Broadway in Chicago presents Disney’s NEWSIES. This Tony Award-winning musical features butch ballet. Choreographer Christopher Gattelli has these rag muffin guys regularly in the air. Instead of walking across the stage, they often flip...sideways, backwards, over another guy. Their athletic feats are marveling. And even when they do a graceful pirouette, it still looks every bit ...
The Fourth Walsh
Theatre with a side of life
Category The Fourth Walsh
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Review “Twist Your Dickens” (Goodman Theatre, The Second City): F#cking Funny!
Goodman Theater, in conjunction with The Second City, presents TWIST YOUR DICKENS, OR SCROOGE YOU! This was my third installment of The Second City’s local collaborative spectacles. Previously, The Second City had partnered with Lyric Opera of Chicago and the Hubbard Street Dance Company. “The Second City Guide to the Opera” and “The Art of Falling” cleverly infused very ...
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Review “Pericles” (Chicago Shakes): Muddled!
Chicago Shakespeare Theater presents PERICLES. There’s a reason that PERICLES is a lesser known work of Shakespeare. It’s muddled! Based on the real life of a prominent Greek Statesman (495-429 BC), the play takes us on a voyage of Pericles’ life… actually multiple voyages. And unlike in the literary stories of “Nicholas Nickleby” or “Robinson Crusoe,” ...
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“The Clean House” (Remy Bummpo): A Must-Feel!
Remy Bumppo presents THE CLEAN HOUSE. What I loved about this smartly-written show by Sarah Ruhl was the surprising contrasts. There was drama and comedy, reality and fantasy, life and death, and love and real love. Ruhl created familiar role pairings: employer-maid, husband-wife, patient-doctor, sister-sister. And then she twisted them for unexpected relational woe and joy. ...
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Review “Dickensian Delights” (Dream Theatre Company): Basically Great!
Dream Theatre Company presents A CHRISTMAS CAROL: AN EVENING OF DICKENSIAN DELIGHTS. The “Christmas Carol” is a holiday classic. Currently, Chicagoland is boasting multiple versions onstage. Over at Goodman, the production is the traditional showcase. Nearby, Chicago Shakes is premiering a hip-hop alternative of the story. Both plays use different techniques to give the public entertainment ...
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Review “Panic on Cloud 9” (The Second City e.t.c.): Ladies Night…and They’re Not Afraid of the Dark
Reviewed by Tom Lawler The Second City e.t.c. presents its 103rd Revue, PANIC ON CLOUD 9. According to my sources at Urban Dictionary, Cloud 9/Cloud Nine can now refer to a state of being high on marijuana. To put a finer point on it, we’re talking about a sensation of feeling faded, twisted or mucha ...
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Review “Holiday Symphony” (Celtic Thunder): Perfect for Fans and Virgin Converts
The Celtic Thunder performed on November 30th at Chicago Theatre. Chicago was a select stop on their North American Symphony Tour. The shows are the 8th US tour and feature songs from the Celtic Thunder’s new album Holiday Symphony. The evening was the perfect transition from Thanksgiving into the Christmas season. The beautiful, historic theatre was ...
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Review “A Q Brothers’ Christmas Carol” (Chicago Shakes): Better than excellent!
Chicago Shakespeare Theater and Richard Jordan Productions LTD present the World Premiere of A Q BROTHERS’ CHRISTMAS CAROL. The lively crew of GQ, JQ, Jackson Doran and Postell Pringle twist the familiar Dickens tale into a unique holiday spectacle. Jacob Marley is Jamaican. The ghosts are three different types of rappers. Tiny Tim is an adorable hypochondriac. ...
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Buddy Cop 2 (Pavement Group): Cops and Yeppers
Reviewed by Tom Lawler Pavement Group presents the Midwest premiere of BUDDY COP 2. The anti-comedy movement is usually traced back to Andy Kaufman, who began entertaining hip New York audiences in the ‘70s by doing Elvis Presley impressions, pantomiming to recordings of the Mighty Mouse theme and threatening to read The Great Gatsby in ...