Performing Arts Next 7 Days
The Pianist of Willesden Lane
Through 5/25: Wed-Thu 7:30 PM, Fri 8 PM, Sat 2 and 8 PM, Sun 3 PMTheater & Performance
Hershey Felder has created niche for himself, building a series of biographical solo pieces around legendary composers. His 2011 Maestro, for instance, had him acting the part—and playing the music—of Leonard Bernstein. Now Felder has extended that MO to another performer. In this show developed under his tutelage, Mona Golabek takes on the role of her own mother, pianist Lisa Jura. Per the formula, Golabek's Jura tells how her life as a Viennese child prodigy came to an end with the Nazi annexation of Austria in 1938, how she was evacuated to London through the Kindertransport program, and how she kept her ambitions alive despite the hardships of the war. She punctuates the recitation with passages from Grieg, Beethoven, and others. Golabek is a marvelous pianist—bright, strong, agile, and emotive. But as an actress, she's, well, a marvelous pianist. Physically and vocally unsophisticated, she lacks the chops to handle a character who ages from 13 to about 20 in the course of the story. What's more, the story itself isn't that remarkable in the lore of the Holocaust. All Golabek has to say is "Jewish," "Vienna," and "1938," and we've pretty much got the gist. Her obvious urge to valorize her mother doesn't help, either. Ironically, Golabek seems to have a much more intriguing story in the romance and marriage of her parents—but she only gets to that toward the end and leaves a lot of questions unanswered. —Tony Adler $49
The Comedy Rock Show
Through 5/28: Tue 8 PMImprov/Sketch
Comedy music performed in a wide array of genres. $7
Sexomedy
Wed., May 29, 7:30 p.m.Theater & Performance
Melissa DuPrey understands what few of us are willing to admit: sex is fucking hilarious. In her comic monologue Sexomedy, DuPrey shares her most embarrassing—and hairy—sexual experiences. Reader contributor Justin Hayford writes that "DuPrey's clear-eyed comedy is as necessary as it is transgressive."
$15
Sexomedy
Through 5/29: Wed 7:30 PMTheater & Performance
Forty-one years after the first edition of Our Bodies, Ourselves, a publicity-seeking moron can still get serious attention by equating contraception with sexual deviance. So God knows what sort of uproar Melissa DuPrey may create with this candid, hilarious, hypersexual monologue. DuPrey spends 60 shame-free minutes chronicling every action, fantasy, and object that gets her off—including the office copier. She details her glorious bodily imperfections (e.g., hairy B-cup breasts that are "80 percent nipple") and laments the men who make her "pussy frown" (such as the one who approached her hairy asshole as though hacking through underbrush). In a culture that perpetually cloaks the specifics of sexual pleasure under euphemism and moralism, DuPrey's clear-eyed comedy is as necessary as it is transgressive. —Justin Hayford $15
Beast Women
Through 6/1: Sat 10:30 PMTheater & Performance
A multigenre show that highlights the performance talents of Chicago women. $20
Creditors
Through 6/2: various times, see websiteTheater & Performance
David Greig's 2010 adaptation renders August Strindberg's drama as a sharp ideological and sexual power play. Strindberg's interest in Darwinian theories of survival manifests itself in the battle between a hypersexual writer, Tekla, and her former teacher and husband, Gustav, who's returned to destroy Tekla and her new lover, the ailing artist for whom she betrayed him. Beyond Strindberg's critique of marriage and other nonsustaining frameworks, this naturalistic drama explores notions of artistic salvation and the fluidity of the self. Mark L. Montgomery is hypnotic as Gustav, a man possessed by forces beyond his full comprehension. Under Sandy Shinner's direction, Remy Bumppo delivers a captivating 90-minute production of the Swede's still-gripping psychological drama. —Suzanne Scanlon $27.50-$47.50
What's the T?
Through 6/2: Fri-Sat 7 PM, Sun 3 PM; also Sat 6/1 3 PMTheater & Performance
Inspired by the recent uptick in racial and class tensions in Boystown's LGBT community, this About Face Youth Theatre show, written by Sara Kerastas and the ensemble, chronicles a day in the gayborhood from the perspective of the disadvantaged. We meet a homeless trans teen, a dweeby lesbian just starting to figure things out, a street poet, several voguers, and a den-mother glamazon named Ms. Ma, who's dedicated to "realness, revolution, and Rihanna." All are young and poor—and not exactly welcomed with open arms by the area's affluent residents. Director Eric Hoff and his feisty cast put it over with energy, humor, and righteous outrage. Though the script occasionally lapses into sermonizing, it pays stirring tribute to the virtues of resilience and tolerance. —Zac Thompson
$15
Seek and Ye Shall Find
Through 6/8: Sat 3 PM, Sun 7 PM, Mon 7:30 PM, Wed 7:30 PM; no show Sun-Mon 5/26-5/27, additional show Tue 5/28, 7:30 PMTheater & Performance
Sentell Harper's one-man show, presented by Mortar Theatre Company, takes on too much in an effort to deconstruct the black gay community. The show follows its protagonist, also called Sentell, on an unexpected el ride that lands him in black gay alternate universe, where he's confronted head-on by the community he feels alienated from. Numerous characters pass through, telling stories of coming out, reconciling church and sexuality, secret relationships, and HIV scares. Harper is a charismatic performer, bringing humor and humanity (and some song and dance) to sympathetic characters, but each man's story felt garbled when mixed with so many others'. The message that we are all "worth keeping" is admirable, but might've been better presented through a single man's journey toward self-acceptance. —Marissa Oberlander $10-$15
The Cotton Mouth Club
Through 6/9: Fri-Sat 8 PM, Sun 3 PMDance
Chicago Dance Crash presents a choreographed pieces that mixes contemporary and classic styles. $25
Smokey Joe's Cafe
Through 6/30: Thu-Fri 7:30 PM, Sat 5 and 8 PM, Sun 2 and 6 PMTheater & Performance
Songwriting duo Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller penned some of early rock 'n' roll's biggest hits. This musical revue, revived by Theo Ubique, strings together a few dozen of them in a plotless bender of nostalgia. For anyone interested, director Brenda Didier's cast—rife with good looks and strong voices—does a fine job of it. Melodramatic minidramas like "Charlie Brown" and "Love Potion #9" lend themselves to casual theatrics. Still, my mind wandered to the people behind the songs, rather than the characters in them. How did Big Mama Thornton, the African-American artist who first performed "Hound Dog," feel when Elvis Presley's version took off? But don't let my cynicism ruin a good knee-slapping romp through the total racial harmony of postwar America. —Keith Griffith $25-$46.50
The Emigrants
Through 7/5: various times, see websiteTheater & Performance
A two-man cast portrays exiles from Europe who have contrasting ideas about returning home. Originally by Slawomir Mrozek, the comedy explores the theme of what it means to be home. $19
Caligula
Through 7/7: various times, see websiteTheater & Performance
Originally written by Albert Camus, the play follows an emperor who takes on the role of a monarch and meets a tragedy along the way. $19
The Magic Cabaret
Open run: Wed 8 PM,
773-404-7336Theater & Performance, Halloween
P.T. Murphy and David Parr's show continues to "take the 'ic' out of magic." Classic bits involving card tricks and swallowed needles blend with anecdotes about Chicago's history as a magic capital and Murphy and Parr's own youthful obsessions with the craft. The two deliver a bombast-free evening of chamber illusions, bantering easily with each other and the audience in a spare and intimate setting. A chilling interlude invoking H.H. Holmes, the serial killer immortalized as the "devil in the White City," reminds us that no amount of prestidigitation can reveal the motivations of monsters. --Kerry Reid $20, no one under 13 years old admitted
Million Dollar Quartet
Open run: Wed 2 and 7:30 PM, Thu 7:30 PM, Fri 8 PM, Sat 5 and 8 PM, Sun 3:30 and 6:30 PMTheater & Performance
Re-creating a legendary 1956 jam session involving Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins, and Jerry Lee Lewis, this crowd-pleaser is basically a vehicle for crackling renditions of classic tunes, including "Blue Suede Shoes," "That's All Right," and "Great Balls of Fire." The show's emotional center is Sun Records founder Sam Phillips, a man caught between competing personal and business pressures. —Albert Williams $25-$70
Late Nite Catechism
Open run: Thu and Sat 8 PM 312-988-9000Theater & Performance
A bona fide born-in-Chicago international hit, this simultaneously nostalgic and satirical comedy by Vicki Quade and Maripat Donovan concerns a nun instructing her students—that's you—on the dos and don'ts of dogma. —Jack Helbig $30
