Kris Vire

Chicago Sun-Times • 11th August 2022

Early days of ‘fake news’ fuel the politics of ‘Campaigns, Inc.’ at TimeLine Theatre

What “Campaigns, Inc.” could use is a tighter focus on its central characters’ mercenary motivations.

Chicago Sun-Times • 20th May 2022

An ‘Oz’-inspired journey is a real life-changer in ‘Somewhere Over the Border’

Brian Quijada’s charming but uneven world-premiere musical at Teatro Vista needs just a bit more finessing.

Chicago Sun-Times • 15th May 2022

‘The Chinese Lady,’ a compelling TimeLine play, imagines inner life of a teen showing her culture to U.S. audiences

Mi Kang charms as the girl brought from Guangzhou in 1834 and put on display in New York.

Chicago Sun-Times • 13th May 2022

The spectacle that is ‘Lookingglass Alice’ remains as enchanting as ever

The charming acrobatics-laden show has become an effective calling card for Chicago’s famed Lookingglass Theatre.

Chicago Sun-Times • 10th April 2022

Time-jumping ‘In Every Generation’ shows how faith rocks a family, from one Passover to another

New play at Victory Gardens makes some smart points about religion as ritual, until an unfortunate final twist.

Chicago Sun-Times • 28th February 2022

Past, present, living, dead all collide in haunting sci-fi thriller ‘Solaris’

“Solaris,” the play, is based on a 1961 novel by Polish author Stanisław Lem. Staged by Scott Weinstein in the 56-seat Schwartz Stage at Edgewater’s Raven Theatre, the production marks the play’s North American premiere.

Chicago Sun-Times • 11th February 2022

Impressive cast delivers powerhouse showcase for ‘Women of Soul’

The production is all about iconic women and their soulful music, and all are of the highest quality in the Mercury Theater Chicago revue.

Chicago Sun-Times • 7th February 2022

Father, son clear the air in emotionally charged ‘Queen of the Night’

The brief time we spend with the characters is enjoyable, thanks to travis tate’s often raucous banter and the well-matched actors André Teamer and Terry Guest, who make a persuasive and sympathetic pair.

Chicago Sun-Times • 2nd February 2022

In engaging play ‘Relentless,’ the diaries of a mother once enslaved unnerve the next generation

Considering it was originally meant to premiere in 2020, it’s remarkable how timely “Relentless” proves at a moment in 2022 when so many are expressing an aversion to engaging with history.

Chicago Sun-Times • 6th December 2021

‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ radio staging allows a brief, uplifting escape from 21st century woes

American Blues Theater lassos a miracle, a show that, over 20 editions, has worked as both great storytelling and a flashback to another age of show business.

Chicago Sun-Times • 1st March 2020

‘I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter’ review: A rising star shines

Karen Rodriguez shows the layers of hurt and hope in a grieving teen in adept adaptation of hit YA novel set in Chicago.

Chicago Sun-Times • 12th February 2020

Raven Theatre delivers faithful revival of Ibsen’s ‘A Doll’s House’

19th century mores are alive and well in director Lauren Shouse’s staging of the classic drama.

Chicago Sun-Times • 28th January 2020

‘Roe’ ultimately gives a compelling look at both sides of landmark abortion case, key figures

Before the play even begins, director Vanessa Stalling has established that “Roe,” Lisa Loomer’s 2016 work about the people behind the 1973 Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion nationwide, isn’t strictly a history play.

Chicago Sun-Times • 27th January 2020

Evanston teen band revisited in compelling, rockin’ ‘Verböten’

Punk rock, like so many subcultures, was about finding a chosen family when you couldn’t relate to the family you were given. The play suggests the rear-view perspective of those who’ve grown old enough to recognize that you need both kinds.

Chicago Sun-Times • 23rd January 2020

‘Once on This Island’ showing its age in lackluster road show

The touring production, likely through circumstances beyond producers’ control, seems to be missing some of the magic it conjured on Broadway.

Chicago Sun-Times • 13th January 2020

‘Whisper House’ skims the surface of its characters, both real and ghostly

The fog that “Whisper House” can’t cut through comes down to its creators and their odd mismatch of tones.

Chicago Sun-Times • 20th December 2019

Razor-sharp ‘Dance Nation’ at Steppenwolf has echoes of ‘Dance Moms,’ Hulu’s ‘Pen15’

Clare Barron’s Chicago-premiering play about the preteen girls (and one boy) in a competitive dance troupe offers the same kind of world depicted in the reality TV show, which was an inspiration.

Chicago Sun-Times • 17th December 2019

Retooled ‘Working’ still feels dated but formidable cast makes it succeed

Christopher Chase Carter has assembled six hugely talented artists for Theo Ubique’s staging.

Chicago Sun-Times • 24th November 2019

‘The First Deep Breath’ an extraordinary portrait of a shattered family

Passionately performed by a powerhouse ensemble in Victory Gardens’ bracing premiere, “Breath” feels like the kind of theatrical event you’ll want to be able to say you saw first.

Chicago Sun-Times • 18th November 2019

Despite too many twists and turns, ‘Lindiwe’ — and Ladysmith Black Mambazo — will win you over

Eric Simonson’s play, which he co-directs with Jonathan Berry, draws here and there from fairy tales, fables and mythology.

Chicago Sun-Times • 20th October 2019

Dread, intrigue lurk in A Red Orchid’s ‘Grey House’

Menacing children take in stranded strangers in unnerving staging of Levi Holloway’s play

Chicago Sun-Times • 15th October 2019

‘Man of No Importance’ a timid character study lacking Wilde passion

You wish this wholly tentative show gave the actors more to work with.

Chicago Sun-Times • 7th October 2019

Powerhouse cast delivers deeply moving and timely ‘The Brothers Size’

Combined with a trio of powerfully layered performances “The Brothers Size” offers the kind of intro to theater that could make lifelong converts.

Chicago Sun-Times • 30th September 2019

‘Every Brilliant Thing’ at Windy City Playhouse should top your list of plays to see

A number of Chicago premieres — Duncan Macmilan’s breathtaking work among them — are suddenly reminding us to take stock of joy and possibility and human kindness.

Storefront Rebellion • 26th September 2019

SR review: “Hello Again” at Theo Ubique Cabaret Theatre

Theo Ubique brings some new energy to Michael John LaChiusa’s 1994 chamber musical, but it still runs on the fumes of ancient gender essentialism

Chicago Sun-Times • 24th September 2019

Captivating ‘Bernhardt/Hamlet’ reveals a remarkable actress centuries ahead of her time

Theresa Rebeck’s smartly breezy backstage comedy is rendered in modern-sounding language that contrasts with Shakespeare’s dulcet iambs.

Chicago Sun-Times • 24th September 2019

‘King Hedley II’ at Court offers abundant rewards for the August Wilson faithful

With its many allusions to Wilson’s past work, Ron OJ Parson’s heavy but humorous production might fluster those new to the playwright.

Chicago Sun-Times • 22nd September 2019

‘The King’s Speech’ a royal letdown in stage adaptation

Diehard fans of royal pomp and circumstance may find some pleasure here. But I suspect they already have the superior version of this story on their DVD shelves at home.

Chicago Sun-Times • 19th September 2019

‘Oslo’: The diplomacy’s far from dry in TimeLine’s inside look at Mideast peace

The information about Israel and the PLO comes at us quickly, but so do the dramatic turns

Chicago Sun-Times • 17th September 2019

Bold staging idea for ‘Dana H.’ makes kidnapping story more authentic, more unsettling

Playwright Lucas Hnath shapes the real-life narrative as told in the actual voice of its victim, his mother.

Storefront Rebellion • 16th September 2019

SR review: “Midsummer (A Play with Songs)”

David Greig’s inventive, booze-soaked rom-com overflows with charm at the Greenhouse

Chicago Sun-Times • 16th September 2019

Superb ‘Tiny Beautiful Things’ a potent dose of reality

Profound compassion radiates from the stage in the theatrical adaptation of Cheryl Strayed’s “Dear Sugar” online advice columns.

Chicago Sun-Times • 13th September 2019

American Blues Theater’s ‘Five Presidents’ imagines what went on in real life at Nixon’s funeral

There’s the mild frisson of seeing these august commanders-in-chief cursing, drinking and voicing petty beefs. But Rick Cleveland’s play doesn’t ultimately reveal much human truth.

Chicago Sun-Times • 5th September 2019

‘The Band’s Visit’ a marvelous, exquisitely crafted arrival indeed

What joyously unexpected depths this beautiful and moving desert tale plumbs.

Storefront Rebellion • 3rd September 2019

SR review: “All Quiet on the Western Front” at Red Tape Theatre

War’s still hell in Red Tape’s kinetic, uneven adaptation of the WWI novel

Storefront Rebellion • 2nd September 2019

SR review: “Howards End” at Remy Bumppo Theatre Company

Douglas Post’s adaptation of E.M. Forster’s novel loses some nuance in its race to the finish

Storefront Rebellion • 21st December 2018

Review: “La Ruta” at Steppenwolf

Playwright Isaac Gomez gives full-throated voice to the endangered women of Juárez

Chicago Sun-Times • 16th December 2018

Spectacle overpowers story in Chicago Shakespeare's 'Midsummer Night's Dream'

Rather than trusting his audience to keep up with unadulterated Shakespeare, Dowling interpolates bits of modernized spectacle.

Storefront Rebellion • 11th December 2018

Reviews: “The Full Monty” and “The Winter Wolf”

Monty is an odd choice for Theo Ubique’s new hall

Storefront Rebellion • 3rd December 2018

Review: “The Revolutionists” at Strawdog Theatre Company

A clunky, self-congratulatory case for art’s place in the revolution.

Storefront Rebellion • 25th November 2018

Review: “HeLa” at Sideshow Theatre Company

Cancer, the stars and space for hope in an affecting journey to the final frontier.

Chicago Sun-Times • 20th November 2018

In 'Rightlynd,' an idealist embraces Chicago politics — but at what cost?

For “Rightlynd,” writer Ike Holter pulls out all of the realistic stops, the better to express his disdain for the city’s entire political system.

Chicago Sun-Times • 22nd October 2018

Deeply moving 'Private Peaceful' makes plain one soldier's torment

The precision and ease with which Shane O’Regan swaps dialects and physicalities to embody a total of 24 characters is a sight to behold.

Chicago Sun-Times • 5th October 2018

Devil gets his due in the artful language of Writers Theatre's 'Witch'

The devil doesn’t bother disguising himself in Jen Silverman’s exceedingly smart new comedy at Writers Theatre.

Chicago Sun-Times • 30th September 2018

Actress who defied convention gets conventional treatment in 'Nell Gwynn'

She’s more interesting as one of the first women on the British stage than as a royal mistress in the Chicago Shakespeare Theater production.

Chicago Sun-Times • 13th September 2018

'BigMouth' speaks volumes but its message is unclear

Shorn of context and with no real framing, it’s frustratingly unclear what playwright/performer Valentijn Dhaenens is using his “mouths” to say.

Chicago Sun-Times • 23rd August 2018

'Vietgone' a hugely personal road trip rom-com for playwright

You don’t want to miss this refreshingly different take on the refugee question and a stimulating story of love finding a way.

Chicago Sun-Times • 31st July 2018

Young evangelicals, on mission to help others, find themselves in 'The Harvest'

Returning to his favorite setting, Idaho, playwright Samuel D. Hunter scrutinizes but never judges his subjects.

Chicago Sun-Times • 16th July 2018

Michael Shannon, A Red Orchid deliver logically illogical 'Victims of Duty'

The company marks 25 years with a remount of its 1995 Eugène Ionesco production.

Chicago Sun-Times • 13th July 2018

'Cat on a Hot Tin Roof' fueled less by passion than soap opera melodrama

Tennessee Williams's play remains a work fueled entirely by passionate arguments and salacious secrets.

Time Out Chicago • 14th May 2018

Buddy—The Buddy Holly Story

This surface-level bio is more interested in musical fan service than actual insights, but the music, and its star, are top of the line.

Time Out Chicago • 29th March 2018

Pretty Woman: The Musical

Feel free to walk on by this rote and regressive new musical with old sensibilities.

Time Out Chicago • 21st January 2018

The Antelope Party

A game cast and solid production elevate this stunty satirical allegory.

Time Out Chicago • 21st January 2018

Traitor

Nobody’s a hero in Brett Neveu’s assertively amusing modernization of Ibsen.

Time Out Chicago • 22nd December 2017

The best Chicago theater of 2017

In a year when ‘identity politics’ was a hot topic, much of 2017’s best theater grappled with questions of identity

Time Out Chicago • 16th November 2017

Escape to Margaritaville

Tropical troubadour Jimmy Buffett’s catalog gets a gaudy, shoddy jukebox treatment.

Time Out Chicago • 9th October 2017

Our Town

The intimate Redtwist Theatre mounts a revival of Thornton Wilder’s gimlet-eyed portrait of life and death in Grover’s Corners.

Time Out Chicago • 4th October 2017

Choir Boy

Raven Theatre stages the Chicago premiere of Tarell Alvin McCraney’s 2013 play about a young gay man looking for his place in an all-black prep school.

Time Out Chicago • 2nd October 2017

The Rembrandt

A museum guard gives in to the urge to touch a famous painting, setting off an eons-spanning lesson in art appreciation in this time-hopping comic fantasy.

Time Out Chicago • 2nd October 2017

A View from the Bridge

Ivo van Hove’s bold revival of Arthur Miller’s 1955 drama about tangled loyalties among Italian-American dockworkers makes a strong landing in Chicago.

Time Out Chicago • 21st September 2017

The Toad Knew

The toad may know but we’re left out of the loop in the inaugural show in the Yard.

Time Out Chicago • 15th September 2017

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Gynecologic Oncology Unit at Sloan-Kettering Memorial Cancer Center of New York City

Humor may not heal but it helps in Halley Feiffer’s acerbic cancer comedy.

Time Out Chicago • 15th September 2017

United Flight 232

If you missed the House’s absorbing plane-crash documentary play last year, it’s now reboarding.

Time Out Chicago • 10th September 2017

The Audience

Playwright Peter Morgan returns to the royal well for a dutiful but dull portrait of Queen Elizabeth II and her Prime Ministers.

Time Out Chicago • 17th August 2017

Trevor

With an optimistic eye and a healthy dose of Diana Ross, a new musical about a gay kid’s coming-of-age shows strong promise.

Time Out Chicago • 28th July 2017

Luzia

For Cirque du Soleil’s latest spectacle, the French-Canadian circus troupe looks south to Mexico for inspiration.

Time Out Chicago • 27th July 2017

An American in Paris

This dance-heavy Broadway adaptation of the much-loved movie musical can’t fill its big toe shoes.

Time Out Chicago • 25th July 2017

An Octoroon

Young synergist Branden Jacobs-Jenkins deconstructs 19th-century Irish writer Dion Boucicault’s race melodrama to thrilling effect.

Time Out Chicago • 16th July 2017

Something Rotten!

The musical spoof about down-and-out Elizabethan playwrights inventing musical theater in the shadow of Shakespeare arrives at the Oriental on tour.

Time Out Chicago • 16th July 2017

Little Fish

Kokandy Productions stages the Chicago premiere of Michael John LaChiusa’s esoteric 2003 musical about a hesitant young woman in the big pond of NYC.

Time Out Chicago • 11th July 2017

How to Be a Rock Critic

A solo play about the rock critic Lester Bangs constructs a portrait of his outsize personality, but doesn't answer the question posed by its title.

Time Out Chicago • 9th July 2017

Hir

What you think you know—about gender, family dynamics or Steppenwolf—is up for debate in Taylor Mac’s charming and challenging work.

Time Out Chicago • 2nd July 2017

Late Company

Two families grit their teeth through a tense dinner party a year after one of them lost a teenage son to suicide.

Time Out Chicago • 2nd July 2017

The Bridges of Madison County

The musical adaptation gets bogged down in tying up loose ends, but it's the music and the affair we'll remember.

Time Out Chicago • 27th December 2016

The best Chicago theater of 2016

Despite offstage turmoil and uncertainty, Chicago stages offered no shortage of performances relevant and revelatory

Time Out Chicago • 19th December 2016

The Christians

Playwright Lucas Hnath takes us to church in a provocative consideration of religious life, individual and organizational.

Time Out Chicago • 19th December 2016

The Hunter and the Bear

PigPen Theatre Co. returns to Writers with a new, grief-tinged musical ghost story.

Time Out Chicago • 13th December 2016

The Winner…of Our Discontent

The political is personal and pointed in Second City’s electrically current new revue.

Time Out Chicago • 8th December 2016

The Fundamentals

Self-preservation is fundamental in Erika Sheffer’s workplace dramedy about getting ahead no matter what, or who, the cost.

Time Out Chicago • 8th December 2016

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

Now on tour, the stage adaptation inventively takes us inside the mind of its unique protagonist.

Time Out Chicago • 28th November 2016

Deer and the Lovers

A dead woodland creature shakes up a quartet of lovers in Emily Zemba’s new comedy.

Time Out Chicago • 28th November 2016

I Am My Own Wife

About Face Theatre stages a reimagined production of Doug Wright’s play about an East German transgender woman who survived both the Nazi and Communist regimes.

Time Out Chicago • 6th November 2016

Rutherford's Travels

Pegasus Theatre’s new adaptation of Charles Johnson’s allegorical adventure shoots right down the middle.

Time Out Chicago • 5th November 2016

Fun Home

The groundbreaking, acutely perceptive musical is nicely retooled to tour—see it while you can.

Time Out Chicago • 3rd November 2016

The Magic Play

Brett Schneider uses his illusions to emotional effect in an inventive hybrid piece.

Time Out Chicago • 28th October 2016

Longer! Louder! Wagner! The Second City Wagner Companion

Lyric Opera and Second City grab for the Ring and miss.

Time Out Chicago • 20th October 2016

Hamilton

Nobody’s throwing away their shot in this top-shelf Chicago staging of the most talked-about new musical in years.

Time Out Chicago • 14th October 2016

Wicked City

This noir-Greek musical mashup doesn't fully land punches on either side of its parody targets.

Time Out Chicago • 13th October 2016

How We Got On

Idris Goodwin’s suburban fable of the early days of hip-hop is charming, if somewhat slight.

Time Out Chicago • 13th October 2016

A Life Extra Ordinary

A pregnant woman disappears in a small Ohio town on Christmas Eve, and guides us through her life and death.

Time Out Chicago • 4th October 2016

The City of Conversation

The talk goes in circles in Anthony Giardina’s slack political drama.

Time Out Chicago • 4th October 2016

Hand to God

We’ve found religion: Praise be to the divine cast of this devilish comedy’s Chicago premiere.

Time Out Chicago • 4th October 2016

The Bardy Bunch

Here's the story: I think you’ll love this goofy, gory parody of ’70s sitcoms and Shakespeare.

Time Out Chicago • 23rd September 2016

Cheers Live on Stage

A stage adaptation drawn from early episodes of the classic TV comedy is a faithful but hollow imitation of its source material.

Time Out Chicago • 29th December 2015

Gotta Dance

Age may be nothing but a number, but this by-the-numbers new musical needs more depth before it’s a gotta see.

Time Out Chicago • 16th December 2015

The best Chicago theater of 2015

The best of this year in Chicago theater was defined by great characters.

Time Out Chicago • 14th December 2015

Domesticated

Bruce Norris's biting comedy asks if philandering men are just naughty by nature.

Time Out Chicago • 8th December 2015

The Heir Apparent

The sparkle is less apparent than usual in this David Ives adaptation of a French Restoration comedy.

Time Out Chicago • 7th December 2015

Fallen Angels

A Noël Coward comedy revival doesn't hit bottom, but it doesn't fly too high either.

Time Out Chicago • 3rd December 2015

Beautiful—The Carole King Musical

Abby Mueller handily fills two pairs of big shoes at once: her titular character’s and her Tony-winning sister’s.

Time Out Chicago • 2nd December 2015

Fool Me Twice, Déjà Vu

You might think you've seen the Second City's 104th mainstage revue before, but give it the chance to revisit itself.

Time Out Chicago • 23rd November 2015

No More Sad Things

Two lost souls meet on a Maui beach and find an instant connection in Hansol Jung’s quirky world premiere.

Time Out Chicago • 9th November 2015

Pilgrim's Progress

Brett Neveu's dysfunctional-family play takes a darkly comedic place in that pantheon by quoting its predecessors.

Time Out Chicago • 4th November 2015

Marjorie Prime

Jordan Harrison pens a humane consideration of whether technology can substitute for humans.

Time Out Chicago • 4th November 2015

Spill

TimeLine applies docudrama style to the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.

Time Out Chicago • 27th October 2015

R+J: The Vineyard

A mixed Deaf/hearing treatment breathes new signs of life into the star-cross’d lovers’ tale.

Time Out Chicago • 16th October 2015

Hubbard Street Dance Chicago serves up kinetic William Forsythe program

Hubbard Street’s fall program provides a fascinating sample of Forsythe’s wide-ranging aesthetic.

Time Out Chicago • 12th October 2015

The (curious case of the) Watson Intelligence

If Watson’s second, who comes first? That’s the question of Madeleine George’s intensely brainy dramedy.

Time Out Chicago • 12th October 2015

Marvin's Room

Illness necessitates a reunion between estranged sisters in Scott McPherson's 1990 family drama.

Time Out Chicago • 12th October 2015

Good for Otto

A psychologist ministers to a range of adrift Connecticut residents in this new ensemble piece by Tony Award winner David Rabe.

Time Out Chicago • 11th October 2015

The Black White Love Play

Black Ensemble impresario Jackie Taylor sets the romance of late film critic Roger Ebert and his wife, Chaz, to a pop soundtrack.

Time Out Chicago • 10th October 2015

The Cheats

A new play from Hamish Linklater examines neighborly niceties and what remains unsaid.

Time Out Chicago • 8th October 2015

Ride the Cyclone at Chicago Shakespeare Theater

Six dead teenagers reflect on their lives—but this delightful Canadian chamber musical is far funnier, and more moving, than it sounds.

Time Out Chicago • 6th October 2015

Blood Brothers

The long-running, long-winded British musical about a different kind of parent trap gets Theo Ubique's close-up treatment.

Time Out Chicago • 18th December 2014

The best Chicago theater of 2014

From hyper-relevant local stories to thrilling musical revivals to a massive, multi-hour marathon of tragedy, these were the best Chicago plays of the year

Time Out Chicago • 16th December 2014

Airline Highway

Playwright Lisa D'Amour parties with the down and out in New Orleans in her raucous Steppenwolf drama.

Time Out Chicago • 12th December 2014

H.M.S. Pinafore

The Hypocrites expand their Gilbert & Sullivan Rep

Time Out Chicago • 11th December 2014

Twist Your Dickens

The Second City and Goodman Theatre join forces to poke fun at A Christmas Carol.

Time Out Chicago • 10th December 2014

Pericles

For being the noble prince of Tyre, Pericles can’t seem to catch a break.

Time Out Chicago • 10th December 2014

Panic on Cloud 9

The Second City’s 103rd mainstage revue

Time Out Chicago • 7th December 2014

Crumble (Lay Me Down, Justin Timberlake)

Sheila Callaghan's off-kilter tale is in sync with Jackalope's style.

Time Out Chicago • 30th November 2014

The Mousetrap

The classic mystery gets a fine new staging at Northlight.

Time Out Chicago • 21st November 2014

The Humans at American Theater Company

Playwright Stephen Karam is in rare form here, showing a remarkable ear for the way families converse. For all of the characters' woes, this is a warm, funny, sharply observed portrait of their abiding connections with one another.

Time Out Chicago • 20th November 2014

Dee Snider's Rock & Roll Christmas Tale

The Twisted Sister frontman’s new holiday musical has potential, but like a new electric guitar, it needs a little tuning before it can really shred.

Time Out Chicago • 11th November 2014

Great Expectations

Strawdog's stirring adaptation still lives up in a new remount.

Time Out Chicago • 10th November 2014

The Hundred Flowers Project

Christopher Chen’s metatheatrical riff on Mao Zedong and the making of art is a tedious slog.

Time Out Chicago • 7th November 2014

Camelot

Drury Lane mounts a lush, bracing new revival.

Time Out Chicago • 6th November 2014

Strandline

Intriguing in places but impenetrable on the whole, Abbie Spallen’s drama leaves us stranded.

Time Out Chicago • 6th November 2014

The King and I

The show's half-life is fading fast, but Heidi Kettenring dazzles as Anna.

Time Out Chicago • 27th October 2014

Luce

JC Lee’s play explores adoption, education, and pushing back against being defined by your back story.

Time Out Chicago • 27th October 2014

Titanic

This small-scale revival of the 1997 musical is well worth the voyage.

Time Out Chicago • 19th October 2014

Amazing Grace

"Amazing" isn't the right adjective, not yet anyway, for this big new musical with Broadway intentions. "Ambitious" applies, certainly, but unfortunately "adequate" or "acceptable" would also work.

Time Out Chicago • 16th October 2014

The Art of Falling

It's hard to imagine a more seamless marriage than the one between The Second City and Hubbard Street Dance Chicago.

Time Out Chicago • 15th October 2014

Bethany

Desperate times bring out desperate measures in Laura Marks’s Great Recession story.

Time Out Chicago • 19th December 2013

Tribes at Steppenwolf Theatre Company

A deaf man struggles to be heard within his family in Nina Raine's affecting play.

Time Out Chicago • 18th December 2013

Best of 2013: The best plays in Chicago theater

From achingly felt dramas to uproarious pop-culture comedies, 2013 was a strong year for Chicago theater.

Time Out Chicago • 10th December 2013

A Q Brothers' Christmas Carol at Chicago Shakespeare Theater

The Q Brothers set Dickens to a beat.

Time Out Chicago • 8th December 2013

We Three Lizas at About Face Theatre

For those in search of a little holiday irreverence, the revamped vamps of We Three Lizas could be singing your new favorite carol.

Time Out Chicago • 24th November 2013

The Dead Prince at Strange Tree Group

A princess quests to bring the true love she never met back from the dead in Strange Tree's charming play-with-music.

Time Out Chicago • 17th November 2013

An Iliad at Court Theatre

Timothy Edward Kane returns to his searing performance of Denis O'Hare and Lisa Peterson's solo piece in a remount at Court Theatre.

Time Out Chicago • 15th November 2013

Appropriate at Victory Gardens Theater

Branden Jacobs-Jenkins's biting new drama, which smartly avoids the clichés of family-secrets plays, is blisteringly acted at Victory Gardens.

Time Out Chicago • 14th November 2013

Hellcab at Profiles Theatre

Paul Dillon returns to the driver's seat 21 years after the original production of Will Kern's Chicago tale.

Time Out Chicago • 13th November 2013

The Peacock at Jackalope Theatre Company

Rising playwright Calamity West raises slippery questions of gender, power and violence in postwar academia.

Time Out Chicago • 13th November 2013

Great Expectations at Strawdog Theatre Company

A stirring bit of storytelling brings Charles Dickens's story to life in a fashion that lives up to its title.

Time Out Chicago • 6th November 2013

Port Authority at Writers Theatre

Three Dublin men reflect on what might have been in Conor McPherson's interlocking monologues, exquisitely acted in Writers Theatre's production.

Time Out Chicago • 4th November 2013

The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee at Griffin Theatre Company

The sweet, small musical about kids who love to spell gets a letter perfect production at Griffin.

Time Out Chicago • 3rd November 2013

The Normal Heart at TimeLine Theatre Company

Larry Kramer's righteous AIDS agitprop proves all the more vital decades later.

Time Out Chicago • 31st October 2013

Mary Poppins at Marriott Theatre

Grounded by Marriott's physical limitations, the stage version of Disney's magical nanny proves less than practically perfect.

Time Out Chicago • 24th October 2013

Hello, Dolly! at Drury Lane Oakbrook Terrace

Tony Award–winner Karen Ziemba plays the musical matchmaker in a disappointingly tepid revival.

Time Out Chicago • 19th October 2013

Harry & the Thief

You could say it’s the MTV’s ‘The Real World’ of Harriet Tubman time-travel comedies.

Time Out Chicago • 16th October 2013

Smokefall at Goodman Theatre

Noah Haidle's affecting new play takes a fractured, poetic look at family and mortality.

Time Out Chicago • 15th October 2013

Master Class at Theo Ubique Cabaret Theatre

Kelli Harrington impressively embodies Terrence McNally's cartoonish version of Maria Callas, but her students hardly register next to her.

Time Out Chicago • 10th October 2013

Motortown at Steep Theatre Company

Joel Reitsma captivates as an unstable English soldier in Simon Stephens's raw but rather inscrutable 2005 work.

Time Out Chicago • 1st October 2013

Broadsword

Marco Ramirez’s play about heavy metal and the supernatural finds more warmth and truth than that combination would suggest.

Time Out Chicago • 26th December 2012

War Horse at Cadillac Palace Theatre

The much-hyped puppets impress, but they can’t carry slack storytelling.

Time Out Chicago • 26th December 2012

The Book of Mormon at Bank of America Theatre

The joyfully vulgar musical comedy reaches heavenly heights with a Chicago cast that improves on the original.

Time Out Chicago • 19th December 2012

The School for Lies at Chicago Shakespeare Theater

David Ives’s update of Molière is a charming blend of old School and new.

Time Out Chicago • 19th December 2012

The ten best plays of 2012 in Chicago theater

We pick the year’s best productions.

Time Out Chicago • 6th December 2012

The Feast of Saint MacGonagall at The Plagiarists

The Plagiarists come not to praise the inept poet William Topaz McGonagall but to bury him.

Time Out Chicago • 5th December 2012

We Three Lizas at About Face Theatre

An embittered fashion designer is visited by three fabulously sequined spirits in Scott Bradley and Alan Schmuckler’s Seuss-like, delightfully queer new holiday piece.

Time Out Chicago • 5th December 2012

The Letters at Writers’ Theatre

Kate Fry and Mark L. Montgomery captivate in this Soviet cat-and-mouse piece, but John W. Lowell’s script leaves us wanting.

Time Out Chicago • 29th November 2012

American Storm at Theatre Seven of Chicago

Set in 1962 around a fictional Ohio horse-racing track, Carter W. Lewis’s small-town drama tries to live up to its title, presenting the American moment in microcosm.

Time Out Chicago • 29th November 2012

The Gifts of the Magi at Porchlight Music Theatre

Like the presents in the titular O.Henry short story, this slight musical holiday card is undoubtedly well-meant but somewhat lacking in utility.

Time Out Chicago • 28th November 2012

The Mikado at the Hypocrites

The Hypocrites mine Gilbert and Sullivan’s farcical operetta for every bit of fun.

Time Out Chicago • 28th November 2012

James Joyce’s The Dead at Court Theatre

With a rich, ideal cast, this musical of loss and renewal hits hard.

Time Out Chicago • 22nd November 2012

Sister Act at Auditorium Theatre

The Broadway musical adaptation of the Whoopi Goldberg vehicle arrives on tour.

Time Out Chicago • 22nd November 2012

The Burnt Part Boys at Griffin Theatre Company

Set in rural West Virginia in 1962, The Burnt Part Boys tells a refreshingly simple, bluegrass-tinged tale.

Time Out Chicago • 21st November 2012

The Nutcracker at the House Theatre of Chicago

The House’s take on the perennial tale is an engaging family-friendly treat.

Time Out Chicago • 21st November 2012

breaks & bikes at Pavement Group

Like its protagonist, Mallery Avidon’s new play speeds along promisingly before meeting an unfortunate ending.

Time Out Chicago • 15th November 2012

Toast of the Town at Factory Theater

The Factory’s high-energy Chicago-theater-world farce, first seen in 2005, gets a welcome remount.

Time Out Chicago • 15th November 2012

i put the fear of méxico in ’em at Teatro Vista

The tensions along the U.S.-Mexico border are clearly worthy of reporting right now, but Matthew Paul Olmos’s grating new Tijuana-set work doesn’t fit the bill.

Time Out Chicago • 15th November 2012

Bulrusher at Congo Square Theatre

Eisa Davis’s drama is frustrating but impeccably acted in Congo Square’s production.

Time Out Chicago • 14th November 2012

The Quality of Life at the Den Theatre

Jane Anderson asks the big questions in this wry rumination on letting go.

Time Out Chicago • 30th October 2012

QED at theatre4humanity

Peter Parnell’s bio-play about physicist Richard Feynman follows a familiar formula.

Time Out Chicago • 26th December 2011

Twelve great performances in Chicago theater 2011

These dozen performances, presented in no particular order, stood out from the pack.

Time Out Chicago • 25th December 2011

Twelve outstanding ensembles in Chicago theater 2011

These dozen shows’ casts offered thrilling onstage teamwork.

Time Out Chicago • 15th December 2011

The ten best plays of 2011 in Chicago theater

We pick the year’s best productions.

Time Out Chicago • 13th December 2011

Penelope at Steppenwolf Theatre Company

Irish wordsmith Enda Walsh fleshes out the suitors of Odysseus’ wife in all their absurdity.

Time Out Chicago • 13th December 2011

Elizabeth Rex at Chicago Shakespeare Theater

Canadian playwright Timothy Findley’s flight of fancy has a strong bent toward presentism, particularly in its obsession with gender roles.

Time Out Chicago • 6th December 2011

Changes of Heart at Remy Bumppo Theatre Company

Remy Bumppo recasts Marivaux’s 1723 commedia in 1960s Chicago, but that concept doesn’t really show up onstage.

Time Out Chicago • 6th December 2011

Spring Awakening at Griffin Theatre

Jonathan Berry’s intimate production retains the honesty and energy of Steven Sater and Duncan Sheik’s electrified teen-angst tale.

Time Out Chicago • 5th December 2011

Striking 12 at Bohemian Theatre Ensemble

Four impressive actor-musicians power this thoroughly charming rock-concert retelling of “The Little Match Girl.”

Time Out Chicago • 29th November 2011

Memphis at Cadillac Palace Theatre

Music melts racial barriers like soft-serve in Joe DiPietro and David Bryan’s pop-rock paean to radio rebels.

Time Out Chicago • 29th November 2011

Burning Bluebeard at the Neo-Futurists

The Neo-Futurists’ blistering excavation of the Iroquois Theatre disaster is alternately wistful, sidesplitting and chill-inducing.

Time Out Chicago • 22nd November 2011

Sweet Confinement at SiNNERMAN Ensemble

Anna Carini’s portrait of a group of lifelong friends in crisis is skillfully plotted but underplayed.

Time Out Chicago • 22nd November 2011

Five Flights at Immediate Theatre

Immediate Theatre debuts with Adam Bock’s 2004 flight of fancy.

Time Out Chicago • 22nd November 2011

The Jackie Wilson Story at Black Ensemble Theater

Black Ensemble christens its new home with a remount of one of its most popular musical bios.

Time Out Chicago • 15th November 2011

twentyone at the side project

Spring breakers on holiday in Mexico strive for life’s meaning and more beer in Brett Neveu’s cheeky 2004 play.

Time Out Chicago • 15th November 2011

Let My People Come at Street Tempo Theatre

A goofy Off Broadway musical artifact encourages us to embrace our inner sex machines.

Time Out Chicago • 15th November 2011

Assisted Living at Profiles Theatre

The parent becomes the child’s burden in Deirdre O’Connor’s affecting, sharply drawn family dramedy.

Time Out Chicago • 8th November 2011

First Look 2011 at Steppenwolf Garage

New plays in development by Christina Anderson, Zayd Dohrn and Carly Mensch get the Steppenwolf treatment.

Time Out Chicago • 6th November 2011

Maple and Vine at Next Theatre Company

Jordan Harrison takes us back in time, sort of, in this engaging thought experiment of a play.

Time Out Chicago • 1st November 2011

Or, at Caffeine Theatre

Liz Duffy Adams makes Restoration playwright Aphra Behn the star of her own Restoration-style farce.

Time Out Chicago • 25th October 2011

A Behanding in Spokane at Profiles Theatre

Darrell W. Cox has menace but not enough madness in the central role of Martin McDonagh’s half-handed black comedy.

Time Out Chicago • 13th December 2010

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? at Steppenwolf Theatre Company

Edward Albee's marital-strife drama no longer carries the shock value that scandalized 1962 audiences, but as Tracy Letts and Amy Morton prove in Steppenwolf's searing revival, it still has plenty of potential to upend expectations.

Time Out Chicago • 20th May 2010

A Streetcar Named Desire

Director David Cromer casts fresh, revealing light on the Tennessee Williams classic.

Time Out Chicago • 18th March 2010

Trust

David Schwimmer stages an earnest, well-meaning PSA posing as a play.

Time Out Chicago • 19th November 2009

All the Fame of Lofty Deeds at The House Theatre of Chicago

Mark Guarino's Western fantasy, set to Jon Langford's songs, is the House's most natural integration of storytelling and music since 2006’s Hatfield & McCoy—yet the storytelling doesn’t quite live up to the music.