Other Professional Theater Reviews

***RECOMMENDED*** Pretty soon the artistic and executive directors of Porchlight Music Theatre may have to add a newly minted moniker to the list of credits printed in the Playbill that they distribute at each performance: casting by Divas Central Management. Last autumn, Porchlight presented a highly-lauded production of "Gypsy" starring E. Faye Butler -- a performance which saw a very busy Butler finally return to a Chicago stage after quite a lengthy absence. She was greeted with open arms by critics and Porchlight audiences alike and won a coveted Jeff Award for her efforts. Now the elusive local star returning to the stage is Hollis Resnik in Andrew Lloyd Webber's "Sunset Boulevard," which is the first Webber show that Porchlight has ever produced as they enter their Silver Anniversary season. To keep the diva trend going, avid musical theatre lovers can only dream that next October Porchlight will launch their season with Paula Scrofano as Aurora in "Kiss of the Spider Woman". Or, how about Barbara E. Robertson in the title role of "Mame"? They both would be sensational.  3 SPOTLIGHTS

**SOMEWHAT RECOMMENDED** For the past 36 years, Raven Theatre has built a solid reputation by presenting season after season of well-balanced programming. Known primarily for producing classic works written by many of the legendary American playwrights, Raven has also mixed in amongst those heavy hitters' work some wonderful contemporary writer's plays to expose Chicago audiences to exciting new voices in the theatre world. However, recently-appointed Artistic Director Cody Estle, only in his second full season in command, has taken a slight misstep with "Sundown, Yellow Moon" by Rachel Bonds.  2 SPOTLIGHTS

***RECOMMENDED*** Just in time for a good-time Halloween haunting comes the newest show from those zany folks at Hell in a Handbag Productions, “The Facts of Life: Satan’s School for Girls.” This musical parody (book and lyrics by David Cerda and music by Cerda and Andrew Milliken) is loosely based upon the long-running 1980s sit-com. “The Facts of Life” was surprisingly NBC’s highest rated program during the early ‘80s and the wildly popular show, which featured multiple characters who were students at a private school for girls and the slightly dowdy but lovable matron who cared for them, inexplicably ran for eight seasons.  3 SPOTLIGHTS

***RECOMMENDED***  Cambridge University, while largely recognized as one of the world's best academic institutions for obtaining a solid education, has never really been considered a particularly progressive place of study.  In the hundreds of years of its history (well over 700), it finally allowed women to enroll as students in 1869, with the foundation of Girton College, created specifically for the bright and fiercely driven women who desired a level of higher learning. While these women were allowed to study, there was no formal degree that they were granted upon the completion of their course work, unlike their male counterparts. This historical injustice is explored in Promethean Theatre Ensemble's Chicago premiere of playwright Jessica Swale's "Blue Stockings," a highly entertaining and refreshingly enlightening play. 3 AND 1/2 SPOTLIGHTS