It is a truth universally acknowledged that it’s actually harder to write a rave review than it is to write a pan. How to communicate the thrill of seeing a show that’s just exactly what it should be without simply saying GO SEE THIS SHOW? Fences Through 8/6: Thu-Fri 7:30 PM, Sat 2:30 and 7:30 […]
Tag: Monty Cole
Posted inGhost Light
Swinging for the Fences with Monty Cole
In 2016, Monty Cole made his directorial debut in Chicago with Eugene O’Neill’s The Hairy Ape at now-defunct Oracle Productions—and what a debut it was. His staging of the story of Yank, a swaggering stoker on a steamship who is ultimately destroyed by a society that sees him only as a brute, brought together a […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Kiss takes risks, but Haven Chicago’s production falls short
Guillermo Calderón’s meta soap opera toggles between farce and sincerity.
Posted inArts & Culture
House Theatre’s Borealis doesn’t quite light up the sky
Bennett Fisher’s play has all the amenities except a well-explored point.
Posted inArts & Culture
Daniel Kyri turns in a triumphant performance in the Gift’s Hamlet
He brings utter control over the language and a quality of hard-won majesty to the role.
Posted inBlogs
Theater’s biggest summer drama—Pass Over
Chicago has debated Pass Over all summer, without getting to the merits of the play itself
Posted inArts & Culture
Something Rotten, The Project(s), and eight more new stage shows to see now
A touring Broadway hit and a youth revival from American Theater Company are among this week’s best bets.
Posted inArts & Culture
Le Switch, The Mutilated, and nine more new reviews worth your notice
On the off-Loop scene: the latest from local playwright Philip Dawkins, an obscure Tennessee Williams one-act, and a Neil LaBute funfest
Posted inColumns & Opinion
The Chicago Commercial Collective wants to give off-Loop shows an afterlife
Chicago Commercial Collective wants to give off-Loop hits a profitable afterlife.