The Ball of Justice, Strawdog Theatre Company. Even those viewers who didn’t see last year’s Return to the Howard Bowl should quickly catch on to this sequel. Among the characters in this live-action comic book are Def D and AJ Dove–collectively called Kingpinz, the rappin’ bowlers. Le B Smoov and Smootie Pac are their babe-a-licious […]
Tag: Vol. 30 No. 37
Issue of Jun. 14 – 20, 2001
Looking Down the Barrel of a Trick
Here’s what can happen if you piss off somebody’s boyfriend.
A Second Chance at State and Division
When veteran restaurateur and nightclub owner Demetri Alexander (Lola’s Club Roulette, Alexander’s) approached Standard & Poor’s trader Reno Scalise last year about investing in a new steak house at 1212 N. State, Scalise thought it was a great idea. “I liked the location most of all, with all the action right near Rush and Division, […]
King Lear
King Lear, Piven Theatre. When I heard that Shira Piven was directing her father, actor and teacher Byrne Piven, in the lead role of King Lear, my first thought was that the production would be really terrific or really awful. Either she’d shape a rich, resonant staging out of her own experience with her father […]
Pay for the Privilege to Poo-Poo
I read with much amusement Tim Klein’s letter regarding Jack Helbig’s critique of our hit production of Popcorn [June 8]. Certainly Mr. Klein is entitled to his opinion about our play, which he called “the worst piece of theater I have ever seen in my entire life.” Unfortunately, he distorts some rather important facts while […]
Mr. Rhythm & Blues
MR. RHYTHM & BLUES, at HotHouse. Colin Jones walked onstage 25 minutes late for the opening night of his solo cabaret performance carrying a martini shaker and a glass, perhaps hoping to evoke some semblance of the 1940s jazz-and-cocktail culture surrounding his fictional alter ego, crooner Arty Baker. Arriving center stage and discovering he had […]
TRG Music Listings
Rock, Pop, etc. concerts ASPERA Free in-store performance. Sat 6/16, 3 PM, Reckless Records, 3157 N. Broadway. 773-404-5080. THE BLACKS perform at “After Hours” museum tour and party. Thu 6/21, 5:30-9:30 PM, ballroom, Art Institute of Chicago, 111 S. Michigan. 312-575-8000. RUBEN BLADES, CESARIA EVORA Tue 6/19, 8 PM, Pavilion, Ravinia Festival, Green Bay and […]
Going Cold
Chills Secret Box: The Chills’ Rarities, 1980-2000 (Definitive Music) By Douglas Wolk Chills fans have had to put up with almost 20 years of excuses. If only Martin Phillipps had been able to keep a band together, instead of going through 14 configurations in the group’s first 12 years. If only drummer Martyn Bull hadn’t […]
Looking Into the Sun
Dear Mike [Miner]: Gregory Mellis did not conceive and launch the Sun papers [Hot Type, May 25]. The flagship Naperville Sun has been around for 50 or 60 years, and fell into Copley’s hands only 10 years ago, along with the rest of the Sun chain. It’s thrice weekly and definitely not free: I have […]
The Roof is on Fiddler: a Musical Parody
The Roof is on Fiddler: a Musical Parody, at Improv-Olympic. There are elements of parody in T.J. Shanoff and Rich Talarico’s twisted version of the beloved musical adaptation of Sholem Aleichem’s comic stories. Most notably, Shanoff has set Sheldon Harnick’s lyrics to the tunes of pop songs from the past 30 years. One of the […]
News of the Weird
Lead Stories According to a May report in the Los Angeles Times, human-egg brokers are doing a brisk business in the U.S., with the average woman getting as much as $5,000 for a multiple-egg harvest and certain tall, athletic, brainy blonds commanding $80,000. Donors undergo a hormone regimen lasting several weeks and then have the […]
Clientele
CLIENTELE Quizzed last year by the fanzine Chickfactor, guitarist Alasdair Maclean confessed that the harshest catcall ever unleashed on his band the Clientele was a request for “more reverb.” In fact Suburban Light (Merge), the debut album by this psychedelic trio from north London, already sounds like it was recorded at the bottom of a […]
Call Me Confused, Snotty, and Misguided, Just Don’t Call Me Late for the Show
Call Me Confused, Snotty, and Misguided, Just Don’t Call Me Late for the Show To Brian Nemtusak– Your review of Ric Borelli’s one-man show Best Dope in Town [June 8] was confusing, snotty, and misguided. Borelli’s ambition and class are clearly integrated and acknowledged throughout the show (i.e., his Dire Straits-scored montage of himself as […]
Women Seeking Women, Men Seeking Men
Sappho in Love Bailiwick Repertory Prism Bailiwick Repertory By Kerry Reid Chicago writer Paula Kamen in her recent report on young women and sex, Her Way, coined the expression “superrat” to designate “a new breed of sexual individualists” among the fairer sex. With all due respect to Kamen, she’s about 2,500 years late with that […]