Review by Karen Topham, ChicagoOnstage, member American Theatre Critics Association. I am quite a fan of Black Button Eyes Productions. I named the last play they produced in 2019, Ghost Quartet, one of the top plays of the year. Now, to begin 2020, the little theatre company specializing in fantasy, horror and the macabre once […]
Review by Karen Topham, ChicagoOnstage, member American Theatre Critics Association. Photo by Doren Sorell. As the darkness recedes, leaving a soft blue light, a naked white man sits slumped over on a toilet. This is Lenny Bruce, portrayed by Ronnie Marmo, who is also the playwright of I’m Not a Comedian…I’m Lenny Bruce, a biographical […]
A long time ago, a young man in a play I was directing was having great difficulties finding his character and was growing supremely frustrated. “It was so natural with my last role,” he told me. “I found a way to climb inside his head and really felt what he was feeling. I just don’t […]
Review by Karen Topham, ChicagoOnstage, member American Theatre Critics Association. Photo by Michael Brosilow. I doubt that (with the exception of dementia sufferers) there is a person alive, no matter how old, who cannot close their eyes and see every detail of certain seismic experiences from their childhoods, no matter how much of them we […]
“The stage is a magic circle where only the most real things happen, a neutral territory outside the jurisdiction of Fate where stars may be crossed with impunity. A truer and more real place does not exist in all the universe.”― P.S. Baber, Cassie Draws the Universe The City of Chicago proclaimed the year 2019 […]
Review by Karen Topham, ChicagoOnstage, member American Theatre Critics Association. Photo by Austin Oie Photography. Working is an almost perfect fit for Theo Ubique with their Howard St. Theatre and its intimate space. Based on Studs Terkel’s 1974 collection of interviews with everyday Chicagoans working in various fields (and the 2008 addition of many more […]
Review by Karen Topham, ChicagoOnstage, member American Theatre Critics Association. Photo by Matt Ferguson. Are you ready for another new Christmas musical about a toy? Well, even if you can’t imagine that there could be anything left to say about the subject in this year of toy-focused shows, you won’t be sorry if you check […]
Review by Karen Topham, ChicagoOnstage, member American Theatre Critics Association. Photo by Zeke Dolezalek. It’s time to review the second new musical in town that derives itself from the “Island of Misfit Toys” in the claymation classic “Rudolph the Rednosed Reindeer.” Unlike Pride Films and Plays’ America’s Best Outcast Toy, CPA Theatricals’ The Land of […]
Review by Karen Topham, ChicagoOnstage, member American Theatre Critics Association. Photo by Liz Lauren. It would be worth seeing The Light in the Piazza at Lyric Opera just to hear Renée Fleming sing, but the new production (actually put on by Scenario Two, a new company) offers so much more that this revival of the […]
Review by Kelly MacBlane; photo by Carolina Menapace. It is hard not to love the Broadway classic Annie. From its memorable and catchy tunes to its at times cheesy and overly-optimistic story, Annie has been charming audiences since its Broadway debut in 1977. Despite the small space, Citadel Theatre’s production of Annie delivered on all […]