Alex Sanchez Archives - Chicago Reader

Two groups of young men (Jets and Sharks) stand facing each other. A man in a red shirt at the front of the group on the right has his fists raised.

Something’s here, something great

by Jack Helbig February 16, 2022February 16, 2022

I can’t think of an American musical with a better pedigree than West Side Story, conceived, directed, and choreographed by Jerome Robbins, with a score by Leonard Bernstein, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, and a book by Arthur Laurents. Yes, the show is pretty great. But it IS almost 65 years old. It’s hard to imagine […]

Woman and man in Elizabethan garb. Woman is grabbing man from the back.

Theater Review

Too much of a good thing

by Jack Helbig November 30, 2021November 30, 2021

Inspired by the real-life onstage/offstage marital drama of the husband-and-wife acting team, Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne, this Tony Award-winning 1948 musical features an engaging book by Sam and Bella Spewack and a score packed with iconic Cole Porter earworms—among them “Why Can’t You Behave,” “Always True to You (In My Fashion),” and “Too Darn […]