Reviews by Carol Moore

**** Highly Recommended   Often when I see a play about families, I think about a Dickens quote about the best of times, and the worst of times.  Family can be the best, but it can also be the absolute worst.  So, family angst is at the center of "Purpose", a must-see world premiere at Steppenwolf.  Sometimes a family occasion – mom’s birthday, Thanksgiving, Sunday brunch – becomes a command performance.  "Purpose" is all about a command performance for a brother’s homecoming – from prison!  It’s an amazingly good play – funny, fraught, fiery – and there’s a food fight!  4 BIG Spotlights

**** Highly Recommended   It’s cold outside, but who cares?  Warm up at Aurora’s Copley Theatre with the smoldering heat generated by the cast of A Streetcar Named Desire!  Although this Tennessee Williams classic premiered in 1947, its themes are very relevant today.  This production is absolutely sizzling – and – of course, there’s always that famous yell!  4 BIG Spotlights

**** Highly Recommended  Chicago Shakespeare Theatre’s production of "Short Shakespeare! Romeo and Juliet", which is set in the 80s, was charming, engaging and oh, so sad.  I’m not embarrassed to say that at the end I had tears in my eyes.  With Shakespeare’s drama about teen angst, murder and mayhem still required reading in most high schools, I was happy to see groups of young people as well as families in the audience.  I was even more happy to see those young people stand up and cheer at the end of the play!  4 Spotlights

**** Highly Recommended The Paramount Theatre production of "Billy Elliot: The Musical", stark, dark, industrial, is magnificent.  Superb acting, larger than life production numbers, incredible dancing – both ballet and tap – demand your attention, and yet, in the middle of all that spectacle, there are all these small quietly emotional scenes, too. The miners are men’s men, the strikers and the police have violent clashes, the little girls giggle, but the emotions are honest and open.  Gritty, sometimes violent, often profane, but in the end triumphant, "Billy Elliot" gets 4 BIG Spotlights.