RECOMMENDED

Rebecca Kling’s solo performance employs storytelling, video and theatrical movement to relate her experiences as a transgender woman. Supported by the Critical Fierceness grant—a microgrant offered by Chances Dances to queer artists in Chicago—and developed during Kling’s tenure in the Links Hall Charged Bodies mentorship program, Trans Form peels back the trans label and its mystique to probe the complications of human identity. In a rehearsal clip, Kling tells a story about the hassles and minor indignities of legally changing her name and switching the gender marker on her drivers license from male to female. With good nature and gentle humor the five-minute monologue not only riffs on the frustrations of living in a bureaucratic system, but also gives one pause to consider the blurred line between private life and public identity. It plays out like a Kafka short story that ends in triumph. (Sharon Hoyer)

At Links Hall, 3435 North Sheffield, (800)838-3006. Dec 11-13. Fri-Sat at 8pm, Sun at 7pm. $15.

Photo: Herbert Migdoll

RECOMMENDED

The first snowfall descends on Chicago, bringing with it the reality of the approaching holiday season and a hearty craving for diversions, rich foods and elaborate sweets. Enter the Joffrey’s annual sugar-encrusted treat, a Baroque construction of eye candy replete with children’s choruses, puppetry, the Chicago Sinfonietta, an immense Christmas tree on hydraulics, well over 100 young dancers and the entire Joffrey company dripping with frosting and lace. Robert Joffrey and Gerald Arpino’s vision of the European holiday standard injects Tchaikovsky’s most famous work with some good old-fashioned twentieth-century American athleticism. The divertissement is a mounting parade of jaw-dropping feats of flexibility and acrobatics—a healthy balance to the many hours of equally impressive physicality presented by the NFL you’re sure to gape at in the coming weeks. (Sharon Hoyer)

At the Auditorium Theater, 50 E Congress Parkway, (312)739-0120. December 11-27. $25-$100.

Andrew Carter, Ashley Bishop, Gary Houston, Kevin R. Kelley and John Mohrlein/Photo: The Stage Channel

RECOMMENDED

Creating a dramatic story to celebrate the spirit of Christmas is far more challenging than it seems. It’s far too easy to try and simply trade on the cloying sweetness of hackneyed sentimentality (see the annual rollout of made-for-TV movies), rather than to construct something that evokes the seasonal themes in a manner that warms the heart and pleases the brain. That’s why most new theater works tend to parody the tropes of the holidays; warm and fuzzy Christmas seems like an old-fashioned notion that belongs to our grandparents. Even  putting a twist on a classic can fail. Count me among those who can recite lines from the Frank Capra film “It’s A Wonderful Life” and who finds himself sobbing at the ending every time. When Porchlight did a musical version a couple years back, I expected to love it but instead found it quite disappointing. So I went to see the American Blues Theater’s production of “It’s A Wonderful Life: Live at the Biograph!” with some measure of apprehension. I left marveling at their creation of perfect Christmas theater. Read the rest of this entry »

Rick Kubes/Photo: Emily Johnston Anderson

RECOMMENDED

ATC’s holiday perennial blooms again, transporting audiences to the forties and the Golden Age of Radio. Its news reports, dedications and re-creation of Frank Capra’s classic make for poignant, gentle entertainment.

The ensemble’s impressive vocal dexterity enables it to handle the multiple castings with aplomb; Bernard Balbot gives Mel Blanc a run for his money. Rick Kubes’ on-time Foley work enhances the production’s retro feel, no mean feat. Kareem Bandealy and Mary Winn Heider have the thankless task of assuming roles Jimmy Stewart and Donna Reed  cornered, yet they manage to capture the love and humor that bind the couple.

It’s a shame the schism between ATC and the majority of its ensemble members has created double productions and competition for audience. The best gifts both groups could give us would be to rise above their differences and get back to the strenuous blessing of creating art. (Lisa Buscani)

“It’s A Wonderful Life” plays at American Theater Company, 1909 W. Byron, (773)409-4125. Through December 27.

Andy St. Clair, Brad Morris/Photo: Bob Knuth

RECOMMENDED

If the comedy revues at Second City hew to a familiar pattern, it’s for a purpose. I don’t always agree with that purpose, but the theater just reached its fiftieth anniversary, so something’s working.  The company’s latest mainstage show may not be its strongest, but it is worth seeing for two reasons: Brad Morris and Andy St. Clair.

“Taming of the Flu” feels especially traditional in its Second Cityness. (Longtime director Mick Napier is at the helm.) This isn’t humor that comes from uncomfortable introspection. The material and its execution is standard stuff. Ultimately it’s up to the cast to differentiate their show from years past and, on that score, Morris and St. Clair do most of the heavy lifting.

I barely noticed Morris three years ago when he joined the mainstage. It can take a little while for performers to figure out where they fit in, and Morris sorted things out by the time he hit the stage in 2008’s “No Country for Old White Men.” Read the rest of this entry »

Tom Shea/Photo: Johnny Knight

RECOMMENDED

Doug Post’s anthropomorphic extravaganza is back in Chicago after a twenty-year absence. Originating at the old Organic Lab space, the musical adaptation of Kenneth Grahame’s whimsical parables mocks Edwardian England’s social convention through the stories of the animal kingdom living in and around the Thames.

Mole (Jessica Anne Cook) is new to the river and quickly adopted by Rat (Jeremy Trager), who introduces him to the river folk including Toad (Thomas M. Shea), a pompous creature with a thing for pretense and combustible engines. The talented ensemble handles the singing, dancing and multiple casting with ease. Shea’s Toad is ego-riffic yet likeable. Cook and Trager capture the sweet camaraderie and class elitism common throughout the (human and animal) kingdom. Post’s songs run the gamut of styles from punk to reggae to Broadway ballads and belters. Alan Donohue’s set and Ricky Lurie’s costumes give the show the countrified functionality it requires. (Lisa Buscani)

“The Wind in the Willows” plays at City Lit Theater,  1020 W. Bryn Mawr,(773)293-3682, through January 3.

Elizabeth Futral/Photo: Dan Rest

“I will wear the orchestra out with my dance card,” says the Merry Widow herself (Elizabeth Futral) at the Act I party where her countrymen are trying to make sure that her fortune stays within their country. The irony is that the old gal almost didn’t have an orchestra at all, as the Lyric Opera Orchestra, which had been playing without a contract since the season began nearly three months ago, had threatened a strike by curtain time of Saturday’s opening. A tentative agreement had been reached early Friday morning, averting a work stoppage.

Lyric Opera has always had a snobby attitude about “The Merry Widow.” Lyric founder Carol Fox wouldn’t touch it since it was an operetta and not an opera, but Ardis Krainik found herself presenting it twice during the 1980s: the first with Evelyn Lear in the company’s first-ever production, and again in 1986 as a vehicle for Kiri Te Kanawa, although Te Kanawa pulled out and Maria Ewing took her place. This third-ever company production sees the pendulum swing to the opposite direction, given that it was conceived around veteran Chicago director Gary Griffin and the vast majority of those involved with it come from the theater world rather than the opera world. That’s great in that it means that those long sections of spoken dialogue are performed by genuine actors, but when the singing begins, we’re often hearing “show” voices rather than operatic voices, which means that the music often loses its sparkle and luster. Read the rest of this entry »

RECOMMENDED

Horny aliens, guilty humans and vengeful ghosts populate this stylish production. “Breed” uses spooky sound design and shadow to create David Lynch-like tension, skipping elaborate sets and props for bare-bones thrills and smart, dark humor.

It’s the 1950s and a photographer with a secret is held captive by a monosyllabic giant and an alien femme fatale who resembles a hung-over Gloria Swanson. Flashbacks reveal more questions, making effective use of the characters’ internal and external dialogue.

Ron Kroll is sympathetic as a man tortured and ultimately doomed by his longings; Sara Gorsky is alluring and creepy as the alien with the ticking biological clock. Detectives Jim Hicks and Anthony Stamilio’s hard-boiled interrogatory vaudeville provides comic relief; Don Hall wrings laughs and loneliness out of minimal dialogue. The Mammals are a young company with a bright, distinctive future. (Lisa Buscani)

The Mammals‘ ”Breed with Me” plays at the Zoo Studio, 4001 N. Ravenswood, Suite B-1, (866)593-4614. Through February 13.

Wayne Wilson, Jerry Kernion, Daniel Passer/Photo: Kristie Kahns

RECOMMENDED

Traditional Cirque du Soleil fans—and they are legion—are likely to find this latest comedy-packed, vaudeville-style entry in the franchise a perplexing, even tedious experience in that it has little in common with past offerings. “Daniel, help me down from here,” says clown Wayne Wilson, caught on a rising microphone. “I can’t,” says Daniel Passer, “I’m not in the union.” So much for the Chicago topical humor (the show is dress-rehearsing here for a New York opening).

Still, the take-off on American “talent” shows is hysterical, though it is likely to be unappealing to those who actually like such shows. “Is there anyone with any talent here?” says emcee Schmelky (Jerry Kernion), and seat numbers of “volunteers” are read aloud to audition on stage. All are clowns, of course, although out of makeup and just initially “normal” enough that they could pass for actual audience members. Before long, we get a ventriloquist whose dummy is deaf (the ventriloquist silently moves his hands endlessly, imitating sign language), a streaker/contortionist as a “modern dancer” (Patrick de Valette) and “the oldest mime in the world” (Gordon White) who comes on stage with a walker and takes his time to pantomime a large glass box that takes him long stretches of time to make his way across to its four corners.  Cruel humor, to be sure, but funny nonetheless.

As for actual circus acts within the show, these are few and far between, and consist mostly of juggling and a couple of gymnasts, albeit all excellent, as you would expect. What we get instead are elaborate dance routines, colorful costumes and an overdose of skits with no overall theme to any of this other than apparently being scaled-down Cirque du Soleil stuff reconfigured for theater venues.  (Dennis Polkow)

“Cirque du Soleil Banana Shpeel” runs through January 3 at the Chicago Theatre, $23-$98.

Ricky Jay/Photo: Jesse Dylan

RECOMMENDED

Ricky Jay opened “A Rogue’s Gallery” by reciting a poem that his friend Shel Silverstein wrote for him, in which Jay defends himself against a gun-wielding sore loser with only his playing cards. By the end of the evening, the idea of Jay fighting crime with cards seemed not only entirely possible, but paled in comparison to some of his other feats. Through random and sometimes haphazard processes, Jay selected audience members to join him on stage for various mesmerizing sleight-of-hand effects (he doesn’t call them tricks) in which he somehow managed to inscribe a book to someone before knowing her name, made cards seemingly teleport from one place to another, and blindly charted the course of a knight across a chess board without ever landing in the same space twice, while reciting Shakespeare and spontaneously calculating square roots. He also shared clips from some of the many films he’s been in and consulted on, and generally made people laugh tears with his remarkable stagecraft and wit. It sounds strange, and it was; but the kind of strange that causes every part of you all the way down to the cellular level to wonder how? Read the rest of this entry »