By Colin Douglas Jackie Taylor, the amiable creative heart and soul of Chicago’s beloved Black Ensemble Theater, has declared 2020 as the company’s Season of Change. She opens with Legends the Musical: A Civil Rights Movement Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow, an original, ambitious musical battle cry, a movement against the injustice and bigotry that’s overtaking our
Reviews
The musical theatre reviews featured here are written by reviewers, not critics. These impressions and opinions are from individuals passionate about musical theatre and represent, in most cases, one observation of one performance. The primary purpose in publishing reviews is to help patrons decide whether a production is a good use of their time and entertainment budget. Our reviewers are also encouraged to creatively shine a light on particularly good work done onstage and backstage, understanding that successful productions happen because of the work of many. Finally, ChicagolandMusicalTheatre's reviewers are asked to walk into a show expecting enjoyable entertainment—because that's the mindset of patrons who buy tickets to professional theatre.
Onstage documentary of 1964 concert brings ‘Judy & Liza’ to Chicagoland in 2020
Through dialogue, both actors detail their fixations with their alter egos, but it’s when their singing becomes morphing that patrons feel true insight into Judy, Liza and their relationship with one another.
TUTA Theatre’s fiery punk ‘Hedda Gabler’ really does end with a bang
By Ian Rigg After a century of staid productions and the lens of modern social mores, it can be difficult to believe Henrik Ibsen’s work could ever be shocking. But sure enough, his premieres made audience members walk out. Call TUTA Theatre’s cool new adaptation Hedda and the Angry Ibs: in the spirit of Ibsen
Success! Paramount is the perfect place to premiere new musical based on beloved Michael J. Fox film
Multiple listenings (cast recording, Paramount?) will be required to capture all of the Mahler/Schmuckler genius. Songs like the opening “32 Hour Bus Ride,” “Pull It Off,” “Hidden Value” and the tender “Tie Your Shoes” are but one person’s favorites; each patron will certainly find his/her/their own.
Lyric’s ‘Queen of Spades’ is a well-sung, but unevenly staged night at the opera
By Bryson David Hoff Staging the supernatural is a tricky affair. While theatre-going members audience are willing to suspend their disbelief for a certain level of artifice, there is still a razor-thin line between being inventive and taking the viewer out of the immediacy of a scene. This is a line that Lyric’s production of
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