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. ★★★★
Read the full story »Redtwist puts an intimate spin on dark humor of McDonagh’s rough and quirky ‘Inishmaan’
Cripple Billy’s adventure. 4 stars!
Stratford Festival’s Shakespeare tradition echoes in the well-told tale of ‘Cymbeline’
Young love put to the test. 4 stars!
Shaw Festival: Catching America’s cultural swing to the syncopated beat of ‘Ragtime’
Turn of the century saga. 4 stars!
Sophistication meets innuendo: Shaw Festival puts fine edge on Coward’s ‘Present Laughter’
Matinee idol preens, pouts. 4 stars!
‘My Kind of Town’ reconstructs police torture scandal as a complicated drama of real life
Cops under gun at TimeLine. 4 stars!
Role Playing: Ian Barford revels in the wiliness of an ambivalent rebel in Doctorow’s ‘March’
Interview: He’s just making it up as he goes along, the Confederate turncoat portrayed by Ian Barford in Steppenwolf Theatre’s current production of “The March.” That’s what Barford likes about his opportunistic character called Arley. And in a sense, the actor says, he’s doing much the same thing on stage from night to the next, trying to track the pitch and roll of a soldier who’s trying to find his own meaning.
In lightning-quick Beethoven 7th Symphony, van Zweden and CSO deliver a poetic thriller
Review: It’s one thing to hear a hair-raising orchestra performance on a CD, and quite another to experience it happening right in front of you, live, in the splendorous acoustics of a concert space. The Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s rocket-sled finale in Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony on May 15 at Orchestra Hall, with conductor Jaap van Zweden, was one to send a writer combing his thesaurus for a higher form of wow. *****
Amid war to win vote for British women, flames of passion illuminate ‘Her Naked Skin’
Suffrage at Shattered Globe. 4 stars!
Chicago Symphony nabs key player from Detroit to helm bass
Alexander Hanna, 26, was groomed at Curtis, Tanglewood and Verbier.
On the Lyric Opera stage, pianist Lang Lang lends Schubert, Chopin a tenor of virtuosity
Review: Lang Lang’s debut at Chicago’s 3500-seat Civic Opera House was quietly elegant, cogently argued and intensely focused. That is, until the abundantly gifted pianist gave himself over to some astonishing fireworks. With a technique like that, who can blame him? ****
Vivid characters and some great singing carry the day for ‘A Little Night Music’ at Writers’
Sondheim’s paean to love. 4 stars!
‘Melancholy’ cometh, draped in dolorous fun, as Grey Ghost Theatre bows with Ruhl’s play
Review: When Tilly shows up, she elevates the common funk to dolorous heights so seductive, transporting and rarified — cue the cello — that only the Japanese have a word for it, or is it the Scandinavians? This is Sarah Ruhl’s 2001 “Melancholy Play,” a gentle misery-loves-company fable of high wit. ***
ATC and About Face hang fresh ‘Rent’ sign on a production of street-level intimacy, energy
Musical classic, new again. 4 stars!
Theater Wit chases depression into sharp bite of comedy with Rosenstock’s ‘Tigers Be Still’
Bittersweet therapy with beast. 2 stars.
Chicago Symphony plans Asian tour with Muti, and adds Mexico debut to fall Carnegie opener
Beijing, Mexico City, Seoul among stops.
Lang Lang, star pianist and global citizen, will bring Chopin, other friends to Chicago recital
Preview: When Chinese piano sensation Lang Lang steps onto the stage at the Civic Opera House for his recital Saturday night, it will be a special moment for everyone in the house – including the pianist.
Goodman’s well-honed ‘Iceman Cometh’ slices through a boozy, painful cloud of pipe-dreams
Brian Dennehy, Nathan Lane. 5 stars!
Chicago Shakespeare’s lean and brisk ‘Timon’ zooms in on crash-and-burn of a needy Midas
Mega-rich tycoon falls low. 4 stars!
‘Pride and Prejudice’ at Lifeline: Mirroring Austen’s vivacious novel in memorable faces
A stew of great characters. 4 stars!
Strawdog taps 17th century vein of blood lust with Webster’s murderous ‘Duchess of Malfi’
Lust, greed and mayhem. 3 stars
Ian McDiarmid, revving the engines of anger, ready to take on Shakespeare’s raging Timon
Preview: The Scottish actor, a Shakespeare veteran, talks with Chicago On the Aisle about the dark and turbulent mindscape of “Timon of Athens.” The play opens May 2 at Chicago Shakespeare Theater.
Profiles explores psychological shadows as LaBute drops siblings in deep, dark woods
‘In a Forest, Dark and Deep.’ 4 stars!
Digital: ‘Four Seasons’ and Haydn symphonies flash style, finesse under McGegan’s baton
CD Reviews: The latest evidence of the Philharmonia Baroque’s mastery of 18th century fare is a CD release of Vivaldi’s “The Four Seasons” – plus three more violin concertos by the Red Priest, as Vivaldi was known – featuring the orchestra’s wizardly concertmaster and all-world Baroque star Elizabeth Blumenstock. ****
From the Bard to Beethoven: Actor Simon Callow to return to Chicago in June with Symphony
‘Beyond the Score’ with Riccardo Muti
Handel’s early vengeance opera ‘Teseo’ shines amid Chicago Opera Theater’s vocal splendors
Medea’s very, very jealous. 4 stars!
It’s the Bard’s birthday! Simon Callow reflects on the fanciful weave of ‘Being Shakespeare’
Interview: As “the soul of the age” turns 448 on April 23, the celebrated actor talks with Chicago On the Aisle about his one-man play “Being Shakespeare,” presented by Chicago Shakespeare Theater at the Broadway Theatre through April 29.
Steppenwolf captures pulse and horror of war with Sherman’s march through Georgia
Doctorow’s novel on stage. 4 stars!
Chicago Opera lavishes style on Shostakovich comedy about romance — and finding a flat
‘Moscow, Cheryomushki.’ 4 stars!
‘Fish Men’ at Goodman: When chess hustlers bait their hooks, slippery truth snaps at the line
Con game in the park. 3 stars.
Chicago Wine Journal »
CHICAGO WINE JOURNAL: Burgundy’s range is reflected in two beauties from Leclerc, Gille
Tasting Report: The power, the finesse and the sheer intellectual engagement that stamp top-quality red Burgundy wines were amply displayed in youthful, sharply contrasting examples I recently tasted from two producers in the famed Côte d’Or, Domaine Gille and Domaine René Leclerc.
CHICAGO WINE JOURNAL: Sbragia’s Merlot makes a regal splash from a bargain bottle
Tasting Report: It’s always such a smile-inducing pleasure to come upon a wine that exceeds all expectations in its price class. A terrific example is Sbragia Family Vineyards’ Dry Creek Valley Sonoma Home Ranch Merlot 2012, a wine stuffed with the goods to compete well beyond its modest price of $24.
CHICAGO WINE JOURNAL: Santa Duc draws arc of splendor with old-vines Gigondas
Mulling Wine: To glimpse the poor, stony soil is to wonder how it could ever produce the grapes that Domaine Santa Duc in turn translates into some of the most seductive wine in the Southern Rhône Valley appellation of Gigondas. But the proof was there in a palate-pleasing, indeed eye-opening vertical sampler of Santa Duc’s single-vineyard, old-vine Gigondas Prestige des Hautes Garrigues.
CHICAGO WINE JOURNAL: Brancaia delivers three Tuscans that are super and then some
Tasting Report: The wines of Tuscan producer Brancaia are well worth seeking out. There’s something exceptional here to meet budgets across a wide range. An array of Brancaia wines were served at an off-beat cheese party at the East Loop Chicago restaurant Tesori, when chef Danny Sweis sliced into a new 80-pound wheel of parmesan.
CHICAGO WINE JOURNAL: With elegant 2014 Viognier, Darioush does a beauty one better
Tasting Report: One of the great pleasures of a visit to France’s Northern Rhone Valley is the luscious Viognier produced in Condrieu. I would have said it was matchless – until I had the equally happy experience of the Viognier from Darioush in California’s Napa Valley. The Darioush Viognier is a recent discovery for me. I first tasted it in the 2013 vintage – a lovely expression of white wine that in its combination of buttery depth and finesse evoked not only the Viognier of Condrieu but also the plush majesty of the top Chardonnays in Burgundy. And the newly released 2014 may prove to be even better.
CHICAGO WINE JOURNAL: Classic art of Jaboulet’s new Chapelle mistress
Tasting Report: Since my earliest forays into French wines, the brightest stars in my firmament have consistently included the patrician Hermitage La Chapelle produced by Paul Jaboulet Aîné in France’s Northern Rhône Valley. So it was little short of enchanting to step back through time at a vertical tasting of this great expression of Syrah at a recent Chicago seminar sponsored by Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate.
CHICAGO WINE JOURNAL: Aged Burgundian glory from three négociants
Mulling Wine: By chance or perhaps my natural gravitation, I just completed a sort of hat trick – meal accompaniments from three of my favorite Burgundy producers, all of whom fall into the somewhat misunderstood category of négociants.
CHICAGO WINE JOURNAL: Burgundy-style Pinot Noir from an Oregon star
Tasting Report: Since its founding in 1989, Domaine Serene in Oregon’s Willamette Valley has emerged as one of the top producers of Pinot Noir in a region famous for that wine. In a horizontal tasting with friends of four different Domaine Serene bottlings from the 2011 vintage, it became readily apparent why this house continues to enjoy such high esteem.
CHICAGO WINE JOURNAL: A new Spanish horizon for old-vine Garnacha
Tasting Report: With the dramatic emergence of Spanish wines in recent years, Grenache has gained familiarity in its Spanish robes as Garnacha – which might lead one to assume that the “two” grapes are one and the same. Indeed they are, and yet there’s a world of difference between them. That became clear during a Chicago seminar last week presented by Spanish producers of Garnacha from Cariñena, a small appellation long overshadowed by the likes of Rioja and Ribera del Duero.
CHICAGO WINE JOURNAL: The pleasures (and alluring price) of Chablis
Tasting Report: Somewhat to the northwest of the heart of what we think of as Burgundy – that is, the glorious Côte-d’Or with its world-famous Pinot Noir and Chardonnay — lies the appellation of Chablis. Technically, Chablis is part of Burgundy, though it’s more like an island. Or perhaps an unfavored stepchild. But for wine lovers, especially devotees of Chardonnay, Chablis is a discovery-in-waiting.
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