Don Hall and Gabe Garza/Photo: Bob Fisher

Right up front, the main character (Dennis Frymire) of “Devils Don’t Forget” will tell you he’s not entirely sure how this will all end. He’s riffing on the film noir trope of the unreliable narrator, a genre the Mammals have been playing with for years. Standing there at the top of the show in his underwear and with two conspicuous bandages on his forehead, you wonder though more about what’s already happened than what’s to come. Read the rest of this entry »

RECOMMENDED

In a remount of their well-received 2011 improv format, Playground Theater ensemble member K.C. Redheart once again takes the audience through “the entire process of bringing a show to the stage,” breaking the action into three parts: the initial table read, a tech rehearsal and opening night. Working from an audience suggestion of the title of a show that has never been written or produced, the troupe (all sporting blank paper “scripts”) kicks off sitting in a semi-circle with the “director” welcoming his “cast” and letting them introduce themselves. Read the rest of this entry »

Larry Grimm and Danny McCarthy/Photo: Michael Brosilow

RECOMMENDED

A nervous inventor (Larry Grimm) pitches his latest creation to a smarmy business executive (Danny McCarthy) in the confines of a metallic negotiation room that gives off the claustrophobic feeling of an inner chamber in a giant machine (scenic design by John Dalton).  It’s a creation he breathlessly claims will change not just the world, but our very perception of the EVERYDAY. Read the rest of this entry »

RECOMMENDED

I hate winter. Sure, no Chicagoan really loves the season, but I truly hate it. So any play that depicts winter in its worst light has a leg up with me—just a caveat.

Cities kind of hate winter, too. The blizzard of 1967 was the worst snowstorm in Chicago history, dumping twenty-three inches on the city, heaviest during rush hour and doing what Billy Sunday could not, that is shutting down the town. “Blizzard ’67,” the intriguing new play by Jon Steinhagen, depicts the impact of that fateful event on one carpool of four co-workers of varying rank and age at a faceless downtown corporation. The play’s framed in a faux-documentary fashion, with the actors occasionally narrating their own transitional voiceovers. Read the rest of this entry »

By Caylie Sadin

The Shattered Globe Theatre Company wanted to commemorate their twentieth season, but Roger Smart, the artistic director, didn’t want to simply reprise plays they’d previously done. So instead the theater decided to put on a staged-reading series of some of their popular pieces, aptly named “Around the Globe.”

“Judgment at Nuremberg,” based on the trials in Nuremberg of Nazi officials, is the first of the series to be performed.  The play focuses on the trial of four judges who are accused of working with the Nazis and perpetrating horrible crimes on humanity through upholding Nazi laws. Originally performed as a staged reading in October, the Shattered Globe is bringing the reading back again with most of the cast from their first production of it in 2003. Read the rest of this entry »

George Hamilton and Christopher Sieber/Photo: Paul Kolnik

RECOMMENDED

Though the idea of mainstream audiences being even modestly scandalized by drag queens and the depiction of gay characters as loving, funny—well, as human beings is, like, so eighties, I am sad to report that “La Cage Aux Folles” is every bit as relevant today as it was when it debuted on Broadway in 1983. The challenges of achieving social acceptance of a loving long-term gay marriage? Right-wing politicians making hay out of homophobia? Plus ça change.

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Photo: Carol Rosegg

RECOMMENDED

Only in America could a boy’s desire for a harmful weapon be turned into a charming musical. But it has, and good thing. This production adds a great deal to the story we’ve all seen a gajillion times on TBS.

Ralphie (Clarke Hallum) wants (all together now) an official Red Ryder carbine-action 200-shot range model air rifle, but has to circumvent his parents (solid troupers John Bolton and Rachel Bay Jones) and teacher (cabaret legend Karen Mason), who are certain that he’ll “shoot his eye out.”  It’s the epic holiday struggle. Read the rest of this entry »

Logan Vaughn, Yasen Peyankov, Scott Jaeck and Tracy Letts/Photo: Michael Brosilow

RECOMMENDED

In Steppenwolf’s latest, playwright Enda Walsh paints a bleak picture of masculinity and what men must endure in today’s world: the cruelty of time, the savagery of economic survival, the political maneuverings of love.

Fitz (Tracy Letts), Quinn (Yasen Peyankov), Dunne (Scott Jaeck) and Burns (Ian Barford) are the remaining suitors vying for Penelope’s hand. They are running out of time; they’ve all dreamt of Odysseus’ return and their subsequent murders. The suitors work together to woo the queen. Read the rest of this entry »

Photo: Michael Brosilow

RECOMMENDED

Listen to the “Spring Awakening” lyrics and realize how little things have changed. In our climate of abstinence-only sexual education, this musical version of Frank Wedekind’s scandalous 1906 play chronicling the sexual awakening of repressed German teenagers still packs a bittersweet punch.

Wendla (Aja Wiltshire) flirts with S&M and starts a sexual relationship with Melchior (Josh Salt); Moritz (Matthew Fletcher), distracted by his yearnings, fails at his studies; Martha (Paige Collins) and Ilse (Lindsay Leopold) struggle with abuse at home. It’s a tragedy made achingly bearable by the haunting score. Read the rest of this entry »

Diane D’Aquila and Steven Sutcliffe/Photo: Liz Lauren

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In many ways, Timothy Findley’s play is a gender theorist’s wet dream. On the factual night before the execution of Elizabeth I’s lover, the Earl of Essex, the queen has ordered Shakespeare’s players to perform for her distraction and has a fictional confrontation with Ned Lowenscroft, the actor who played Shakespeare’s leading female roles. The kicker is that Lowenscroft is dying of syphilis.  Read the rest of this entry »