Theater Review
Chicago’s Political Machine Runs Relatively Swimmingly in Strawdog Theatre’s ‘Old Town’
Submitted by HollywoodChicago.com on May 1, 2008 - 8:52am.CHICAGO – As a testament to its set design, it wasn’t immediately clear if certain structures were naturally part of the Strawdog Theatre space or if they were fabricated specifically for the “Old Town” production.
Pie Maker, Loony Boy Steal Rightful Spotlight From Sweeney Todd in Chicago Musical
Submitted by HollywoodChicago.com on April 25, 2008 - 4:17pm.CHICAGO – While Johnny Depp’s portrayal of the demon barber of Fleet Street in the 2007 film iteration sells you on his fiendish ways, actor and singer David Hess in the musical bobbles more in purgatory rather than living hysterically in hell.
Neil LaBute’s ‘In a Dark Dark House’ Unearths Long-Buried Skeletons in Three-Person Play
Submitted by HollywoodChicago.com on April 2, 2008 - 11:25pm.CHICAGO – It’s not in calm seas but within torrential rains when we lay bare our true colors. Lauded playwright Neil LaBute was fixated on testing these human limits and exploring our different styles of conflict resolution when he minted the three-person play “In a Dark Dark House”.
Chicago’s ‘Brontë’ Masterfully Resurrects Three of Planet’s Most Examined Scribes of All Time
Submitted by HollywoodChicago.com on March 28, 2008 - 4:13am.CHICAGO – Three of the planet’s most examined scribes of all time – a trio of Victorian spinsters, in fact, who are credited with some of the most passionate literature ever written – are resurrected in the meticulous Chicago production of “Brontë” from illustrious playwright Polly Teale.
‘Ceres’ a High-Octane Probe Into Chicago’s Slippery Investment Banker Slope
Submitted by HollywoodChicago.com on March 25, 2008 - 2:35am.CHICAGO – Tucked surreptitiously at the way-way-way-off-Loop location of the Prop Thtr – Chicago’s oldest-surviving non-equity theater in the area – the signature that is “Ceres” is its high-octane energy. The cast act in harmony much in the same way as the “X-Men” character Juggernaut: once their momentum is synthesized, it can’t be stopped.
Ray Bradbury’s ‘The Martian Chronicles’ Inventively Come to Life in Chicago Church Theater
Submitted by HollywoodChicago.com on March 11, 2008 - 11:01pm.CHICAGO – There was opportunity aplenty for director Kristina Schramm to miss this mark and leave theatergoers with acidic resentment. Tasked with the tall order of bringing to life Ray Bradbury’s classic anthology “The Martian Chronicles,” though, she wasn’t bested by the oddity of the undertaking.
Chicago Transit Authority Serves as Melodic Muse For Original Chicago Musical ‘Stuck’
Submitted by HollywoodChicago.com on February 20, 2008 - 10:31pm.CHICAGO – If you don’t live in Chicago, you’ll have either never heard of the Chicago Transit Authority or you’ll think it stands for something aside from the mass-transit system that it is. If you are a Chicagoan, though, it’s inconceivable not to know about the CTA and certainly improbable to have never used it.
Theater: ‘Dreadful Penny’s Exquisite Horrors’ Wickedly Flirts With Fear, Fantasies, Faults
Submitted by HollywoodChicago.com on February 14, 2008 - 11:22am.CHICAGO – The minds who bring alive this risqué Chicago remount took their time to unearth their manipulatively seductive emcee.
They spent five years, in fact, to dig the now-coined “Dreadful Penny’s Exquisite Horrors” up from its resting place and rework the production into the quintessence of sex, violence, fear, fantasy and all the faults that make humans humane while also quite the contrary.
‘Contraption’ Examines Mad-Scientist Intersection Between Invention, Insanity
Submitted by HollywoodChicago.com on January 30, 2008 - 12:08am.CHICAGO – There’s a fine line between being batty and being brilliant. If there’s anything the world’s most brilliant inventors have taught us, it’s that most world-altering creators blurred that very line or visited the crazy farm before the world acknowledged their genius.
Theater: ‘Bird Dog Sedition’ Billed as ‘Most Dangerous Play in Chicago’
Submitted by HollywoodChicago.com on January 12, 2008 - 7:42pm.CHICAGO – With Chicago’s art gallery district as its conversational and thought-provoking backdrop, the free thinking “Bird Dog Sedition” is written, directed and performed explicitly to dangerously deconstruct theatrical conventions.