Spotlight on Reviews

**** Recommended **** Champions of Magic is an amazing show!  Several of the award-winning stars have appeared on the CW’s “Penn and Teller: Fool Us.  The five are: illusionists, Young and Strange; mind reader, Alex McAleer; escape artist, Fernando Velasquez; and close-up magician extraordinaire, Kayla Drescher.  I was in awe watching them perform.  The show includes plenty of audience participation, too.  Hurry and get your tickets for this family friendly spectacle.  4 Holiday Spotlights

****HIGHLY RECOMMENDED**** The holidays seem to be a time when more and more theater companies are adding seasonal programming to attract new patrons and entertain large groups or families. The slate of Christmas-themed shows this year seems to be particularly brimming with tantalizing and appealing options. With the field so chock-full of copious goodies, packed tighter than Santa's sleigh on Christmas Eve, it can be difficult to choose just which show to see. Instead of going to see yet another version of "A Christmas Carol" or "The Nutcracker" why not take a chance and go to see a brand new family-friendly musical that is receiving its world premiere at The Greenhouse Theater Center? "The Land of Forgotten Toys," presented by CPA Theatricals, a Chicago-based non-profit organization, is a show that covers several different genres and is loaded with a ton of heart, robust good cheer and overflowing with genuine joy.  4 HOLIDAY SPOTLIGHTS

***RECOMMENDED*** Have you ever stopped and wondered whatever happened to all of those toys that Rudolph discovered on the Island of Misfit Toys? Clearly, Larry Todd Cousineau and Cindy O'Connor have. Both of these talented folks are the creators of "America's Best Outcast Toy," with O'Connor composing the music while the book and lyrics were written by Cousineau. As it turns out, all of these outcast toys are now living in the United States and appearing on a reality competition television program, vying for the title of -- you guessed it -- America's best. This fun holiday diversion is currently enjoying its world premiere at Pride Films and Plays.  3 Holiday SPOTLIGHTS

***RECOMMENDED*** There are not very many jukebox musicals that have an actual working jukebox on the stage. "Always...Patsy Cline," which was created by Ted Swindley in 1988, is an early example of what a jukebox musical can be, long before that term was even widely used and the concept of taking well-known songs by popular recording artists and forming a narrative to build around them seemed to dominate nearly every other musical that was opening on Broadway from early 2000 until the present day. Firebrand Theatre's current production of "Always...Patsy Cline" features a vintage Wurlitzer that fits perfectly into this very charming and intimate version of the true story of one of Patsy Cline's biggest fans which has 27 of her greatest hits interwoven throughout the course of the evening's entertainment.  3 AND 1/2 SPOTLIGHTS