Director Chuck Smith’s production runs through May 19, 2024

JOE TURNER’S COME AND GONE conveys the search for Black American identity among the inhabitants of Seth and Bertha Holly’s boarding house in 1911 Pittsburgh. Chronologically, it’s the second play in Wilson’s Twentieth Century Cycle (though, admittedly, the first this critic has seen on stage!), and it’s a layered character study within Wilson’s body of work. Director Chuck Smith has a long history of championing and producing Wilson’s work at the Goodman and here he leads a talented Chicago cast who weave artfully between the play’s moments of grounded reality and eerie mysticism and spirituality. Perhaps that’s one of the most striking parts of this play: In the characters’ search for identity, they must reckon with the hauntings of their pasts. 

Continue reading “Review: AUGUST WILSON’S JOE TURNER’S COME AND GONE at Goodman Theatre” →

The pub of nine singing lads is open for business through July 14, 2024

Raise a glass to THE CHOIR OF MAN, a rollicking good time of a show. The show’s a UK transfer and it transports audiences to the fictitious pub The Jungle, modeled after classic Irish and British pubs. Therein, the eponymous nine man choir serves up pop and rock hits on tap. THE CHOIR OF MAN is all about having fun and delivering on its promise of great vocal arrangements.

Continue reading “Review: THE CHOIR OF MAN at Apollo Theater “ →