Apr 23
RECOMMENDED
On a rainy night, Bobby (Darrell Cox) and his black-sheep-turned-academic sister Betty (Natasha Lowe) pack up a lakeside cottage. Bobby’s looking for a fight; he finds it when he pokes around Betty’s personal life. It’s a prickly bit of back and forth, as both characters come to terms with their relationship and themselves.
Cox captures the bitterness and longing his character harbors for his sister. He’s a scruffy, no-bullshit loser who has no patience for Betty’s wily ways and gives her no quarter. Unfortunately, Lowe doesn’t display the bad-girl quality that explains Betty’s hold over her brother. Read the rest of this entry »
Apr 21
Simon Callow/Photo: André Penteado
RECOMMENDED
Those who have experienced one of veteran British stage and screen actor Simon Callow’s compelling one-man shows in the past will likely be checking out his latest solo effort solely based on the sheer revelation and enjoyment of his previous outings. However, unlike, say, his one-man Dickens show, where so much is known about that author and the material presented is always on terra firma, “Being Shakespeare” is a far more speculative show. And yet it is precisely because so little is known about the Bard—taken with his sine qua non reputation in the canon of English literature and a template-setting role in theater as we know it—that we are all the more curious. Read the rest of this entry »
Apr 17
Eddie Bennett and Rob Lindley/Photo: Michael Brosilow
Review: Angels in America/Court Theatre
RECOMMENDED
Perhaps the best theatrical experience is always personal, but ever since I saw “Angels in America Part One: Millennium Approaches” during the premiere run of its national tour at the Royal George in 1994, I’ve had a particular attachment to this show, which I’ve long considered the best new play of my adult lifetime. Read the rest of this entry »
Apr 16
RECOMMENDED
Playwright and chess master Cándido Tirado’s rumination on the brutality of human beings uses the chess board as a jumping-off point for covering a range of cruel behavior—from genocide to racism to unfair eviction—as three seasoned chess hustlers bicker and collude with each other while working to lure in challengers (referred to as fish) and take their money at the board.
The action takes place in the round, with set designer Collette Pollard’s tables and benches perfectly capturing the comfortably worn feeling of New York’s Washington Square Park and Jesse Klug’s lighting design (including some glowing chess tables) adding a touch of the heightened abstract. Read the rest of this entry »
Apr 13
RECOMMENDED
It has been nearly five years since “Jersey Boys” first took Chicago by storm with a subsequent two-plus-year-run that had it following the Broadway In Chicago “Wicked” template of opening here with a national tour but subsequently creating its own Chicago production. The 2006 Tony Award-winning musical which tells the story of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons—warts and all and complete with the group’s hits meticulously recreated—has emerged as not only one of the most successful shows of the “ought” decade, but also one of the most emulated. As a national tour made it back to its old haunt the Bank of America Theatre, it was hard not to be swept away by the brilliance of the show which has stood the test of time remarkably well. Read the rest of this entry »
Apr 11
Photo: Michael Brosilow
RECOMMENDED
On the one-year anniversary of her husband’s disappearance, Valerie (Kirsten Fitzgerald) must deal with her shady pharmacist daughter Midge (Missi Davis), her eccentric police-officer sister-in-law Gail (Natalie West) and the new arrivals in the neighborhood—her long-absent brother-in-law Donal (H.B. Ward) and his timid wife Sevenly (Lara Phillips). The rumor in town is that she had a hand in her husband going missing. Read the rest of this entry »
Apr 10
Photo: Liz Lauren
RECOMMENDED
“The tools of the theater are not the same as the tools of journalism.” Playwright Jackie Sibblies Drury recognizes the complex theater-versus-journalism trap that monologist Mike Daisey recently found himself ensnared in, and deftly maneuvers her script around it. Read the rest of this entry »
Apr 10
Amira Sabbagh, Joel Kim Booster, Joyee Lin, Jaii Beckley, Danny Bernardo, Christine Bunuan, and Dipika Cherala/Photo: Michael Brosilow
RECOMMENDED
Consider the holiday that many Americans just celebrated: a god, with a three-part persona, is one-third executed, only to return from the dead in, natch, three days. And part of the celebratory ritual is an act of metaphorically cannibalizing the deity. And, to top it off, add in painting the eggs of chickens and a mysterious rabbit who delivers confectionery fauna. Pretty exotic stuff if you were an alien or even just raised on the other side of this planet. This is the kind of cultural self-examination that “Re-Spiced: A Silk Road Cabaret” brings to mind as its cast of color plows through a carefully organized songbook of American and British tunes old and new that address, in some way, Asian and Middle Eastern themes. Woven into a clever and entertaining pastiche of songs, many focused on the “exoticness” of the East, are text excerpts drawn from the Western canon, the likes of Walt Whitman, Edith Wharton and Friedrich Nietzsche that punctuate or counterpoint the verses. Read the rest of this entry »
Apr 09
Anna Hammonds and Matthew Keffer
RECOMMENDED
N. Richard Nash’s 1954 story is a bit dusty, like the drought-stricken ranch where it’s set. But Boho’s gentle approach manages to breathe life into a classic.
The Curry family is struggling. Their cattle are dying of thirst and sister Lizzie (Anna Hammonds) pines for love. Brother Jim (Nate Santana) chafes in big brother Noah’s (Daniel Gilbert) shadow; father HC (Robert Frankel) tries to keep the peace. Enter Starbuck (Matthew Keffer), a dreaming schemer who promises to bring relief. Read the rest of this entry »
Apr 09
Greg Matthew Anderson/Photo: Johnny Knight
RECOMMENDED
The NEA’s denial of four artists’ grant money in the early nineties still provides grist for the creative mill; Lee Blessing’s 1999 solo response show explores artistic themes that still hold up today.
Performance artist Kerr (Greg Matthew Anderson) becomes the target of a conservative politician’s senatorial campaign. Accused of creating obscene art, Kerr’s grant money is revoked; in revenge, he plots to steal the politician’s photogenic dog as his next “performance piece.” What follows is a madcap criminal escapade that reinforces Kerr’s belief in the transformative power of art. Read the rest of this entry »
