The Journeymen Theater Company presents its annual Christmas show, a blackly comic Behind the Music-style look at some sordid goings-on up at the north pole. The first time I saw this it seemed too mean-spirited to be funny, but Jeff Goode’s writing is about shock value from start to finish: I now suspect only a […]
Tag: Vol. 35 No. 10
Issue of Dec. 1 – 7, 2005
Posted inArts & Culture
Kiki & Herb
Don’t see Kiki & Herb unless you’re fully prepared to commit. I mean, fully. Think hard. Be honest. Nobody’s going to blame you if you excuse yourself now, but it’ll be too late when Kiki’s standing there in her sequined cocktail dress and poofy 60s hair, the microphone cord wound dangerously around her ankle, pouring […]
Posted inFilm
Familiarity Breeds Another Attempt
The new Keira Knightley vehicle is an OK romance, but it’s no Pride and Prejudice.
Posted inArts & Culture
A Christmas Carol
Aside from the solid musical backdrop of carols arranged by Valerie Maze, the pillar of this Provision Theater Company staging of Dickens’s classic, adapted by David Bell and director Tim Gregory, is Brad Armacost as Ebenezer. No twinkling, giggling curmudgeon, Armacost is just the Scrooge the Victorians would have known and feared: scary stuff, a […]
Posted inArts & Culture
The Christmas Schooner
Bailiwick’s annual Christmas musical, now sailing into its 11th year, tells the story of a Michigan ship’s crew that undertakes the delivery of Christmas trees in the 1880s to Chicagoans who miss their German homeland. Director Shifra Werch packs in plenty of sentiment and Christmas cheer, though the tragedy at the play’s heart seems glossed […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Lady Sovreign, Ghislain Poirier
UK grime queen and self-described “white midget” Lady Sovereign was already a stateside cult phenom before her first domestic release, the cheekily titled Vertically Challenged EP (Chocolate Industries). Short white female rappers are a rarity even in the bizarro world of grime, where dancehall rhythms are married to 80s video-game sound effects and DJs contort […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Digital Rights Mismanagement
Sony BMG’s most recent attempt to lock down content only pushes smart listeners towards illegal downloading.
Posted inArts & Culture
Chicago
Bob Fosse, John Kander, and Fred Ebb’s 1975 Broadway musical, about two burlesque bimbos who parlay criminal notoriety into showbiz stardom, is likely to reach a new audience on the strength of its Oscar-winning film version. Viewers familiar only with the movie, however, may be surprised by the lean theatricality and stark visuals of this […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Found in Translation
Most of Kate McQuillen’s 13 watercolors, wall installations, and silk screens at Caro d’Offay are “translations” of e-mails, letters, and voice mails she’s received. McQuillen used a different method for each translation and reveals neither the encoding system nor the original message, creating a sense of hidden meaning that causes the viewer to reflect on […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Hush Now
The controversy in Andersonville concerning A Taste of Heaven reminds me of the time I was visiting the Ukrainian Village neighborhood about a decade ago. I was walking around with a friend on a mild afternoon. The streets were quiet and neat, and as we started down one lined with two- and three-flat buildings we […]
Posted inNews & Politics
The Straight Dope
With shows like Lost and Gilligan’s Island, movies like Cast Away and Swiss Family Robinson, and books like Robinson Crusoe, I’ve been wondering: Are there documented cases of a person or persons being shipwrecked on an uncharted, deserted isle and surviving for some length of time only to be rescued later? Are there a lot […]
Posted inArts & Culture
The Radio City Christmas Spectacular
Everything here is so gosh darn nice it makes your teeth hurt: this revue, back after a three-year hiatus, is well suited to the very old and the very young and probably not many people in between. The Rockettes are the best reason to go, but their scary uniformity and monotonous choreography remind you why […]
Posted inNews & Politics
My Sign in the Times
To the editors, I really am surprised and saddened by the resulting divisiveness that has occurred in response to the sign on the front door of my cafe, “Children of all ages have to behave and use their indoor voices when coming to A Taste of Heaven” [Hot Type, November 18]. The fact that a […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Jesus Christ, Stop Shopping
Reverend Billy brings his anticonsumerist congregation to town this week.