Reviewed by Jennifer Benoit-Bryan The Chicago premier of "Louis & Keely ‘Live’ at the Sahara" provides viewers with an excellent evening of entertainment, interspersing foot-tapping musical numbers through a poignant look back at the highs and lows of love. This play focuses on the real life husband-and-wife couple, Louis & Keely, who had one of the ...
The Fourth Walsh
Theatre with a side of life
Category The Fourth Walsh
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Review “Two Trains Running” (Goodman Theatre): Smooth Ride with unexpected dignity and realism
Goodman Theatre presents TWO TRAINS RUNNING. Martin Luther King Jr. established a dream. Bobby Kennedy spearheaded the Civil Rights Act. The 1960s civil rights movement promised change on a national level. King and Kennedy both were assassinated in 1968. The dynamic King and presidential candidate Kennedy killed in the same year was a loss to the ...
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Review Genius (Profiles Theatre): Wonderfully awkward
Reviewed by Tom Lawler Profiles Theatre presents the world premiere of GENIUS. As playwright Kate Walbert has done such interesting work in playing with the timeline of an extremely awkward dinner party between two NYC couples, let’s jump right to a scene that represents the very best of Genius. We see an older couple recount the story ...
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Review “Travesties” (Remy Bumppo): Brilliant Cerebral Comedy
Remy Bumppo presents TRAVESTIES. In 1976, Playwright Tom Stoppard received the Tony for Best New Play for TRAVESTIES. Stoppard’s comical tome is his loving tribute to Oscar Wilde. Stoppard imagines Zurich in 1917 where legends-in-the-making; James Joyce, Vladmir Lenin and Tristan Tzara are in pursuit of their passions. Joyce is researching for his book “Ulysses.” Lenin ...
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Review “Our Bad Magnet” (Mary Arrchie Theatre): Partially Haunted by Giggles
Mary Arrchie Theatre presents OUR BAD MAGNET. Playwright Douglas Maxwell pens almost two separate plays. One is anchored in the oddity of a young boy nicknamed Giggles (played with passion and nimbleness by Lane Flores). He has been neglected by a father who loved his ventriloquist dummy more than his son. The premise has plenty of ...
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EXTENDED Thru May 3rd “End Days” (Windy City Playhouse): Get Caught Up in this Rapture
Windy City Playhouse presents its inaugural production of END DAYS. The play opens with Stephen Cefalu Jr. (Nelson) strumming guitar in an Elvis jumpsuit. He is singing his heart out to an unseen girl while being plummeted with paper wads. Next, we meet a disheveled Keith Kupferer (Arthur) waking up from sleeping on the couch. He can’t ...
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Review “Tightwire” (Chicago Tap Theatre): One-of-a-Kind Experience
Chicago Tap Theatre presents the World Premiere of TIGHTWIRE. Although tap dancing is usually considered a peppy art form, Marc Kelly Smith makes tap dark. Smith has penned a tale around the behind-the-scenes antics of a 1930s traveling circus. And even though a circus is another entertainment mode more normally associated with merriment, Smith focuses us ...
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Review “Balm in Gilead” (Griffin Theatre): Delectably Seedy Slice of Life
Griffin Theatre presents BALM IN GILEAD. On my way up the steep staircase at Den Theatre, I was concerned for this drunk man on his way down. His eyes were half closed. He took each step with the focused deliberateness of the walking trashed. I wondered what had happened to this man until later when he ...
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Review “The Illusion” (The Right Brain Project): Captivating Conclusion
The Right Brain Project presents THE ILLUSION. The illusions start early and continue to the finale. Upon arrival, the audience is sat on benches lining the wall. Set Designer Katie-Bell Springmann has wrapped the intimate theatre in scripted parchment. Stacks of books create a cave-like arch on the stage. The room is dark except for a ...
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Review “One Came Home” (Lifeline Theatre): Resilient!
Lifeline Theatre presents a World Premiere Adaptation of ONE CAME HOME. Author Amy Timberlake set her award-winning historical novel in 1870s Wisconsin during the great passenger pigeon migration. Back then, the influx of pigeons was followed by the arrival of hunters. Passenger pigeons flocked by the billions making them a commercial target. And then they were ...