Articles in Theater + Stage
In Russian troupe’s ‘Measure for Measure,’ virtue and its opposite bear a close kinship
Review: One well might argue that Shakespeare’s “Measure for Measure” is a less than perfect play. But the neatly framed picture of hypocrisy at its core is so clear, indeed so ringingly universal in its human embrace, that it resonates in any culture. Witness the Russian-language production (with English supertitles) that officially popped the cork Jan. 27 on Shakespeare 400 Chicago, a yearlong aggregation of events dramatic and otherwise spearheaded by Chicago Shakespeare Theater. ★★★★
Chicago Shakespeare Theater lights lamps, world comes in remembrance of the Bard
Preview: This year marks the 400th anniversary of the death of William Shakespeare, and surely nowhere is that big round number being observed with greater zeal, diversity and, well, relentlessness than here in Chicago-Upon-Avon. Throughout 2016, the plays of Shakespeare, adaptations of the plays in various forms and creative applications of Shakespearean themes will be found across the metro area in a coordinated, nonstop festival dubbed Shakespeare 400 Chicago.
‘Satchmo at the Waldorf’: As Louis Armstrong nears end, he recalls a winding path to fame
Review: Terry Teachout’s “Satchmo at the Waldorf,” a one-man bio-drama on the life of jazz trumpeter Louis Armstrong, is an affecting, often surprising and raspingly funny alchemy of brass and clay. it is a lively, engaging fiction but also a credible portrait with a human heart. ★★★
‘Bruise Easy’ at American Theater: Miserable siblings recall childhood with Mommy dearest
Review: There’s a critical difference between a play that is intensely provocative and one that is essentially an unfinished puzzle. Dan LeFranc’s “Bruise Easy,” now in its world premiere run at American Theater Company, falls into the latter category. It is a tale fraught with sex and monosyllables, signifying we know not what. ★★
Theaters serve up holiday stew of 3 Scrooges filled with laughs, lessons, gravy and graves
Review: Chicago’s holiday offerings include Three Scrooges — not a show, but a trio of shows all based on “A Christmas Carol.” And yes, there’s some slapstick in it, even ribaldry, depending on which flavor of Dickens you choose.
Role Playing: Sandra Marquez, as Clytemnestra, sees an exceptional woman in the Greek queen
Interview: What would she, this modern woman, have done in the place of a legendary queen who has been abandoned by her warring husband, a man who also has sacrificed their daughter for the sake of his military campaign? That was the question on Sandra Marquez’s mind as she approached her complex portrayal of the vengeful Clytemnestra in Aeschylus’ “Agamemnon” at Court Theatre.
‘Agamemnon’ at Court: Queen welcomes king with smile and nice bath in his own hot blood
Review: Agamemnon, king of Mycenae and commander of the vast Greek expeditionary force that conquered Troy after 10 years of fighting, is home from the war at last – victorious, exhausted and, not least, wreathed in guilt. That is the proposition of Aeschylus’ tragedy “Agamemnon,” which now enters its final weekend of performances in an imaginative, keen-edged production at Court Theatre directed by Charles Newell. ★★★★★
Theater 2015-16: Remembering PJ Paparelli, American Theater Co. maps ‘Legacy Season’
22nd in a series of season previews: Two world premieres lead off an American Theater Company season dedicated to the memory of PJ Paparelli, the ensemble’s visionary artistic director who died last May after an automobile accident in Scotland. Thomas Bradshaw’s new play “Fulfillment,” about a successful African-American lawyer whose world gets flipped on its head, opens the season. It will be followed by the premiere of “Bruise Easy,” Dan LeFranc’s play about an adult brother and sister whose meeting at their childhood home offers a chance to iron out old issues.
At Goodman’s New Stages Festival, playwrights count on sharpening assist from the audience
Feature: Three formative plays on the boards in Goodman Theatre’s New Stages Festival offer an intriguing glimpse into the process of turning a work of promise into a well-honed piece of stagecraft ready for prime time. Now in its 12th year, the 2015 edition of New Stages concludes Nov. 13-15 with final performances of those plays and a cluster of readings.
Theater 2015-16: With premieres, A Red Orchid takes pursuit of life on the edge to new realms
21st in a series of season previews: A Red Orchid Theatre opens its 23rd season with Brett Neveu’s “Pilgrim’s Progress,” one of two world premieres during 2015-16. It burrows into layers of conflict within a family gathered for Thanksgiving dinner. “It’s brutal and hilarious,” says artistic director Kirsten Fitzgerald, “and it’s the kind of play this company identifies with. We absolutely explore the poetry of life on the edge.”
Theater 2015-16: The mood is electric at Writers as ‘curtain up’ takes on dramatic new meaning
20th in a series of season previews: Writers Theatre artistic director Michael Halberstam sees ideal choices in the two major productions planned for the spring 2016 opening of the company’s brand new home in Glencoe – Tom Stoppard’s “Arcadia” and the Stephen Sondheim musical “Company.”
Role Playing: Brian Parry says he summoned courage before wit as George in ‘Virginia Woolf’
Interview: In the thimble-size playing space of Redtwist Theatre, Brian Parry is reminded every night of the plain truth in playwright Edward Albee’s admonition to any actor who takes on the role of George, the battle-worn husband and semi-satisfied college professor in “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” – that it will be the workout of a lifetime.
Theater 2015-16: Paint still wet on its new name, Irish Theatre of Chicago expands to third play
19th in a series of season previews: Irish Theatre of Chicago took on its present name last season some 20 years after beginning life under the banner of Seanachai Theatre. Commencing its third decade with Geraldine Aron’s one-woman show “My Brilliant Divorce,” the rechristened Irish Theatre now spreads its wings by adding a third play to its season.
Theater 2015-16: Shattered Globe celebrates twofold 25th – its own and ‘Marvin’s Room’
18th in a series of season previews: Shattered Globe Theatre opens its 25th anniversary season with a memorial tribute to Chicago playwright Scott McPherson, who died at age 33 in 1992, just two years after the premiere of “Marvin’s Room” at the Goodman Theatre. Sandy Shinner, Shattered Globe’s producing artistic director, calls this historic revival “a celebration of Scott’s life.” The season opens Oct. 4.
Theater 2015-16: Steep gets down and grapples with Linklater premiere, more Simon Stephens
17th in a series of season previews: Founding artistic director Peter Moore says Steep Theatre’s 15th season captures the essence of what this scrappy company is all about – “ground-level views of life.” That low-angle survey begins with the world premiere of Hamish Linklater’s “The Cheats,” about two neighboring couples who suddenly find themselves uncomfortably close.
Theater 2015-16: A gentlefolk’s guide to love, murder, other diversions at B’way in Chicago
16th in a series of season previews: Broadway in Chicago’s bountiful fall series of touring shows, crammed into four performance venues – Bank of America Theatre, Oriental Theatre, Cadillac Palace Theatre and Broadway Playhouse – opens with one of the hottest new musical comedies to come out of New York, “A Gentleman’s Guide to Love & Murder,” and winds up at the holidays with the pre-Broadway world premiere of “Gotta Dance,” a testament to youth as an expression not of age but of spirit.
‘Gem of the Ocean’ at Court: Setting a spiritual table for Wilson’s canon in a haven of peace
Review: August Wilson’s decade-by-decade portrait gallery of the African-American experience across the 20th century begins just two generations after slavery, indeed with characters who were born into shackles. To grasp the cultural resonance and progression of the last nine plays in the sequence, it’s essential to know the first one, “Gem of the Ocean,” which now unfolds in a perceptive and finely textured production directed by Ron OJ Parson at Court Theatre. ★★★★
Theater 2015-16: Victory Gardens comes out swinging with season of punches, premieres
15th in a series of season previews: The play first up for Victory Gardens Theater this season, Roy Williams’ “Sucker Punch,” might be seen as a summary statement of what fifth-year artistic director Chay Yew has tried to bring to this company. It’s a story steeped in gritty realism about two young black boxers in rundown London struggling to find meaning in life.
‘The Tempest’ at Chicago Shakespeare: Magic rules on Prospero’s island, by wand and word
Review: In double magic that beguiles ear and eye with levity and levitation, Chicago Shakespeare Theater has invoked a rare vision of the Bard’s lyrical play of vengeance transcended by forgiveness, “The Tempest.” Co-directed with no slight imagination and great sleight of hand by Adam Posner and the magician Teller (he of Penn and Teller fame), CST’s season opener is pure enchantment – as credibly human and affecting as it is vibrant, fanciful and fresh. ★★★★★
Theater 2015-16: Raven expands to five plays, kicks off season with three Midwest premieres
14th in a series of season previews: Opening with a run of Midwest premieres, Raven Theatre expands from four plays to five this season to capitalize on the opportunity offered by its dual performing spaces. And first up is a Mark Stein’s searing “entertainment” with the long, ironically evocative title of “Direct from Death Row: The Scottsboro Boys (An Evening of Vaudeville and Sorrow).”
Theater 2015-16: Steppenwolf 40th anniversary boasts premieres by Frank Galati, Tracy Letts
13th in a series of season previews: Two world premieres and three first-time Chicago stagings form a doubly celebratory season at Steppenwolf Theatre – marking the company’s 40th anniversary and honoring the legacy of its longtime artistic director, Martha Lavey, who stepped down at the end of last season. Steppenwolf opens with the world premiere of Frank Galati’s adaptation of “East of Eden,” John Steinbeck’s sweeping, tumultuous epic novel about family dynamics and fortunes set mainly in California early in the 20th century.
‘Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?’ at Redtwist: Friendly fire at close range, brutal and brilliant
Review: Seeing a play at tiny Redtwist Theatre, where a full house of 30 or 40 viewers often encircles the unfolding drama, can be an experience of in-your-face intensity. But the company’s electric burn through Edward Albee’s “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” takes intensity to a harrowing new place. ★★★★★
Theater 2015-16: Lifeline plots two comedies, with a gritty digression to ‘Midnight Cowboy’
12th in a series of season previews
Theater 2015-16: ‘Disgraced,’ 4 world premieres accent a many-splendored season at Goodman
11th in a series of season previews
Theater 2015-16: The binding threads are classic in Court’s pursuit of Greek and modern
10th in a series of season previews
Theater 2015-16: Northlight swings its beacon toward gay community and family redefined
9th in a series of season previews
Theater 2015-16: Presto! Chicago Shakespeare season blows in with super-magical ‘Tempest’
8th in a series of season previews
Theater 2015-16: Porchlight, in its Chicago style, jumps into season of musicals with ‘Side Show’
Seventh in a series of season previews: Michael Weber, the artistic director at Porchlight Music Theatre, makes no bones about his company being a brash urban Chicago enterprise. That, he says, is why Porchlight’s 2015-16 season opener, a revamped version of the 1997 musical “Side Show,” is going to be special. Then, as if to underscore this true grit, it’s on to another earthy evening with an encore of the company’s Jefferson Award-winning Fats Waller revue “Ain’t Misbehavin’.”
Role Playing: Tracy Michelle Arnold debunks madness as force that drives Blanche DuBois
Interview: Tracy Michelle Arnold, who portrays a feisty and resourceful Blanche DuBois in Tennessee Williams’ “A Streetcar Named Desire” at American Players Theatre, doesn’t buy the common perception of this embattled woman as “a crazy person.” Arnold sees Blanche as a scarred fighter who never gives up her struggle to survive, even at the end.
Theater 2015-16: In farewell to Lakeview home, Strawdog maps season with 3 world premieres
Sixth in a series of season previews: Strawdog Theatre’s 2015-16 season is the last hurrah at its old home up the well-worn stairs on Broadway in the Lakeview neighborhood. While redevelopment will force Strawdog to relocate next year, the season at hand finds the 28-year-old company in peak vigor with plans for seven shows in two full-fledged series. Three world premieres highlight a 2015-16 season that will include four productions on the main stage and three in the company’s intimate Hugen Hall series.
