Henry V The nominal purpose of my blog is to celebrate Chicago’s storefront theatre, the low budget, independent theatre of the streets made by and for working class joes like me. With exceptions I generally don’t review “the big ones” like Goodman and Steppenwolf, but Chicago Shaespeare Theater is an exception for me, because it’s meant a lot to me since a high school field trip to see Othello in the mid-90s, before they secured their now famous Navy Pier space. Under the leadership of founding Artistic Director Barbara Gaines and her recently crowned successor Edward Hall, this production’s director, CST has always provided its audience with productions of Shakespeare’s canon that feel both faithful and innovative. Much of Henry V is just that. The production centers on the charismatic performance of Elijah Jones, who perfectly captures the essence of the formerly wild and wanton Prince Hal, now transformed into the mature, fearsome warrior king. Jones is the solid anchor arou...

If anyone has actually read more than one of these reviews they may note I have a pretty strong tendency to be positive. This doesn’t mean I love every show in the world or would if I saw them but rather the shows I see are entirely self selected. I see what I think I’m going to like and I have a pretty good sense of what I’m going to like. And I also make no pretence of objectivity. If I am familiar with the work of the playwright and cast and if I “go to a cocktail bar with them after the show” I make no apologies. I would occasionally throw in a “full disclosure” when I wrote for Centerstage but these days I’m my own master, ain’t nobody paying me, ain’t nobody I owe anything to. So that said believe me when I say I loved Mark Pracht’s House of Ideas , directed by Terry McCabe. If there’s one medium I love at least as much as theatre it’s comic books, and Pracht’s “Four Color trilogy” has been a compelling, well researched exploration of the history (and tragedy) behind the creative...

Corn Productions/Cornservatory is a favorite of mine. Best comedy theater in Chicago? Not a chance while Second City, IO and even Annoyance are around but they’ve always been a charming underdog capable of producing the occasional gem. They’re also a great, affordable venue for original works like Deana Velandra’s We Should Kill Him . The show centers on Candace (Kaleigh Stoller) whose heart has just been broken by philandering standup comic Chris (Shannon Burke) a rogueish, faithless cad and the archetypal artsy dirtbag every woman seems to have dated somewhere around 27. Burk does a fine job with the unenviable task of embodying a character designed to be loathed, with an endless stream of lame excuses and prevarications. Candace seeks comfort in a fine supporting cast as her circle of friends, Allison Ristaino as quintessential bestie Ellie, Lily Cox as her badass lesbian sister Jen, and Anna Dorian, her newfound friend who was also jerked around by the nefarious Chris. Despite ...