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Jan 29, 2016 – 3:33 pm |

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. ★★★★

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Jazz premiere, youth band lead ‘Truth to Power’ and Prokofiev is spotlighted by Feltsman, CSO

Jun 2, 2014 – 5:09 pm |
Jason Moran at harmonium in Looks of a Lot premiere Chicago Symphony Center 5-30-2013 (Todd Rosenberg)

Review: The Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s “Truth to Power” festival swung fully into celebratory mode, with a jazz premiere and music of Prokofiev taking center stage, in a series of four diverse concerts at Orchestra Hall over a long weekend May 29-June 1.

Alex in wonderland: Minding Streisand’s mall proves trip into loopy luxury in ‘Buyer & Cellar’

Jun 2, 2014 – 10:51 am |
Urie Streisand collage

Review: At last it’s summer, the season for ice-cream cones and books with fun as their chief nutritional value. It’s also prime for a Broadway in Chicago show on this fancifully ridiculous premise — that Barbra Streisand, who has designed a “shopping mall” in the basement of her own home, drives a hard bargain to purchase a doll, which she already owns, from the fella she has hired to tend the shops. And he says No. ★★★

‘Juno’ at TimeLine: Good effort can’t redeem Blitzstein’s tepid musical on O’Casey classic

Jun 1, 2014 – 5:25 pm |
The cast of 'Juno' performing 'We're Still Alive' at TimeLine Theatre. (Lara Goetsch)

Review: Sean O’Casey’s colorful play “Juno and the Paycock,” about a poor family’s bit of luck in strife-torn Ireland, has enjoyed unstinting popularity since its premiere in 1924. But when Marc Blitzstein turned it into a musical in 1959, the show flopped and has never recovered. TimeLine Theatre’s ambitious revival demonstrates why. Review:

Role Playing: Shane Kenyon touches charisma and hurt of lovable loser in Steep’s ‘If There Is’

May 29, 2014 – 10:59 am |
Actor Shane Kenyon, who plays Terry in Nick Payne's 'If There Is I Haven't Found It Yet' at Steep Theatre.

Interview: Into the life of overweight, lonely, sullen teenager Anna, in Nick Payne’s play “If There Is I Haven’t Found It Yet,” bursts her similarly miserable but emotionally supercharged uncle Terry. He’s an instantly appealing guy who, says actor Shane Kenyon, has invested a lifetime of energy in “running away from growing up and accepting responsibility.”

‘Charles Ives Take Me Home’ at Strawdog: Tune is familiar but dad, daughter can’t harmonize

May 28, 2014 – 1:58 pm |
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Review: John Starr has enjoyed a successful career as a classical violinist, but he feels like he’s living between bookends of alienation. He never shared his father’s zeal for sports, and now his daughter is determined to make basketball her life. In Jessica Dickey’s radiant play “Charles Ives Take Me Home,” brought warmly to life at Strawdog Theatre, it is a headstrong, pragmatic and philosophical composer – in spirit anyway – who guides a father and daughter toward common ground in their disparate passions. ★★★★

‘M. Butterfly’ at Court Theatre: Amorous fantasy blurs truth and tests the limits of plausibility

May 27, 2014 – 3:42 pm |
Now it's time for Gallimard (Sean Fortunato) to put on the ceremonial trappings of Madama Butterfly. (Michael Brosilow)

Review: Rene Gallimard is a shy functionary in Beijing’s French diplomatic corps who falls head over heels for a Peking Opera artist performing “Madama Butterfly.” He soon begins a 20-year love affair with the man he believes to be a woman, and falls into a classic honeypot lure for spy recruitment. ★★

Van Zweden, CSO plumb Shostakovich Seventh to kick off festival on theme of ‘Truth to Power’

May 24, 2014 – 1:32 pm |
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Feature review: With a ringing affirmation of Shostakovich’s Seventh Symphony, conductor Jaap van Zweden and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra have plunged into a multifaceted festival celebrating three great 20th-century composers whose music sprang from personal and political tumult. In all, the festival, dubbed “Truth to Power” and devoted to music of Dmitri Shostakovich, Sergei Prokofiev and Benjamin Britten, features 14 performances of seven different concert programs across 18 days.

‘Henry V’ at Chicago Shakespeare: Noble production, except His Majesty is missing

May 23, 2014 – 10:51 pm |
Henry (Harry Judge) exults as his troops rout the French at Agincourt. (Liz Lauren)

Review: Chicago Shakespeare’s vivacious production of “Henry V” poses something of a paradox: Much of its energy emanates from the youthful presence of Canadian import Harry Judge as the king – and what is least remarkable about this show is Judge’s surface-skimming account of the embattled monarch. ★★★

‘Look Back in Anger’ at Redtwist: Bitterness nurtured as mode of life in post-war England

May 21, 2014 – 11:09 pm |
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Review : Jimmy Porter is a bright but very angry young working-class Englishman who has grown to adulthood in the decade following the end of World War II. While he has married somewhat above his social grade, his life is going nowhere. In John Osborne’s searing 1956 play “Look Back in Anger,” Jimmy consecrates his sharp wit and tireless energy to a seething, circular rant. Jonathan Berry directs an electric production at Redtwist Theatre, where Joseph Wiens lends volcanic Jimmy all the brilliance and sadness of a man in existential warp, spiritually homeless in a world that has lost its meaning. ★★★★

Raven Theatre’s sharp image of ‘Vieux Carré’ evokes turning point for playwright Williams

May 18, 2014 – 11:42 pm |
Jane (Eliza Stoughton) and her lover Tye (Joel Reitsma) are part of the motley band in the Vieux Carre. (Dean LaPrairie)

Review: Raven Theatre’s very fine production of Tennessee Williams’ “Vieux Carré” bespeaks that lyrical playwright in the long, sad twilight of his creative career and, indeed, his life. It is a look back into the predawn of Williams’ emergence as an important voice, a play filled with rich characters of meager means, and the lean, fierce eloquence of this account directed by Cody Estle gets it wonderfully right. ★★★★

‘Lay Me Down Softly’ at Seanachai: Characters looking for a narrative in the Irish countryside

May 16, 2014 – 5:11 pm |
Junior (Dan Waller, left) and Dean (Matthew Isler, right) are the boxers, and Theo (Jeff Christian) is the carnival boss. (Emily Schwartz)

Review: Billy Roche’s play of the Irish outback, “Lay Me Down Softly,” is a bit of a shaggy-dog story – and in the instance of Seanachai Theatre’s dreary go at it, the emphasis is on the dog.

Role Playing: Ramón Camín sees working-class values in Arthur Miller’s tragic Eddie Carbone

May 15, 2014 – 11:51 am |
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Interview: Some people will tell you Eddie Carbone, the Brooklyn longshoreman whose life disintegrates in Arthur Miller’s play “A View From the Bridge,” is the tragic victim of his attraction to the beautiful young niece who has grown up as his ward. But not actor Ramón Camín, who says he forged his gripping portrayal for Teatro Vista simply by taking Eddie as a man of his word.

London Aisle: National Theatre’s ‘King Lear’ captures folly and fall of one old but unwise

May 13, 2014 – 10:28 pm |
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Review: Shakespeare’s willful, vain, fatally blindered King Lear enjoys all that monarchy can bring, only to discover too late that kingship is like the bubble reputation – once tossed away in a moment’s folly, irretrievable. London’s National Theatre offers a gripping “King Lear” expressive of majestic folly and deep sadness. ★★★★★

After double exposure in Met Opera HD roles, Susanna Phillips ready for 2 more in Chicago

May 10, 2014 – 9:56 am |
Soprano Susanna Phillips (Ken Howard)

Interview: Soprano Susanna Phillips, hot from back-to-back Metropolitan Opera HD simulcasts that reached a couple of hundred thousand international viewers each, is heading into a week-long and half-unplanned stint in Chicago, where many classical music enthusiasts doubtless think of her as the auspiciously talented soprano from the Ryan Opera Center, Lyric Opera’s professional artist development program. But that was 2005-07. How great it must now feel to be in the shoes of this pure-voiced, luxurious-sounding singer at the top of her game.

Solo comedy ‘Buyer & Cellar’ creates fantasy image of Barbra Streisand & her private mall

May 10, 2014 – 9:21 am |
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Preview: Actor Michael Urie has never seen Barbra Streisand’s personal mall built into the lower level of her home – no, seriously, a street of ornate shops filled with her collections of antiques, dolls, gowns, etc. – but he says that after his long-running one-man comedy “Buyer & Cellar,” in which he plays the mall’s imaginary minder, he either will receive a personal invitation or he will be banned.

‘Motown the Musical’ launches tour in Chicago, and hometown headliner thinks that’s Supreme

May 7, 2014 – 10:54 am |
Allison Semmes is Diana Ross in MOTOWN THE MUSICAL First National Tour 2014

Preview: It was no great leap for Chicago native Allison Semmes to take on the role of Diana Ross for the national tour of “Motown the Musical,” which launches May 8 at the Oriental Theatre. Semmes grew up listening to the Supremes and other Motown sounds on her mom and dad’s vinyl LPs: “My parents say when I was about 3 years old, I was harmonizing with the vacuum cleaner.”

‘Sound of Music’ at Lyric: When opera meets B’way, the hills come alive – and hearts, too

Apr 28, 2014 – 10:52 pm |
The Sound of Music Lyric Opera Chicago 2014 (Todd Rosenberg)

Review:x There’s nothing like practice to turn an opera company into a viable musical theater producer, as the Lyric Opera of Chicago’s third venture into Broadway’s golden oldies clearly shows. “The Sound of Music” is the Lyric’s best effort in the classic musical genre to date, after “Showboat” in 2012 and “Oklahoma!” in 2013. ★★★★

Visiting the Darwins: ‘In the Garden’ dispenses some homey chat about homo sapiens and God

Apr 28, 2014 – 6:06 pm |
Darwin (Andrew White) shows his children (Caroline Heffernan and John Francis Babbo) the hand-like bones common to various creatures. (Liz Lauren)

Review: Scene upon witty scene, there is much to admire about Sara Gmitter’s elegant and facile new play “In the Garden: A Darwinian Love Story,” which in its world premiere at Lookingglass Theatre offers a kind of evolutionary portrait of the marriage of Charles and Emma Darwin. Floridly festooned in designer Collette Pollard’s literal interlacing of the natural and civilized worlds, “In the Garden” exudes a radiant, if benign charm. ★★

Teatro Vista’s ‘A View From the Bridge’ frames tragedy of good man snared by nameless trap

Apr 26, 2014 – 11:32 pm |
Eddie (Ramon Camin, left) gives Rodolpho (Tommy Rivera-Vega) a boxing lesson as the family watches. (Joel Maisonet)

Review: Great theater does not require introduction or advocacy. It announces and proclaims itself. It is, in other words, what it is. Behold the heart-breaking, thrilling greatness of Teatro Vista’s raw-boned take on Arthur Miller’s classic 1950s tragedy “A View From the Bridge,” the story of Eddie Carbone, a dock worker in Brooklyn’s Italian-American community scaping together a living even as he veers toward catastrophe. ★★★★★

‘If There Is I Haven’t Found It Yet’ at Steep: Noting the footprint, but missing the people

Apr 23, 2014 – 11:04 am |
Anna (Caitlin Looney) listens to some straight talks from her uncle Terry. (Lee Miller)

Review: Anna is 15 years old, seriously overweight and disconnected from just everything: her mom and dad, her school mates, her life. But disconnection runs in the family. Anna’s parents don’t seem to notice her. Then into their midst, in Nick Payne’s absorbing and painful play “If There Is I Haven’t Found It Yet,” pops the girl’s utterly lost soul of an uncle bearing a glimmer of hope. It is a promise as fragile as it is paradoxical, and exquisitely framed by four superb actors in Steep Theatre’s fine production directed by Jonathan Berry. ★★★★

Bates’ new concerto is feather in violinist’s cap when Slatkin leads CSO in American concert

Apr 18, 2014 – 11:18 pm |
Leonard Slatkin conducted the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in an all-American program.

Review: What an engaging, stimulating change of pace, this weekend’s all-American concert fare offered by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and conductor Leonard Slatkin at Orchestra Hall. Extending from classics by Barber and Gershwin through William Schuman’s bold, robust Sixth Symphony to youthful Mason Bates’ cleverly crafted Violin Concerto, the program heard April 17 offered a resounding reminder of this country’s enduring contribution to orchestral music in the modern era.

‘The Great God Pan’ at Next – When narrative runs out of thread, the drama is left dangling

Apr 17, 2014 – 1:41 pm |
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Review: The setup of Amy Herzog’s play “The Great God Pan” is intriguing: A man in his early thirties reconnects with a childhood chum who makes deeply disturbing claims about their formative years. Problem is, where we ultimately expect catharsis the playwright leaves us merely teased. And despite director Kimberly Senior’s sensitive and tempting effort, the current production at Next Theatre cannot magically spin this fragment into whole cloth.

‘Mud Blue Sky’ at A Red Orchid: Stewardesses winging it with cute young drug dealer in a tux

Apr 14, 2014 – 10:37 pm |
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Review: In the literal and best sense, Marisa Wegrzyn’s poignant comedy “Mud Blue Sky” at A Red Orchid Theatre is a four-star winner – one for each of the quartet of players in this close-knit and entertaining enterprise. ★★★★

Esa-Pekka Salonen, in double duty as conductor and composer, sparks energy surge with CSO

Apr 13, 2014 – 10:28 pm |
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Review: The Finnish-born, California-invigorated composer and conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen, at 55, could not be more robustly complementary in nature to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s elegant 72-year-old Italian-born music director Riccardo Muti, who has taught Chicago so much about the composers in close orbit to Old Vienna. In March, Muti made familiar Schubert seem new again. In April, Salonen made new music sound familiar.

‘The Dance of Death’ at Writers: Wedded war rages in old Sweden; fresh look at Strindberg

Apr 12, 2014 – 4:35 pm |
Kurt (Philip Earl Johnson) questions Alice (Shannon Cochran) about her tumultuous marriage. (Michael Brosilow) (2)

Review: If you liked Edward Albee’s “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf,” you’ll love the original: August Strindberg’s “The Dance of Death,” wherein a toxic, blood-sport marriage between a venomous old soldier and his hissing wife make the sniping between Albee’s George and Martha feel once more present in the room. Writers Theatre provides the well-polished dance floor for Strindberg’s caustic waltz. ★★★★★

Clarinetist Anthony McGill, star of Met Opera Orchestra, comes home for Mozart, Brahms

Apr 11, 2014 – 5:04 pm |
Clarinetist Anthony McGill will play Mozart and Brahms quintets with the Pacifica String Quartet.

Preview: Chicago-born clarinet virtuoso Anthony McGill returns to his native soil this weekend for a rare concert double: With the Pacifica Quartet, resident ensemble at the University of Chicago, he will play Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet in A major and Brahms’ Clarinet Quintet in B minor on April 13 at the Logan Center on the UC campus.

In ‘Starcatcher’ romp, goofy pirate lends a hand and Peter (Pan) learns no man is an isth-s-mus

Apr 7, 2014 – 10:08 am |
A bit of rope defines tight quarters for Molly (Megan Stern), her nanny (Benjamin Schrader) and Alf (Harter Clingman). (Jenny Anderson)

Review: Despite the exuberant ridiculousness of “Peter and the Starcatcher” — a show that channels Groucho Marx and Gilbert & Sullivan and Monty Python as it traces the backstory of the boy who became Peter Pan — you will turn misty at the end. To be an adult at Broadway in Chicago’s Peter Pan “prequel” is to be pricked with the realization that, for just about everybody in the world except Peter, and maybe Equity actors, one’s youth relentlessly fades. ★★★★

With ‘Lemminkäinen’ epic, Salonen and CSO capture Sibelius in youthful flower, prowess

Apr 6, 2014 – 4:03 pm |
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Review: This is a perfect moment to reflect on Sibelius’ early mastery, in light of the great achievements by the twentysomething Schubert we’ve been hearing from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and music director Riccardo Muti. And it is the fully flowered young Sibelius, before the First Symphony, caught up in the allure of Finnish myth and in absolute command of his symphonic craft, whom the CSO and conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen celebrate in a season-peak program heard April 3 and to be repeated April 8.

Cornwall’s Kneehigh troupe revisits ‘Tristan’ with antic comedy and double take on Yseult

Apr 3, 2014 – 6:01 pm |
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Review: Imagine that consummate romantic legend of heroic Tristan and beautiful Isolde, thrust together into illicit love by circumstance and a potion, as a tragi-comedy. No? Can’t conceive of that? Then you have yet to see the visiting Kneehigh theater company’s outlandish “Tristan & Yseult,” which now bounces about the boards at Chicago Shakespeare Theater. ★★★

‘Good Boys and True’ at Raven: The fast track throws some curves into the path of privilege

Apr 2, 2014 – 4:00 pm |
Brandon (Will Kiley, left) and Justin (Derek Herman) have forged a close bond. (Dean LaPraiie)

Review: One always comes away from a play performance, whether the staged work is new or familiar, with a single dominant impression. It may be a complex impression, but there’s always that ruling aspect, the starting point from which the conversation evolves. In the case of Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa’s “Good Boys and True” at Raven Theater, it is a sense of relentless circularity. ★★