Review: Officially, conductor Riccardo Muti holds the distinction of music director emeritus for life with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. But after the 83-year-old maestro’s two-week season debut concerts at Orchestra Hall, it seems more apt to acknowledge him as the band’s artistic patriarch. When Muti’s on the podium, the CSO rises to its proper level. It glistens.
Read the full story »World premiere comedy by Tracy Letts among new works in Steppenwolf’s 2016-17 season
This Just In: The following is a news release written by an arts organization, submitted to Chicago On the Aisle.
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STEPPENWOLF THEATRE COMPANY ANNOUNCES 2016/17 SEASON
First Season Curated by Artistic Director Anna D. Shapiro Features Expanded …
Writers Theatre announces plans for 2016-17 – company’s first full season in new Studio Gang home
This Just In: The following is a news release written by an arts organization, submitted to Chicago On the Aisle.
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Writers Theatre announces 25th Anniversary Season — the company’s first full season in its new home …
Conductor Delta David Gier to step in for John Nelson March 11 at Chicago Bach Project
This Just In: The following is a news release written by an arts organization, submitted to Chicago On the Aisle.
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MAESTRO JOHN NELSON IS SUFFERING FROM PNEUMONIA, AND THIS PHYSICIANS HAVE ADVISED AGAINST AIR TRAVEL
GLEN ELLYN, …
Salonen, embracing history and the present, leads CSO anniversary concert to celebrate
Review: Conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen’s recent concerts with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra came as a multifaceted, indeed exhilarating reminder of the CSO’s grand legacy and at the same time pointed up the orchestra’s undiminished prowess as well as its still-rising arc of achievement.
Under Navy Pier’s tent, Chicago Shakespeare Theater expands for flexible family-friendly spectacles
News Release: Chicago Shakespeare Theater and Navy Pier announce partnership that will expand Chicago Shakespeare’s campus and establish a year-round cultural hub on Navy Pier
Baritone Hvorostovsky, in poignant recital, rewards ardent fans with profound singing
Review: The excitement surrounding Dmitri Hvorostovsky’s solo recital presented by the Lyric Opera of Chicago, on Feb. 26, was palpable even blocks away from the opera house, in an enormous din of anticipatory chatter in the parking garage elevator – much of it in Russian as that sizable Chicago community turned out in droves. The celebrated Siberian baritone did not disappoint.
‘Romeo and Juliet’ at Lyric Opera: Raising tragedy quotient in fusion of music, theater
Review: For the authentic meaning of music-drama, as an ideal melding of theater with the emotional accentuation of words buoyed by music, look no further than the Lyric Opera of Chicago’s riveting and vocally splendid production of Gounod’s “Romeo and Juliet.” ★★★★
‘The Flick’ at Steppenwolf: A double feature of illusions — or reel life vs. the digital option
Review: Annie Baker’s “The Flick,” at Steppenwolf Theatre, offers a clear-eyed meditation on friendship as it flowers and fades in the workplace, where strangers of different backgrounds grope toward a rhythm of working together and easing through their days, perhaps getting a little wiser in the process. ★★★★
Manfred Honeck steps in with CSO, tweaks program, delivers exhilarating ‘Pathétique’
Review: On Feb. 27, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra will observe the 120th anniversary of its founding with a celebratory concert under its present music director, Manfred Honeck. As patrons of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra have just witnessed, Honeck surely will give Pittsburgh reason for celebrations to come.
The Hypocrites wins $200k MacArthur Award for creativity and effectiveness
News Release: CHICAGO (February 18, 2016) – The Hypocrites today was awarded the prestigious MacArthur Award for Creative and Effective Institutions. The Award recognizes exceptional nonprofit organizations who have demonstrated creativity and impact, and invests in their long-term sustainability with sizable one-time grants. The Hypocrites will use the $200,000 that accompanies the Award to build a working capital reserve for the company and as seed capital for a variety of diversity initiatives.
American Theater Company names Will Davis as its new artistic director
This Just In: The following is a news release written by an arts organization, submitted to Chicago On the Aisle.
AMERICAN THEATER COMPANY NAMES WILL DAVIS ITS NEW ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
February 18, 2016 (CHICAGO, IL)—Following a six-month national …
Next season’s ‘Live in HD’ Met broadcasts continue at local cinemas through May 13
This Just In: The following is a news release written by an arts organization, submitted to Chicago On the Aisle.
THE METROPOLITAN OPERA’S 2016-17 SEASON, ITS 50TH ANNIVERSARY AT LINCOLN CENTER, WILL FEATURE 10 HD BROADCASTS …
Chicago Sinfonietta receives $625k grant for creativity, effectiveness
This Just In: The following is a news release written by an arts organization, submitted to Chicago On the Aisle.
CHICAGO SINFONIETTA RECEIVES MACARTHUR AWARD FOR CREATIVE AND, EFFECTIVE INSTITUTIONS
Chicago, Illinois, February 18, 2016 – Chicago …
Lookingglass Theatre receives $1 million MacArthur grant for creativity, effectiveness
This Just In: The following is a news release written by an arts organization, submitted to Chicago On the Aisle.
LOOKINGGLASS: RECIPIENT OF THE 2016 MACARTHUR AWARD FOR CREATIVE AND EFFECTIVE INSTITUTIONS
We’re honored to have been …
Timeline Theatre receives $625k MacArthur Award for creavity, effectiveness
This Just In: The following is a news release written by an arts organization, submitted to Chicago On the Aisle.
TIMELINE THEATRE COMPANY RECEIVES PRESTIGIOUS MACARTHUR AWARD FOR EXTRAORDINARY CREATIVITY AND EFFECTIVENESS
Chicago, IL — TimeLine Theatre Company …
Silk Road Rising probes life in Muslim society from the Far East to Middle East to America
Preview: Preview: The spirit of Chicago’s Silk Road Rising theater lies in its name, says artistic director Jamil Khoury. It’s about the global span of connectedness along the ancient corridor linking Middle Eastern desert peoples to the Far East, and the modern extension to life in America, Silk Road Rising opens its winter season Feb. 20 with the premiere of Ronnie Malley’s “Ziryab: The Songbird of Andalusia,” about a famed 9th-century musician.
‘Mothers and Sons’ at Northlight: Gay peace achieved, bitter mom presses her private war
Review: There is a quality, an esprit, about Terrence McNally’s “Mothers and Sons” that transcends mere affirmation of what one might characterize as gay normalcy. The play, now in a tightly knit and persuasive production directed by Steve Scott at Northlight Theatre, has a spiritually cleansing essence – and a resolute narrative that is nothing short of celebratory. ★★★
What good is sitting alone in your room? Willkommen to a beautiful, bleak ‘Cabaret’
Review: If there are two words not commonly associated with touring Broadway shows, they are daring and courageous. Both apply in stunning fashion to “Cabaret,” a not-to-be-missed experience presented by Broadway in Chicago at PrivateBank Theatre. ★★★★★
Broadway in Chicago rounds out 2016-17 season with ‘Hamilton,’ ‘Aladdin’
News Release: CHICAGO (Feb. 15, 2016) – Broadway In Chicago is thrilled to announce its next season lineup: the Broadway musical HAMILTON, the North American tour premiere of Disney’s ALADDIN, 2014 Tony Award®Winning Best Revival of a Musical HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH, the 2015 Tony Award®Winning Best Play THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHTTIME and THE BODYGUARD. The upcoming Season will go on sale to the public March 1, 2016.
Love with knife in heart or tongue in cheek, Valentine’s Day brings out kiss and scratch
Critic’s Pick: In a tribute to the downside of love, Chicago theaters send superb “anti-Valentines.” If you favor sarcastic greeting cards on the subject of romance, and aloof lyrics about love affairs “too hot not to cool down,” here are some shows that serve up the subject of love on Cupid’s big day with an appropriate grain of salt.
On large scale and small, Rozhdestvensky’s festive visit with CSO leaves fond memories
Review: As the Chicago Symphony Orchestra has no other festival planned for the current season, let us declare the past two weekends – two completely different but equally marvelous musical encounters — as Rozhdestvensky Fest. After leading his scheduled week of Shostakoivch concerts, the 84-year-old Russian conductor Gennady Rozhdestvensky took over for an ailing Riccardo Muti in a second, more intimate program.
‘Rosenkavalier’ at the Lyric: Fleeting youth meets ardent love on high plane of singing
Review: There was a palpable sense of past, present and future in the Civic Opera House on Feb. 8, when the Lyric Opera of Chicago presented Richard Strauss’ exquisite 1911 opera “Der Rosenkavalier,” his domestic comedy of love and loss in the Mozartean vein. The tale swirls around the gentle crisis of a beautiful but lonely Viennese countess who feels her youth slipping away, sung by Illinois soprano Amanda Majeski, a promising singer at the threshold of a significant career. ★★★★
‘The Drawer Boy’ at Redtwist: Tragedy buried in distant past, and a present unremembered
Review: Inevitable in every theater season is the sleeper play, the one you overlook: the curiously titled unknown quantity you don’t quite connect with as a lure from the hearth on a cold Thursday night. Such an unforeseeable beauty and memorable winner, a genuine sleeper, is Michael Healey’s “The Drawer Boy” at Redtwist Theatre. ★★★★
CHICAGO WINE JOURNAL: Gina Gallo signs pride of authorship on Cabernet Sauvignon
Tasting Report: The name Gallo may invoke a vast enterprise that produces a raft of wines under a great many labels. But the company also has another side, one more suggestive of a boutique operation, that offers a robust, complex Cabernet Sauvignon bearing the imprimatur of winemaker Gina Gallo.
‘King Lear’ spun as a parable of oppression when Belarusian troupe goes for dark farce
Review: What’s the first image that overtakes you when you think of Shakespeare’s “King Lear”? Perhaps the broken old man, carrying forth the dead body of his youngest daughter. Or the powerless king, cheering the all-shaking thunderstorm as he howls his rage. In the Belarus Free Theatre production on view at Chicago Shakespeare Theater, the unwavering focus is the insanity and chaos of life in the king’s repressive regime. ★★★
‘The Mutilated’ at A Red Orchid: Two lonely souls touched by Tennessee Williams’ grace
Review: Life, Tennessee Williams’ plays insist again and again, is a painful passage. Bitter, sweet, paradoxical, farcical. Never mind that other business about sound and fury and nothingness. Williams views the world through a lens of dark existential comedy, and it is on display in all its sad glory in A Red Orchid Theatre’s trenchant take on “The Mutilated.” ★★★★
To sub for ailing Muti, spry Russian Rozhdestvensky, 84, agrees to stick around
News Release: CHICAGO — Distinguished Russian conductor Gennady Rozhdestvensky, who is currently in Chicago to lead the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in performances of Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 1 & 15 this weekend February 5 & 6, has graciously agreed to remain with the Orchestra for an additional set of concerts on February 11, 12, 13 & 16. Rozhdestvensky steps in for CSO Music Director Riccardo Muti, who had to withdraw from his February concerts in Chicago due to recovery from a hip operation.
‘Sunset Baby’ at TimeLine: Empty past, sordid present, fragile dreams haunt crusader’s child
Review: Nina’s life is nowhere. She’s a twentysomething black girl with no real prospects, living in a dumpy apartment and attached – emotionally, financially, perhaps forcibly – to a tough but needy dude with great dreams and no solid plan. Then who should pop back into her tenuous world but her dad, she would say dad in name only, once a big player in the black power movement and recently released from prison. The old man wants something. Nina just wants him out. That’s the setup for Dominique Morisseau’s taut, gritty, redemptive play “Sunset Baby,” in a blistering account at TimeLine Theatre. ★★★★
Riccardo Muti, hip ailing, withdraws from February Chicago Symphony concerts
News Release: CHICAGO — CSO Music Director Riccardo Muti is unable to conduct his February concerts in Chicago due to recovery from a hip operation that was needed following a minor accident. The concert scheduled for February 19 at Holy Name Cathedral will be postponed with a new date to be announced. A guest conductor or conductors for the CSO’s performances February 11-20 will also be announced at a later date.
Snap, crackle and popcorn: Black Ensemble Theater to benefit from Garrett discounts thru February
This Just In: The following is from a news release written by an arts organization.
GARRETT POPCORN SHOPS® WILL DONATE 10% OF ALL FEBRUARY 2016 GOURMET TIN SALES TO BLACK ENSEMBLE THEATER
Black Ensemble Theater’s Greatest Hits …
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