Month: May 2024
Sanaz Toossi’s Pulitzer Prize-winning ENGLISH is a beautiful, well-paced exploration of language’s simultaneous ability to open up our worlds, and yet for new language learners, make them smaller in terms of what we can express.
Continue reading “Review: ENGLISH at Goodman Theatre”
DEATH BECOMES HER is a campy, hilarious romp of a musical. I wasn’t sure exactly how book writer Marco Pennette and composers Julia Mattison and Noel Carey would pull off a stage adaptation of the cult classic 1990s movie starring Meryl Streep and Goldie Hawn, but they’ve made stage magic happen. The musical has great flow and pacing as audiences watch the antics of frenemies Madeline Ashton (Megan Hilty) and Helen Sharp (Jennifer Simard) in their attempts to one up each other and retain their youthful looks.
Continue reading “Review: DEATH BECOMES HER Musical Pre-Broadway World Premiere”
World premiere of Levi Holloway’s dystopian play runs through June 22, 2024 at The Chopin Theatre
Levi Holloway’s dystopian play TURRET introduces audiences to an intimate bunker in a post-apocalyptic world. And notably, the play marks Michael Shannon’s return to A Red Orchid. Shannon plays Green, who presides over this mysterious bunker in which he’s holding captive his trainee, Rabbit (Travis A. Knight). At the play’s opening, this particular iteration of Rabbit appears to be one of many test subjects within Green’s clutches. The first several scenes of TURRET have a kind of mundanity: Rabbit runs furiously on a treadmill while Green performs a series of tests. The text doesn’t reveal much about the nature of these experiments, and audiences are left to wonder what, exactly, is happening for much of the play.
Continue reading “Review: TURRET at A Red Orchid Theatre”
The Chicago premiere of Larissa FastHorse’s play runs through June 2, 2024
In THE THANKSGIVING PLAY, four actors’ road to creating an elementary school Thanksgiving performance is paved with good intentions. But good intentions aren’t enough to save them from their “white savior” complexes.
Continue reading “Review: THE THANKSGIVING PLAY at Steppenwolf Theatre Company”
The world premiere comedy starring Jason Alexander runs through May 26, 2024
JUDGMENT DAY may be a world premiere comedy, but it trades in old-school jokes. Rob Ulin’s play is relatively simple and wears its moral heart on its sleeve (Main takeaway: Don’t be a jerk), even if lead role Sammy Campo doesn’t have a heart at all. While JUDGMENT DAY pokes some fun at the Catholic church, the play’s satire is not that deep. That said, this play is swiftly moving and delightfully entertaining, and it fully delivers on the promise of offering audiences a good time.
Continue reading “Review: JUDGMENT DAY at Chicago Shakespeare Theater”
Rachel Weinberg Reviews 