The Chicago engagement of the musical based on the 1993 film that starred Robin Williams plays through March 10, 2024

MRS. DOUBTFIRE is escapist musical theater fun with tremendous character actor Rob McClure (reprising the role from Broadway) carrying on Robin Williams’s immense legacy from the 1993 film in the lead role. 

Continue reading “Review: MRS. DOUBTFIRE National Tour Presented by Broadway In Chicago” →

Director Mary Zimmerman’s whimsical, fun-sized MAGIC FLUTE with 10 actors and 5 musicians runs through March 24, 2024

Director Mary Zimmerman returns to the Goodman with the whimsical and inventive THE MATCHBOX MAGIC FLUTE. Zimmerman’s adaptation of Mozart’s iconic opera is lively and accessible; this would be a great introduction for those new to the opera. I formally studied THE MAGIC FLUTE in a musical theater history course in college, and I still thoroughly enjoyed it (though I think the run-time could still be trimmed some, even at its current two hours and fifteen minutes). This is an utterly fun, visually delightful MAGIC FLUTE — and Zimmerman’s choice to stage the show in English (with some modern-day quips in the material) makes it easy to digest. Zimmerman’s design collaborators ensure it’s a visual marvel, too: Todd Rosenthal’s set is full of clever tricks that evoke the ethereal fairy-tale landscape, Ana Kuzmanic’s costumes are colorful and showcase an array of luxurious fabrics, and T.J. Gerckens’s lighting mirrors the light and shade in Mozart’s score. Amanda Dehnert and Andre Pluess’s music arrangements for the 10-member ensemble and five musicians capture the beauty and joy in Mozart’s music, as well. While it’s not the same as listening to THE MAGIC FLUTE in a large opera house with a full orchestra, the creative team captures the majesty and magic.

Continue reading “Review: THE MATCHBOX MAGIC FLUTE at Goodman Theatre” →

“Like a Rolling Stone,” the Bob Dylan jukebox musical GIRL FROM THE NORTH COUNTRY rolls along at an erratic pace with haphazard direction. Book writer and director Conor McPherson’s musical loosely wrapped around many of Dylan’s classic songs concerns a cast of characters at a guesthouse in 1934 Duluth, Minnesota. The musical introduces the owner of the guesthouse Nick Laine (John Schiappa, convincingly both weary and scrappy) and his troubled family: His wife Elizabeth (Jennifer Blood, convincingly losing her rational mind) seems to suffer from dementia, his son Gene (Ben Biggers) is an aspiring writer and alcoholic, and his adopted 19-year-old Black daughter Marianne (Sharaé Moultrie) is pregnant…and the would-be father is nowhere to be found. McPherson brings in a number of other residents at the Laine guesthouse, who flit in and out of the property. Some of them, like the newly released and wrongfully imprisoned Joe Scott (Matt Manuel), have good intentions; others, like the slimy Bible salesman Reverend Marlowe (Jeremy Webb, and, not, shockingly, an actual reverend) do not. The town’s Dr. Walker narrates the proceedings; he bookends the musical’s beginning and end with expositional monologues about this motley crew. 

Continue reading “Review: GIRL FROM THE NORTH COUNTRY Presented by Broadway In Chicago” →

Chicago Shakespeare Theater Artistic Director Edward Hall’s RICHARD III is a macabre — and messy — production with a commanding lead performance from Katy Sullivan. 

Continue reading “Review: RICHARD III at Chicago Shakespeare Theater” →

With NOTES FROM THE FIELD, playwright Anna Deavere Smith once again proves she’s a master of her genre of theatrical storytelling. Known for her documentary (or verbatim) plays, Smith presents monologues from 19 different interviews in this exploration of the school-to-prison pipeline in America. By allowing her interview subjects to literally speak for themselves, Smith has mastered the art of showing and not telling. NOTES FROM THE FIELD has a clear agenda; it’s a searing condemnation of the systemic failings of the American judicial, police, educational, and penitentiary institutions — and most notably a condemnation of the ways in which those systems have failed Black and Brown Americans. But Smith conveys her points with a blistering humanity (even if, at two hours and 40 minutes, I think she could have arrived at those points with a shorter run-time).

Continue reading “Review: NOTES FROM THE FIELD at TimeLine Theatre Company” →

Chicago premiere of contemporary dance show based on Sufjan Stevens’s ILLINOIS album runs through February 18, 2024

ILLINOISE is a journey through our great state of Illinois using movement. Directed and choreographed by Justin Peck and featuring music and lyrics from Sufjan Stevens’s ILLINOIS album, the show uses dance as its primary narrative language. Peck collaborated with playwright Jacke Sibblies Drury on a loose storyline for ILLINOISE, but that story is communicated entirely through dance. Stevens’s lyrics underscore the situations in the show and mirror the emotional shades of the choreography. 

Continue reading “Review: ILLINOISE at Chicago Shakespeare Theater” →

HIGHWAY PATROL is a real-life play for the internet age. Based on the digital archives of actor Dana Delaney with text curation from playwright Jen Silverman, it’s a personal, vulnerable, and also universal exploration of the longing for connection. Though the action takes place primarily in 2012, before the phrase “extremely online” was even coined, HIGHWAY PATROL is a live theater piece about what it means to be “extremely online.” 

Continue reading “Review: HIGHWAY PATROL at Goodman Theatre” →

Teatro ZinZanni is back inside the spiegeltent nestled on the fourteenth floor of the Cambria Hotel on Randolph to delight audiences with its latest edition: LOVE, CHAOS, AND DINNER. The creative team has brought back the title from the first iteration of the show in Chicago for this engagement. It’s a reliably delightful combination of cabaret and circus entertainment, and because it’s literally dinner and a show in one, it’s a reasonably good value, too. 

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The world premiere musical runs through December 24, 2023

Betty Boop is making her stage debut…and thanks to Jasmine Amy Rogers in the role, she’s making a real star turn. I truly didn’t know what to expect when BOOP! THE MUSICAL was announced. How would a cartoon character featured primarily in animated shorts from 1930-1939 make her way into a 2023 musical? The answer ends up being a conventionally plotted, enjoyable visual wonder with some classic big musical numbers. This Betty Boop musical brings the bops and good vibes.

Continue reading “Review: BOOP! THE MUSICAL Pre-Broadway Engagement Presented By Broadway In Chicago” →

The pre-Broadway engagement runs through December 10, 2023

It’s a “brand new day” for THE WIZ with new material from Amber Ruffin in this Broadway-bound engagement, but the production is well-trod territory. While I don’t take issue with the 1974 musical’s source material (Broadway is no stranger to riffs on THE WIZARD OF OZ), but the production choices — and the new additions to the book — don’t make this a unique or refreshed interpretation. From the gray tones of Kansas to the technicolor fairy-tale transformation into Oz (set by Hannah Beachler and costumes by Sharen Davis), this WIZ follows a well-worn path. That’s not to say the production isn’t enjoyable, but this Yellow Brick Road isn’t taking audiences on a novel adventure.

Continue reading “Review: THE WIZ National Tour Presented by Broadway In Chicago” →