Alderman Burton Natarus has developed the instincts of a grizzly bear. The last ward remap shifted downtown into Natarus’s territory, and you can almost see him raking his claws against the skyscrapers to mark his range. Chicago aldermen expect to rule in their own wards, a custom called “aldermanic privilege.” But some aldermen disagree with […]
Tag: Vol. 26 No. 19
Issue of Feb. 13 – 19, 1997
Posted inMusic
Patrice Michaels Bedi
PATRICE MICHAELS BEDI Given her ripe, sensual voice and the uncommon curiosity and intelligence she displays toward the vocal repertoire, soprano Patrice Michaels Bedi ought to be singing on some of the best stages in the world by now. But career building in classical music is a tricky matter, and Michaels Bedi hasn’t gotten the […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Package
Package, Mary-Arrchie Theatre. Though Scott Stuart’s new one-act Package aims to resonate on a political level, its most interesting drama lies in the relationships of the three main characters. Vera is a xerox artist who produces volumes of flyers (whose messages we never learn), Nat is an annoying street clown who relies on Vera for […]
Posted inArts & Culture
The Heiress
THE HEIRESS, Apple Tree Theatre. Fans of the excellent 1949 film treatment of Henry James’s 1881 Washington Square will be enthralled by Apple Tree’s revival of Ruth and Augustus Goetz’s 1947 script. Superbly cast, finely tuned, and consummately acted, this production is as textured and nuanced as the film, and so psychologically precise that its […]
Posted inNews & Politics
The Chicago Five
Protesters nabbed during the 1996 Democratic National Convention tell it to thejudge.
Posted inFilm
The Passion of Joan of Arc
Though I haven’t heard Richard Einhorn’s new oratorio Voices of Light–which was a brisk seller on Billboard’s classical charts early last year, written to accompany Carl Dreyer’s last silent film–I have seen the original version of Dreyer’s masterpiece, rediscovered in a Norwegian mental asylum during the 80s after having been lost for half a century. […]
Posted inArts & Culture
The Midnight Circus: When Circus and Theater Collide
The Midnight circus: when circus and theater collide, at National Pastime Theater. So these two actors are playing a scene from A Streetcar Named Desire when they’re interrupted by an unexpected knock at an onstage door. When they answer it, in marches a circus, complete with clowns, acrobats, roustabouts, jugglers, and stilt walkers doing rolls […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Points of Arrival: A Jean Donovan Journey
POINTS OF ARRIVAL: A JEAN DONOVAN JOURNEY, Still Point Theatre Collective, Rhino in Winter festival, at Live Bait Theater. Jean Donovan’s story cries out to be told, and not just because her murder in 1980 at the hands of an El Salvadoran death squad says so much about that country’s repressive U.S.-backed military regime (though […]
Posted inMusic
Curiouser and Curiouser
Julian Cope Interpreter (Kak/Echo) By Jim DeRogatis In theory, at least, rock ‘n’ roll is the music of freedom and individuality and antiauthoritarianism, so it follows that we make heroes (if not millionaires) of those who forge their own distinctive paths, from Screamin’ Jay Hawkins to George Clinton to that guy who used to be […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Hot Tix Taqriff/ Dance Developments/ Lords a’ Leaping
New League of Chicago Theatres director Marj Halperin is looking for cash.
Posted inMusic
Leontyne Price
LEONTYNE PRICE Let’s face it–at 70, Leontyne Price no longer has quite the command of the agile, bewitching instrument that made her America’s prima donna in the 60s and 70s. So, what has compelled this proud, reclusive soprano to embark on a concert tour in the twilight of her career? I suppose it’s The Essential […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Master Class
MASTER CLASS, Shubert Theatre. Call this one “Diva Dearest.” Despite Faye Dunaway’s detailed technique and the passion she brings to Maria Callas’s accent, expressions, body language, and hair, you never forget that this is a celluloid legend riding Terrence McNally’s vehicle to a future film. Unlike Meryl Streep, Dunaway does not disappear into her roles. […]
Posted inNews & Politics
The Case of the Well-Paid Ghost
The Case of the Well-Paid Ghost Rich Daley was hiding behind his desk, fiddling with a model airplane, when his brother Bill bounded through his office door. “Hey, chum,” laughed Bill, just back from Washington, where he’d been sworn in as United States commerce secretary. “You look spooked! Did you faint?” “You shouldn’t surprise people […]
Posted inArts & Culture
King of Pain
Richard II Writers’ Theatre-Chicago The Life and Death of King John Shakespeare’s Motley Crew at the Edgewater Theatre Center By Jack Helbig Popular in its own time, Richard II was first printed in 1597 and went through four editions before 1623. But in our day the play has been overshadowed by Shakespeare’s tragedies about more […]