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The Chicago Reader

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Arts & Culture, Performing Arts Feature Dec 18, 2020
The onstage season was short, but there was plenty of drama in 2020

Getting back to normal isn't going to happen. And in many ways, it shouldn't.
- By Kerry Reid
- Tags: Performing Arts Feature, Year in Review 2020, 2020 Theater, Theater Wit, Teenage Dick, Mike Lew, Brian Balcom, MacGregor Arney, We See You W.A.T., Miranda Gonzalez, UrbanTheater Company, Donterrio Johnson, David Zak, Pride Films and Plays, Victory Gardens, Erica Daniels, Chay Yew, Flea Theater, Second

Arts & Culture, Performing Arts Feature Mar 27, 2020
All your home's a stage

The best online options for enjoying theater from local, national, and international companies
- By Kerry Reid
- Tags: Performing Arts Feature, Neo-Futurists, Theater Wit, 16th Street Theater, Goodman Theatre, Albany Park Theater Project, Otherworld Theatre, The Magic Parlour, Catastrophic Theatre, National Theatre, Schaubühne, Mike Lew, Steven Strafford, Mickle Maher

Arts & Culture, Performing Arts Feature Mar 25, 2020
COVID-19 has Chicago theater down, but not out

Here's a reminder of what the theater community has done in the last five years.
- By Almanya Narula
- Tags: Performing Arts Feature, Brian Balcom, Chicago Inclusion Project, Chicago Shakespeare, coronavirus, COVID-19, David Wooley, Emjoy Gavino, Lili-Anne Brown, Profiles Theatre, Tara Branham, Teenage Dick, Theater Wit, Wardell Julius Clark

Arts & Culture, Theater Review Mar 20, 2020
Recommended
Teenage Dick livestreams Shakespeare by way of high school

Theater Wit's production about a disabled schemer carries on online.
- By Kerry Reid
- Tags: Theater Review, Teenage Dick, Theater Wit, Streaming Events, Mike Lew, Brian Balcom, Jeremy Wechsler, MacGregor Arney, Tamara Rozofsky, Liz Cloud, Ty Fanning, Kathleen Niemann, Courtney Rikki Green, Sotirios Livaditis, Jake Ganzer, Stella Young, Mark Zupran, Recommended

Columns & Opinion, On Culture Mar 18, 2020
Nothing next to normal

As the curtain falls on live performance, museums and performing arts groups scramble to adapt online.
- By Deanna Isaacs
- Tags: On Culture, Art Institute of Chicago, Cabinet of Curiosity, coronavirus, COVID-19, Farewell Fables, Frank Maugeri, J.B. Pritzker, Jeremy Wechsler, Kati Murphy, Lyric Opera, On Culture, Ring Cycle, Teenage Dick, Theater Wit

Columns & Opinion, On Culture Jul 10, 2019
A dramatic confrontation between the right-wing political group #WalkAway and Theater Wit ends up on YouTube

Does a venue have the right to cancel an event if it objects to a client’s rhetoric?
- By Deanna Isaacs
- Tags: On Culture, #WalkAway Campaign, Theater Wit, hate speech, Jeremy Wechsler, Brandon Straka, Donald Trump Jr., Alex Jones, Log Cabin Republicans, Libby Albert, Mike Harlow, Blaire White, Josh Nordmark, Melissa Robey, Manny Alicandro, YouTube, City Hall bar

Arts & Culture, Theater Review Apr 11, 2019
Recommended
Admissions is a searing indictment of the white liberal elite

Race is just a trading card.
- By Irene Hsiao
- Tags: Theater Review, Admissions, Theater Wit, Joshua Harmon, Meighan Gerachis, Judi Schindler, India Whiteside, college admissions, Recommended

Arts & Culture, Theater Review Jan 31, 2019
The Realistic Joneses face the existential dread of suburbia

Playwright Will Eno establishes himself as the Beckett of the backyard.
- By Justin Hayford
- Tags: Theater Review, The Realistic Joneses, Shattered Globe Theater, Theater Wit, Will Eno, Jeremy Wechsler, H.B. Ward, Samuel Beckett, suburbia

Arts & Culture, Theater Review Nov 8, 2018
The romantic leads fail to heat up anywhere close to 110 in the Shade

Still, BoHo Theatre's production is earnest and likable.
- By Albert Williams
- Tags: Theater Review, 110 in the Shade, Boho Theatre, Theater Wit, The Rainmaer, N. Richard Nash, Tom Jones, Lizzie Curry, Harvey Schmidt, Bill Starbuck, Peter Marston Sullivan, Neala Barron, Tommy Thurston, Denzel Tsopnang

Arts & Culture, Theater Review Oct 24, 2018
Recommended
Remy Bumppo builds a stunning new Frankenstein

There's not even a hint of Boris Karloff.
- By Dmitry Samarov
- Tags: Theater Review, Frakenstein, Remy Bummpo Theatre Company, Mary Shelley, Nick Dear, Greg Matthew Anderson, Boris Karloff, Nick Sandys, Ian Frank, Theater Wit, Recommended

Arts & Culture, Theater Review Oct 11, 2018
Recommended
The passion is in the music in Patience and Sarah

Third Eye Ensemble tells the incredibly true adventure of two early American girls in love.
- By Albert Williams
- Tags: Theater Review, Patience and Sarah, Third Eye Theatre Ensemble, Theater Wit, Alma Routsong, Isabel Miller, Paula M. Kimper, Wende Persons, Lincoln Center, Connecticut, pioneer, lesbian, Diana Stoic, Liana Gineitis, Alexandra Enyart, Recommended

Arts & Culture, Theater Review Sep 13, 2018
Shattered Globe's Crime and Punishment plays out like a psychopath's TED talk

Mimed commentary detracts from the story at hand.
- By Dan Jakes
- Tags: Theater Review, Crime and Punishment, Shattered Globe Theatre, Theater Wit, Chris Hannan, TED Talk, Darren Jones, Patrick Thornton

Blogs, Bleader Jun 18, 2018
Guards at the Taj at Steppenwolf and more of the best things to do in Chicago this week

Burnham's Dream: The White City and more goings-on 6/18-6/21.
- By Katie Powers
- Tags: Arts, Do This, Things to do, Things to do in Chicago, Upgrade, Broken Shadows, Burnham's Dream: The White City, Pink Navel, Guards at the Taj, Indigenous, Nossa Chape, Theater Wit, Steppenwolf, Born on the Stairs, Bourbon on Division, Leigh Wannell, City Winery, Subterranean

Arts & Culture, Theater Review Jun 14, 2018
There's no devil in Burnham's Dream: The White City, only music

Ragtime! Waltzes! World's Fair architecture!
- By Albert Williams
- Tags: Theater Review, june finfer, elizabeth doyle, 1893 World's Columbian Exposition, burnham's dream, the white city, jackson park, daniel burnham, louis sullivan, ida b wells, Gilded Age Chicago, theater wit, ned rorem, samuel barber, John Wellborn Root

Blogs, Bleader Jun 11, 2018
The play Bull in a China Shop and more of the best things to do in Chicago this week

The African Diaspora Film Festival and more goings-on 6/11-6/14.
- By Katie Powers
- Tags: Arts, Do This, Music, Film, First Reformed, Samuel Blaser, Ashley Monroe, Bull in a China Shop, Paul Schrader, Theater Wit, SPACE, Hungry Brain, bull in a china shop, neverwhere, lifeline, the emperor's nightingale, facets, African Diaspora Film Festival

Arts & Culture, Theater Review Jun 7, 2018
Recommended
Two badass early 20th-century feminists shatter convention like a Bull in a China Shop

Meet the indomitable Mary Emma Woolley and Jeannette Marks.
- By Marissa Oberlander
- Tags: Theater Review, about face theatre, bull in a china shop, theater wit, Bryna Turner, Mary Emma Woolley, Jeannette Marks, Mount Holyoke College, Kelli Simpkins, Emjoy Gavino, Aurora Adachi-Winter, Recommended

Film, Movie Feature Jun 7, 2018
Uncle Fun, the beloved Lakeview novelty shop, gets its own documentary

Director Laura Scruggs pays tribute to shop owner Ted Frankel with Uncle Fun: You’re the One.
- By Steve Heisler
- Tags: Movie Feature, Uncle Fun You’re the One, Ted Frankel, Laura Scruggs, Chicago Filmmakers, Jake Scruggs, American Visionary Art Museum, Goodies, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Bailiwick Repertory Theatre, Theater Wit, Kinder Odyssey, Maine-Niles Association of Spec

Arts & Culture, Theater Review May 3, 2018
An unlikely friendship develops in How to Use a Knife

A dishwasher with a mysterious past flaunts his skills with a blade.
- By Albert Williams
- Tags: Theater Review, how to use a knife, theater wit, will snider, theater review, lower manhattan, financial district, east africa, rwandan, National New Play Network, Shattered Globe Theatre, Dillon Kelleher, Sandy Shinner, Jeff Bauer, Peter DeFaria, Anthony Irons, Victor Mara, dennis garcia, Michelle Bester, Brad Woodard

Arts & Culture, Performing Arts Feature Dec 21, 2017
Thirteen holiday shows that will delight (or disgust or bore or just entertain) you

Hell in a Handbag's 20th annual production of Rudolph the Red-Hosed Reindeer is among the yuletide highlights.
- Tags: Performing Arts Feature, Barney the Elf, the Other Theatre Company, Dixie Lynn Cartwright, Roy Samra, Christmas Bingo: It's a Ho-Ho-Holy Night, Late Nite Catechism, Vicki Quade, Nuns 4 Fun Entertainment, Royal George Theatre, A Christmas Carol, Goodman Theatre, Henry Wishcamper, Tom Creamer, Larry Yando, Charles Dickens, The Christmas Schooner, Mercury Theatre, John Reeger, Julie Shannon, L. Walter Stearns, Hellcab, the Agency Theater Collective, Will Kern, Rusty Schwimmer, Profiles Theatre, American Blues Theater, It's a Wonderful Life: Live in Chicago!, It's a Wonderful Life, Frank Capra, Bedford Falls, Gwendolyn Whiteside, Camille Robinson, John Mohrlein, Michael Mahler, The Nutcracker, E.T.A. Hoffmann, the House Theatre of Chicago, Haley Seda, Chris Matthews, Q Brothers Christmas Carol, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Hell in a Handbag Productions, David Cerda, Rudolph the Red-Hosed Reindeer, Michael Jack Hampton, Terry McCarthy, Graham Thomas Heacock, Kristoffer Bottrall, Black Ensemble Theatre, Sammy: A Tribute to Sammy Davis Jr., Daryl D. Brooks, Kenny Davis, This Way Outta Santaland (and Other Xmas Miracles), Theater Wit, Mitchell Fain, The Santaland Diaries, David Sedaris, Meghan Murphy, Yippe Ki-Yay Merry Christmas: A Die Hard Christmas Musical, MCL, Die Hard, Alan Metoskie, Michael Shepherd Jordan, Gary Fields, The Customer Is Always Right? Holiday Edition, the Annoyance, improv

Blogs, Bleader May 5, 2017
Chicago Zine Fest, Obscura Day 2017, and more things to do in Chicago this weekend

Nasty Women Art Chicago, Osama Alomar, and more happenings from May 5-7.
- By Brianna Wellen
- Tags: Arts, Do This, Nasty Women Art Chicago, Moonlight Studios, VHS Comedy, North Bar, Chicago Zine Fest, Co-Prosperity Sphere, Plumbers Union Hall, Anarchy, Ascendence Dance Chicago, Theater Wit, Obscura Day 2017, Atlas Obscura, Democracy Now, Amy Goodman, Women & Children First, Heaven Gallery, Universal Love, Osama Alomar, Seminary Co-op, Laura Marling, Metro, Character Assassination, Laugh Factory

Arts & Culture, Theater Review Mar 22, 2017
Theater Wit’s 10 Out of 12 isn’t about keeping us on the edge of our seats

Anne Washburn’s behind-the-scenes play re-creates the drudgery of a tech rehearsal.
- By Tony Adler
- Tags: Theater Review, 10 Out of 12, Theater Wit, Anne Washburn, Mr. Burns, a Post-Electric Play, The Simpsons, Cape Feare, Jeremy Wechsler, Martha Lavey, Peter Sagal, John Mahoney, Riley McIlveen, Shane Kenyon, Christine Vrem-Ydstie, Gregory Fenner, Stephen Walker, Dado, Adam Veness, Diane Fairchild

Arts & Culture, Performing Arts Feature Dec 21, 2016
2016 in theater was wildly convulsive on- and offstage

Controversies over abuse, alleged druggings, and “whitewashing” roiled even as Shakespeare 400 Chicago soared.
- By Tony Adler
- Tags: Performing Arts Feature, Profiles Theatre, Darrell Cox, Joe Jahraus, Aimee Levitt, Christopher Piatt, Brianna Wellen, Peter Kim, Chicago magazine, Second City E.T.C., Second City, Porchlight Music Theatre, Usnavi, Lin-Manuel Miranda, In the Heights, Hamilton, Victory Gardens Theater, ALTA, Alliance of Latinx Theater Artists of Chicago, Actors' Equity, Women in Comedy, Not in Our House, Theater Wit, Annus Mirabilis Award, Shakespeare 400 Chicago, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Company Theatre Mumbai, Piya Beharupiya, Twelfth Night, Hamlet, Belarus Free Theatre, King Lear, Alex Weisman, Hand to God, the Gift Theatre, Michael Patrick Thornton, Richard III, Rough House Theater, Ubu the King, puppetry, Year in Review 2016

Arts & Culture, Theater Review Sep 15, 2016
In the world of Naperville, you can go home again

Mat Smart's comic drama argues that there's plenty of life in the burbs.
- By Dan Jakes
- Tags: Theater Review, Naperville, Theater Wit, Mat Smart, suburbia, Caribou Coffee, Mike Tepeli, Abby Pierce, Charles Strater, Andrew Jessop, Jeremy Wechsler, Laura T. Fisher, Samuel J. and K., The 13th of Paris, Captain Joseph Naper

Arts & Culture, Performing Arts Feature Jun 30, 2016
Anon(ymous), Pygmalion, and seven more new theater reviews

A haunting show from the Cuckoo's Theater Project and George Bernard Shaw's classic are among this week's best bets.
- Tags: Performing Arts Feature, Anon(ymous), Naomi Iizuka, The Odyssey, The Cuckoo's Theater Project, Rocco Renda, Company, Writers Theatre, Stephen Sondheim, George Furth, Thom Miller, The Complete Works of Shakespeare (Abridged), Heartland Studio Theatre, Migdalia Cruz, Lolita de Lares, Marcela Muñoz, Urban Theater Company, Nick & Gabe: American Champions, Second City, My Fair Lady, Jason Gerace, Oak Park Festival Theatre, Pygmalion, George Bernard Shaw, This, Windy City Playhouse, Melissa James Gibson, The Unfortunates, Theater Wit, Aoise Stratford, Jack the Ripper, Gail Rastorfer, SoloChicago, The Woman Who Amuses Herself, Mona Lisa theft, Victor Lodato, Vincenzo Peruggia, Nathan Thompson, Idle Muse Theatre Company, Nathan Pease, Laura Wiley, La Gioconda, Kevin Theis, Amanda Drinkall

Arts & Culture, Feature Apr 27, 2016
Bullets Over Broadway, The Producers, MPAACT's Feral, and nine more new theater reviews

Two hit musical comedies and a drama examining the Chicago Police Department's "systemic racism" are among this week's best bets.
- Tags: Feature, Bullets Over Broadway, Woody Allen, PrivateBank Theatre, Susan Stroman, Michael Williams, Even Longer and Farther Away, Appalachian Trail, Chelsea Marcantel, Thrisa Hodits, The New Colony, Byhalia, Mississippi, Deanna Reed-Foster, Evita, Eva Perón, Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber, Che Guevara, Feral, Shepsu Aakhu, MPAACT, Black Lives Matter, Chicago Police Department, police shootings, Carla Stillwell, Victoria Allen, George C. Stalling, In the Heat of the Night, John Ball, Matt Pelfrey, Shattered Globe Theatre, Michael Stanfill, Theater Wit, Teatro Vista, In the Time of the Butterflies, Julia Alvarez, Rafael Trujillo, Maribal sisters, Ricardo Guitierrez, Uriel Gomez, Caridad Svich, Liviu Pasare, Victory Gardens Theater, The Lion in Winter, James Goldman, Katharine Hepburn, Peter O'Toole, Henry II, Eleanor of Aquitane, Brian Pastor, Promethean Theatre Ensemble, Athenaeum Theatre, Brian Parry, Elaine Carlson, Empire, Lucious and Cookie Lyon, Polarity Ensemble Theatre, Greenhouse Theater Center, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Shakespeare, Keith Cavanaugh, Laura Sturm, Ann Keen, The Producers, Mercury Theater, L. Walter Stearns, Mel Brooks, Bill Larkin, Matt Crowle, Allison Sill, ABLA Productions, A Splintered Soul, Alan Lester Brooks, Keira Fromm, Holocaust survivors, Red Theater, Redtwist Theatre, Benjamin Brand, Aaron Sawyer, Gage Wallace, Kevin V. Smith, cannibalism, Two Rooms, Honest Theatre, Fury Theatre, Lee Blessing, Chad Gilliland, hostage crisis

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