Bobby Leonhard’s new play about the Iraq war draws in part on his experiences there as a National Guardsman: the script’s harsh veracity is unquestionable. But his trio of soldiers riding a Humvee through hostile territory are frustratingly underdeveloped. As they fall apart–or tear one another apart–we wonder whether they’ve been made psychotic by the […]
Tag: Vol. 35 No. 5
Issue of Oct. 27 – Nov. 2, 2005
Posted inArts & Culture
Summer Storm
Since the flap over Time’s October 10 cover story, gay teenagers have supplanted gay marriage as the moment’s hot-button topic, so this sexy, bittersweet romance makes an apt opener for Reeling 2005: The 24th Chicago Lesbian & Gay International Film Festival. Set at a German sports camp (and packed with scenes of swimsuited young athletes […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Prime
David (Bryan Greenberg) is a 23-year-old Jewish painter and Rafi (Uma Thurman) a 37-year-old WASP divorcee, so when these New Yorkers become a couple, everyone’s a bit surprised. But no one’s more confused than Rafi’s therapist (Meryl Streep), who turns out to be David’s mother and whose progressive ideas don’t extend to her son. Writer-director […]
Posted inArts & Culture
The American Girls Revue
Gretchen Cryer’s book and lyrics deliver a host of positive messages to girls about patience, resilience, and responsibility. A rotating cast of kids, all stronger singers than actors, joins a few adults to reenact American Girl dolls’ stories. But halfway through, this 75-minute sales pitch is getting a bit tiresome. For one thing we have […]
Posted inArts & Culture
The Life and Times of Jewboy Cain: Jewboy Rejux
Jeff Dorchen has spent his career goring sacred cows. And when he runs out of victims, he gores himself, as he did in his brilliant 1995 one-man show, The Life and Times of Jewboy Cain. Cain delivers his rambling confessional monologue–which Dorchen insists has “12 percent new material” in its Rhino fest incarnation–to a callow […]
Posted inNews & Politics
The Treatment
Friday 28 ERIC BIBB Eric Bibb paints from a broad palette: he plays traditional and contemporary folk, acoustic variations on old-school R & B, funk, and soul, and stripped-down rock ‘n’ roll as well as blues and gospel. It’s an eclectic catalog, and there’s a whiff of dilettantism about it–at times he sounds like Taj […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Amy Rigby
Amy Rigby writes great songs. You might think that’s a basic requirement for any singer-songwriter, but plenty of pro acoustic strummers skate by on pretty vocals or a talent for sustaining an enticing, relaxed mood. Rigby can’t afford such luxuries: she sings in a thin warble, and the mix of humor and pathos in her […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Live and Let Drive
Dear Reader readers, I agree with Andy Golding [Letters, October 21]. Let’s turn most of the on-street parking spaces into garden spaces and make Chicago into a town for poor persons who do not drive, and let’s definitely make this town a home for those very sophisticated types who, in their superior wisdom, deplore the […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Three Sisters
Unlike Strawdog’s superior current production, Robert Tenges’s modern-dress adaptation is crude and unfocused, lacking any sense of time, place, or purpose. Taking the play’s theme of paralysis too far, it has a rootlessness that infects the lackluster performances. More like outtakes from a Friends episode than a Chekhov play, LiveWire Theater’s revival suffers from terrible […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Denise Nicholas
Denise Nicholas’s accomplished debut novel, Freshwater Road, out this fall from Evanston-based Agate Publishing, is set during the hot, turbulent Mississippi summer of 1964. Nineteen-year-old University of Michigan student Celeste Tyree heads south to work on the One Man, One Vote registration campaign and run a “freedom school”; her father, a Detroit bar owner and […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Bark!
Gavin Geoffrey Dillard wrote this charming revue, a West Hollywood import, for dog lovers. There are songs about chasing one’s tail, singing to sirens, and whizzing on stuff, as six puppies in a pound sing perkily about their past lives as beloved pets, working dogs, and street tramps–and howl to be adopted. The cast, particularly […]
Posted inNews & Politics
You Say Potato . . .
Regarding “A Dumping Ground for the Poor?” published in the October 14 Reader, it seems Ben Joravsky may need to do more research before writing his articles. He especially misses the mark in his fourth paragraph when describing the 7600 block of Paulina: “now occupied by two social service agencies and a weed-filled vacant lot.” […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Chicago International Children’s Film Festival
The 22nd annual festival runs Friday, October 28, through Sunday, November 6, with weekend programs at Facets Cinematheque, 1517 W. Fullerton, and the Vittum Theater, 1012 N. Noble. Tickets are $8, $6 for children, and $5 for Facets members; for more information call 866-468-3401. A full festival schedule is available at www.cicff.org. The two strongest […]