Theatre with a side of life
Broadway in Chicago presents the Pre-Broadway Musical PARADISE SQUARE. From the very first to the very last note, Joaquina Kalukango (Nellie) owns the bar, the stage, and the show. The phenomenal Kalukango welcomes the audience and patrons to her tavern with a rebel-rousing “Paradise Square.” Much later in the show, Kalukango belts out, literally and figuratively, ...
Steppenwolf Theatre presents BUG. A woman battles loneliness. A man fights to be free. They both want to escape their pasts. They meet at a party and it changes their lives… forever. Playwright Tracy Letts twists a rom-com-like premise into a demented nightmare. Letts lets his paranoia run wild and wacky. He pulls the audience into ...
Theatre 68 and the Venus Cabaret Theatre present I’M NOT A COMEDIAN… I’M LENNY BRUCE. Ronnie Marmo, writer and performer, has chosen a more than accurate title for his Lenny Bruce tribute. It is not a comedy… it is a life! True to Lenny’s provocative core, the show starts at the end and ends like it ...
Porchlight Music Theatre launches its 27th Mainstage season with Pump Boys & Dinettes. Just off Highway 57, the vibe is upbeat and casual! The premise of the show is a bus broke down. The stranded bus riders aka ‘the audience’ are greeted by the friendly staff at a random gas station and diner. The fourth wall completely ...
November 1, 2021 It’s a two month check-in! September was a whirlwind month of unexpected tragedies. Three of my close friends lost loved ones… a mother, a husband and a father-in-law. Although the three funerals brought unexpected touching reunions of Michigan, high school and Fort Wayne friends for me, the passage of life for my grieving ...
Broadway in Chicago presents WHAT THE CONSTITUTION MEANS TO ME. This show is politics as unusual! USA’s favorite 230+ year old document gets dusted off and dissected down. As a 15 year old, Playwright Heidi Schreck participated in constitutional debates. Schreck used these teenage competitions to win scholarship money for college. Her play starts by setting ...
Chicago Shakespeare Theater presents a Beatles inspired AS YOU LIKE IT. Adapter and Director Daryl Cloran takes a1620’s comedy and infuses it with 1960’s music. The brilliant pairing, centuries in the making, is a poetic explosion of joy and words. Cloran, along with the Bard of the Beach Shakespeare Festival, conceived this unusual compilation. At first, ...
Chef Rick Bayless and Windy City Playhouse present the World Premiere of A RECIPE FOR DISASTER. Chef Bayless brings his extensive knowledge of restaurant catastrophes to the stage. Bayless conceived the story and wrote it with the support of WCP Amy Rubenstein and Carl Menninger. They have created another Windy City Playhouse immersion experience. This one ...
Goodman Theatre, in conjunction with Dallas Theater Center, presents AMERICAN MARIACHI. The mere mention of the word ‘Mariachi’ cues up a familiar, upbeat tune in my head. It conjures up images of strolling musicians bringing colorful tradition to otherwise indistinguishable Mexican restaurants. The performers, however momentarily at a table, become the focal point of the evening’s ...
Mid-August, Chicago was hit with an indoors mask mandate. Illinois followed suit a week later. The positivity rate was too high. Was it Lollapollooza or other festivals? Who knows? I’m not mad at the Mayor or the Governor for inflicting a mask mandate. Masks have proven to stop the spread. I’ll wear one for the ...