In 1960, when Eisenhower was still president and what we think of as “the ’60s”… counter culture… protests… civil unrest… had yet to really begin, Billy Wilder and his screenwriting […]
Nothing about the set of Caveman Play is very primal. Yes, there is a fire in the center of what is presumably a cave, but it crackles silently amid soft elevator music, […]
Much of the theater on offer this month involves a nutcracker or Christmas ghosts. And we have you covered on those performances. But if you are looking for something different in […]
The Golden Girls sitcom is in perpetual rotation on television it seems. It’s late at night and sometimes simultaneously on two channels as an alternative to the news. It presaged […]
As part of its WorldStage series, Chicago Shakespeare Theater brings the lyrical tale Islander, a folk-inspired musical soundscape from Scotland, to the Windy City after an acclaimed off-Broadway run and […]
Burlesque combines circus, vaudeville, opera, and theater for the so-called common folk. The art is derived from classical composers and theater performers as far back as the mid-19th century. One […]
“These are but shadows of things that have been.” Those familiar with A Christmas Carol may recognize this haunting line from the Ghost of Christmas Past. The Ghost takes Ebenezer […]
Dario Fo’s 1974 Marxist farce, Can’t Pay? Won’t Pay!, has plenty of messages for us in today’s era of inflationary prices. In its staging by Gwydion Theatre Company, we learn […]
Just about halfway between MGM’s (and Judy Garland’s) immortal The Wizard of Oz and Broadway’s current box-office smash Wicked, there was another musical retelling of L. Frank Baum’s classic American […]
The Goodman Theatre’s 46th annual production of A Christmas Carol is the kickoff to the holiday season in Chicago. The last time I saw it was over 12 years ago […]
While Chicago can lay claim to many headliners of the past, only Milwaukee had a major influence in the life of a piano prodigy who eventually became known as a […]
Ask a few actors about their childhoods and you start to notice patterns. “My siblings and I made costumes and put on silly plays for our parents,” is a common […]