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Articles tagged with: Tim Ryder

Second City and Lyric Opera send up Wagner with ‘Longer, Louder’ (funnier) take on ‘Ring’

Oct 28, 2016 – 2:58 pm
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Review: The setting is Transylvania. Oh, wait a minute. I mean Schaumburg, and Bayreuth. I was confusing “Longer, Louder Wagner!,” the wild and crazy Second City-Lyric Opera of Chicago send-up of Wagner’s “Ring” operas, with the Mel Brooks-Gene Wilder film “Young Frankenstein.” Silly me. And yet…he is alive! ★★★

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

May 30, 2016 – 6:41 pm
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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. ★★★★★