Lar Lubovitch Dance Company/Photo: Todd Rosenberg

RECOMMENDED

No matter how endlessly dismal the winters, you’ve really gotta love Chicago in the summertime; it seems like every band, dance company and arts organization in town plays the Pritzker Pavilion at least once, sometimes two or three times, gratis. Wander past that bandshell resembling a giant space insect sprung from the mind of Frank Gehry any time of any day and you’ll either catch a show or see the setup and rehearsal for a show to come. Even the Harris Theater has joined in the populist sentiment, hosting free “ticketed” performances of music and dance throughout the season. The mood is vibrant; Millennium Park has become the omphalos of the city’s summertime cultural programming and a remarkably successful use of downtown public space.

Next week, the park hosts the third annual Chicago Dancing Festival—four all-you-can-eat days of free performances by sixteen companies from across the United States. Tuesday at the Harris, catch River North, the Oregon Ballet Theatre, Aszure Barton & Artists and the Joffrey Ballet performing newish works by young, emerging choreographers. If you favor time-tested choreography, hold out till Thursday and see some phenomenal companies brandish the precious gems of their repertory in “Modern Masters”: Aspen Santa Fe Ballet do Forsythe, New York City Ballet do Wheeldon and Luna Negra, Limón. Read the rest of this entry »

RECOMMENDED

Southern novelist Carson McCullers was known for her unblinking portraits of flawed characters’ ignorance and selfishness. Her literary tradition continues as small-town longings spin out of control in Edward Albee’s adaption of her novella “The Ballad of the Sad Café.”

Miss Amelia (Simone Roos) is an entrepreneur/tyrant who is feared by the locals. Cousin Lyman (Aaron Snook), a hunchback dwarf, arrives and she takes him in, much to the townspeoples’ surprise. They live happily together until Amelia’s husband Marvin (Philip Winston) is released from prison, upsetting their home forever.

Signal’s production sweetly captures the sad nostalgia of squandered love. Director Ronan Marra keeps the pacing gentle and languid, but never boring. Snook makes his role’s physical demands look both painful and effortless; Vincent Lonergan’s narration is graciously regretful. Jason Adams, Elizabeth Bagby and Nathan Drackett’s traditional accompaniment flavors the show with a mournful simplicity that resonates long after the show ends. (Lisa Buscani)

“The Ballad of the Sad Café” runs at Signal Ensemble Theatre at the Chopin Theatre, 1543 W. Division, 773-347-1350. Through September 12.

RECOMMENDED

Tennessee Williams’ “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” has been done in so many versions and adaptations over the years that it is easy to lose sight of Williams’ original intentions.  It’s not only that the still commonly seen cleaned-up 1958 film version that made megastars out of Paul Newman and Elizabeth Taylor dumped the adultery and only hinted at the play’s homosexual subtext, but from the beginning, changes were made to the performing version of the play itself.  The earliest were made to suit the 1955 show’s original director Elia Kazan, even though the published version remained the same.  Then Williams himself made changes for a 1974 revival that are often considered his “final word” on the text of the play, though Williams encouraged directors and casts to improvise aspects of the show as they saw fit.

The current Circle Theatre production, directed by Jim Schneider who gave us last year’s wonderful “Hay Fever” and “The Ideal Husband” of a couple of seasons ago, preserves aspects of Williams’ original work as he conceived it, principally in that Maggie, the “cat” of the show (Kimberly Logan), is less sympathetic and more manipulative, and that her husband Brick (Michael Borgmann) does not undergo as explicit a transformation as directors often like to superimpose on the character.  Read the rest of this entry »

XIII Pocket’s “Why We Come Here” looks at relationships through a series of sarcastic, sour vignettes that make you wonder if its characters long for love, or just something to do between drinks.

Leah (Laura Rook), a straight woman distrustful of love, and Terra (Caitlin McGlone), a sexually confident lesbian, swap romantic war stories at their favorite watering hole. The performers nail the punchlines but  approach each relationship with a repetitive bitterness that wears.

Points for the new company’s decision to debut with original work and to set the site-specific piece in a real bar. Mary’s Attic provides an accurate, albeit overly lavender atmosphere; but Stephen Louis Grush’s staging could use the space more effectively. Playwright Megan McGlone’s sharp ear for funny dialogue can’t hide her flawed story arc; conflict development occurs in odd places and her well-written ending is abrupt. It’s an uneven first try; but keep trying. (Lisa Buscani)

“Why We Come Here,” XIII Pocket, Mary’s Attic, 5400 N. Clark. Through August 28.

Photo: Eileen Ryan Photography

RECOMMENDED

Critically acclaimed Natya Dance Theatre performs two free shows next week as part of the “On Stage at Noon” concert series in the Pritzker. The performance, as the title suggests, is a collection of short pieces exemplifying Bharata Natyam, the classical dance form of southern India. Natya’s founder and artistic director Hema Rajagopalan seeks to commune with both the creative and divine (and are they not one in the same?) through her choreography, introducing Western audiences to the ritualistic beauty of South Indian dance. The Bharata Natyam form is characterized by florid gesture and facial expression, along with percussive footwork and radiant, statuesque postures. If you haven’t seen Natya perform, you’re in for a treat, and these hour-long performances look to be a captivating introduction to a beautiful and reflective art form. (Sharon Hoyer)

At the Pritzker Pavilion, 201 E. Randolph. August 19 and  August 20 at noon. Free.

Ka-Tet Theatre makes its debut with “Road,” a hyper-stylized look at extreme poverty in 1980s Britain. Props to a new ensemble for tackling challenging material, even work as flawed and uneven as this.

Charmer Scullery (an appealing Jeremy Clark) narrates a trip through his community as locals search for relief in the pubs and each other.  A series of monologues illuminates the inhabitants’ tribulations with varying effectiveness: a skinhead transcends his street-fighting ways to convert to Buddhism; an elderly caricature puts on makeup for no one.

The result is success and failure: the over-long first act moves at a snail’s pace as the audience searches for someone to root for, but the second act provides moving deliverance through culture and community. The cast handles the poetry well, but dialect was consistently inconsistent. “Road” is long on language but short on insight into the economics and sociology that imprison its characters. (Lisa Buscani)

“Road” shows at Ka-Tet Theatre, Stage Left, 3408 N. Sheffield, (800)838-3006. Through August 29.

RECOMMENDED

One of the few actually entertaining comedians to come out of season one of the classic “Last Comic Standing,” New Jersey quipster Rich Vos has carved a niche out of acting like a doofus under the guise of that Colin Quinn-esque pseudo-tough guy attitude. Sure, self-deprecation is a common theme in a Rich Vos routine (“I stink” seems to be one of his most beloved phrases), but Vos mostly basks in buffoonery through his rampant mispronunciation of words—“Guanamo Bay” instead of “Guantanamo Bay,” “wookapedia” instead of “Wikipedia” and “paux fas” instead of “faux pas.” Dude’s even mispronounced his own name (“Rick Vos”). As an easy target for unrelenting ridicule, Vos has comfortably fit into the role of whipping boy in the “Tough Guy” posse (including Quinn, Jim Norton, Patrice O’Neal and company), but he pulls it off—his stupidity is endearing, and his simplistic comedy comes across as lovable rather than intellectually incompetent. (Andy Seifert)

August 14-15 at Lakeshore Theater, 3175 N. Broadway, (773)472-3492. $20.

RECOMMENDED

If you’ve ever watched an “SNL” show during this current “death rattle” phase, you’ve probably at some point thought, “What I wouldn’t give for some bizarre Tracy Morgan skit right now, just to get the blood moving in my brain again.” His absence from the current “SNL” cast reveals exactly what’s missing—a loud, large, self-centered party animal with absurd characters and boisterous tangents. (Kenan Thompson isn’t cutting it, and Andy Samberg could stand to gain 150 pounds). Morgan’s also the most interesting component of the relatively funny “30 Rock” sitcom, solely because he plays a character who’s ostensibly himself—“Tracy Jordan,” an unpredictable, boorish movie star that at one point tries to stab Conan O’ Brien. Given the fact that’s his real life ego has seemingly conducted a couple of interviews while drunk (on the “Late Show with David Letterman,” he claimed his ankle bracelet from a recent DUI arrest is “in the Smithsonian now”), there’s really no indication as to what erratic form of Tracy Morgan you’re going to see on any given night. And that’s just pure comedy. (Andy Seifert)

August 15 at The Venue at Horseshoe Hammond Casino, 777 Casino Center Drive, Hammond, (866)711-7463.

RECOMMENDED

Perhaps you’ve noticed the lack of daring and imagination being deployed in the Broadway musical as of late where most of the hot and not-so-hot “new” shows tend to (1) musicalize an already well-established brand-name film or other such property, (2) satirize a show-within-a-show with a nod and a wink or (3) string together a pre-fabricated soundtrack with well-established hit tunes.  The fact that “Spring Awakening” does not fit into these tried and true formulae for what makes a hit Broadway musical and yet became exactly that, would be enough reason to check it out, but happily, this unconventional show not only breaks the mold, but does so with considerable flash and style. Read the rest of this entry »

Here’s the press release from Eclipse:

Eclipse Theatre Company Leads Year-Long Exploration of Arthur Miller
in 2009 / 2010 Chicago Theatre Season

(CHICAGO, August 5, 2009) – Classic American theatre fans are in for a treat this upcoming season with several new productions exploring the works one of the 20th century’s greatest American playwrights – some might argue the greatest – Arthur Miller.

Currently, there are four local theatre companies with Arthur Miller productions slated, including Chicago’s Eclipse Theatre Company, which is unique in the Midwest in its mission to focus on a single playwright each season. After a critically acclaimed and commercially successful two-year Celebration Series, in which Eclipse featured the work of the first 10 playwrights produced since the company adopted its mission of “one season, one playwright,” the 2010 Arthur Miller Season is a welcome return to the company’s seasonal format. Read the rest of this entry »