Performing Arts
Thursday, February 9, 2012
Religion, Onstage, Performing Arts, Dance The latest Reader performing arts reviews and previews
Posted by Sharon Lurye on Thu, Feb 9, 2012 at 2:45 PM
- Michael Brosilow
- Hesperia
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
Music, Performing Arts Tonight: CSO, Muti, and Mason Bates
Posted by Deanna Isaacs on Tue, Feb 7, 2012 at 4:01 PM
Tonight's the last chance (this season, in Orchestra Hall) to hear Riccardo Muti and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra take on resident-composer and sometime-DJ Mason Bates's brand-new, electro-infused symphony, Alternative Energy, which includes sounds from Fermilab and junked auto parts, and was the hot item at CSO concerts last week. Word at midafternoon was that seats are available; $20 senior and $15 student rush tickets go on sale at the box office at 5 PM, the concert's at 7:30. Also on the program: Honegger and Franck.
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
Friday, January 27, 2012
Inside the Reader, Performing Arts The latest Reader performing arts reviews
Posted by Tony Adler on Fri, Jan 27, 2012 at 3:56 PM
- Peter Coombs
- Clutter
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Lit & Lectures, Film, Performing Arts Coal play
Posted by J.R. Jones on Wed, Jan 25, 2012 at 11:00 AM
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.
Film, Performing Arts Where is God?
Posted by Ben Sachs on Tue, Jan 24, 2012 at 9:13 AM
