Articles by Lawrence B. Johnson
Sir Andrew Davis, Lyric Opera music director, adds the Melbourne Symphony to duties
Will shuttle between continents.
Role Playing: Stephen Ouimette brews an Irish tippler with a glassful of illusions in ‘Iceman’
Interview: It is Harry Hope’s grumpy largesse that fuels the pipe dreams for the drunken inhabitants of Eugene O’Neill’s play “The Iceman Cometh.” And Harry, says actor Stephen Ouimette, who portrays the tragi-comic Irish saloon keeper in the Goodman Theatre’s production of “Iceman,” is one complicated lush.
Unveiling truth in ‘Blonde, Brunette, Redhead’ in more ways than meet the hoodwinked eye
Blood and wigs at Writers’. 4 stars!
Shaw Festival: Catching America’s cultural swing to the syncopated beat of ‘Ragtime’
Turn of the century saga. 4 stars!
‘My Kind of Town’ reconstructs police torture scandal as a complicated drama of real life
Cops under gun at TimeLine. 4 stars!
Role Playing: Ian Barford revels in the wiliness of an ambivalent rebel in Doctorow’s ‘March’
Interview: He’s just making it up as he goes along, the Confederate turncoat portrayed by Ian Barford in Steppenwolf Theatre’s current production of “The March.” That’s what Barford likes about his opportunistic character called Arley. And in a sense, the actor says, he’s doing much the same thing on stage from night to the next, trying to track the pitch and roll of a soldier who’s trying to find his own meaning.
In lightning-quick Beethoven 7th Symphony, van Zweden and CSO deliver a poetic thriller
Review: It’s one thing to hear a hair-raising orchestra performance on a CD, and quite another to experience it happening right in front of you, live, in the splendorous acoustics of a concert space. The Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s rocket-sled finale in Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony on May 15 at Orchestra Hall, with conductor Jaap van Zweden, was one to send a writer combing his thesaurus for a higher form of wow. *****
Amid war to win vote for British women, flames of passion illuminate ‘Her Naked Skin’
Suffrage at Shattered Globe. 4 stars!
Vivid characters and some great singing carry the day for ‘A Little Night Music’ at Writers’
Sondheim’s paean to love. 4 stars!
Theater Wit chases depression into sharp bite of comedy with Rosenstock’s ‘Tigers Be Still’
Bittersweet therapy with beast. 2 stars.
Chicago Symphony plans Asian tour with Muti, and adds Mexico debut to fall Carnegie opener
Beijing, Mexico City, Seoul among stops.
Lang Lang, star pianist and global citizen, will bring Chopin, other friends to Chicago recital
Preview: When Chinese piano sensation Lang Lang steps onto the stage at the Civic Opera House for his recital Saturday night, it will be a special moment for everyone in the house – including the pianist.
Goodman’s well-honed ‘Iceman Cometh’ slices through a boozy, painful cloud of pipe-dreams
Brian Dennehy, Nathan Lane. 5 stars!
Chicago Shakespeare’s lean and brisk ‘Timon’ zooms in on crash-and-burn of a needy Midas
Mega-rich tycoon falls low. 4 stars!
‘Pride and Prejudice’ at Lifeline: Mirroring Austen’s vivacious novel in memorable faces
A stew of great characters. 4 stars!
Strawdog taps 17th century vein of blood lust with Webster’s murderous ‘Duchess of Malfi’
Lust, greed and mayhem. 3 stars
Ian McDiarmid, revving the engines of anger, ready to take on Shakespeare’s raging Timon
Preview: The Scottish actor, a Shakespeare veteran, talks with Chicago On the Aisle about the dark and turbulent mindscape of “Timon of Athens.” The play opens May 2 at Chicago Shakespeare Theater.
Digital: ‘Four Seasons’ and Haydn symphonies flash style, finesse under McGegan’s baton
CD Reviews: The latest evidence of the Philharmonia Baroque’s mastery of 18th century fare is a CD release of Vivaldi’s “The Four Seasons” – plus three more violin concertos by the Red Priest, as Vivaldi was known – featuring the orchestra’s wizardly concertmaster and all-world Baroque star Elizabeth Blumenstock. ****
Handel’s early vengeance opera ‘Teseo’ shines amid Chicago Opera Theater’s vocal splendors
Medea’s very, very jealous. 4 stars!
It’s the Bard’s birthday! Simon Callow reflects on the fanciful weave of ‘Being Shakespeare’
Interview: As “the soul of the age” turns 448 on April 23, the celebrated actor talks with Chicago On the Aisle about his one-man play “Being Shakespeare,” presented by Chicago Shakespeare Theater at the Broadway Theatre through April 29.
Steppenwolf captures pulse and horror of war with Sherman’s march through Georgia
Doctorow’s novel on stage. 4 stars!
‘Fish Men’ at Goodman: When chess hustlers bait their hooks, slippery truth snaps at the line
Con game in the park. 3 stars.
‘Angels in America’ at the Court: Viewing AIDS and the yearning heart through a perfect lens
Tony Kushner’s classic soars. 5 stars!
Exploring the starry night at Adler Planetarium, ‘Starball’ will invite audience to shape new myths
Preview: The stars are dream-catchers and story-tellers. Humans have always thought so, hence the mythic characters and lore written into the constellations. But, hey, if the ancient Greeks could puzzle out stories in the stars, why can’t we – and have a ball doing it? No wonder the community myth-making adventure on tap April 19 at the Adler Planetarium is called “Starball.”
Conductor Charles Dutoit leads French lesson as CSO matches Impressionists with Dutilleux
Review: From the admixture of opulence and asceticism that constituted conductor Charles Dutoit’s program of French music with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra this weekend, one might have taken away good lessons offered in a perhaps subversively gleeful spirit. ****
Jazz composer’s song-cycle for Dawn Upshaw tops Chicago agenda for Australian ensemble
Preview: It sounds like a perfect mix of guests for a dinner party, the composers queued up for the Australian Chamber Orchestra’s concert April 15 at Orchestra Hall. George Crumb and Anton Webern will be arriving together, so to speak, along with Schubert and Grieg – and a newcomer whose radical voice should give the affair a good jolt.
‘Butcher of Baraboo’ sharp on characters, wit but the dicey plot could stand another whack
Dark comedy at A Red Orchid. 2 stars.
‘We Are Proud to Present’ a play that crawls before it walks – and then knocks you flat
A stunner at Victory Gardens. 4 stars!
Remy Bumppo romp: Blessing’s ‘Chesapeake’ evades leash, mutes bark of political theater
Shaggy dog revenge story. 3 stars.
CSO debut: Pianist Lugansky shows Russian school still thrives with grand Rachmaninoff
Review: Sensational. That, in a word, was Russian pianist Nikolai Lugansky’s debut April 5 with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and guest conductor Charles Dutoit. The tall, assured pianist – one could only think of the young Van Cliburn – made epic poetry of Rachmaninoff’s formidable Third Piano Concerto in a performance that probed a deep vein of lyricism and simply transcended technical issues. ****
