‘Scarcity’ at Redtwist: A down and out drama that’s a couple of beers short of a six pack

Review: The two kids are very bright, their jobless father is a contented drunk and their outwardly flinty mother coddles him. They, along with a couple of low-trajectory friends and a visionary young teacher new to the community, are the denizens of Lucy Thurber’s “Scarcity,” now in its Chicago premiere at Redtwist Theatre. ★★

‘Bakersfield Mist’ at TimeLine: Drizzled paint points to Pollock, but is this $3 find for real?

Review: Maude is middle-aged, recently fired from her job as a bar tender and living alone in a dumpy trailer decorated with other people’s discarded junk. But one such piece of refuse is a painting that could be an original Jackson Pollock. That’s the starting point of Stephen Sachs’ play “Bakersfield Mist,” a two-hander at TimeLine Theatre starring a pair of Chicago’s best actors, who between them cannot bring this half-baked drama to much purpose. ★★

Strawdog Theatre, ousted from its old home, opens with play about another loss: memory

Season Preview: The following is adapted from a news release submitted by an arts organization to Chicago On the Aisle.
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STRAWDOG THEATRE COMPANY PRESENTS THE WORLD PREMIERE OF JERRE DYE’S “DISTANCE” AUGUST 25 – OCTOBER 1

‘Wastwater’ at Steep: The human condition, warts and all, with an emphasis on the warts

Review: If the mirror held to up to our human lot by Simon Stephens’ play “Wastwater” fairly reflects what’s framed there, we’re not a very pretty collection. We may have our favorable features, but for the most part the image that emerges in “Wastwater,” about to wind up its run at Steep Theatre, is one of frailty, desperation and meanness. ★★★

Goodman Theatre announces weeklong Leonard Bernstein Celebration during revival of ‘Wonderful Town’

Report: As rehearsals of the 1953 musical “Wonderful Town” get underway at the Goodman under the direction of Mary Zimmerman, the Theatre announced free events surrounding Leonard Bernstein’s legendary show, which kicks off the 2016-17 season. Several film screenings are planned, and a class for the general public on conga line and swing dancing.

At the Goodman Theatre, Leonard Bernstein’s musical ‘Wonderful Town’ starts busy season

2016-17 SEASON PREVIEW: The following is adapted from a news release submitted by an arts organization to Chicago On the Aisle.
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Lauren Molina and Bri Sudia star as two sisters leaving Ohio in 1935 to conquer New York City in Bernstein’s “Wonderful Town.” Here’s the Goodman Theatre’s complete line-up…

Redtwist 2016-17: ‘Death of a Salesman,’ new works on theme ‘Home is where the HURT is’

2016-17 SEASON PREVIEW: The following is a news release written by an arts organization, submitted to Chicago On the Aisle.
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Redtwist Theatre is pleased to announce its 13th Season!
“Turtle,” a world premiere by Jake Jeppson, and Arthur Miller’s “Death of a Salesman” are in the mix.

City Lit announces a 2016-17 season of world premieres plus a seldom-seen comedy classic

This Just In: The following is a news release written by an arts organization, submitted to Chicago On the Aisle.——

Works by P.G. Wodehouse, Shirley Jackson and Dion Boucicault to be staged along with world premiere of Douglas Post’s “Forty-Two Stories”

‘The Scottsboro Boys’ at Raven: Wit, pathos and a vaudeville of justice for nine black kids

Review: With any luck, Raven Theatre will elect to have yet a third go, and soon, at Mark Stein’s remarkable play-with-music “Direct From Death Row: The Scottsboro Boys (An Evening of Vaudeville and Sorrow).” This brilliant and heartbreaking show, way out of the box and very funny, based on one of the most deplorable episodes in American social history, is must see theater. ★★★★★

In unvarnished look at ‘Merchant of Venice,’ there is little room for the quality of mercy

Review: In a tradition dating back to Shakespeare’s own time, “The Merchant of Venice,” which frames bitter hatred between Christians and Jews in a metropolis of a distant era, has been labeled as comedy. I doubt that anyone who sees the brutally frank Shakespeare’s Globe production now running at Chicago Shakespeare Theater will come away laughing. ★★★★★

‘War Paint’ at Goodman: Arden and Rubinstein clash in musical battle for cosmetic queenship

Review: To put – what is the phrase? – the best face on it, the new musical “War Paint,” now in its world premiere run at the Goodman Theatre, is a guilty pleasure, a gossip magazine yarn set to music and legitimized chiefly by the stellar performances of Patti LuPone and Christine Ebersole. ★★★

With a sharp-edged slice through ‘Company,’ Writers reaffirms the promise of its new home

Review: It has been only a half-season inauguration, this first series of plays in Writers Theatre’s splendid new building, but the finale, a sly and penetrating account of Stephen Sondheim’s musical “Company,” exemplifies how the main stage offers visitors an intimate, indeed an ideal, theatrical experience. ★★★★

Role Playing: Adam Bitterman, unlikely florist in ‘Seedbed,’ dug deep to create a rare bloom

Interview: Adam Bitterman’s earthy and lusty and sometimes unnerving performance as the improbable florist Mick, a middle-aged guy enamored of an 18-year-old girl in Bryan Delaney’s “The Seedbed” at Redtwist Theatre, defies you to take your eyes off him. But the veteran actor had his doubts about even taking on the prodigious part, and this elusive character who finds himself caught up in a family’s sordid conflict.

‘The Seedbed’ at Redtwist: Guy walks into bar, sees this beautiful young girl; guy’s, like, older

Review: Maggie and Mitch are so in love. She’s 18 and he could be, oh, three times her age. What’s wrong with this picture? That would depend on which of four perspectives you subscribe to in Redtwist Theatre’s excruciating take on Irish playwright Bryan Delaney’s “The Seedbed.” ★★★★

‘The SpongeBob Musical’ is deep-sea delight for kids, with a whale of a payoff for parents

Review: Ah, to be 10 years old again, and to take in “The SpongeBob Musical” in all its innocent, fanciful charm, its splendorous undersea-world colors, its goofy but (mostly) good-hearted characters. If you’re 10, the “pre-Broadway world premiere” of “SpongeBob” will for sure get five stars, or maybe starfish, like this: Starfish, Starfish, Starfish, Starfish, Starfish. In real stars: ★★★★

Summer 2016 at American Players Theatre: It’s high drama, comedy where ardor meets Arden

Preview: It’s like seeing Shakespeare in the Forest of Arden, this bucolic Wisconsin festival that bears the name of American Players Theatre. Set in the rolling hills of Spring Green, just west of Madison, American Players has been producing stellar – literally star-covered – theater every summer since 1980. This summer APT juxtaposes Shakespeare’s “The Comedy of Errors” with Carlyle Brown’s “The African Company Presents Richard III.” Those timely spirits are already in flight, with many more plays to come. Here’s an overview.

Profiles Theatre, responding to abuse report, ceases operation, leaves website statement

Report: Profiles Theatre, the object of a far-reaching investigative report in the Chicago Reader alleging a culture of physical and psychological abuse by co-artistic director Darrell W. Cox, has ceased operations, according to a message posted on the company’s website.

‘Constellations’ at Steppenwolf: Of relativity, and the infinite outcomes of boy meets girl

Review: Life isn’t like a box of chocolates. It’s more like a roll of the dice, suggests playwright Nick Payne in his touching romance “Constellations,” now on crisp and credible view at Steppenwolf Theatre. In fact, viewed on the space-time continuum, the possibilities of life and love might be as variable as infinite throws of those ivory cubes. ★★★★

Hottest ticket in Chicago – ‘Hamilton’ single tickets to go onsale at last

This Just In: The following is a news release written by an arts organization, submitted to Chicago On the Aisle.
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“HAMILTON” SINGLE TICKETS GO ON SALE TO THE PUBLIC TUESDAY, JUNE 21 

PERFORMANCES BEGIN SEPTEMBER 27 AT THE PRIVATEBANK THEATRE Details …

‘Death of a Streetcar Named Virginia Woolf’: Angst, slow pizza and fast laughs at Writers

Review: Never mind the arcane title of the play, “Death of a Streetcar Named Virginia Woolf,” which, yes, seems familiar in a vaguely disconcerting way. You know you’re face to face with existential authenticity the moment Blanche Dubois’ voice drops an octave, plunging as if into a steamy bath of lurid sensuality. From there, it becomes a challenge for every viewer, a game of dicey drama and riotous laughter in the black box at the new Writers Theatre. ★★★★★

‘The Realization of Emily Linder’ at Redtwist: Mom’s ready for death, but not without toes

Review: Life, suggests Richard Strand’s play “The Realization of Emil Linder,” is like a stack of DVDs. What’s in it for you depends on how you look at it. That warm and fuzzy proposition, couched within dark comedy, makes for an amusing if fairly bizarre night out at Redtwist Theatre. ★★★

‘Jerusalem’ at Profiles: Retreating from life’s troubles in a camper, striking a careless pose

Review: He’s Peter Pan to a collection of lost boys in the Neverland of an English woods, the Wizard of Oz beguiling these Munchkins with an endless supply of drugs and booze and empty intimations that this is as good as a happy home gets. Meet Johnny “Rooster” Byron, detached soul and intractable, irreducible anti-hero of Jez Butterworth’s play “Jerusalem.” His wholly credible embodiment by Darrell W. Cox at Profiles Theatre stands among the high points of the Chicago season. ★★★★

‘Mary Page Marlowe’ at Steppenwolf: In Letts’ new play, woman adrift searches for an anchor

Review: It was a happy announcement for a theater company, but happier still for any theater buff within driving distance of Chicago: Steppenwolf’s decision to extend the run of Tracy Letts’ psychologically incisive and finely crafted new play “Mary Page Marlowe.” This brilliant existential portrait of a woman out of touch with herself, lost to the world, and seemingly condemned to her lot from birth, bears a qualitative stamp worthy of “August: Osage County,” which brought Letts the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. ★★★★★

Role Playing: Danny McCarthy, pushing broom in ‘The Flick,’ finds vital pulse in long silences

Interview: Danny McCarthy calls it a sweeping-dance, the closely choreographed stretches of, well, sweeping that often – and silently – occupy the two men at the center of Annie Baker’s play “The Flick,” winner of the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, at Steppenwolf Theatre. “Actually, you try to stay mentally active while you’re out there,” says McCarthy, who plays Sam, a quiet man in his mid-thirties who works on the cleanup crew at a small movie house, clearing away the night’s detritus, and grapples with the haunting malaise in his life.

‘The King and I’ at Lyric Opera: Royal treat, princely delight, courtly jewel, etc., etc., etc.

Review: Even amid the multi-year run of successes the Lyric Opera of Chicago has enjoyed in its annual spring offerings of great American musicals, the current production of Rogers and Hammerstein’s “The King and I” is exceptional, a theatrical experience as visually and musically resplendent as it is emotionally true. ★★★★★

In ‘Bullets Over Broadway,’ that rat-a-tat-tat could be tommy gun or sound of tap shoes

Interview: Cheech is just a garden variety thug, a gangster, a hit man – who proves to be the creative genius behind a hapless playwright in the musical “Bullets Over Broadway.” And Jeffrey Brooks, who plays this heavy with the fine dramatic touch, says Cheech is also “the most real character of them all, the one with the most heart.”

‘Arcadia’ at Writers: Stoppard’s fine-spun play proves ideal opener for Glencoe’s new house

Review: If a play, off the shelf as it were, could be tailor-made for the unveiling of a distinctive new theater, Tom Stoppard’s “Arcadia,” an intellectual romp with a touch of tragedy, is the perfect inaugural raiment for Writers’ splendid new home in Glencoe. ★★★★★

Court 2016-17 brings world premiere of ‘Man in the Ring’ and new Stoppard for Chicago

This Just In: The following is a news release written by an arts organization, submitted to Chicago On the Aisle.
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COURT THEATRE ANNOUNCES 62nd SEASON
COURT THEATRE’S 2016/17 SEASON WILL FEATURE THE WORLD PREMIERE OF MICHAEL CRISTOFER’S …

Joffrey’s ‘Nutcracker’ to gird Christopher Wheeldon with Broadway-savvy team

This Just In: The following is a news release written by an arts organization, submitted to Chicago On the Aisle.
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THE JOFFREY BALLET ANNOUNCES AWARD-WINNING ARTISTIC TEAM FOR THE WORLD PREMIERE OF CHRISTOPHER WHEELDON’S THE NUTCRACKER
Artistic …

April highlights around Shakespeare’s birthday and anniversary of his death April 23

This Just In: The following is a news release written by an arts organization, submitted to Chicago On the Aisle.
Chicago–March 24, 2016–All eyes are on Shakespeare in 2016 as the world celebrates 400 years of …