Chicago Theater Reviews: Best Shows & Critic Recommendations Page 10

BWW Review: TEATRO ZINZANNI Presented by Broadway In Chicago
by Rachel Weinberg - July 17, 2021

TEATRO ZINZANNI is unabashedly designed to entertain — and it’s at its best when it makes high-flying fun literal with the aerial acts on display. The entire evening exudes energy, and the buzz that comes from being reunited with live performance was palpable....

BWW Review: I HATE IT HERE at Goodman Theatre
by Rachel Weinberg - July 15, 2021

I didn't hate I HATE IT HERE. In fact, Chicago playwright Ike Holter's 'concept album' play was both uproariously funny and thought-provoking....

BWW Review: DINGLEBERRIES at Interrobang Theatre Project
by Patrick Rybarczyk - June 24, 2021

There's a lot of vulnerability that comes with creating art. In the theatre, it can be said that it's the playwright who is the most vulnerable player. It is their words, their ideas, and their voice that are the heart of a production. When entrusting a creative team to bring their work to life, the...

BWW Review: OHIO STATE MURDERS at Goodman Theatre
by Rachel Weinberg - June 17, 2021

Director Tiffany Nichole Greene stages esteemed playwright Adrienne Kennedy’s OHIO STATE MURDERS with a cinematic twist in this second installment in Goodman Theatre’s Live Series. OHIO STATE MURDERS centers on Suzanne (a harrowing Jacqueline Williams), an accomplished writer who returns to Ohio Sta...

BWW Review: TITANIC (SCENES FROM THE BRITISH WRECK COMMISSIONER'S INQUIRY, 1912) at Court Theatre
by Emily McClanathan - June 17, 2021

In TITANIC (SCENES FROM THE BRITISH WRECK COMMISSIONER’S INQUIRY, 1912), playwright Owen McCafferty poignantly dramatizes eyewitness accounts of the Titanic’s sinking. Based on the British investigation into the shipwreck, the play allows the viewer to observe history unfold as if in real time....

BWW Review: Lyric Opera's THE NEW CLASSICS Free Streaming Concert
by Rachel Weinberg - June 09, 2021

If you’re looking for something to help fill that show tunes void, look no further than Lyric Opera’s THE NEW CLASSICS streaming concert....

BWW Review: THE SOUND INSIDE at Goodman Theatre
by Rachel Weinberg - May 13, 2021

Broadcast live from Goodman Theatre’s intimate Owen Theatre, THE SOUND INSIDE intrigues because of the twists and turns in Adam Rapp’s script, but also because it combines cinematic-quality streaming with the thrill of live theater. It’s been over a year since I last stepped inside a theater, and no...

BWW Review: THE LAST MATCH at Writers Theatre
by Rachel Weinberg - May 10, 2021

THE LAST MATCH derives its greatest level of poignancy from the fact that it lays bare Tim and Sergei’s interior lives for the audiences....

BWW Review: GOODS at Artemisia Theatre
by Emily McClanathan - May 08, 2021

No talking about politics: this is the rule by which Marla and Sam abide. For them, it’s no mere nicety to ease their way through a holiday dinner with relatives. After 20 years of traveling through space together collecting trash, they’re genuinely trying not to drive each other mad....

BWW Review: Porchlight Music Theatre's NEW FACES SING BROADWAY 1961
by Rachel Weinberg - April 19, 2021

With NEW FACES SING BROADWAY 1961, Porchlight Music Theatre has put together a program that will satisfy the cravings of those who desperately miss live musical theater....

BWW Review: Goodman Theatre's Encore of SMOKEFALL (2013)
by Rachel Weinberg - April 13, 2021

It seems most fitting that Goodman Theatre's current encore streaming production of SMOKEFALL exists both in and out of time. Noah Haidle's whimsical play, beloved by critics and audiences when it originally premiered at the Goodman in 2013 (and remounted in 2014), occupies an achronological space....

BWW Review: Goodman Theatre's Encore Streaming of PEDRO PARÁMO (2013)
by Rachel Weinberg - March 31, 2021

Although I don’t often preface my reviews, I think this particular write-up deserves one. As I reflect on my viewing of Goodman Theatre’s current Encore showing of PEDRO PARÁMO, I find it important to note that I’m writing about a production that took place eight years ago. The Goodman presented Cub...

BWW Review: THE SPIN at Interrobang Theatre Project
by Patrick Rybarczyk - November 01, 2020

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BWW Review: Porchlight Music Theatre's BROADWAY BY THE DECADE
by Rachel Weinberg - September 28, 2020

Porchlight's streaming program BROADWAY BY THE DECADE provides some much needed musical theater cheer in this unprecedented and challenging year for Chicago theater....

BWW Review: TEENAGE DICK at Theater Wit
by Emily McClanathan - March 21, 2020

What does live theater look like during a pandemic? As Americans adjust to the new realities of social distancing and sheltering in place to slow the spread of COVID-19, many theaters across the nation and the world are dark. Though live performances have been canceled, Theater Wit offers an innovat...

BWW Review: HER HONOR JANE BYRNE at Lookingglass Theatre
by Rachel Weinberg - March 13, 2020

J. Nicole Brooks's HER HONOR JANE BYRNE, now in a world premiere production at Lookingglass, is a play deeply rooted in Chicago's not-too-distant history. Inspired by former Chicago Mayor Jane Byrne (the first woman to serve as mayor here) and her decision to move into Cabrini-Green as a display of ...

BWW Review: WHAT THE CONSTITUTION MEANS TO ME Presented by Broadway In Chicago
by Rachel Weinberg - March 08, 2020

In WHAT THE CONSTITUTION MEANS TO ME, playwright Heidi Schreck has pulled off one of the most challenging feats in theater: The seamless blending of the personal and the universal. And the result is remarkable....

BWW Review: MIDDLE PASSAGE at Lifeline Theatre
by Emily McClanathan - February 27, 2020

In Lifeline Theatre's MIDDLE PASSAGE, the intimate Rogers Park venue transforms into the scene of a 19th century maritime epic. Artistic Director Ilesa Duncan and David Barr III adapt Charles Johnson's award-winning 1990 novel for the stage, and Duncan directs. The sprawling tale follows a recently ...

BWW Review: graveyard shift at Goodman Theatre
by Rachel Weinberg - February 20, 2020

orde arrington tuttle's graveyard shift, now making its world-premiere following an initial workshop production during Goodman Theatre's 2018 New Stages Festival, is a haunting and beautiful reflection on police brutality against Black Americans. Inspired by the legacy of 28-year-old Sandra Bland, w...

BWW Review: SUMMER: THE DONNA SUMMER MUSICAL Presented By Broadway In Chicago
by Rachel Weinberg - February 14, 2020

While Donna Summer may be 'Hot Stuff' when it comes to iconic songwriting and singing, SUMMER: THE DONNA SUMMER MUSICAL is a lukewarm entry in the genre of biographical jukebox musicals. The musical features many of Donna Summer's notable hits-and this national touring cast has the talent to take th...

BWW Review: A DOLL'S HOUSE at Raven Theatre
by Patrick Rybarczyk - February 11, 2020

Classic plays provide us a snapshot of the time period in which they were written. They can show us how far we may or may not have progressed as a society. Henrik Ibsen's 'A Doll's House' is one such classic. Now in production at Raven Theatre, this new take offers up a sharp, refreshing look. Raven...

BWW Review: AN AMERICAN IN PARIS at Drury Lane Theatre
by Emily McClanathan - February 09, 2020

a?oeHow can you feel liberated when your city's been crushed?a?? In the post-WWII setting of AN AMERICAN IN PARIS, this is the dilemma faced by the people who call the City of Light home--through birth, choice, or the displacement of war. For the young protagonists, healing comes through art, friend...

BWW Review: Tracy Letts's BUG at Steppenwolf Theatre Company
by Rachel Weinberg - February 04, 2020

Steppenwolf's production of ensemble member Tracy Letts's BUG is positively skin crawling, with magnificent central performances from Carrie Coon and Namir Smallwood that make the play all the more unnerving. While Letts's 1996 play may have seemed far-fetched and ahead of its time when it debuted i...

BWW Review: HOW TO DEFEND YOURSELF at Victory Gardens Theater
by Rachel Weinberg - February 02, 2020

Liliana Padilla's HOW TO DEFEND YOURSELF offers a brilliant examination of collegiate life, and, more specifically, the ways in which rape culture and the entirely real possibility of sexual assault affect university students. But what makes Padilla's play so powerful, fascinating, and entertaining ...

BWW Review: SOPHISTICATED LADIES at Porchlight Music Theatre
by Rachel Weinberg - January 29, 2020

DUKE ELLINGTON'S SOPHISTICATED LADIES is a classic Porchlight show: an ebullient musical revue showcasing both the esteemed song catalog of Duke Ellington and also the formidable talents of some of the city's finest musical theater performers....