Catey Sullivan, author at Chicago Reader

A young man in a crown stands center on a box while a group of actors surround him, arms raised in praise or possibly supplication.

A provocative Pippin

by Catey Sullivan June 8, 2023June 8, 2023

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, […]

A white actor and a Black actor, dressed as Huck Finn and Jim, stand together onstage, with a rough blanket held over their heads.

Theater Review

Timely Twain

by Catey Sullivan May 4, 2023May 4, 2023

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 […]

A woman in a yellow ball gown sits center, while three women stand behind her and a man in a yellow frock coat kneels beside her, singing.

Theater Review

Lovely, dark, and deep

by Catey Sullivan May 2, 2023May 2, 2023

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 […]

A group of actors dressed in Washington Senators baseball uniforms stand in a row, tossing their caps in the air. Joe Hardy is on the shoulders of the men in the center.

Theater Review

Damn Yankees hits it out of the park

by Catey Sullivan April 27, 2023April 27, 2023

The devil goes down to Washington (D.C.) in the 1955 musical Damn Yankees, and he’s rarely been more irresistible than in his current incarnation at the Marriott Lincolnshire. Damn Yankees Through 6/4: Wed 1 and 7:30 PM, Thu 7:30 PM, Fri 8 PM, Sat 4 and 8 PM, Sun 1 and 5 PM; also Thu […]

four young girls with arms linked doing a chorus line kick against a background that says Congrats Graduates

Film

Review: Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret.

by Catey Sullivan April 24, 2023April 24, 2023

Like the book, the Lionsgate movie offers a gently informative, often hilarious, and always empathetic depiction of a sixth grader yearning for, getting, and celebrating her first period.

Interior set of a cigar factory with "CIGARS" painted in big white letters on the rear wall. The lector, a man in a white suit, stands on a ladder rear left, holding a book. Another man stands next to him, slouching against the wall. In the center we can see the partial figure of a woman with her back turned toward us. Another woman sits working at a large wooden table in the center of the photo. A man sits on the right edge of the table, with a woman on his lap.

Theater Review

Summer and smoke

by Catey Sullivan February 23, 2023February 22, 2023

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 […]

Over a dozen dancers of different genders, races, and ethnicities, dressed in glittery silver tuxes for the men and leotards for the women, all sporting silver top hats, are captured performing an ensemble dance step in a line. They are all facing to the right. There is a big mirror behind them.

Theater Review

The beautiful business of show

by Catey Sullivan February 9, 2023February 9, 2023

First, some mathematical context: I’ve seen A Chorus Line at least 18 times since 1976, the year the first national tour rolled into Chicago. Prior to last week, I was certain the brilliant show about aspiring Broadway hoofers held no more surprises. How could it? I’ve known every word, lyric, cadence, and character in this […]

four old women in Patriots jerseys look anxious and hopeful

Film

Review: 80 for Brady

by Catey Sullivan February 2, 2023February 14, 2023

Not even a (criminally underproduced) Billy Porter musical number can fix this nonsense.

Film

Review: Plane

by Catey Sullivan January 27, 2023February 14, 2023

Stereotype and cliche remain alive and well on the big screen.

Four actors in costume as the Golden Girls stand onstage, wearing nightgowns and bathrobes. Three of them are standing in front of a couch, with their hands raised and looking terrified. The fourth, playing Sophia, is standing facing them with a large knife upraised in their hand.

Theater Review

Not so golden

by Catey Sullivan January 18, 2023January 18, 2023

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 […]

a Black man and a white woman sit on the bus together

Film

Review: Empire of Light

by Catey Sullivan January 13, 2023February 14, 2023

Empire of Light is no sugary British rom-com.

Two couples, each composed of a white man and a white woman, stand a few feet apart from each other onstage. The women are in red ball gowns trimmed in white, and the men wear red suits. A large wreath and cutouts of snow flakes hang behind them. Their arms are outstretched above their heads

Theater Review

Stuck in a snow globe

by Catey Sullivan December 21, 2022December 21, 2022

Nearly 69 years since its birth as a smash movie, the seasonally ubiquitous White Christmas remains a good, old-fashioned holiday chestnut. It also remains an objectively odious, old holiday chestnut. To say it has not aged well is to put it mildly. To put it frankly, I would like to think this is not a […]

The company of The Lion King onstage with puppets representing the animals. Mufasa is holding baby Simba up toward the sky at the rear.

Theater Review

What’s new, pussy cat?

by Catey Sullivan November 23, 2022November 23, 2022

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 […]

a raggedy white boy with dyed red hair sits outdoors on the ground next to a Black girl, who looks over at him

Film

Bones and All

by Catey Sullivan November 18, 2022November 21, 2022

Despite its preponderance of blood and guts and sinew-slathering, bone-smacking gore, Bones and All isn’t exactly a movie about cannibalism.

a Native man and woman kneel in the desert

Film

The Last Manhunt

by Catey Sullivan November 18, 2022November 19, 2022

With The Last Manhunt, the epic story of Willie Boy the Desert Runner reclaims the narrative of a Native hero long portrayed by white men as a bloodthirsty child kidnapper.