Theatre with a side of life
Music Theater Works presents PIPPIN. Upon arrival, the audience is immediately engaged. The stage has brightly colored panels reminiscent of past television variety shows. Multiple screens feature 80s and 90s video snippets of culture and history. The playful mishmash sets the tone for wacky fun. The musical is a play within a play about a Prince ...
Porchlight Music Theatre presents the Chicago Premiere of ERNEST SHACKLETON LOVES ME. Kat (played by Elisa Carlson)is having an existential crisis. She is 45, a new mother, an unhappy girlfriend and a wannabe gaming composer. When she puts herself ‘out there’, the online ethereal rewards her with suitors from the past, not her past, THE ...
Remy Bumppo Theatre Company presents the World Premiere of GALILEO’S DAUGHTER. Women centuries apart explore the impact of Galileo on their lives. This past and present retrospective is the search for purpose by two very different people. Playwright Jessica Dickey intertwines 16th and 21st century stories. She personalizes it by making herself a character in the ...
Broadway in Chicago presents the Chicago Premiere of JAGGED LITTLE PILL inspired by the seminal rock album of the same name by seven-time Grammy Award winner Alanis Morissette. #MeToo, opioid addiction, nonbinary identification, gun violence, homelessness… JAGGED LITTLE PILL is a topical powerhouse of relevance. Although Morissette exploded onto the scene in the 90s with her ...
Goodman Theatre presents THE CHERRY ORCHARD. Aristocrats are confronted by a dilapidated estate, a non-producing orchard and a carefree past that no longer exists. In his 1903 classic, Anton Chekhov explored the end of serfdom. Lyubov (played by a fierce Kate Fry) returns to her childhood home after an extended absence. Despite a celebrity welcome from ...
International Voices Project (IVP), in collaboration with Intercultural Music Production, presents the United States premiere of THE SHROUD MAKER. IVP champions the work of global playwrights to get their stories onstage. It’s particularly challenging for plays with Palestinian content to find theaters to showcase their work. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict perspective changes depending on the narrator and ...
Idle Muse Theatre Company presents the World Premiere of THE LAST QUEEN OF CAMELOT. From the title, I imagined Queen Guinevere (played by Caty Gordon-Hall) was finally going to have her say. The legendary Camelot implosion would be told from her point of view. Although the show has snippets of her own self revelations, the Queen’s ...
Chicago Shakespeare Theater presents COMEDY OF ERRORS. Shakespeare’s tale of two sets of identical twins is a lampoon of shipwreck separation, mistaken identities and alternative twin sets. This established Shakes comedy is already a character-heavy farce. Director Barbara Gaines escalates the absurdity by framing the play as a movie. The movie is being produced to cheer ...
Broadway in Chicago presents TINA - The Tina Turner Musical produced by Stage Entertainment, James L. Nederlander and Tali Pelman, in association with Tina Turner and Erwin Bach. Tina Turner is an iconic superstar. This musical pays tribute to not only her talent but her resilience. It tells the story of a high-spirited young girl (played ...
Broadway in Chicago presents ANNIE THE MUSICAL. Do you remember when you last saw a live production of ANNIE? I do! It was 2016 and a Wednesday. Hillary just lost to Trump. I was devastated. I dragged myself to the press opening of ANNIE THE MUSICAL. The feel-good, family-friendly tale of an orphan bringing cheerful optimism ...