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.
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Profiles’ ‘Sweet and Sad’ laces remembrance of 9/11 into a family’s tangle of joy and grief
Review: ★★★★
Chicago Opera’s stage magic is a bit rough, but fine singing delivers a charming ‘Flute’
Review: The Chicago Opera Theater production of Mozart’s “The Magic Flute” leaves one with two distinct impressions. For the most part, its young cast sings with stylistic savvy, fetching beauty and engaging spirit – all shaped with unfailing sensibility by conductor Steuart Bedford.★★★
CSO resident composer Mason Bates receives $250,000 Heinz award in arts and humanities
He receives prize Oct. 11 in Pittsburgh.
Chicago angels boost young actors with gift of training at Stratford Shakespeare Festival
Dorcas Sowunmi succeeds E.B. Smith.
The New Season: ‘Sweet Bird’ lifts Goodman into a lineup feathered with 3 world premieres
13th in a series of season previews: Three world premieres punctuate an ambitious slate of nine productions at the Goodman Theatre in the coming season. Two other shows are Chicago premieres. The red-letter lineup begins with Tennessee Williams’ “Sweet Bird of Youth,” following up on last season’s high-profile account of Williams’ “Camino Real.”
The New Season: Northlight’s latest adventure caroms from Guthrie’s America to a lonely bar
12th in a series of season previews: Northlight Theatre director BJ Jones prides himself on leading patrons down far-ranging highways and byways, to places that may feel familiar and comfortable – and other destinations a long way from Kansas. The company’s 2012-13 season of five plays covers just such a map, from Ireland and the Civil War-torn South to Woody Guthrie’s vision of America and a world premiere in a shared orbit of loneliness.
The New Season: Tested Remy Bumppo gets Albee’s blessing to stage surreal ‘Seascape’
11th in a series of season previews: When Remy Bumppo Theatre was a fledgling enterprise, 16 seasons ago, founding artistic director James Bohnen sought permission from Edward Albee to stage his “Seascape,” a back-to-the-future study in marriage as an evolving proposition. Albee turned down the untried company – which makes the playwright’s newly bestowed approval all the sweeter.
Role Playing: James Ridge thrives in cold skin of Shakespeare’s smiling serpent, Richard III
Interview: He’s the very devil in the guise of a cherub, this smiling and murderous Richard III embodied by James Ridge in the American Players Theatre production of Shakespeare’s royal tragedy. Ridge’s duplicitous Richard echoes Lady Macbeth’s cold counsel to Macbeth in his own bloody quest for a crown: “Look like the innocent flower, but be the serpent under’t.”
Chicago Opera picks another Queen for ‘Flute’ after visa flap dethrones new Irish sensation
Even queens get caught in red tape.
The New Season: Revised ‘Hair’ in the wings, ATC adds radio ‘Wizard’ to ‘Wonderful Life’
Tenth in a series of season previews: Without a doubt, American Theater Co. has found wonderful life in the concept of repertory presentation of related plays. So for its 28th season, ATC will double down on the idea by pairing John Patrick Shanley’s “Doubt” with John Peilmeier’s “Agnes of God” and combining its traditional radio-play staging of “It’s a Wonderful Life” with “The Wizard of Oz.”
The New Season: Adaptable Lifeline Theatre reshapes three novels into stage premieres
Ninth in a series of season previews: In a sense, Lifeline Theatre’s 30th anniversary season will be a year like any other year. The difference with Lifeline is that business as usual means a full slate of world premieres.
The New Season: To be or not to be (truthful) proves question of the year at Writers’ Theatre
Eighth in a series of season previews: Words, words, words. Are they the stuff of truth or the fabric of prevarication? Writers’ Theatre will bookend its 2012-13 season with both possibilities, swinging the spotlight from Shakespeare’s Hamlet in his quest for veracity to Corneille’s feigning manipulator in “The Liar.”
The New Season: Court Theatre maps journey from Wilson’s ‘Jitney’ to a Molière bonanza
Seventh in a series of season previews: What begins in September as an ambitious and far-flung season at Court Theatre, with August Wilson’s “Jitney,” ends next spring with nothing less than a prodigious Molière double-header, back to back productions of “The Misanthrope” and “Tartuffe.”
The New Season: Raven Theatre cuts fresh loaf of Americana with Odets’ ‘Big Knife’
Sixth in a series of season previews: Technically, it may not be a Chicago premiere, but Clifford Odets’ “The Big Knife,” which opens Raven Theatre’s 30th anniversary season, would be a rarity on any stage and artistic director Michael Menendian is eager to revive this sober tale of glitzy Hollywood’s dark side.
The New Season: Modern retelling of Iphigenia legend will raise the curtain for Next Theatre
Fifth in a series of season previews: The Chicago theater community has become good at Really Old Tales Retold, especially the ancient Greek myths and legends. Evanston’s Next Theatre opens its 2012-13 season with Charles Mee’s “Iphigenia 2.0,” about a king who plans to sacrifice his daughter so the gods will allow his fleet of war ships to set sail for Troy.
The New Season: Re-energized and refocused, American Blues Theater opens with a premiere
Fourth in a series of season previews: The world premiere of James Still’s “Illegal Use of Hands” kicks off American Blues Theater’s 2012-13 season, which marks both the company’s 27th year on the Chicago scene and, in its reconstituted form, its fourth.
The New Season: It isn’t pizza in Porchlight’s oven, but well-spiced musicals Chicago-style
Third in a series of season previews: A rethought, more visceral Porchlight Music Theatre rolls out its 18th season with two Chicago premieres to be followed by a searing portrait of the faded Billie Holiday and “Pal Joey,” Rodgers and Hart’s anti-hero driven drama on the dark side of the human comedy.
The New Season: Stark Vietnam prison drama, Beethoven riddle define spectrum at TimeLine
Second in a series of season previews: Playwright Susan Felder’s “Wasteland,” a world premiere about two American G.I.’s imprisoned in Vietnam isolation, plus three Chicago premieres make up TimeLine’s 2012-13 schedule; season opens Aug. 24 with a musical riddle.
The New Season: Teaming with Neil LaBute, Profiles readies 24th year on the gritty fringe
First in a series of season previews: Profiles Theatre will open its 24th season Aug. 24 with playwright Neil LaBute officially inducted into the family, a second performing space in use and a new mantra that crystalizes the company’s founding philosophy: “Whatever the truth requires.”
Ravinia favorite Misha Dichter’s double life revealed: The pianist’s a serious cartoonist
Report: Pianist Misha Dichter, who celebrates his 45th consecutive season with the Ravinia Festival on July 29, shares his passion for sketching in a new e-book.
Shakespeare to hit the Chicago parks as CST presents free tour of ‘Taming of the Shrew’
Short “Shrew” in 11 neighborhoods.
‘42nd Street’ at Stratford: By any other name, this musical rose would still be just as sweet
Broadway’s tap classic. 4 stars!
Stratford Shakespeare Festival’s 2013 season will restore focus on the Bard, classic drama
“Romeo” and “Othello” top the list.
‘Richard III’ looses a venomous schemer on summer stage of American Players Theatre
A snake in the palace. 4 stars!
Free outdoor simulcast of Paris Opéra Ballet proves Harris Theater, Pritzker dynamic duo
Review: The best antidote to Chicago temperatures in the nineties is this surpassingly cool prospect — free Millennium Park concerts at the Jay Pritzker Pavilion, where the sound is superb and the ceiling’s a canopy of stars. Cooler still was the addition of big screen video to this outdoor mix that a huge crowd enjoyed June 27, when the Paris Opéra Ballet’s exquisite production of “Giselle” was projected live via the big screen, from inside the Harris Theater, to the traditional classical-loving audience of the Grant Park Orchestra. ****
Cirque du Soleil’s East-West revue ‘Dralion’ offers high-flying thrills and fantastic critters
Review: The place where Olympian gymnastics meet the ballet is known the world over as Cirque du Soleil, an impression that’s only redoubled by the company’s latest eye-popping production, called “Dralion.” There may not be any elephants in Cirque’s new show, but the entertainment value is pachydermic. ****
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