Month: January 2023

Review: THE RIPPLE, THE WAVE THAT CARRIED ME HOME at Goodman Theatre

Review: THE RIPPLE, THE WAVE THAT CARRIED ME HOME at Goodman Theatre

As implied by the title, Christina Anderson’s the ripple, the wave that carried me home is a narrative of homecoming. The play’s protagonist and narrator, Janice, remarks at the top of the show that she doesn’t often talk to her family back home in the fictional town of Beacon, Kansas— in fact, she shares that she only calls her mother on the first and third Sundays of every month, seven out of 10 bank holidays, and during medical incidents. But then Young Chipper Ambitious Black Woman of the African-American Recognition Committee in Beacon calls Janice and asks her to speak at an upcoming public event in honor of her father. Janice must metaphorically reckon with her homecoming and her childhood in Beacon.

Continue reading “Review: THE RIPPLE, THE WAVE THAT CARRIED ME HOME at Goodman Theatre”
Review: CABARET at Porchlight Music Theatre

Review: CABARET at Porchlight Music Theatre

Porchlight invites audiences into the glittering, gritty world of early 1930s Berlin with John Kander and Fred Ebb’s iconic musical CABARET. Under the direction of Porchlight Artistic Director Michael Weber and with associate direction and choreography by Brenda Didier, this production largely belongs to Erica Stephan in the role of Sally Bowles. As the seductive and desperate nightclub singer, Sally, Stephan is an absolute dream. She not only plays the character’s arc beautifully, moving from artful seduction to total desperation and panic by the show’s end, but she showcases her powerful belt and vocal control in each of Sally’s solo numbers. In this way, Porchlight’s production mirrors Sally’s character arc; as the other characters in the show are awakened to the realities of the Nazi party’s rise to power, they must contend with the fact that life is not, in fact, a cabaret.

Continue reading “Review: CABARET at Porchlight Music Theatre”