**** Highly Recommended LUCHA TEOTL was a total blast! I laughed so much my face hurt – it was that much fun! Let me set the stage so you can visualize – people making signs to cheer on their favorites; pre-show mariachi music; a wrestling ring – and why call it a ring when it’s square, but I digress – in the center of the Goodman’s Owen Theatre: and wrestlers bouncing off the ropes. Sheer craziness and it totally worked! 4 BIG Spotlights
**** Recommended Is "What the Constitution Means to Me" a civics lesson disguised as a play? Could be! Playwright Heidi Schreck might be one of the few people who’ve actually read the Constitution. In fact, she not only read it, she memorized parts of it, and now she’s written a charming play more or less about the Constitution. Audiences at the Copley Theater are now enjoying that play. Cory Goodrich, who plays Schreck, brings her own warmth and charm to the part. 4 Spotlights
*** Recommended "Sanctuary City", an angst-filled drama, was just not my cup of tea. I really didn’t like the stop-action staging, on an empty stage, often repeating the same line of dialogue over and over again in different areas on the stage. I found it distracting, making it difficult to concentrate on what the actors were saying, which meant I didn’t/couldn’t empathize with them. I ended up thinking B was whiny, G was mean. 3 Spotlights
**** Recommended The Drama Group production of "The Addams Family" is fun, fun, fun! Audiences are loving the show! The talented cast has totally embraced the Addams zaniness. Director Tyler McMahon has the cast playing these already over-the-top characters relatively straight, adding to the crazy! The costumes are spot-on, the set is equipped with all the latest torture devices – and a hidden passage or two. Throw in a disembodied hand, swash-buckling swordsmanship and a taste of tango and you have the recipe for an Addams hit. A tiny warning, you’ll only hear that signature Addams finger snap in the overture. 4 Spotlights
**** Recommended As we were driving to Writers Theatre in Glencoe to see "Eurydice", my friend Crista and I discussed and dissected Sarah Ruhl’s plays. Crista tended not to like them, I liked more than I disliked. We both had questions about her version of Eurydice, wondering how the addition of Eurydice’s father would fit into the Greek legend. In fact, I think Eurydice’s interaction with her father added emotion, pathos if you will, to a harsh legend. Unfortunately, it’s rather slow-moving, so I zoned out once or twice. 3 ½ Spotlights
**** Highly Recommended TimeLine Theatre is well known for selecting thoughtful, intelligent and well-researched plays about real people, real history. "The Lehman Trilogy" fits that criteria to a T. There are just three actors in this gripping story – but they are incredible as they play the three Lehman brothers – and every other character in the story. I was kind of dreading sitting through a three-hour show, but once they started, I never noticed! Really exceptional show! 4 BIG Spotlights
**** Highly Recommended The Goodman Theatre production of "The Nacirema Society" is quite simply outstanding! The play is centered on the women of the Dunbar family of Montgomery, Alabama and their long-time connection to the Nacirema (American spelled backwards) Society, whose members consider themselves to be the crème de la crème of Negro society. Pearl Cleage has written a dynamic play about privilege that still manages to be laugh-out-loud funny; the cast is stellar and the set is awesome! It reminded me a lot of Noel Coward’s plays – in which good manners will prevail over all. 4 BIG Spotlights
***RECOMMENDED The 2023/2024 season at Lyric Opera of Chicago has set sail. Billed by the company as a "Season of Firsts," their production of Richard Wagner's "The Flying Dutchman" marks the very first German opera that Music Director Enrique Mazzola has conducted here at Lyric.
**** Highly Recommended Remy Bumppo Theatre Company always seems to produce thoughtful plays about people in conflict. Their latest, :Blues for an Alabama Sky", directed by Mikael Burke, fits that criterion perfectly. It is a gripping drama about complicated people doing what they have to do to survive. It is also one of two plays and a series of readings produced as a part of the month-long Pearl Cleage festival (the other being The Nacirema Society at the Goodman Theatre). "Blues for an Alabama Sky" will keep your attention firmly on the action. 4 Spotlights
**** Highly Recommended Would it be too corny of me to say that I was thrilled ‘to be in the room where it happens’? Oh well, it’s true, so I’ll say it. I just saw "Hamilton", and it is totally awesome – and I learned a lot about our history. I know you’ve heard it before – but not from me - Hamilton is a masterpiece! 4 BIG Spotlights
