Spotlight on Reviews

My two boys, ages two and four, my husband, and I attended the 5:30 pm showing of "Sesame Street Live! Make Your Magic" on Saturday, October 8, 2022 at the Rosemont Theater.  We had a great time and our boys had fun.  We loved seeing how much our kids enjoyed the show.  The show lasted about 90 minutes; this included an intermission about half way through

** Somewhat recommended **  The premise of "Frankenstreisand" was intriguing – Barbra Streisand as a mad scientist determined to clone her dog – but the execution just didn’t measure up.  In his post-opening speech, Hell in a Handbag Artistic Director David Cerda called it a fever-dream of a play.  Some people loved the show, laughing at everything.  I thought it was more like a bad acid trip.  2 Spotlights 

***RECOMMENDED*** It is always a joyous experience to attend a musical at Lyric Opera of Chicago. Their stage is so large and their technical capabilities nearly endless that curious theatre-goers often wonder how a design team will approach their particular staging of any given show presented there. Plus, hearing the score of one of your favorite shows performed by a full orchestra is priceless. When the show happens to be one that has not been in the line-up of the regional subscription-based companies for over two decades, like "Fiddler on the Roof," it is an added incentive to seek out this wonderful production.

★★★★★One of my favorite Sondheim musicals is “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street” (hereafter I will use “Sweeney Todd”). I have witnessed quite a number of productions, but never as a chamber piece. Kokandy Productions, since its onset, has been great at selecting material to convert from large stage to chamber. For those unaware of a Chamber Piece/or musical, it is an intimate production where more imagination on the part of the audience comes into the mix. The actors are close enough to touch and often, a character will sit at a musical instrument and become a part of the band. The audience is not sitting in what we call theater seats, but rather arm chairs and stools and other pieces of furniture one might find in “Grandma’s living room”.