Scott Weinstein Archives - Chicago Reader

A Black man in a tan cardigan stands singing in joy to a "leg lamp."

Not a clinker

by Catey Sullivan November 15, 2022November 15, 2022

No matter your views on Christmas and the bulging Santa’s sack of psycho/socio/political/familial drama wrapped up in the sparkle-plenty holiday, this much I know is true: If you aren’t moved to snorts and/or tears of laughter by Lorenzo Rush Jr. weaving a Vatican-worthy tapestry worth of exceptionally innovative cuss words as The Old Man in […]

A child stands left holding a sign in dim light. A woman faces her in fear, while the image of an older man in a yellow shirt fills the screen behind her.

Theater Review

Mystery in space

by Josh Flanders March 2, 2022March 24, 2022

Based on the 1961 novel by Stanisław Lem, which spawned two films, Solaris, the play by David Greig, makes its North American premiere in a Griffin Theatre production under Scott Weinstein’s direction. A riveting sci-fi mystery thriller, it opens with a scientist visiting a space station that orbits the ocean planet of Solaris. A crew […]

Arts & Culture

Grease revs up the revival engines at Marriott

by Jack Helbig January 28, 2020August 18, 2021

Scott Weinstein’s staging is far more knock-out than knockoff.

Arts & Culture

Something Rotten! goes down easy

by Jack Helbig September 11, 2019August 18, 2021

Two brothers try to steal from the Bard in Marriott’s entertaining take on the Broadway musical comedy.

Arts & Culture

Noises Off proves that too-frequent gags have diminishing marginal returns

by Sheri Flanders January 28, 2019August 18, 2021

But this Windy City Playhouse production is still good, frothy fun.

Arts & Culture

Despite the tiny cast of Murder for Two, there’s a multiplicity of suspects

by Jack Helbig August 1, 2018August 18, 2021

Marriott’s two-man musical murder mystery is lots of fun, until it runs out of plot.

Arts & Culture

Frost/Nixon depicts the thoughtfulness and grace of . . . Richard Nixon?

by Dmitry Samarov April 26, 2018August 18, 2021

Oh, the good old days when a former president admitted to criminal complicity on prime-time television!

Blogs

In Violet, a scarred heroine goes in search of a miracle

by Tony Adler December 6, 2017August 18, 2021

Griffin Theatre’s production of this Appalachian-flavored musical by Brian Crawley and Jeanine Tesori gives fans of Fun Home a taste of the latter’s earlier work.