From left: Adrian Danzig, Samuel Taylor, John Judd/Photo: Michael Brosilow

RECOMMENDED

What if all the magical action in “The Tempest” happened inside the head of one bitter, wronged man? “The Feast” portrays a tormented Prospero (John Judd) commanding his slaves Ariel (Samuel Taylor) and Caliban (Adrian Danzig) to repeatedly act out an unfolding drama of his own creation using masks and puppets. Read the rest of this entry »

Darren Criss (#4) with Team StarKid

With our criteria shifted back to artistic accomplishment in theater, dance, comedy and opera this year, our task got infinitely tougher. Because while the number of performing venues grows at a steady rate, the increase in the number of noteworthy artists seems to grow exponentially. For everyone we name on the list below, we had to leave off five, an embarrassment of riches for Chicago. We made a conscious effort to introduce a meaningful number of new faces to the list this year; the necessary absences should not be construed as a loss of worthiness as a consequence. We often find trends when we do the research these lists require; this year we’re starting to see a more meaningful effort to redefine performance itself in the internet age, from the runaway success of StarKids, to the more calculated endeavors of Silk Road. So what defines a “player”? Consider it some complex stew of career achievement, recent “heat” and, in some cases, rising stardom.

Written by Zach Freeman, Brian Hieggelke, Sharon Hoyer and Dennis Polkow

Read the rest of this entry »

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

RECOMMENDED

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 »

Brent Barrett, Jenny Guse, Christina Myers, Amanda Tanguay and Amanda Kroiss/ Photo: Liz Lauren

RECOMMENDED

Back in the 1990s when Gary Griffin was artistic director of Drury Lane Oakbrook where he had directed some of his first musicals, he programmed Stephen Sondheim’s “Follies.” Curiously, despite his longtime love for that show, he allowed his associate director to take it. Thus, despite Griffin’s later reputation for directing Sondheim as associate artistic director of Chicago Shakespeare Theater, this much-anticipated production opening CST’s twenty-fifth-anniversary season is actually the first time that Griffin himself has directed “Follies.”  Read the rest of this entry »

Photo: Eric Y. Exit

RECOMMENDED

Created specifically for Chicago by one step at a time like this, a group of Melbourne-based artists, “en route” is an intricate maze of an art piece/interactive theater event that combines elements of a scavenger hunt and “Mission: Impossible” to fully bring to life the immortal words of Shakespeare: “All the world’s a stage.” Experiencers (“audience members” doesn’t sound right) are given a device with pre-recorded tracks of music/instructions and a phone number to call in case they become “geographically, technologically or even psychologically lost” and then sent out to explore. But this is more than a tour of Chicago’s landmarks; as you make your way through grimy alleyways and plush hotel lobbies you start to take in your surroundings in a surprising new light. Is that crushed beer can a prop? Is that girl with the cast on her leg following you? What happens next? “en route” isn’t a show that you “see,” it’s something you “do.” And I can’t say this emphatically enough: “Go do it!” (Zach Freeman)

Presented by Chicago Shakespeare Theater, (312)595-5600. $35. Through August 13.

RECOMMENDED

Opening with a surprise party gone awry and a murder to be solved, “Murder for Two—A Killer Musical” (penned by Joe Kinosian and Kellen Blair) quickly explodes into self-aware musical campiness; puns and slapstick abound in a way that would no doubt make Mel Brooks giggle giddily. Officer Marcus Moscowicz (Alan Schmuckler) arrives at the scene of the crime with hopes of becoming a detective and ineffectively strives to corral a host of feisty suspects that includes an aloof ballerina, a gruff psychiatrist, a bickering older couple, a bookish grad student and the victim’s attention-grabbing wife (all played with gusto by Kinosian). The straight-man/funny-man combo works wonders here, with Schmuckler’s earnestness giving Kinosian free rein to send his characters over the top and director David H. Bell has instilled this world premiere with a sense of excitement and experimentation throughout that caters to the show’s irreverent strengths. Those looking to use their detecting skills may be disappointed, but those looking for a laugh will be more than satisfied. (Zach Freeman)

Chicago Shakespeare Theater, 800 East Grand (at Navy Pier), 312.595.5600. $25-$30. Through September 4.

Photo: Liz Lauren

RECOMMENDED

As the acclaim and popularity of “The King’s Speech” and a billion people reportedly tuning into last week’s royal wedding reminded us, we continue to be fascinated with British royalty despite that ancient institution’s ever-increasing irrelevance to anything to do with the modern world. The contemporary sovereign having been reduced to a mere figurehead, it is the prime minister, as we all know, who wields the actual power in Great Britain, though when a couple of high-profile former prime ministers were left off the guest list of last week’s wedding, it was taken as a royal commentary on their performance. Snub, yes, but in a former age, they would have been taken to the Tower of London and dispatched. Times have changed.

Although “The Madness of George III” is set in the eighteenth century during the reign of the king who, in popular culture, lost the American colonies and then went mad, playwright Alan Bennett uses that scenario to plummet into far deeper issues of the role of power and control in a monarchy. The king, of course, is losing control—or so it would appear—in a time and place that, above all else, puts the highest premium on restraint. Losing your British calm, even if you are the King of England, could have your subjects label you as unfit to rule. Add to that greedy children just waiting in the wings to exploit a royal weakness have their turn at power, and you have fascinating human as well as political intrigue. Read the rest of this entry »

Photo: Manuel Harlan

RECOMMENDED

While the mise-en-scene of the play is mostly clutter-free, the alley stage of the Broadway Armory space framed by scaffolding structures, there is one scenic piece that ends up serving a number of resonant functions: it’s a pool table. Simple as it sounds, with its representations of casual gaming, army truck and even womb, the set piece ultimately says a lot about the hometown pride that is characteristic of the Scottish Black Watch. A Highland regiment with hundreds of years of history, it became the center of a controversy during the 2003 Iraq War when the U.S. Army requested that the Black Watch replace its own forces in an area known as the “Triangle of Death.”

Based on interviews with former members of the Black Watch, Gregory Burke’s script retains a certain docudrama spine. Yet between the scenes of jocularity, whether in the pool hall back home or in the thick of it during the war, there is a definite stylistic approach to the material that heightens the inherent drama of battle. Scenes of testosterone vulgarity make way to beautiful ballets with rifle-clutching soldiers or the singing of a swelling Scottish ballad. With the recent dissolution of the Black Watch into the Royal Regiment of Scotland, these stylized elements contribute to its crucially romanticized collective memory. In all, the play is an unadulterated insight into the life of a soldier, a provocative examination of the smaller consequences of foreign policy and a stirring tribute to a centuries-long tradition of pride. (Neal Ryan Shaw)

The National Theatre of Scotland and Chicago Shakespeare Theater at the Broadway Armory, 5917 North Broadway, (312)595-5600. Through April 10.

Here’s the press release from Chicago Shakespeare Theater:

Chicago Shakespeare Theater Celebrates 25th Anniversary

SEASON HIGHLIGHTS
Ian McDiarmid Stars in Barbara Gaines’ Staging of Shakespeare’s Timon of Athens
Gary Griffin Directs Sondheim and Goldman’s Follies
Artists from Arabic-speaking World in US Premiere of One Thousand and One Nights
Silver Jubilee Gala Launches Celebration June 6, 2011
Honoring Sir Peter Hall, Sir Derek Jacobi, John W. and Jeanne M. Rowe  Read the rest of this entry »

Tadhg Murphy/Photo: Ros Kavanagh

RECOMMENDED

Responding to the accusation that his parents killed themselves out of the shame of having a disfigured child, the titular Cripple Billy says, “You don’t know what was in their heads.” This idea resonates through the entire play, in a brilliant and brooding staging by Garry Hynes for Druid Theatre Company. In Ireland in 1934, a Hollywood crew comes to the islands to shoot a film called “The Man of Aran.” On hearing news that the director wants to use locals as actors, Cripple Billy decides he finally has a chance to see the world. Many of the component themes of a McDonagh play are present: violence, manipulation, closely guarded secrets. The play is also wickedly funny, without any of the actors (all great) turning their characters into two-dimensional types. Sadly the production makes no use of Chicago Shakespeare’s thrust, which, at closer range, would have made the game of guessing character intentions much more painfully pleasurable. (Neal Ryan Shaw)

Druid Theatre Company at Chicago Shakespeare Theater, 800 East Grand (Navy Pier), (312)595-5600. Through March 27.