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.

RECOMMENDED

What what! Don Pedro, Benedick, Claudio and Don John are in the hizouse! Leonato’s house that is. Having just wrapped up a successful nationwide tour slaying whack MCs left and right, these hip-hop soldiers are laying up in their old friend Leo’s crib for some R&R when Claudio falls for Leo’s fine but ditzy daughter Hero. A dope wedding is planned until that ol’ dirty bastard Don John decides to funk it up. Meanwhile Benedick and Hero’s sassy cousin Beatrice drop pun-filled disses on each other in a rap battle of the sexes. Co-creators and directors The Q Brothers call it a “hip-hoptation”—“mixing Big Pun with Shakespeare.” And though their lyrical rhythms are more reminiscent of the Beastie Boys or Too Short, they know their way around the Bard’s tale and this cast knows how to keep it funky (and fresh) with a frenetic, infectious energy backed up by the wicked beats of DJ Adrienne Sanchez. Word. (Zach Freeman)

At Chicago Shakespeare Theater, 800 East Grand (Navy Pier), (312)595-5600, chicagoshakes.com, through February 13.

As the economy slowly lifts us back to our feet and we look around, we see a remarkable sight: a performance industry in Chicago that survived the worst recession since the Great Depression wholly intact. Sure, we had a few brushes with death, and no doubt a few very small, very new theater companies threw in the towel, as they do even in good years, but unlike many other cities across the country, we’re in pretty good shape. How good? The League of Chicago Theatres issued a press release last week proclaiming our town as America’s theater leader, with more than 250 professional theaters, including four Regional Tony Award winners, and a combined annual budget of $250 million serving five million audience members. Add in our thriving dance community, a comedy scene that’s the envy of the nation and two world-class opera companies and you’d have to say we’re doing pretty damn good. But neither the economy nor any cultural organization is fully out of the water yet, and the dramatic uncertainty injected into the political sea by Mayor Daley’s decision to call it a day means Chicago’s performance community will need some steady hands at the wheel these next few years. Accordingly, for this edition of The Players, we’ve broadened our horizon and taken a closer-than-ever look at the individuals in charge of the financial fitness of our local institutions. Read the rest of this entry »

Chaon Cross as Celia, Kate Fry as Rosalin, and Matt Schwader as Orlando/Photo: Peter Bosy

By Dennis Polkow

When Gary Griffin was hired as associate artistic director at Chicago Shakespeare Theater a decade ago, it was principally to expand the company’s programming beyond the classics. Griffin has done exactly that by directing widely acclaimed productions of Stephen Sondheim, Noel Coward and Peter Shaffer at CST, among others.

And though Griffin has done a number of “Shakespeare Shorts,” as the company calls its one-hour adaptations, it was only a matter of time before the veteran director who is primarily associated with directing musicals—including “The Music Man” at Marriott Theatre through January 9, and more recently, operettas at Lyric Opera, including “The Mikado” which is running through January 21—would at some point tackle a full-boat Bard.

“One of the reasons that I wanted to work here is because it was an opportunity to explore an area of theater that I hadn’t worked in,” admits Griffin, during a break at a New Year’s weekend tech rehearsal at Chicago Shakespeare Theater. “I had never done Shakespeare and as you get older, the classics become more and more appealing. It was unknown territory, and that was exciting. That was a big appeal.”

Griffin admits that being part of the CST has meant that his forays into Shakespeare “both by experience and by osmosis get inside of you. It certainly has been a great experience to spend this much time and watch a lot of people tackle [Shakespeare in] a lot of different ways. Then you discover what your version is, or what at least, at this point, you hope it will be.” Read the rest of this entry »

Krapp's Last Tape/Photo: Liz Lauren

Top 5 Shows
“The Brother/Sister Plays,” Steppenwolf
“August: Osage County,” Broadway In Chicago
“Hughie”/”Krapp’s Last Tape,” Goodman
“1001,” Collaboraction
“Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” Steppenwolf
—Brian Hieggelke

Top 5 Play Revivals
“A Streetcar Named Desire,” Writers’ Theatre
“Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” Steppenwolf
“To Kill a Mockingbird,” Steppenwolf Young Adult
“Private Lives,” Chicago Shakespeare Theater
“After the Fall,” Eclipse Theatre
—Dennis Polkow

Top 5 Performances
Brian Dennehy, “Hughie”/”Krapp’s Last Tape,” Goodman
Karen Janes Woditsch, “To Master the Art,” TimeLine
Tracy Letts, “American Buffalo,” Steppenwolf
Amy Morton, “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” Steppenwolf
Mary Beth Fisher, “Seagull,” Goodman
—Brian Hieggelke

Read the rest of this entry »

Nadja Michael/Photo: Robert Kusel

By Dennis Polkow

When outgoing Lyric Opera general director Bill Mason first announced that Chicago Shakespeare founder Barbara Gaines would be making her operatic directorial debut with Verdi’s “Macbeth,” I was skeptical. Not that there wasn’t much to admire in Gaines’ imaginative stagings of more than thirty classics by the Bard at CST; it was the fact that she admitted that her previous opera exposure had been being “dragged” to the old Met as a young girl by her grandmother, that she didn’t know Italian, couldn’t read a score and would be learning the work off of CDs, and had not even known that Verdi had written an operatic adaptation of “Macbeth” before being asked to direct it. As artistic director of CST, would Gaines be willing to hire a director who barely knew the Bard and was illiterate and couldn’t read Shakespeare, I wondered?

Yet as Gaines’ new production of Verdi’s “Macbeth” that premiered at last weekend’s black-tie Lyric Opera Opening Night Gala overwhelmingly demonstrated, it doesn’t matter how you get there—Gaines even admitted having read “Opera for Dummies”—what matters is the end result. And in this case, the end result is something quite extraordinary. Read the rest of this entry »