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Articles by Lori Lee

Agony and ecstasy of jazz icon Billie Holiday all in night’s work for ‘Lady Day’ star Rogers

Feb 3, 2013 – 6:53 pm
Porchlight's Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grille stars Alexis J. Rogers - photo by Kelsey Jorissen

Preview: Singer-actress Alexis Rogers thinks of herself as cut from the same cloth as the great jazz vocalist Billie Holiday – a spunky, lively, laughing spirit, and someone who doesn’t mince words. That’s the briefly resurgent Billie Holiday, heroin-addicted and near the end of her life, embodied by Rogers in Lanie Robertson’s musical bio-drama “Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill” for Porchlight Music Theatre.

CSO in Asia: Without fanfare, musicians give gifts of art and joy; see themselves richer

Feb 1, 2013 – 2:39 pm
CSO-Principal-trumpet-Chris-Martin-lets-a-young-audience-member-play-a-tune-on-his-trumpet-credit-Todd-Rosenberg

Report: Halfway into the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s Asia tour, trombonist Michael Mulcahy was reflecting on a little concert he and four colleagues played for some children back in Taipei. Without hesitating a sixteenth note, Mulcahy declared that encounter with the kids and their parents, no more than 150 people, “the most magnificent thing that has happened to me on this trip.”

Brent Barrett, sporting pirate hat and sneer, gets his Hook into the fantasy of ‘Peter Pan’

Jan 26, 2013 – 1:27 pm
Brent Barrett as Captain Hook in Peter Pan on tour at Cadillac Palace Theatre Broadway in Chicago 2013

Preview: Brent Barrett calls his latest stage fling, as Captain Hook in the national touring company of “Peter Pan,” a 180-degree turn from his most recent starring role in Chicago – the wealthy but world-weary Ben in Stephen Sondheim’s “Follies” at Chicago Shakespeare Theater. The “Peter Pan” run, with veteran Cathy Rigby in the title role, has been a blast, he says, a Broadway broadside: the furthest thing from walking the plank.

‘Skylight’ at Court: In a battle of the sexes, slings and arrows and words, words, words

Jan 23, 2013 – 3:37 pm
Laura Rook as Kyra and Philip Earl Johnson as Tom in Skylight by David Hare directed by William Brown at Court Theatre 2013 credit Michael Brosilow

Review: ★★★★

‘Purple Heart’ revealed as a bruised condition in Redtwist revival of Norris’ off-beat drama

Jan 19, 2013 – 6:34 pm
KC-Karen-Hill-as-Carla-and-Kathleen-Ruhl-as-Grace-in-Purple-Heart-by-Bruce-Norris-at-Redtwist-Theatre-2013-credit-Jan-Ellen-Graves

Review: ★★★