Andra Velis Simon Archives

The cast of London Road is shown standing onstage. Four of the actors are facing the camera. The rest have their backs to the camera. A projection of a street sign reading London Road is on the wall behind them.

Murder songs

by Kerry Reid May 5, 2023May 22, 2023

After five people (including a nine-year-old child) were murdered in a mass shooting in Texas last week, Governor Greg Abbott tweeted, “I’ve announced a $50K reward for info on the criminal who killed five illegal immigrants Friday.” As it turns out, not all of the victims were undocumented. But that’s not the point: Abbott knew […]

A group of six women of various ages and races are seated together on the floor photographed from above.

Arts & Culture

London Road centers voices of survivors

by Emily McClanathan April 19, 2023April 19, 2023

British imports are common enough on Chicago’s stages. The plays of Simon Stephens regularly appear at storefront theaters; Court Theatre will revive Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead next season; and Six continues its Broadway reign following its 2019 North American premiere at Chicago Shakespeare Theater. But it’s safe to say that Chicago audiences […]

Woman in cocktail dress standing at microphone

Theater Review

Nobodies knows the troubles they’ve seen

by Kerry Reid October 6, 2021October 15, 2021

Early on in Songs for Nobodies, Bea Appleton observes that happiness is really just “ordinary misery without extraordinary fear.” Bea Who? Exactly the point. Joanna Murray-Smith’s musical play, which premiered in Australia in 2010, views five iconic women singers—Judy Garland, Patsy Cline, Edith Piaf, Billie Holiday, and Maria Callas—through the stories of the fictional “nobodies” who […]