jukebox musicals premiering in 1989.  It’s not just the story of the short-lived li...

What did our critic think of THE 39 STEPS at Drury Lane Theatre?...

ANOTHER MARRIAGE is the most interesting when it does precisely what it sets out to do: Show us scenes from yet another marriage and the other human relationships branching out from it....

A sensational and sumptuous feast for both the eyes and ears, you can’t help but fall under the spell of the pinball wizard TOMMY....

Lucy and Charlie are Asian American newlyweds on that “Vigilante Sh*t” (to borrow from Taylor Swift) in Matthew C. Yee’s premiere musical LUCY AND CHARLIE’S HONEYMOON....

The Second City’s 111th Mainstage revue DON’T QUIT YOUR DAYDREAM has a slightly existential air to it as the name suggests. In one of the revue’s most effective sketches, ensemble member Evan Mills breaks into song as he muses about the questions that keep him up at night—they range from the...

I’m not exaggerating when I say that WHAT THE CONSTITUTION MEANS TO ME is the kind of play that reminds me why I love theater....

It’s ironic that THE WHISTLEBLOWER begins with a meta pitch of the play’s concept. While the idea is witty, Moses’s concept loses steam in this full-length play. Though it’s billed as a comedy, THE WHISTLEBLOWER is mildly amusing rather than uproariously funny....

I didn't think I'd ever see a singing Antarctic explorer in a musical, but that's exactly what ERNEST SHACKLETON LOVES ME delivers. This quirky but conventionally structured two-hander introduces audiences to Kat, a struggling experimental musician with a newborn baby and a deadbeat, absent boyfrien...

“Stop trying to be what everyone else wants you to be, man. Just be you.” Antonio Edwards Suarez recounts that his childhood best friend, Curtis, said to him growing up. This sentiment becomes in many ways the mantra for ANTONIO’S SONG: It’s a deeply human exploration of identity — and spe...

Mercury’s production has some fabulous performances, but it doesn’t entirely answer the question of why BIG RIVER needed to be brought out of the archives....

What did our critic think of SCHOOL OF ROCK at Paramount Theatre, Aurora IL?...

The new production at Marriott Theatre Lincolnshire is Damn Yankees, a truly classic old time big Broadway musical. With a book by George Abbott (died at age 107) and Douglass Wallop and one of the great scores by Richard Adler and Jerry Ross (died at the young age of 29), this has always been an un...

LAST NIGHT AND THE NIGHT BEFORE explores the in-between, the murkiness of transitioning life stages and fraught family relationships....

What did our critic think of JAGGED LITTLE PILL SCORCHES at James M. Nedlerlander Theatre?...

It’s only fitting that for his swan song at Goodman Theatre Artistic Director Robert Falls has adapted and directed Anton Chekhov’s THE CHERRY ORCHARD, a play that’s also very much a swan song. With this staging, Falls has completed the cycle of directing all four of Chekov’s full-length pla...

A SOLDIER’S PLAY is a solid and well-structured play from Charles Fuller that explores the deep-seated roots of American racism. Centered on a Black regiment in 1944 Fort Neal, Louisiana, the play takes the form of a murder investigation when Captain Richard Davenport arrives on the scene followin...

I was curious about the changes to Trey Parker, Robert Lopez, and Matt Stone’s THE BOOK OF MORMON, which underwent revisions before its post-pandemic return to Broadway in 2021. I imagined a substantial overhaul of the material, along with input from co-director/choreographer Casey Nicholaw (Parke...