Performing Arts Search
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Boobs and Goombas: A Super Mario Burlesque
Open run: Fri 7:30 PM. Also 2/15-2/29: Wed 9 PMTheater & Performance
Burlesque inspired by video games, written and directed by MsPixy. $20
Living Large in a Mini Kind of Way
Through 6/17: Thu-Sat 7:30 PM, Sun 3 and 6 PM,Theater & Performance
Unable to make ends meet, a young undocumented worker goes to extraordinary and ethically questionable lengths to build a life in the U.S.—possibly at the expense of someone who knows her situation better than she thinks. Diane Rodriguez's immigration parable juxtaposes those who crave the ambiguous American Dream with those who've already achieved it, toting up the costs in crushing debt, self-doubt, and the constant need to keep up appearances. Rodriguez uses dance, a sense of quirk, and a fanciful candy-colored set by Brian Sidney Bembridge to turn a polarizing, exhausting national debate into something digestible and even a little fun. —Dan Jakes $12-$40
Leapfest Nine
Through 6/3: Thu-Sat 7:30 PM, Sun 2 and 7:30 PM, also 6/2, 2 PM, no 7:30 PM show 6/3Theater & Performance
Five plays get their Chicago premieres with Stage Left Theatre.
Pretty Semitic
Thu., May 17, 7:30 p.m.Stand-Up
Four female comics dissect the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. $20 plus two-drink minimum
What Would Carol Do?
Through 5/17: Thu 10:30 PMImprov/Sketch
Katy Colloton's promo materials say her one-woman sketch show is about "the struggle we must face just to get past ourselves." That's not what I saw—which is probably for the better because it sounds just awful. If there's a through line here, it's Colloton demonstrating that she's a dynamic, eloquent comedian with a gift for character work and a range running from the unassuming to the flamboyant. She can be as subtle as Maria Thayer from Comedy Central's Strangers With Candy and as specific as Michaela Watkins, late of SNL. As a writer, however, Colloton needs to grow. Her sketches, which start from smart and workable premises, would benefit from more surprises. Punch lines arrive when and where you expect them, though most are saved by great delivery. —Dan Jakes $5
Ensemble Bulgare
Fri 5/18, 6:30 and 9 PMDance
The Bulgarian folk troupe performs this history of its country. $25-$55
Nearer to Know Less
Through 5/19:Theater & Performance
Performances by Hannah Verrill, Robby MacBain, and the group Husband. $5 suggested donation
Stories From the Bottom of the Glass
Fri., May 18, 7 p.m.Spoken Word/Poetry Slams/Open Mikes
Six locals, including J.H. Palmer (of Gaper's Block) and Shannon Carson, share new works of original spoken word. $10
The Receptionist
Through 5/19: Thu-Sat 8 PMTheater & Performance
Maria Irene Fornes's plays find malevolence in the everyday. So do Franz Kafka's stories. But they do it by giving the everyday an aura of the surreal. In Adam Bock's brief 2007 play, the everyday is mighty damn everyday. We spend nearly the whole 75 minutes in the nondescript reception area of the "northeast office." What sort of business is done there we don't know at first, but it's not presented as a mystery—and given the amount of time receptionist Beverly spends taking personal calls and gossiping about men with her emotionally fragile colleague Lorraine, it doesn't seem to matter much. Then we arrive at that what-did-he-just-say moment when we realize where we are and what's really been going on. As directed by Joanie Schultz and well acted by Cheryl Roy, Caroline Neff, Peter Moore, and Peter Esposito, The Receptionist is an amusing office comedy, until it's not. —Tony Adler $20-$22
The Screwtape Letters
Sat., May 19, 4 & 8 p.m.Theater & Performance
A demon schools his nephew in all things damnation. $29-$59
A Midsummer Night's Dream
Sat., May 19, 5 p.m.Theater & Performance
The members of GiGi's Play House, an outreach program for people with Down syndrome, perform Shakespeare's comedy. $10
Comm-80s-a
Through 5/19: Fri-Sat 8 PMTheater & Performance
The 80s live again in this short high-school spoof—the 1580s. Chicago Dell'Arte's raucous show lands commedia-style stock characters in John Hughes territory. In keeping with tradition, everybody is one-dimensional. There's a nice-guy quarterback and his ultrachaste girlfriend; her slutty pal, who's after the macho coach; a mad science teacher; lecherous old Pantalone the principal, who'll do anything to get laid by prom night; and a sarcastic guy named Sarcastino. The cast take their roles well over the top, where they belong—particularly Jared Latore as heavy-breathing Pantalone. Like high school, Comm-80s-a is at its hilarious best when it's all about getting busy. But the improvised humor takes a while to kick in, and both the staging and the 80s (i.e., 1980s) jokes are sketchy. —Asher Klein $10-$15
Conquest of the Universe, or When Queens Collide
Through 5/19: Thu-Sat 8 PM, Sun 2 PMTheater & Performance
Wayne Shaw adapts Charles Ludlam's 1968 goof on Christopher Marlowe's Tamburlaine the Great (which I'm pretty sure featured less anal rape) into a seemingly random mix of space opera, Shakespeare, meta-jokes, screaming, poetry, found text, bad drag, worse karaoke, and dildos. Oh, and it's set in the 1980s—because, at that point, why the hell not? Ludicrous Theatre wants this to be an absurdist romp, and in very different hands it may’ve been. But Shaw's aggressively amateurish production amounts to little more than a proverbial middle finger to its own audience. Unwatchable. —Dan Jakes $20
