Chicago Theater Reviews: Best Shows & Critic Recommendations Page 24

BWW Review: A Sweet and Dark MATLIDA THE MUSICAL
by Misha Davenport - March 25, 2016

Sound problems mar an otherwise spectacular tour....

BWW Review: Northlight's BUTLER a peculiar slice of American history
by Teresa Budasi - March 22, 2016

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...

BWW Review: Court Theatre's LONG DAY'S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT Searingly Comes to Life
by Rachel Weinberg - March 21, 2016

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...

BWW Review: RECENT TRAGIC EVENTS at Interrobang Theatre Project
by Patrick Rybarczyk - March 20, 2016

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 ...

BWW Review: Theo Ubique's Must-See RENT
by Misha Davenport - March 18, 2016

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

BWW Review: Profiles Theatre's JERUSALEM Is a Poetic Trip Into the Woods
by Patrick Rybarczyk - March 14, 2016

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...

BWW Review: Fleet-Footed Ensemble Fuels Fabulous 42nd STREET
by Teresa Budasi - March 11, 2016

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 ...

BWW Review: Gift Theatre's High-Tech RICHARD III Reaches New Heights
by Teresa Budasi - March 09, 2016

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....

BWW Review: Kokandy's So Very Chicago Premier of HEATHERS
by Misha Davenport - March 06, 2016

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BWW Review: NightBlue's Practically Perfect MARY POPPINS
by Misha Davenport - March 03, 2016

If family-friendly musicals were Easter eggs, NightBlue Performing Arts Company's production of Disney's MARY POPPINS is Faberge....

BWW Review: Lyric Opera's ROMEO AND JULIET Presents a Grand-scale, Classic Interpretation of Shakespeare's Eternal Love Story
by Rachel Weinberg - March 02, 2016

Under the direction of Bartlett Sher (whose work is currently represented on Broadway with Lincoln Center Theater's revival of The King and I, Charles Gounod's 1867 French opera ROMEO AND JULIET comes to opulent, dramatic life--with the quality and grandiosity that characterize Lyric Opera's product...

BWW Reviews: UAC's Wild, THE WILD PARTY
by Misha Davenport - February 28, 2016

Coming off of an impressive five 2015 Broadway World awards, suburban-based Up And Coming Theatre stages one of its most ambitious theatrical events yet --Andrew Lippa's THE WILD PARTY--in an Elk Grove Village nightclub. For the most part, it pays off handsomely....

BWW Review: IF/THEN Finds Its Path
by Elee Schrock - February 26, 2016

BroadwayWorld.com Chicago reviews the national tour of IF/THEN...

BWW Review: COCKED at Victory Gardens Triggers Both Shock and Amusement in Spot-On World Premiere Production
by Rachel Weinberg - February 22, 2016

One of the most pervasive images in Sarah Gubbins's play COCKED, now in its world premiere production at Victory Gardens under the direction of Joanie Schultz, is an incredibly shiny silver pistol. This prop pistol reveals itself at the end of the first scene in the play--and while it then quickly d...

BWW Review: High praise for Marriott Theatre's SISTER ACT
by Teresa Budasi - February 19, 2016

When it comes to boosting attendance at Sunday mass, the Chicago Archdiocese could learn a thing or two from the nuns in The Marriott Theatre's latest production, SISTER ACT....

BWW Review: The Hypocrites' THE GLASS MENAGERIE Displays A Powerful Shine
by Rachel Weinberg - February 16, 2016

Upon entering the Den Theatre's Heath Main Stage to take in The Hypocrites' production of THE GLASS MENAGERIE, I was immediately struck by the bottles upon bottles of breathtaking glass that cover Grant Sabin's decrepit-yet-beautiful set. Like director Hans Fleischmann's production itself (a remount...

BWW Review: Steppenwolf's THE FLICK Deserves Your Viewing
by Elee Schrock - February 15, 2016

BroadwayWorld.com Chicago reviews the Chicago premiere of Annie Baker's 'The Flick<' playing at Steppenwolf Theatre Company....

BWW Review: Porchlight Music Theatre's FAR FROM HEAVEN Presents A Woman's Melodic Journey Towards Self-Discovery In 1950s America
by Rachel Weinberg - February 12, 2016

Porchlight Music Theatre's production of FAR FROM HEAVEN marks the musical's Chicago premiere--the show debuted Off-Broadway at Playwrights Horizons in 2013 and takes the titular 2002 Todd Haynes-directed film as its source material. And while this musical from composer-lyricist team Scott Frankel a...

BWW Review: CABARET Makes For A Truly Beautiful Theatrical Experience
by Rachel Weinberg - February 12, 2016

The touring production of Roundabout Theatre Company's CABARET dazzles just as much as it did on Broadway--where it was a critical and commercial success both from 1998-2004 and more recently, when it was remounted from March 2014-March 2015. Now Chicago audiences have the opportunity to witness ori...

BWW Review: MEN ARE FROM MARS, WOMEN ARE FROM VENUS LIVE! a Misguided Mission
by Teresa Budasi - February 11, 2016

'Tend her garden,' Josh Hyman tells the men in the audience at MEN ARE FROM MARS, WOMEN ARE FROM VENUS LIVE! 'And ladies, throw us some fish.'...

BWW Review: Refuge Theatre's HIGH FIDELITY Spins a Scruffily, Beautifully Universal Story
by Patrick O'Brien - February 08, 2016

Don't change a thing, HIGH FIDELITY; you make the list....

BWW Review: MURDER Afoot with Mercury's Charming SHERLOCK HOLMES
by Patrick O'Brien - February 01, 2016

By jove, Mercury Theater cracks the case in adapting a Sherlock Holmes musical!...

BWW Reviews: PFP Heats Things Up with BOYS IN BRIEFS
by Misha Davenport - January 29, 2016

Pride Films and Plays heats up the Uptown Underground with BOYS IN BRIEFS: AT THE BEACH!...

BWW Review: BRUISE EASY at American Theater Company Captures Agony of Messy Sibling Reunion
by Rachel Weinberg - January 25, 2016

Dan LeFranc's world premiere play BRUISE EASY, his second collaboration with American Theater Company, begins by introducing us to the story of two estranged siblings (played by Kelly O'Sullivan and Matt Farabee)-reunited for the first time in several years on the driveway of their mother's house in...

BWW Review: A Feel Good GOTTA DANCE
by Misha Davenport - December 30, 2015

Tony Award-winning director/choreographer Jerry Mitchell scores again with a light-hearted, uplifting GOTTA DANCE....