Author Archives: Jenn Goddu

The music in this 50-minute show almost makes up for its clunky, crass, cobbled-together comedy scenes about a mild-mannered loafer on a single day of eclectic adventures. Writer-performer Sam Locke plays the mandolin well, and some of the tunes are pretty funny, but his singing is lacking. The Country Doctors amped up opening night, but […]

Powerful performances make Open Eye Productions’ revival of Dale Wasserman’s play, a 1963 adaptation of Ken Kesey’s novel, worth seeing. Mark Pracht brings swaggering charisma to rabble-rouser McMurphy, who motivates the other men in the mental institution to stand up and fight back. Manny Sosa, Anderson Lawfer, and Kevin M. Grubb are particularly affecting as […]

One of the best things about Dina Facklis’s solo sketch show is that her characters are often oblivious to just how funny they are. They’re all the more entertaining because she delivers them–the nonbridesmaid former friend blithely spilling secrets at the wedding, the misguided mom demanding that her daughter don more makeup–with complete conviction. Equally […]

Writer-director Jena Friedman’s premise is promising: in her parody of the feel-good American Girls Revue, she replaces trendy American Girl dolls, all taken from U.S. history, with dolls representing refugees from Chernobyl, Darfur, and Indonesia’s tsunami. But this late-night show, with music and lyrics by Friedman and Boaz Reisman, is dull, the execution clunky, the […]

Using the theme of lunacy to unify diverse true-life Latina stories, Teatro Luna comes up with a show that’s bold, often funny, and ambitious. Among the highlights: a woman’s cartoonish “vigilante fantastica” escapades, a self-proclaimed peaceful person’s hilariously foulmouthed road rage, and song-and-dance scenes that pull together ensemble members’ confessional stories about sexual obsessions and […]

Writer-performer Jeff Madden’s solo show of sketches and songs is mildly amusing. But that’s it. Each piece is over too quickly, with little character development, and there are too few laughs, though some bits are fun: a musical ode to adult education, a washed-up folkie’s recollections of the real inspirations for his simple songs, and […]

Michael Bradford’s play is set in 1876, when two former slaves separated on their wedding night are reunited, and 12 years earlier, when the slave owner tormented the couple and their friends and family. Director Runako Jahi’s production opens with a man hanging from a tree, but this striking early image is the play’s only […]

Shepsu Aakhu’s drama about facing a hurricane gains resonance from the fact that people in Katrina’s path actually experienced such worry, sadness, guilt, and grief. But simply jogging our memories of the 2005 disaster isn’t enough–this MPAACT Theatre production creates only a gentle lapping of emotion, not a strong wave. Aakhu’s play never builds momentum, […]

Corn Productions’ sprawling song-and-dance Stooge-esque two-act comedy, which has 17 characters, desperately needs an edit. Writers Michael and Patrick Brooks overwhelm every fleeting bit of wit and originality with an unfocused plot turn. They tell far more than show this tale of a Chicago gangster skirting Prohibition with the help of Wisconsin farmers, and they […]

The Chick Magnets (Angie Carr and Meredith Melville) provide an accurate, funny portrayal of lesbian life in Chicagoland in this 50-minute sketch comedy show. Adeptly transforming themselves into a host of different characters with quick, convincing physical and vocal shifts, they also have detailed interactions with imagined objects. The evening’s best running gag–observations on “lesbians […]

Two of the supporting characters in Tony Fiorentino’s new play for Diamante Productions are easy to relate to: a man overburdened by the nonstop demands of his brother, Joel, after an accident, and Joel’s fiancee, struggling to remain connected to him as he tries to push her away. But the work’s center is Joel, an […]

Like a losing bingo card, this musical comedy is all over the place, incorporating numerous song styles, adult humor, romance, many flashbacks, a 15-year-old bingo-related grudge, a dying woman’s last wish, some glaringly obvious life lessons (“do your best”), and an odd (but funny) musical reimagining of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. There’s some […]

The titular copier in Herman Melville’s short story is a polite but obstinate man. Asked to perform a task, Bartleby considerately replies, “I’d prefer not to.” His boss can’t fathom this eccentric behavior–and smartly, this stage adaptation by director Alexander Gelman and the Organic Theater Company ensemble doesn’t seek to explain it. Instead the focus […]