American Ballet Theatre schedule plays it safe

American Ballet Theatre, now celebrating its 70th anniversary, is headed back to Chicago, but it's taking few risks at the box office.

Backstage at the opera, in cinema-verite style

What Edgar Degas, that master of French Impressionism, did for the little "ballet rats" of the Paris Opera in the late 19th century, Frederick Wiseman, a master of American documentary filmmaking, has done for the radically different world of the same company in the early 21st century. In fact, he has done far more.

American Ballet Theatre schedule plays it safe

American Ballet Theatre, now celebrating its 70th anniversary, is headed back to Chicago, but it’s taking few risks at the box office.

'G.I.F.T.' should be returned to sender
Hedy Weiss: Collaboraction's heart might be in the right place with its new holiday season production, "G.I.F.T." But the company's art is woefully lacking. And not even the opportunity to explore the vast, empty, frosty recesses of its special performance space, Firehouse Square can justify a visit to the show.

Eclipse has a hoot over two centuries
Hedy Weiss: Playwright Romulus Linney wrote "Democracy" (based on an 1880 novel by Henry Adams) just in time for this country's bicentennial back in 1976. Set a century earlier, during the post-Civil War administration of President Ulysses S. Grant, the play deals with nearly all the matters that continue to bedevil us to this day.

3 choreographers' pieces almost in lockstep
Hedy Weiss: Choreographic style can be contagious. Consider the three pieces by three different dancemakers that comprised the program performed at the Auditorium Theatre this weekend by the bravura dancers of New York-based Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet. Had any one of them been on a more varied program it would have been astonishing.

An 'Addams Family' musical by the numbers
Hedy Weiss: Many years in the dreaming, and three in the making, “The Addams Family” stage  musical — developed by Chicago-based producers Stuart Oken and Michael Leavitt, and rooted in the cartoons and an original script rather than the television or movie versions — brings together a unique group of creative talents.

Hip-hop tragedy 'Hopera' overcomes flaws in story
Here is the bitter irony: The tragic story that unspools in "Hopera: A Fallen Hero" --the "hip-hop opera" that is a fiery blend of grand opera and hip-hop riffs -- plays out for real in neighborhoods just a short walk from the stage of the DuSable Museum of African American Art, where the work will have its final performances tonight and Sunday afternoon.

Cedar Lake pushes the envelope on contemporary ballet
Hedy Weiss: You might never have heard of Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet. But the very fact that Canadian choreographer Crystal Pite has created one of the three works on the company’s program at the Auditorium Theatre this weekend should send you to the box office.

A 'Little Women' in need of music and inspiration

While "A Christmas Carol" continues to remain a reliable holiday season cash cow (with various takes on "It's a Wonderful Life" close behind in popularity), many theaters are testing alternatives for making the box office sing "Noel."

Mira Hermoni-Levine's ‘Red Dress’ girl a secret no longer
My first encounter with Israeli artist Mira Hermoni-Levine was several years ago when I became intrigued by the painting of a young girl on the cover of a theater playbill here. Was the girl a real child or a doll? She certainly looked European, and was both haunting and haunted. And though still small, she made a powerful impression.

Company raising its Profile with new hits

Profiles Theatre, the intimate storefront operation at 4147 N. Broadway that has been selling out two productions in recent months (it had to rent a second storefront three doors down from its home to accommodate the success), seems to have developed an uncanny knack for keeping its box office hot.

Jewish family gets holiday pounding

“Goys have friends; Jews have family,” says Nate Roman, the angry Jewish father in Alan Gross’ play “High Holidays,” now in its world premiere at the Goodman’s Owen Theatre. And the only conclusion one can reach by the end of this often offensive and painfully overlong drama is that with such a family, friends might indeed be preferable.

Stage notes: Company raising its Profiles with winning works

Profiles Theatre, the intimate storefront operation at 4147 N. Broadway that has been selling out two productions in recent months (it had to rent a second storefront three doors down from its home to accommodate the success), seems to have developed an uncanny knack for keeping its box office hot.

Those flitting around Isadora
Hedy Weiss: Martin Sherman's play "When She Danced" takes a glimpse at a turbulent moment in the twilight years of that American modern dance pioneer, Isadora Duncan. Along the way it poignantly suggests how difficult it is to conjure the magic of live dance.

'Million Dollar Quartet' one year old -- and still rock solid

Who knows what really happened on that legendary December afternoon in 1956 when Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins and Elvis Presley all happened to show up at producer Sam Phillips' Sun Studios in Memphis, Tennessee?

Grande dame

The mother of American modern dance? A poster child for pursuing "la vie boheme"? The model of the liberated woman in the early decades of the 20th century? A cautionary tale about the perils and pitfalls of celebrity?

Bernstein's 'Mass' is celebrated

In 1971, while the Vietnam War was still raging, Leonard Bernstein wrote "MASS: A Theatre Piece for Singers, Players, and Dancers," a work commissioned by Jacqueline Kennedy for the opening of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. Though it drew on liturgical passages from the Roman Catholic mass that were sung in Latin, it had additional English lyrics penned by Bernstein, Broadway composer Stephen Schwartz (now of "Wicked" fame) and Paul Simon, and it drew on elements of rock, jazz, blues, hymns, opera and Broadway.

Fresh life breathed into 'Young Frankenstein'
Hedy Weiss: Talk about reanimating a seemingly dead thing. In "Young Frankenstein," Mel Brooks and his crackerjack collaborator, director-choreographer Susan Stroman, have reached back to the days when true musical comedy -- complete with catchy tunes, impossibly leggy chorus girls, giggle-inducing one-liners and non sequiturs, nutty characters, eye-popping dance routines and plain old vaudeville sex jokes and shtick -- ruled the Broadway stage.

American Theater Company making big plans
Fresh from huge box office successes with its past two shows — “Yeast Nation” and “Hedwig and the Angry Inch” — the American Theater Company, led by artistic director, PJ Paparelli, is making big plans.

With 'End' result, Next affirms human nature
Hedy Weiss: They are four people in various states of spiritual hunger, with one of them binging on faith, another forgetting to eat, a third secretly snacking on science and a fourth happily omnivorous. Yet whatever the state of their "appetites" might be, the characters in "End Days" provide plenty of food for thought and an array of bittersweet side dishes.

Some dazzling surprises launch Dance Chicago
Hedy Weiss: Dance Chicago, the annual festival of all things danceworthy from inside (and just beyond) this city, is the variety pack of dance programming. Every taste, texture and style of movement is on display during this monthlong event that, for the first time this year, is being staged at several different venues in the city and suburbs.

Drury Lane assembles a thoroughly delightful 'Millie'
If you look closely, many of the people who find the greatest success in New York have actually fled there from small towns in the Midwest and beyond. Determined to satisfy all their pentup dreams and appetite for discovery and prosperity, they will need all the grit and delusional thinking they can muster to survive.

Brooks turns 'Young Frankenstein' into monster smash
Hedy Weiss: Mel Brooks' fixation on "Frankenstein" began when he was still in kneepants. "I must have been just five or six when I first saw the movie [James Whale's 1931 classic, "Frankenstein"], and it left an indelible impression on me," Brooks recalled during a recent chat. "I still remember that it was summertime, and after I got home I told my mother to close the window. ... I was convinced that Frankenstein's monster was going to climb up and eat me."

'Silk Road Cabaret' leads to triumph of diversity

In 1991, when "Miss Saigon" was headed for its Broadway debut, a huge controversy erupted over the use of British actor Jonathan Pryce, who is white, in the role of the Eurasian pimp dubbed the Engineer.

Irish stage traditions fold into 'Farce'

They clearly are bonkers. Or perhaps they have been ingesting some insane blend of steroids and amphetamines. Or maybe they are just penniless actors using their shambles of an apartment as a place to rehearse.

Redmoon's White House plans become less ghostly

The initial invitation came a little more than a month ago in the form of a phone call to Chicago's Redmoon Central from Washington, D.C., but nothing can be said officially, even now.

Redmoon to do Halloween show at the White House
Hedy Weiss: It’s still very hush-hush, top secret and high security in nature. But word has it that Chicago’s Redmoon Theater, which has made its mark during the past 19 seasons as the masterful creator of grand-scale spectacles staged both outdoors and in traditional theaters, has been invited to the White House for a special Halloween performance on Saturday.

'Silk Road' leads to triumph of diversity

Back in 1991, when "Miss Saigon" was headed for its Broadway debut, a huge controversy erupted over the use of British actor Jonathan Pryce, who was white, and was to play the role of the Eurasian pimp dubbed the Engineer.

Giordano dancers keep up 'Dynamic' pace

The Giordano Jazz Dance Chicago company -- which is dancing sensationally these days -- never skimps. Its 10 dancers rarely get a chance to breathe between pieces. And the sheer aerobic power they bring to the stage for close to two hours -- to say nothing of their bravura overall technique and high-flying partnering skills -- is enough to make you wonder about the availability of oxygen machines in the wings.

This monster's hard to follow
Hedy Weiss: In one way or another, director Sean Graney and his company, the Hypocrites, have spent the past couple of seasons exploring what the ancient Greeks called "hubris," and what we might term self-destructive pride.

Rhoads finds humor among thieves

I had a happy sense of deja vu as I took my seat at the Dance Center of Columbia College for "Punk Yankees."

Dance Chicago takes bold step by moving to multiple venues

This season marks the 15th anniversary of that monthlong smorgasbord known as Dance Chicago. And John Schmitz, the festival's artistic director, is doing everything in his power to shake things up.

Cabaret show extends Silk Road to Broadway

Think of the Silk Road as the interstate highway system of the ancient world. An interconnected series of routes spanning 5,000 miles -- from China and India through Asia Minor and on to the Mediterranean -- these were the roads on which everything from textiles, spices, perfumes, jewels, ideas, technology, various diseases (and, yes, slaves, too) were transported for nearly 3,000 years. Primarily traveled by merchants, pilgrims, missionaries and soldiers, it's a good bet that artists also made their way along these often treacherous pathways.

'Addams Family' moves in for Loop premiere 'tryout'
Hedy Weiss: Well, there goes the neighborhood. Yes, "The Addams Family," that notably eccentric American gothic clan (that also happens to be a universally comprehensible nuclear family) has taken up residence in the Loop. So don't be surprised if you bump into Gomez (Nathan Lane) or Morticia (Bebe Neuwirth) -- though the truth is, the Addamses rarely, if ever, leave home.

Rogers Park company's effort a Quixotic success

The Rogers Park neighborhood has gradually evolved into a genuine "theater corridor," with the Theo Ubique Cabaret Theatre, Lifeline Theatre, the side project and Raven Theatre now forming a little cultural hotbed in the area. The four theaters have even joined in a marketing initiative -- a Flex Pass promising 40 percent savings on regularly priced single tickets.