Dean Evans/Photo: Saverio Truglia

RECOMMENDED

The group of short plays, lumped under the broad heading “New American Fable,” at the annual “Sketchbook” festival at Collaboraction, makes first and foremost one of the most engaged and skilled uses of theatrical space I’ve seen this year at theatrical performances in general, let alone short-play festivals, which usually resemble staged readings. The seven plays I saw (there are fourteen total, with a different order every night) play gorgeously with multimedia projections and surveillance cameras, harnesses, puppets and the amphitheater-style bleachers surrounding the room. Artwork connected thematically to the plays fills the walls. In short, the experience is rich even before the shows themselves are considered. Of the plays themselves there’s an obvious unevenness in focus and accomplishment, with no cohesion of theme and style that’s obviously the result of no curatorial ordering—other than that the showstopper piece, Dean Evans’ “Spacelab 2030,” ended up saved for last on this night. Read the rest of this entry »

RECOMMENDED

You would think that Mozart’s “La clemenza di Tito” (“the clemency of Titus”)—a work overflowing with the mature Mozart at his very best, completed and premiered less than three months before his death at the height of his creative genius—would be one of the most performed operas in the repertoire, much like his soon to follow “The Magic Flute.”  Like the “Requiem” that would also soon follow but which he left incomplete due to his sudden death at the age of 35, “clemenza” is not 100 percent Mozart, but for a very different reason: Mozart took the work as a commission and farmed out the recitative sections to a student.  This, taken with the fact that the form of the work is the older, more serious and sterile opera seria—which Mozart had not explored since “Idomeneo” and which lacked the wit and ensembling of his popular stage works—critics widely assumed that he didn’t care for the form or the work.  The glorious music itself, however, makes it clear that a real gem was carelessly tossed aside. Read the rest of this entry »

Photo: Jennifer Korff

RECOMMENDED

This is your last weekend to catch Cupola Bobber’s “Way Out West, the Sea Whispered Me” at Links Hall, and if you’re interested in performance that’s as concerned with wordplay as with image and movement, it’s a show that will offer a lot of food for thought. Focused on the sea, the piece is woven together with threads of different historical moments and psychological affects related to the ocean, from the nostalgia of seaside resort towns to a gloriously bizarre erosion narrative that tells the story of buildings and even towns that have slipped into the sea, and, as a perfect foil, the Depression dust bowl of Kansas. The piece is nearly as intellectually engaged and critically connected as an academic essay. Read the rest of this entry »

Photo: Paul Kolnik

RECOMMENDED

Not counting the recent 2006 Broadway revival, there hasn’t been a major production of “A Chorus Line” since 1990′s Broadway Tour of America, a company that hit the road not long after the Broadway original concluded its record-breaking fifteen-year run.

There have always been, of course, umpteenth opportunities to see the show via the regional circuit, many of them carbon copies of creator, director and co-choreographer Michael Bennett’s iconic original.  (Besides inspiring an entire legion of Broadway hoofers with the show—much like Robbins and Fosse had done before him with theirs—Bennett’s legacy includes a core of second- and third-generation dance captains who have reproduced every classic step for subsequent generations.)  And yet, I don’t think the show’s ever looked as good, or moved as well, as the production now blazing the stage of the Oriental Theater courtesy of Broadway In Chicago. Read the rest of this entry »

Tiffany Villarin and Lisa Tejero/Photo: Peter Wynn Thompson

RECOMMENDED

Naomi Iizuka’s perfectly realized narrative of fairy-tale-meets-contemporary-society explores the fate of a young woman traveling abroad in Vietnam who acquires a peculiar kind of magic in exchange for the promise of her future child. The remarkable achievement of “Ghostwritten” results not only from its beautifully wrought modernization of “Rumpelstiltskin,” but also from its embodiment, subtle and consistent, of the relationship that all modern lives have to archetype and myth. This thematic relevance of this adaptation extends to the smallest details: the woman who has bartered for magical powers becomes an incredible chef, bending over a restaurant stove range like a witch tending to potion. A special note should be made about the technical theater, which is absolutely flawless, with particularly compelling use of sound. Unusually, the weakest component is the acting, which is notably uneven, with some characters truly overacting and some nailing the spectacular yet nuanced note. This discrepancy can be ascribed to the show’s ambivalence about whether it’s children’s theater or not; the fact is, it’s powerful and universal enough for any audience. (Monica Westin)

Through May 3 at the Goodman Theatre, 170 North Dearborn, (312)443-3800.

RECOMMENDED

New Zealand’s fourth most popular guitar-based digi-bongo acapella-rap-funk-comedy folk duo rolls into Chicago (charging $38?! Who do they think they are, Tenacious D?) in support of their second and supposedly final season of the successful “Flight of the Conchords” HBO series. The incredibly perfect-for-each-other team of Bret McKenzie (bearded, former hobbit) and Jemaine Clement (low voice, ukulele player) have built their comic foundation on the power of rhyme, nonchalant New Zealander accents, pushing the limits of goofiness and “New Zealand vs. Australia” jokes. Mostly though, it’s the ridiculousness, taking the uncharted direction of a joke that makes these non-Australians so appealing, like passionately singing “You’re so beautiful, you could be a waitress. You’re so beautiful, like a tree. Or a high-class prostitute.” If the guys play the “hits,” expect a little “Business Time,” the French gobbledygook of “Foux Du Fafa,” the timid queries of “If You’re Into It” and the bizarre glory of “Bowie in Space.” The always entertaining (and occasional “Conchords” guest) Eugene Mirman opens. (Andy Seifert)

April 28 & 29 at Arie Crown Theater, 2301 South Lake Shore Drive, (312) 791-6190, $38.50.

RECOMMENDED

When Texas stand-up Ron White spends his entire routine clutching a glass of Scotch on the rocks and puffing delightfully on fat cigar, the move feels calculated–who has to smoke a damn cigar every time they tell a joke? But when a disheveled Doug Stanhope slouches onto the stage and drinks two-to-five beers–that just seems like the dude genuinely wants to get buzzed with the audience. “I like drugs,” Stanhope says. “Every drug should be legal.” This sounds like the preface to a couple of sarcastic zingers, but it’s not–Stanhope clearly and honestly believes this, unleashing a hilarious diatribe of observation, opinion and, above all, profanity. Stanhope’s act sounds less like a comedy routine and more like a dude just relaxing on a couch and humorously riffing on what ails him, mostly society’s attitude toward religion, narcotics and deadbeat jobs. He attributes his success to drugs, cigarettes and booze: “I’m here because drugs expanded my imagination and made me think of your reality. Cigarettes gave me the patience to sit and write those thoughts down in a comedy-friendly format, and alcohol gives me the courage to stand up in front of you judgmental pricks.” (Andy Seifert)

April 24 at Bottom Lounge, 1375 W. Lake, (312)929-2022, 9pm. $20

Here’s the press release from The Auditorium Theatre:

THE AUDITORIUM THEATRE OF ROOSEVELT UNIVERSITY
ANNOUNCES 2009-2010 DANCE SERIES
AND CELEBRATES THE THEATRE’S 120TH ANNIVERSARY

World-Class Lineup Includes Performances by Miami City Ballet,
Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet, Ballet Folklórico de México de Amalia Hernández and Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater

CHICAGO — Brett Batterson, executive director of the Auditorium Theatre of Roosevelt University (ATRU), today announced the Auditorium Theatre’s 2009-2010 Dance Series. ATRU’s season opens with the thrilling Miami City Ballet performing a program of masterworks by George Balanchine and Twyla Tharp.  Additional highlights include the daring and athletic Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet under the artistic direction of Benoit-Swan Pouffer; and the elaborate and vividly colorful Ballet Folklórico de México de Amalia Hernández.  The series also includes the return of Chicago favorite Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, celebrating Judith Jamison’s 20th Anniversary as the company’s artistic director. Rounding out the season is The Tchaikovsky Ballet’s “The Sleeping Beauty.”  Read the rest of this entry »

Donald Brearley, Michael Peters, Govind Kumar, Brad Bukauskas, Behzad Dabu, Joel Gross, Will Allan, Rob Fenton and Alex Weisman/Photo: Lara Goetsch

By William Scott

“I’ve never seen so many white button-down shirts and thin black ties sitting in our lobby—rows and rows of boys in black ties,” recounts TimeLine Theatre artistic director PJ Powers of the audition process for the highly anticipated Chicago premiere of Alan Bennett’s play “The History Boys.” “The enthusiasm and competition to be in this show is unlike anything I’ve experienced. I watch about a thousand auditions a year and have never seen anything like the number of letters and emails and calls I got.”

The fierce competition to land a role on stage mirrors the high stakes offstage, as TimeLine prepares for its most ambitous and high-profile production yet, amplified by an economic downturn that’s threatened the very existence of some of its peers. But if TimeLine’s feeling the pressure, they’re not showing it. Instead they’re exhibiting the poise typical of theater companies several times larger, maintaining the collegial sense of artistic collaboration that keeps things humming along. Read the rest of this entry »

Photo: Johnny Knight

RECOMMENDED

A mind may be a terrible thing to waste, but it’s also a terribly entertaining thrill to watch being corrupted.

“The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie,” Jay Presson Allen’s dramatization of Muriel Spark’s novel from the 1960s about a controversial schoolteacher in 1930s Edinburgh and the dangerous impact she has on a handful of young girls, is sometimes a clunky affair with an outdated framing device in which the play is “remembered” and tediously analyzed by a character being interviewed.  Its ideas on Calvinism, Catholicism, Fascism and countless other -isms certainly had more resonance and bite decades ago, and its examination of Scottish class and sexual mores would mean little to a modern-day American audience.  But it also remains a rare tour de force opportunity for a mature actress, contains several passages of dynamic and intelligent writing (much of it lifted directly from Spark’s novel) and on a very basic level celebrates that teacher in everyone’s life who for better or for worse left an indelible mark.  But even a star performance, some good writing and nostalgia isn’t enough to dramatically propel a two-hour plus evening.  There needs to be more, and in this remarkable revival from director Ronan Marra and Signal Ensemble Theatre, there is. Read the rest of this entry »