For playwright Oscar Speace, Janka is a very personal production.  Produced by Roust Theatre Company, it regards his mother, a survivor of the Holocaust, and the trials she endured in order to give him and his brother the opportunities she herself wa …Read more

It’s not exactly a logically sound rule of thumb to have, but whenever I see an overly pep filled person, I immediately assume they’ve got some severed limbs buried somewhere in their backyard. Never trust happy people! There’s always something hidin …Read more

Thank heaven for Heidi Thomas; her revised book of Gigi provided the chauvinistic Lerner/Loewe musical with a much needed push into the 21st century, while preserving the frothiness that made it a delight for past generations. Thomas’ book had been a …Read more

Daily Life Everlasting isn’t so much a play as a collage of dance, spoken word and physical theatre. Some of it is absolutely thrilling, like a blow-out dance party complete with strobe lights and people stripping down to their skivvies. It can also …Read more

Whenever there’s a non-traditional production of the Bard’s work, it’s hard to not comment on how universal the plays are, how the themes and stories are easily transportable to any space and time. When taking on Shakespeare’s text, anything goes. Ra …Read more

Following the success of last year’s critically acclaimed hit Sex with Strangers, Laura Eason’s new play the Undeniable Sound of Right Now explores the intersection between young and old and the choice to move ahead the times or refuse to change. Sin …Read more

For a play that features three vets dealing with issues ranging from PTSD to sexual assault, Rehana Lew Mirza’s Soldier X is surprisingly buoyant. It begins with recent recruit Lieutenant Monica Burnes trying to get veteran Lance Corporal Lynn Downey …Read more

“Life upon the wicked stage ain’t ever what a girl supposes,” Oscar Hammerstein II famously noted. Now French playwright Jean-Luc Lagarce concurs. Lagarce’s play Music Hall (mounted by TUTA Theatre Chicago at 59E59 Theaters in a version translated by …Read more

Now more than ever, the relationship between men and women threatens to explode into an all out war. Thankfully Robert Dubac still feels that we should be able to laugh at the flaws both sexes carry with them. Produced by Urban Stages and running in …Read more

Does the truth really hurt, or does it make you laugh? As Robert Dubac illustrates in his one-man show The Book of Moron, presented by Urban Stages, the answer is a bit of both. Not to be confused with the similarly titled musical – “If you came here …Read more