A year ago today, I was sipping coffee on a terrace overlooking Lake Atitlan. I spent my final days of my 40s in Guatemala. I entered my 50s in Cancun. It was a wondrous vacation. And the absolute most perfect birthday was the crowning jewel. So what about this year? For years, no decades, I’ve treated my ...
Review “Newsies” (Broadway in Chicago): Billy Elliot on Steroids Times 12!
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 ...
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 ...
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,” ...
Review “Anna Bolena” (Lyric Opera): Radvanovsky Bewitchingly Rules!
Lyric Opera presents ANNA BOLENA. The tale of the unfortunate fate of King Henry VIII’s second wife is familiar. Queen Anne Boleyn’s reign ended by beheading. ANNA BOLENA’s liberetto by Felice Romani focuses more on the guilt of Anne than Henry. The fact that Henry is killing his wife to marry Jane Seymour is buried underneath ...
“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. ...
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 ...
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 ...
13 Days to 51
In less than two weeks, I’ll turn 51. I hope I remember. Last year, I was very focused on leaving my forties. I was counting down the days, literally, on my 500 Days to 50 blog. And I was planning the big milestone vacation with my friends. We were going to Guatemala and then on ...
I’ve been to Sloth-ville and back
It’s been a week since my challenge ended. Where have I been? Well, I got on the train in Chicago and got off in Sloth-ville. After posting my results of the 29 Day Challenge, I waded into a vegetative state. On Thanksgiving and the day after, I dropped my FitBit steps from a 14K daily average ...