**** Recommended **** The Riverdance 25th Anniversary Show pays tribute to 25 years of synchronized Irish dance in a spectacular fashion. The Anniversary Show features the beautiful scenery, haunting music, poetry and song of Ireland. Add in gorgeous costumes and a little extra zing from Spain, Russia and the USA, and you’ve gotta love it! I give “Riverdance” 4 Spotlights
**** Highly Recommended **** I am always in awe when I see one of Chicago Shakespeare Theatre’s “Short Shakespeare!” performances! The very idea that someone can abridge one of Shakespeare’s complicated plots into 75 minutes is mind-boggling. Even more impressive, Director Eli Newell staged a full production with an excellent cast, and definitely didn’t dumb it down! This year’s offering, “Short Shakespeare! Comedy of Errors”, was 75 minutes of pure fun. 4 Spotlights
***RECOMMENDED*** Two women. One boat. A rift between them that is wider than the Gulf of Mexico itself. As long-held little secrets eventually bubble to the surface during what is supposed to be a leisurely afternoon of fishing and sunbathing on the Alabama Delta, these two lovers of six years must face some pretty harsh realities in playwright Audrey Cefaly's insightful character study "The Gulf." 3 SPOTLIGHTS
**** Recommended **** I took my niece Becka Salach Smith and her two little ones, Winston, age 4, and Maeve, age 2, to see "Disney On Ice presents Road Trip Adventures". I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, Disney is very, very good at putting an appealing show together, and this was no exception. The kids were thrilled, Becka and I were charmed. 4 Family Spotlights
*** Recommended *** Since I didn’t see “Once on this Island” when it first toured back in 1990, I didn’t know anything about it. In fact, I thought I’d be seeing a happy musical, an island story. “Once on this Island” is musical, but with its dark and not very magical themes, it just didn’t resonate for me. 3 Spotlights
***RECOMMENDED*** For the fifth time in the past 14 years the play "Stop Kiss" is being presented here in Chicago, and each production has been presented by vastly different companies. Ironically, four of the five (including this one) have opened in the month of January. Do we as Midwesterners crave dark and intellectually stimulating works the most to brood over during one of our darkest and traditionally brutally coldest months? Sure seems like it! That's not to say that "Stop Kiss" is a totally heavy piece of theatre that will send you into a deep depression. On the contrary, it is an oftentimes humorous and endearing glimpse at the emerging love that is generated between two very different people. With the alarming rate of anti-Semitic acts rising in the United States and Europe, as well as the increase in hate crimes committed against the LGBTQ community at large (particularly the appalling homicide rate for transgender women of color), now seems to be an opportune time to revisit playwright Diana Son's 1998 off-Broadway hit in a solidly staged co-production of Pride Films and Plays and The Arc Theatre. 3 SPOTLIGHTS
★★★★★ Recently I saw a play about Hitler’s tasters which may have been the start of Meghan Brown’s “The Tasters”, now in its World Premiere at Rivendell Theatre. Brown’s story is not about an actual leader but instead is about a Government that has four major leaders during what appears to be a people’s revolution. The fear of their food being laced with poison causes them to use tasters. The women that we meet are Bianca (Paula Ramirez), Corrine ( Daniellla Pereira) and Elyse (Shariba Rivers).
★★★★★ Marriott Theatre has brought back the true “Grease” with its book, music and lyrics by Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey. This is the Chicago version and is quite different that the “Hollywood”, John Travolta/Olivia Newton-John film. This play was written by Chicagoans about a Chicago high school ( Taft High School is Rydell) and this version if far meatier. At the helm of making this pleasurable theatrical experience take place is director Scott Weinstein who truly knows how to use the in-the-round stage at Marriott. He keeps the action moving and allows all four sides of the theater great views.
*** Recommended *** “Top Girls” is an unusual play written by British playwright Caryl Churchill. Since I’d seen the play before (a Dunes Summer Theatre production in 2010), I knew where it was going. A word of warning, what with the weird dream sequence in Act I, will be more or less incomprehensible – at least until Act III, when you’ll figure it out. “Top Gun” was written as a reaction to Margaret Thatcher’s election in England, so it has a definite feminist slant. Because it’s ‘non-linear’, Churchill skips through time, which explains why the rest of us end up clueless. 3 Spotlights
The Towle Theater’s annual Season Preview is always a lovely event. It’s a short evening, just about two hours, with a reception (light hors d’oevres and drinks in the lobby) followed by a season sampler, typically a short scene or a single song from each. Two plays and two musicals make up the Towle 2020 season, “Theater with Vision - It’s all in how you look at it”. Managing Director Jeff Casey introduced each play, explaining how and why it was chosen.
