4 Stars
For Shakespeare aficionados, Promethean Theatre Ensemble has done a tremendous job in their performance of William Shakespeare’s “Richard III” at Chicago’s Factory Theater.
**** Recommended **** "Ain’t Too Proud – The Life and Times of the Temptations" isn’t your typical jukebox musical, it’s more of an ‘icon-ography’ – the biography of a rock group. The Temptations, with their smooth moves and mellow sound, were – and still are – rock ‘n roll royalty. Still, the Temptations are just men, with lives and problems and bills to pay, almost like the rest of us. "Ain’t Too Proud" lays it all out there, the good, the bad and the really ugly – against the best music of the ‘60s, ‘70s, and more. 4 Spotlights
3 Stars, Recommended Annabel Armour beautifully portrays Joan Didion in this one-woman show “The Year of Magical Thinking.” The story is about an established New York author and how her world is immediately turned upside down when her husband John dies unexpectedly, followed shortly by the death of her chronically ill daughter Quintana. Based on the book of the same name, this 100-minute running narrative (with no intermission) consists of excerpts that have been taken directly from the text and is replete with detailed autobiography and poignant reflections.
5 Stars! Highly Recommended! Exceptional and poignant, “Rasheeda Speaking” is a four-person tragicomedy, based on the late Joel Drake Johnson’s well-crafted script. The dialogue—sad, funny, and very real at the same time—is so well performed that you feel as if you could enter the stage yourself and interact with each of the characters in a real doctor’s office.
4 Stars, Highly Recommended! “Notes and Letters” is a four-character musical, centered around the lives of two couples who live in Chicago between 1916 and 1918. This world premiere presentation is nicely written by Annabelle Lee Revak and is a combination romantic comedy/drama that is based in part on a true story, having to do with a small downtown shop, called Williams’ Custom Pianos.
**** Recommended **** Each of the plays in August Wilson’s ten-play Pittsburgh Cycle, which chronicles African-American experiences, is set in a different decade of the twentieth century. "Two Trains Running", which opened at the Court Theatre last week, set during the sixties, examines the disruption caused by urban renewal in Pittsburgh’s Hill District, a once thriving African American neighborhood. It is thought-provoking, poignant and yet laugh-out-loud funny. 4 Spotlights
**** Highly Recommended **** Take everything you think you remember about "To Kill a Mockingbird", the movie or the play, and toss it out. Aaron Sorkin’s nuanced adaptation of Harper Lee’s classic novel – hard to believe that it was written more than 50 years ago – is just about perfect. One could almost see the ‘Breaking News’ headlines this story could generate! However, telling the story from a child’s perspective bares all the ugly truths while muting some of the racial prejudice, hatred and mob action. Don’t miss "To Kill a Mockingbird!" 4 Big Spotlights
**** Highly Recommended **** Once again, TimeLine Theatre brings us a thoughtful, well-researched, intelligent play about a person who appears briefly in American history. I"n 1834, a pair of American merchants brought a 14-year-old Chinese girl to America and put her on display. Playwright Lloyd Suh has given that girl a voice in The Chinese Lady". Mi Kang, who graduates from Northwestern with an MFA later this year, gives a tour de force performance as Afong Moy, "The Chinese Lady". 4 BIG Spotlights
**** Highly Recommended **** I almost didn’t recognize Writers Theatre’s smaller Gillian Theatre when I walked in, what with two tiers of seats facing each other across a narrow platform. I did feel like I was walking into a gym somewhere to watch a sporting event. Actually, I did watch an absolutely riveting sporting event inside a play called "Athena" which chronicles two girls competing in the sport of fencing. Teen angst is one thing, teen angst amid friendship and competition is something else again. Wow! "Athena" is action-packed and it blew me away, it’s that good! 4 BIG Spotlights
