Hell in a Handbag presents CHRISTMAS DEAREST. Tired of the same old annual Christmas shows being dusted off and remounted across Chicago? Hell in a Handbag knows the remedy to too much tradition. They are ready to deck your hall, trim your tree and stuff your stocking with bright gaudy lampoon. The twisted genius of David Cerda ...
Fulfillment (American Theatre Co): ATC Opens Up New Season and Bares All
Reviewed by Tom Lawler Set the scene: Fulfillment is the opening entry in American Theater Company’s Season 31, dedicated to the memory of PJ Paparelli, ATC’s young artistic director who tragically died in a car accident this spring. Penned by Thomas Bradshaw, whose edgy oeuvre has netted both a Guggenheim fellowship and heaps of press, Fulfillment ...
Review “It’s a Wonderful Life” (American Blues Theatre): A Favorite Holiday Tradition
American Blues Theater presents IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE: LIVE IN CHICAGO. Although I missed it last year, ABT’s IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE has become one of my favorite holiday traditions. It kicks off the season like putting up lights or listening to Christmas tunes. For fourteen years, ABT has produced the Frank Capra’s classic as a ...
Review “Angina Pectoris” (ShPIeL-Performing Identity): Oy Vey!
ShPIeL-Performing Identity presents the world premiere of Angina Pectoris. The Israeli Defense Minister desperately needs a heart transplant. The only available heart is from an Arab. Unfortunately, the minister recently passed legislation that Jewish people can only receive organs from Jewish donors. His daughter’s old boyfriend, who is also his cardiologist, wants to operate. His daughter and her ...
Review “The Lisbon Traviata” (Eclipse Theatre): Sublime!
Eclipse Theatre presents THE LISBON TRAVIATA. I loved this show. Playwright Terrence McNally composed an unsung opera. It has passion and music and obsession and tragedy. It also has humor. McNally drops us into the 1980s New York apartment of Mendy (played by the outstanding JP Pierson). Pierson is playing his latest Maria Callas record acquisition ...
Review “No More Sad Things” (Sideshow Theatre): Humor Gets Buried and Interrupted
Sideshow Theatre presents a co-world premiere with Boise Contemporary Theatre, NO MORE SAD THINGS. Playwright Hansol Jung debuts a quirky tale about escapism. An Ohio woman, coping with her mother’s debilitating cancer, is plagued with reoccurring frog nightmares. Several states and an ocean away a guy, dealing with a father’s career-altering accident, dreams of watching a ...
Review “Chapter Two” (Windy City Playhouse): Frothy RomCom!
Windy City Playhouse presents CHAPTER TWO. CHAPTER TWO premiered in 1977. It was Playwright Neil Simon’s tribute to his second wife Marsha Mason. The semi-autobiographical play focuses on a widower’s struggle between his dead wife and his new love. Throw in a meddling brother and a sexually-frustrated friend and the set-up is pure frothy rom-com. The ...
Review “Pilgrim’s Progress” (A Red Orchid Theatre): Wacky and Smart!
A Red Orchid Theatre presents the World Premiere of PILGRIM’S PROGRESS. In two words, Playwright Brett Neveu’s tale is wacky and smart! This quirky family Thanksgiving is a charcoal black comedy. Dad is a stage actor. Mom is a psychologist. Son is an earth-poet. And daughter is a pregnant teen. Neveu’s characters are each unique. And ...
Holmes vs. Holmes (E.D.G.E Theater): White City Black Heart
Reviewed by Tom Lawler Set the scene: E.D.G.E. Theatre, a self-described “oddity” with a professional theater operation designed to support its educational programs, tackles the notorious H.H. Holmes and the epochal 1893 Columbian Exposition in a stylish, minimalist staging in Rogers Park’s cozy Heartland Studio Theater space. What’s it all about: Director Orion Couling and Dramaturg-Assistant Director ...
Review “The Long Christmas Ride Home” (Strawdog Theatre): A Dark Trip to Grandma’s House
Strawdog Theatre presents THE LONG CHRISTMAS RIDE HOME. WARNING: This play isn’t the one to see before Zoo Lights. It won’t make you want to bake Christmas cookies. And ‘going to grandma’s house’ isn’t something to sing about. Despite the title sounding like a children’s book, there isn’t anything merry about this Christmas story. Playwright Paula Vogel ...