Paige Eight

Hopefully Ace of Base and their 90s pop hit won’t be stuck in your head for too long. But I truly have seen “The Sign” – “The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window” specifically. Lorraine Hansberry’s last major work to make it to Broadway before she succumbed to pancreatic cancer at 34 has been plucked from relative obscurity and mounted at the Goodman Theatre (marking only the third production by a major playhouse). It is clear the Goodman team capitalizes on the fact this artistic offering has been so rarely staged to flex their creative muscles and take an imaginative approach to the Chicago-bred writer’s story of life, love and catastrophic loss against the background of a New York City and society undergoing transition during the latter part of last century. One of the ways this is most evident is in the craftsmanship of the production’s scenic design. One of the most outstanding aspects of this Goodman production is the elaborate  labyrinth of scaffolding erected to ...

                                                                                            And up in the nursery, an absurd little bird, is popping out to say "Cuckoo" … or something else, I don’t truly know. What I do know is that this line from Rodgers and Hammerstein’s  The Sound of Music  pretty much sums up the feel and experience of The Cuckoo Theatre Project’s Commedia Dell’Arte tour de force  The Green Bird . Under the innovative guidance and vision of director Donny Kolakowski, a fantasia of old school slapstick, contemporary comedy and social comedy and storybook charm come together in such a way that makes the audience feel almost voyeuristic, with an elevated perspective of the endearing fable and zany antics unfolding in th...

                                        One would think an 1895 dramatic comedy concerning acutely depressed people forming a dysfunctional rural Russian family would be impertinent today. The Artistic Home, with their captivating presentation of Anton Chekhov’s   The Seagull   that brings the play to life with reinvigorated relevance, ensures that such thinking is false.This production, with director Cody Estle and assistant director Jack Bourgeois at the helm, accomplishes this by highlighting the play’s universal themes like struggles with disapproving parents, frustration with one’s situation in life and tragic unrequited love and loss. The direction's emphasis on relating clearly and accessibly such popular motifs makes this theatre’ s depiction   of the acclaimed author’s commentary on life and humanity’s vulnerability and fragility moving. Lending to this c...

Squonk, according to urban legend, alludes to a fabled formidable varmint that stalks northern Pennsylvania’s woodlands. According to Urban Dictionary, Squonk is also South African vernacular for off-kilter or misaligned. Both of these definitions are easily attributed to and aptly describe Squonk Opera, a Pittsburgh-based innovative avant-garde performance art troupe touring their latest show  Pneumatica  at Moraine Valley Community College. Most of the time, one was unsure of what was going on as a cyclone of original melody, intriguing graphics and fabulous farce blended captivatingly in the company’s off-balance ode to wind and fancy-free.             One engrossing aspect of the group’s presentation of their most recent creation is the hilarious prop design and work. Utilizing gas masks with attached inflatable hose contraptions that resembled noses or majestic elephant trunks were quite funny. The props...

                                  Strange things may have been afoot at the Circle K for Bill and Ted in the ’89 Keanu Reeves cult classic “Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure,” but not on North Michigan Ave. where amazing things are transpiring at Lookingglass Theatre. Playwright and Lookingglass Ensemble Member Kevin Douglas has more than struck gold, he’s discovered the lost city of El Dorado with “Thaddeus and Slocum: A Vaudeville Adventure,” a delectably cynical, satirical exposé of race relations and entertainment industry injustice in 1908 Chicago. Telling the story of two best friends and surrogate brothers forming an interracial vaudeville act who devise a unique plan to make it big time and play Chicago’s premiere venue The Majestic, this project is such a refreshing piece of dramatic comedy it seems it was doused with the aqua pouring from the Water Tower Water Works building housing ...

                                                In a cave many miles to the south, lives a boy born with fangs in his mouth. And many blocks to the North on Milwaukee Avenue in Wicker Park, Griffin Theatre’s eerily adept local premiere of the Off-Broadway sensation “Bat Boy” thrives. Although the title might suggest a conventional comedic romp about America’s Pastime, it’s definitely not. Inspired by a June 1992 supermarket tabloid article declaring the discovery of an adolescent Chiroptera/Homo Sapien hybrid in a rural West Virginia cavern, it is a marvelous theatrical specimen exploring the profoundest depths of dignity and morality – human and otherwise. Adapting news satire into a moving fable of universal compassion is one of the most creative and novel concepts for a musical this critic has ever seen. Keythe Farley and Brian Fleming’s book and Laurence O’K...

                                             What is Stonehenge? Who was Jack the Ripper? Does Atlantis exist? Where in the world is Carmen San Diego? Unsolved mysteries have an irresistible way of impelling awe-inspiring drama. This is something Lucy Kirkwood appreciates and executes profoundly as the ardent enigma “Who is ‘Tank Man?’” serves as exhilarating muse for her mystifying play “Chimerica.”  The infamous photo of a solitary gentleman blockading a procession of tanks attempting to exit Tiananmen Square after massacre of demonstrating Beijing citizens in 1989 has come to symbolize revolt and gallantry in the face of oppression. In her Olivier Award-winning work, Kirkwood investigates with as much reporter-like ingenuity and acumen as New York newshound protagonist Joe Schofield the conundrum of this civilian and the symbiotic relationship of the East an...