Onstage
Friday, February 3, 2012
Onstage, Performing Arts Mamet alert: Race runs on
Posted by Deanna Isaacs on Fri, Feb 3, 2012 at 5:49 PM
If you're a fan of Mamet-speak and you haven't yet made plans to see Race, here's some news: the Goodman Theatre announced today that it's adding two performances to the run, February 12 and 19. The play's not perfect—it needs a stronger ending and should run straight through without the momentum-busting intermission—but don't let that stop you: the first act of director Chuck Smith's terrific production is a rocket-fueled trip no Mamet aficionado should miss. Justin Hayford reviewed it for the Reader. A video montage of scenes from Race is posted after the jump.
Onstage, Performing Arts Why didn't Bruce Norris play the game?
Posted by Tony Adler on Fri, Feb 3, 2012 at 3:28 PM
- Clybourne Park
- Michael Brosilow
Winning the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for Clybourne Park may have been the worst thing that could've happened to former Chicagoan Bruce Norris. The 51-year-old playwright and actor had spent years designing a life that left him free to be as sharp-tongued, difficult, misanthropic, and iconoclastically brilliant as he wanted—and he clearly wanted, quite a bit. Thanks to the occasional role in a movie (The Sixth Sense) or TV series (Law and Order), Norris was able to maintain the economic independence he needed to write scabrous satires like The Pain and the Itch, which revolves around a four-year-old girl's genital rash. And he was nurtured, often in spite of himself, by a cadre of supporters at Steppenwolf Theatre. Artistic director Martha Lavey put her company's considerable resources and prestige behind him. Amy Morton directed two of his scripts there, including the world premiere of Clybourne Park. And another Steppenwolf director, Anna Shapiro, has finessed his tirades and tolerated his provocations through no less than five projects.
Thursday, February 2, 2012
Onstage, Performing Arts Hubris Productions comes out of the closet on snarkiness
Posted by Tony Adler on Thu, Feb 2, 2012 at 3:13 PM
The following announcement/cri de coeur comes from Hubris Productions, which, since 2006, has been staging small-cast, mainstream dramas, a surprising number of which—Torch Song Trilogy, Steel Magnolias, Agnes of God, Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune, Bent—date from the Reagan years. (I'm proud to note that in going over our 11 reviews of Hubris shows, I haven't found one instance of a Reader critic making sarcastic reference to the company's name. Not that it hasn't been tempting.)
Onstage, Performing Arts, Comedy, Dance The latest Reader performing arts reviews
Posted by Sharon Lurye on Thu, Feb 2, 2012 at 1:47 PM
- Jim Newberry
- The Hunchback Variations Opera
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Onstage, Performing Arts, Comedy, Dance The latest Reader performing arts reviews
Posted by Sharon Lurye on Tue, Jan 24, 2012 at 4:47 PM
Curious Theatre Branch can pat itself on the back this week: its fringe theater festival, Rhinofest, is full of recommended performances. The American Drink Book is a poignant tale told at 2 AM by the last sad-eyed sap at the bar. The absurdist play Today Like a Kind of Shivering is resonant and compelling despite its impenetrability. With Stranger(s), based on short stories by Daphne du Maurier and Flannery O'Connor, the fun is in watching real-life couple Mike McKune and Kelly Anchors effortlessly trade off their roles as deceived and deceiver.
Less successful is I Love You Permanently, which tells the tale of an entire relationship over the course of a single night but seems to drag on much longer. Curious Theatre Branch paterfamilias Beau O'Reilly, meanwhile, tells a sweet, cracked Irish love story in Our Kate Takes a Trip.
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
Onstage, Performing Arts Remy Bumppo artistic director Timothy Douglas resigns
Posted by Tony Adler on Wed, Jan 18, 2012 at 6:06 PM
- Kimberly Aileen Scott
- Timothy Douglas
"This absolutely was my decision," Douglas told me by phone this afternoon.
The reason? "The approach to the work that I have differs so markedly from what has gone before that it just felt the compromise was too great," said the soft-spoken 50-year-old director. "What we all did have was the same goal for the work, for the impact of the work and the integrity of the work. It literally is just the way we came at it. I finally realized that it was pushing too hard and the company at large couldn’t sustain it. With the resources that we had, the financial realities of producing theater, it just seemed clear to me that it was going to be too hard of a struggle and I decided it’s just not fair to any of us."
Tuesday, December 27, 2011
Onstage, Politics, Free Shit, Performing Arts Last chance to see a "revolutionary Christmas Carol"
Posted by Tony Adler on Tue, Dec 27, 2011 at 5:27 PM
As Goodman Theatre's latest A Christmas Carol proves, you don't need to work very hard to make the equation between Charles Dickens's Ebenezer Scrooge and the current crop of one-percenters. Scrooge is already in finance. He lends at usurious rates, makes clucking comments about taxes (though he at least seems to acknowledge their usefulness, if only for keeping the prisons and poor houses in operation), and hoards his personal wealth while overworking and severely underpaying that prototypical 99-percenter, Bob Crachit.
Friday, December 23, 2011
Onstage, Performing Arts The latest Reader performing arts reviews
Posted by Tony Adler on Fri, Dec 23, 2011 at 3:00 PM
- Carol Rosegg
- A Christmas Story: The Musical
Thursday, December 8, 2011
Onstage, Performing Arts, Comedy, Dance The latest Reader performing arts reviews
Posted by Tony Adler on Thu, Dec 8, 2011 at 11:00 AM
- Michal Janicki
- The Word Progress on My Mother's Lips Doesn't Ring True
Friday, December 2, 2011
Architecture Week, Onstage, Performing Arts The walls talk in Sleep No More
Posted by Tony Adler on Fri, Dec 2, 2011 at 8:00 AM
- Alick Crossley
- Sleep No More
