ALLIANCE FRANÇAISE

by Rachel Weinberg - May 15, 2025

Jordan Harrison’s new play THE ANTIQUITIES asks the question, “What does it mean to be human?” It opens with two museum curators inviting the audience to tour a museum displaying relics from the late human era...with the implication that said place exists in a post-human one. This is the first play ...

by Tina St. Angelo Wetzel - May 11, 2025

The newest production – and it is new in every way – at the Paramount Theatre in Aurora is Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cats. Director Trent Stork and a cast of 31 will leave you breathless with this new interpretation....

by Zac Thriffiley - May 07, 2025

Chicago Shakespeare Theater’s all-Chicago production of Lolita Chakrabarti’s HYMN is beautifully performed, but the script never quite delivers on the thematic complexity promised by the play’s premise....

by Rachel Weinberg - April 29, 2025

Zora Howard’s BUST: AN AFROCURRENTIST PLAY opens with a mystery. In Huntsville, Alabama, Retta (Caroline Stefanie Clay) and Reggie (Ray Anthony Thomas) witness an all too familiar interaction between their friend Randy (Keith Randolph Smith) and two police officers — Tomlin (Mark Bedard) and Ramirez...

by Tina St. Angelo Wetzel - April 26, 2025

The beginning of Puck’s final monologue in William Shakespeare’s much loved and performed A Midsummer Night’s Dream. This is the current production being performed at BrightSide Theatre in Naperville....

by Tina St. Angelo Wetzel - April 24, 2025

These are lyrics from the song The Blame sung by Captain E.J. Smith, J. Bruce Ismay the owner and Thomas Andrews the ship designer. The ship? The Titanic. The current production at Marriott Theatre is Titanic the Musical. David Girolmo portrays the Captain, Adam Pelty is the owner and Christopher Ka...

by Rachel Weinberg - April 18, 2025

Now in its Chicago-area premiere, Joshua Harmon’s Tony-nominated sprawling and ambitious PRAYER FOR THE FRENCH REPUBLIC is a searing and inquisitive look at contemporary Judaism and anti-Semitism....

by Rachel Weinberg - April 07, 2025

I usually appreciate when plays show and don’t tell, but THE BOOK OF GRACE really needs more exposition. Directed by Steve H. Broadnax III. Steppenwolf’s production is a new version of Parks’s 2010 play, expanded from its original 100-minute run-time to two and a half hours. Even with the extra run ...

by Rachel Weinberg - April 04, 2025

Near, far, wherever you are…you need to see TITANIQUE if you love musicals and parody. Porchlight Music Theatre’s production, presented in partnership with Broadway In Chicago, easily passes the Marie Kondo test: This show sparks immense joy....

by Rachel Weinberg - March 30, 2025

If you enjoy the music of The Kinks, you’ll enjoy SUNNY AFTERNOON....