Posted inTheater Review

A provocative Pippin

Pippin was a forerunner in the big swing of musical theater away from the happy-ever-after era that defined the genre’s “golden age.” The 1972 show by Stephen Schwartz (music) and Roger O. Hirson (book) ends not with a whizbang, all-hands-on-deck, colored-light spectacle of song and dance, but with a lone man standing onstage, divested of costume, […]

Posted inTheater Review

Timely Twain

The dramaturgy displays alone for Mercury Theater Chicago’s Big River, based on Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, taught me more about Mark Twain’s 1830s-set, biting antislavery novel than I learned from studying the book in junior high, high school, undergrad, and grad school combined. First off, the musical (music and lyrics by Roger Miller, book by […]

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Lovely, dark, and deep

The woods are leaf-free spires of light, Cinderella’s sisters are outfitted in bad 80s prom dresses, and Rapunzel’s coil of blonde hair is a rope in the national touring production of Into the Woods. Directed by Lear deBessonet, Stephen Sondheim’s musical is one of endlessly intricate lyrics packaged in broad suggestions of time and place […]

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Summer and smoke

Nilo Cruz’s 2003 Pulitzer Prize-winning Anna in the Tropics is a lit-fuse kind of drama, beginning with a slow but unmistakable simmer that ultimately detonates with scorching, devastating impact. Directed by Laura Alcalá Baker for Remy Bumppo Theatre, this lavishly produced, powerfully cast production shows just how relevant—and compelling—Cruz’s words remain.  Anna in the Tropics […]

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Not so golden

The hardest working queen in showbiz? That’d be Ginger Minj (fight me). After three stints on RuPaul’s Drag Race (season seven, All Stars 2, and All Stars 6), the breakout star and two-time RDR finalist has kept busy with countless live shows, small screen hits, a trio of studio albums that showcase her Broadway-worthy belt […]

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What’s new, pussy cat?

At 25 years old, The Lion King has been seen by more than 110 million people and played every continent but Antarctica. Between global warming and ticket demand, it’s probably just a matter of time.  The latest U.S. tour to stop in Chicago feels significantly less lavish from earlier versions that blew audiences and critics […]