Dance
Friday, May 18, 2012
Theater Arts Dance Corrupt cops and colliding queens: new Reader performing arts reviews
Posted by Tony Adler on 05.18.12 at 07:54 AM
- Tom McGrath
- Southern Romeo serenades southern Juliet in Take Her to See the Maco Lights
In a double review, Albert Williams expresses admiration for the American Theater Company rethinking of Rent and the Porchlight revival of Tick Tick . . . Boom!. Both musicals were written by Jonathan Larson, who famously died the day before the original production of Rent opened. Keith Griffith enjoyed the "whirlwind erudition" of Tom Stoppard's Arcadia, at New Leaf Theatre, and the rough charm of Peter Pan’s Shadow Part Two: Everland, which is the latest entry in a new trilogy by Jeremy Menekseoglu. Jack Helbig liked the "beguiling simplicity and grace"—not to mention the "satisfying punch"—of Prologue Theatre's Romeo-and-Juliet-down-south show, Take her to See the Maco Lights. Julia Thiel fell in love with My Asian Mom, a collection of short works from A-Squared Theatre. And even I liked something enough to recommend it: Gorilla Tango's macabre musical goof on the 80s-era sitcom Full House, Attend the Tale of Danny Tanner.
But we're not out of kudos yet.
Thursday, May 10, 2012
Theater Arts Dance Lions and tigers and bears and, uh, butterflies, oh my: new Reader performing arts reviews
Posted by Rebecca Cohen on 05.10.12 at 04:58 PM
- Rick Aguilar Studios
- Mmmm! Sexy Babies!
Tony Adler called The Iceman Cometh "great in its excess" when he reviewed Robert Falls's Goodman Theatre staging of it 22 years ago; seeing Falls's new version, he's impressed by its comic structure. Circle Theatre takes a pleasantly surprising turn away from its usual formula of crowd-pleasing musicals and comedies with When the Rain Stops Falling, a sensitive, layered portrait of a family that spans two continents and four generations. Debra Ehrhardt takes a different approach to international relations in Jamaica Farewell, her one-woman memoir about getting to Miami with help from a nice CIA agent. For dance this week, Laura Molzahn likes the collaborative performance involving Muntu Dance Theatre and DanceWorks Chicago.
Arts Origins Week Dance The origins of the striptease and burlesque
Posted by Elly Fishman on 05.10.12 at 12:12 PM
- Wikimedia Commons
- Striptease
The hoochie coochie was performed inside the fair's Algerian Village—one the many "ethnic" villages along the Midway Plaisance. Thousands migrated toward the Algerian Village to see the dance performed by the infamous Little Egypt. The audiences grew so large that Bloom claimed he was making $1,000 per week.
Friday, May 4, 2012
Theater Arts Comedy Dance High tea and white trash: the Reader's latest performing arts reviews
Posted by Rebecca Cohen on 05.04.12 at 01:57 PM
- Anne Petersen
- Fourteen of the "numberless" (including that guitarist in the corner) from Rise of the Numberless
The "pilot episode" of Maggie and Coco Save the World mimics the form of a sitcom but steers clear of the white-bread stereotypes of that genre. Keith Griffith recommends that you tune in next time—Coriolis Theater plans to stage a new installment every month.
Drawing on another facet of pop culture, Tympanic Theatre spins the ten tracks of Bruce Springsteen's bleak 1982 album Nebraska into a gritty series of short plays, Deliver Us From Nowhere: Tales From Nebraska. It too earns a Reader rave.
Where Springsteen and Tympanic find pathos, White Trash Wedding and a Funeral finds hilarity. Its hero, a cussing septic tank "king" named Earl, leads a band of down-and-outs through a grotesquely funny trailer-park soap opera. Equally over the top: the burlesque comedy show Day Drinking and Sleep Eating, which fulfills its promise to "funny you until you can't walk right" with songs like "Long Sex Is Overrated" and "Sluts for Sale." Far more restrained but equally engaging is the Piven Theatre Workshop's Encores: After the Theatre and Other Stories, in which three Anton Chekov stories are given minimalist, emotionally intense stagings. Director Joyce Piven uses the story-theater style originated here in Chicago by her mentor, Paul Sills.
Thursday, April 26, 2012
Theater Arts Comedy Dance Phallic whale stories, superboobs, and Milli Vanilli: this week's performing arts reviews
Posted by Rebecca Cohen on 04.26.12 at 05:07 PM
- Bob Fisher
- You know what that harpoon stands for: a scene from All-Girl Moby Dick
Also on our recommended list this week is Hairspray, Drury Lane Oakbrook's high-energy revival of the Broadway musical; The Late Live Show, a Conan-esque talk fest hosted by comedian Joe Kwaczala at Stage 773; and an appearance by Armitage Gone! Dance, offering three works choreographed by company artistic director Karole Armitage.
Surprisingly, the problem with Melancholy Play isn't that it's a downer, but that it suffers from an overdose of quirk. And Neil LaBute's In a Forest, Dark and Deep turns out not to be so dark or deep after all. According to Justin Hayford's lead review, it's fairly obvious and mechanical.
Friday, April 20, 2012
Theater Arts Dance Soft-focused and ham-fisted: Reader critics' new performing arts reviews
Posted by Rebecca Cohen on 04.20.12 at 10:36 AM
- Michael Brosilow
- Larry Yando's Scrooge—er, Roy Cohn, explains it all to his disciple in Angels in America
Other shows with strong temporal ties get more love. Though Jersey Boys plays on 60s nostalgia, it doesn't gloss over the rocky relationships among Frankie Valli and his fellow Four Seasons. And Marriott Theatre manages to preserve the spirit of the 1879 Gilbert & Sullivan romp The Pirates of Penzance while appealing to contemporary audiences.
Thursday, April 12, 2012
Theater Arts Dance Heavy on the abduction and imperialism: this week's performing arts reviews
Posted by Tony Adler on 04.12.12 at 12:40 PM
- Johnny Knight
- Greg Matthew Anderson is best-in-show playing a dog in Chesapeake
Speaking of clashes, a long and very bloody one between Germany and its colonial subjects is the focus of—wait for it—We Are Proud to Present a Presentation About the Herero of Namibia, Formerly Known as South-West Africa, From the German Sudwestafrika, Between the Years 1884-1915, which I found disappointing despite its dynamism. Genesis Theatrical Productions' Tunnel Rat concerns an American soldier caught in the clash between the United States and Vietnam.
Friday, April 6, 2012
Theater Arts Dance Fela to Freud to Frontera: fresh Reader performing arts reviews
Posted by Tony Adler on 04.06.12 at 07:28 AM
- Sean Williams
- Tony Hernandez balances the tiny dancer in his hand in Cascabel
Out of the ten other productions reviewed this week, only two rated outright recommendations from our critics. Kerry Reid likes Freud's Last Session, which offers a what-if colloquy between the iconic psychiatrist of the title and the man who imagined Narnia, C.S. Lewis. Jack Helbig, meanwhile, is properly creeped out by a stripped-down stage adaptation of Henry James's The Turn of the Screw, presented by First Folio out in Oakbrook.
Thursday, March 8, 2012
Theater Arts Dance Fresh Reader performing arts reviews
Posted by Tony Adler on 03.08.12 at 09:00 AM
- Liz Lauren
- Kate Buddeke resorts to sign language in The North Plan
So what do we like this week? Well, we're ambivalent about the two shows to which we devoted the most ink. Justin Hayford thinks Danai Gurira has been masterful in the past, but her new three-act, three-hour The Convert doesn't get going until it's two-thirds done. I developed reservations about The North Plan while seeing it for the second time, in a production by Theater Wit. Still, parts of it remain darkly funny.
Speaking of dark, Laura Molzahn suggests you see the Same Planet Different World 15th-anniversary show, "Fifteen," which features Joanna Rosenthal's despairing It Is What It Is. Also good and dark are Theatre Seven's version of the Naomi Wallace play In the Heart of America and Redtwist's The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later. Keith Griffith recommends El Stories from the Waltzing Mechanics, and Kerry Reid likes what City Lit has done with one of her favorite Shirley Jackson stories, We Have Always Lived in the Castle.
Less enthusiastically received: Chicago Fusion's Las Hermanas Padilla, the Agency's Paradise Lost (not Milton's but Clifford Odets's), and Raven Theatre's staging of Arthur Miller's The Price. Zac Thompson protests that Sarah Gubbins's YA play about bullying, FML: How Carson McCullers Saved My Life, isn't dark enough
Thursday, March 1, 2012
Theater Arts Dance The latest Reader performing arts reviews
Posted by Tony Adler on 03.01.12 at 12:42 PM
- Lee Wexler
- A Palo Seco
Albert Williams recommends Porchlight Music Theatre's version of A Catered Affair, saying that where Broadway blew the intimate Harvey Fierstein/John Bucchino musical out of proportion, Porchlight gets it right. Laura Molzahn, meanwhile, suggests you get a look at the innovative form of flamenco practiced by New York's A Palo Seco. The company is appearing at two venues—the Old Town School of Folk Music and Instituto Cervantes.
