The Other Theatre Company presents BENT. It’s 1930s Germany. Nik Kourtis (Max) wakes up hungover. He can’t remember what happened the night before. An animated Will Von Vogt (Rudy) arrives with coffee. As Kourtis tries to interrogate him, Von Vogt rattles on about his plants and his ankles from dancing on concrete floors. Kourtis eventually pries ...
The Fourth Walsh
Theatre with a side of life
Category The Fourth Walsh
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Review “Moby Dick” (Lookingglass Theatre): A Bookish Progression
Lookingglass Theatre, in association with The Actors Gymnasium, presents MOBY DICK. I’ve had the privilege to see several unique and memorable “Moby Dick” productions in Chicago over the last few years. The now dark The Building Stage told the classic with an Ishmael chorus. The Chicago Mammals used an all-female cast to cleverly go after the ...
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Review “VANYA AND SONIA AND MASHA AND SPIKE” (Goodman Theatre): Chekhov a la mode
Goodman Theatre presents the Chicago premiere of VANYA AND SONIA AND MASHA AND SPIKE. It’s easy for me to see why this Tony Award-winning play was a Broadway smash hit. The story has high entertainment value for the target audience, the increasingly large pool of aging baby boomers. It is about three siblings grappling with growing ...
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Review “Soon I Will Be Invincible” (Lifeline Theatre): Is Invincible!
Lifeline Theatre presents the World Premiere Musical Adaptation, SOON I WILL BE INVINCIBLE. The phrase rolling through my head since seeing this show is ‘commercial appeal.’ I can easily see this innovative musical mounted on Broadway and becoming a family tourism destination. It has super heroes battling a super villain while struggling with their super identities. ...
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Review “Don’t Go Gentle” (Haven Theatre): Complicated and Simple
Haven Theatre presents DON’T GO GENTLE. “Charity begins at home” is a phrase Sister Gerald Francis pounded into her students’ heads. When I was a kid, I didn’t get it. It sounded fairly selfish for a nun’s mantra. How could I make a difference in the world at home? As I made my way out into ...
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Review “Stickfly” (Windy City Playhouse): Genuine Family Drama
Windy City Playhouse presents STICKFLY. As the insect enthusiast, Celeste M. Cooper (Taylor) explains that flies are glued to sticks so scientists can closely observe their winged struggles to get free. Well in this show, the audience is the scientists. The cast is the flies. Director Chuck Smith provides the stick. And Playwright Lydia R. Diamond ...
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Review “La Raison D’Etre” (Tapman Productions): Opposites Attract
Tapman Productions presents LA RAISON D’ETRE, A Tapman Repertory Performance. Tap is back! This was my third tap dancing show in 2015. Each show has had a different story angle; a tap dancing super hero and then a traveling circus. This time, the show is set in a nightclub. The owner’s wife steps out on him, ...
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“Another Kind of Love – A Punk Rock Play” (Infusion Theatre): Rocking Mayhem!
InFUSION Theatre Company presents ANOTHER KIND OF LOVE - A PUNK ROCK PLAY. Playwright Crystal Skillman cleverly spins a musical family into rocking mayhem. The premise is the 25th anniversary of a rock legend’s fatal overdose. Since the demise of the late, great Melanie Singer, her three daughters have struggled in the shadow of her fame. Their ...
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Review “Chalk” (Sideshow Theatre): Sci-Fi meets Lifetime Channel Original
Sideshow Theatre Company, in conjunction with Boston’s Fresh Ink Theatre, presents a two-city rolling world premiere of CHALK. The world is coming to an end. In an abandoned building, two women and an alien are separated by a circle of chalk. Playwright Walt McGough pens a homespun thriller. In the broader realm, a world invasion is ...
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Our New Girl (Profiles Theatre): Everyone Hates a One Upper
Reviewed by Tom Lawler Profiles Theatre presents the Midwest premiere of OUR NEW GIRL. Playwright Nancy Harris may hail from the UK, but the scenario in her Our New Girl is all too recognizable for a certain echelon of the striving upper class on our own shores. Hazel (a magnificent Sarah Chalcroft) and Richard (Layne ...