So I was supposed to review Chicago Shakespeare Theater's Comedy of Errors  much earlier in its run but Covid in the cast led my ticked to be rescheduled for final weekend. Therefore I don't think anyone is counting on the awesome power of my words and the magnificent reach of my audience to sell a lot of tickets but here I am fulfilling my obligations anyway. If you happen to not know what you're doing the night of April 22nd or the afternoon of April 23rd you should be aware of your option to see this show which is not to say that I necessarily would. The title is a bit misleading. Yes it's Shakespeare's early farce about two sets of identical twins separated at birth and lots of slammed doors, but it's mostly sharing the stage with a frame story set during the Blitz period of World War II. With London under attack the showbiz community is making a film adaptation of the play to raise a nation's spirits. "It's that damned Hitler! It's all hi...

 You know the story, at least I hope you do. A kingdom based on glory and chivalry brought down by passion and betrayal, whether you know it or not, either is an excellent reason to see Idle Muse Theater's production of The Last Queen of Camelot adapted and directed by Evan Jackson. Retelling the Arthurian legend largely from a female perspective, the play unfolds through the eyes of Queen Guinivere, (Caty Gordon-Hall) torn between desire and duty, and King Arthur's scheming sister, Morgan, (Elizabeth MacDougald) a complex but deadly villain. Jack Sharkey, Laura Jones Macknin and Brendan Hutt all deliver standout supporting performances as the similarly conflicted Sir Lancelot, the calculating Merlin and the jovial Sir Dagonet respectively. Jackson has an excellent ear for elevated high fantasy dialogue and a great eye for visual spectacle along with costumer Amanda Freja Johanson, scenic designer Stina Taylor and the rest of his crew. This telling of the tale synth...

Hello readers, To reintroduce this blog, I was once a freelance theatre reviewer back in the storied late Oughts/early Tens. Then the online media infrastructure of the time collapsed (I think it's been reborn and re-collapsed I'm going to say seven or eight times since then, but I don't keep very close track) But in my deep desire to tell the truth to the people, but honestly mostly my desire to score free theatre tickets, I relaunched my reviewing career in 2019 so that worked out...for a while. Did we win the war? On Covid? Drugs? The Japanese? The British? I don't know, but it's 2023 and I'm back on the beat, and I will probably be reviewing like one show a month for the benefit of the twos and threes of people who might read them!

Karaoke isn't Cool. Karaoke is in fact, the antithesis of "Cool" if we define "Cool" as that feline quality of aloof detachment that makes you more attractive to people seeking your attentions precisely because you won't give them. Karaoke, the practice of you, an amateur, singing your heart out in a dive bar for the amusement of your fellow drunks, will never be that. It's also like my favorite thing. Because as with storefront theatre, karaoke is the practice of wearing your emotions on your sleeve and presenting your vulnerable, authentic self at your unselfconsciously cheesiest and not caring how  you look. That's why it will always be MY idea of Cool. Mike Beyer and Kirk Pynchon's play Last Night In KaraokeTown , currently being performed at the Factory Theater directed by Kim Boler recreates a karaoke dive bar experience with almost Uncanny Valley level accuracy. Shannon (Ashley Yates) slings cheap, domestic beer behind the bar while Ken...

Black Button Eyes Productions is consistently one of the most creative and fun small companies in Chicago, focusing on shows with weird and spooky subject matter. I saw their current show Whisper House  a musical by Duncan Sheik and Kyle Jarrow and I am happy to report that it is delightful . Set during World War II, Christopher, a young American boy (the adorable and promising child actor Leo Spiegel) has lost his father to combat and his mother, suicidal with grief, has been sent to a sanitarium. Christopher therefore is sent to live with his Aunt Lily, a kind but decidedly not used to children lighthouse keeper. (Kate Nawrocki) Lily is assisted by a Japanese man, Yasuhiro, (Karmann Bajuyo) who is targeted by the xenophobic sheriff. (TJ Anderson) Manipulating all of them are two creepy and malicious, but extremely fun ghosts, played by powerhouse singers Kevin Webb and Mikaela Sullivan. Their tragic backstory is that they were doomed lovers who drowned when their ship sunk due ...

I don't spend a lot of time at what I think of as Chicago's "Big theaters", your Good Men, your Stepen Wolves, I am a humble man of the streets and I mostly patronize the storefronts. (Exception: Chicago Shakespeare because of the great parties) However, a friend had a ticket to Stepenwolf's production of Tracy Letts' Bug  that she wasn't using and I decided to check it out. Letts' drama, originally written in 1996, is pretty well known, was the basis for a 2006 feature film starring famous Chicagoan Michael Shannon but this was my first time seeing it. Our heroine is the very relatable Agnes. (a lovable and charming performance by the playwright's real life wife Carrie Coon) Agnes is a down on her luck service worker living in a motel room in Oklahoma, very well rendered by scenic designer Takeshi Kata. Paradoxically, this is a pretty common situation for working class folks unable to scrape together a security deposit. Being poor is expensive. Ag...

Funerals are plays. Most organized rituals are. There is pageantry, a purpose, a prescribed order of events. I went to a lot of them when I lived with my grandparents for much of my youth. When you're old, funerals are a pretty major social activity. I appreciate the way Incomplete Conversations  by writer/director Nell Voss, produced by Silent Theatre captures the backstage drama of the funeral ritual. The show centers around the funeral of a beloved young pastor, James Edward Klein played by Victor Holstein, who may or may not have been murdered. Klein's ghost is watching his own funeral, and flashing back to various events of his life, and the often tumultuous relationships with his family and colleagues. The show is immersive and site specific, taking place in the various different rooms of the Tapestry Church on Irving Park. I've seen site specific shows before, I recall a fine production of Hamlet  I watched in a mansion on a north side beach once several years ag...