Reviews by Carol Moore

**** Highly Recommended **** Hell in a Handbag is one of my favorite Chicago theater companies.  Their unauthorized parodies of old black and white films and TV shows from the fifties are always packed with double entendres, puns, running sight gags and bad wigs.  Since I love Agatha Christie’s mysteries featuring Miss Marple, I was thrilled to see their latest effort, "A Fine Feathered Murder" featuring the always delightful Ed Jones as Miss Jane Marbled.  Playwright – and incredibly stylish Lady Violetta Fowler – David Cerda has written another hilarious tongue-in-cheek farce.  Be prepared for murder, mayhem and a lot of laughs.   4 BIG Spotlights

**** Highly Recommended **** Northlight Theatre’s production of "Dear Jack, Dear Louise" is one of the best plays I’ve seen this year!  Advance reading about the play intrigued me, but I wasn’t sure how the concept would translate to the stage.  I didn’t want to see a clone of Love Letters - two people dispassionately reading side by side.    I’m happy to say that Ken Ludwig’s tribute to his parents is a fully realized play which is nostalgic, deeply personal yet historically resonant.  4 BIG Spotlights

**** Highly Recommended **** "It Came From Outer Space" is a new musical by Joe Kinosian and Kellen Blair (the people who wrote Murder for Two).  It’s a takeoff on Universal’s 1953 3-D movie starring Richard Carlson and Barbara Rush.  Now considered a classic of science fiction cinema, "It Came From Outer Space" is based on a Ray Bradbury film treatment called "The Meteor".  "It Came From Outer Space" is a clever comedy, with lots of campy melodrama, tongue-in-cheek dialog, physical humor, slapstick and puns that will make you groan.  I loved it!  4 BIG Spotlights

**** Highly Recommended ****  "Life After" is a poignant new musical packed with beautiful songs about the way a teenaged girl comes to accept the sudden death of her father.  Hard enough as an adult, right?  As if that weren’t enough, 16-year-old Alice had a huge fight with her dad and stormed out.  He called, left a message, but she never got the chance to call him back. "Life After" is a beautiful musical.  4 Spotlights