weiss
Hedy Weiss biography
Hedy Weiss has been Theater and Dance Critic of the Chicago Sun-Times since 1984, reporting on local, national and international productions, as well as a …
Read More-
Chicago gets shout-outs as ‘Kinky Boots,’ Steppenwolf vie for Tonys
With abundant nominations for two productions first seen here — the Cyndi Lauper musical and the revival of “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf” — the city’s theater scene again proves it can take N.Y. by storm.
-
Joffrey Ballet’s ‘Othello’ positively stunning
HEDY WEISS: Revival of Lar Lubovitch’s masterpiece at the Auditorium Theatre suggests Shakespeare’s tragedy may best be told with dance.
-
Stage almost empty but full of emotion in ‘Yellow Moon’
HEDY WEISS: Scottish playwright David Grieg’s way with words is apparent in the Writers’ Theatre production of his play about a rebellious Glasgow teen on the run with a shy girl from a refugee family.
Search recent columns
More Columns
ACT II: A second look at area stages — Dancing Shakespeare
Choreographers of both classical ballet and modern dance have long found inspiration in Shakespeare. His plays have inspired many versions of “Romeo and Juliet,” as well as memorable takes on “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” “The Taming of the Shrew,” “Hamlet” and “The Tempest.” It was …
‘Anything Goes’ sails with sensational touring company
HEDY WEISS: The gloriously goofy Cole Porter musical arrives with powerhouse Broadway star Rachel York and one terrific song after another.
Psychological warfare runs deeps in blistering ‘Creditors’
August Strindberg’s play, “The Creditors” — now in a tightly turned Remy Bummpo Theatre production — has little to do with money. Rather, it is about the always shifting currency of sexual power, particularly as it plays itself out in classic triangular form. Adapted by …
Rarely staged ‘Pal Joey’ a zippy affair at Porchlight
For much of “Pal Joey,” the edgy, funny, infrequently revived Rodgers and Hart musical now in a zesty Porchlight Music Theatre production, two women — Vera Simpson (Susie McMonagle), a winningly jaded middle-aged socialite, and Linda English (lovely Laura Savage), a pretty, smarter-than-she-seems young shop …
16th Street Theater nabs emerging theater award
The 16th Street Theater, which has developed into an important cultural outpost in the Berwyn community in recent seasons, has been selected as the recipient of the 2013 Broadway In Chicago Emerging Theater Award. The award, overseen by the League of Chicago Theatres, comes with …
‘Still Alice’ at Lookingglass delivers powerful ‘long good-bye’
At once devastating and enthralling, “Still Alice” is not an easy show to watch, but it is riveting from first second to last. And for anyone who wishes to be reminded of the power of theater — and its ability to explore the most complex, …
‘Happiest Song’ spins a tiresome, apologetic tale
HEDY WEISS: The homefront half of Quiara Alegria Hudes’s new play works, but the premise behind another storyline in the aftermath of war is hard to stomach.
‘Big Fish’ catches wave of America’s ‘Greatest Generation’
HEDY WEISS: In its world premiere, the Broadway-bound musical boasts impressive visuals but doesn’t really grab the heart until it gets real in Act 2. You can’t help but root for star Norbert Lee Butz, whose energy is both enormous and easeful.
ACT II: A closer look at area stages — “Happiest Song Plays Last”
Talk about being an over-achiever. True, this might be the very last term playwright Quiara Alegria Hudes would use to describe herself, yet the evidence suggests it could not be more accurate. Consider this: Hudes wrote the book for the Broadway musical “In the Heights,” …
‘The Whale’ is a hunt for human connection
It’s a good bet you will not find five more lonely, alienated, often angry, sometimes inadvertently funny characters on a single stage than those who gather in Samuel D. Hunter’s “The Whale,” now in its Chicago premiere at Victory Gardens Theatre.
‘Elephant’ collaboration captivates all ages
HEDY WEISS: Chicago Children’s Theatre and Redmoon have a reputation for devising imaginative projects that take the most sophisticated approach to entertaining kids — and “The Elephant and the Whale” is artful and sophisticated enough to fully enchant the adults who carry these “future audience members” into the theater.
Matriarch has much to overcome in McCraney’s fervent new play
HEDY WEISS: Reality rules in “Head of Passes,” making its world premiere at Steppenwolf.
River North Dance Chicago and the Chicago Jazz Philharmonic in “Havana Blue” at the Auditorium Theatre
In bringing together Orbert Davis’ Chicago Jazz Philharmonic (CJP) and Frank Chaves’ River North Dance Chicago (RNDC) for “Havana Blue” — the multifaceted, one-night-only centerpiece of the new Music + Movement project, the Auditorium Theatre has engaged in an ideal exercise in cultural cross-pollination and …
‘Oliver!’ dazzles in marvelous Drury Lane staging
As I headed off to the Drury Lane Oakbrook Theatre to see “Oliver!” a friend laughingly told me about a couple she knew who had named their kids Oliver and Annie, after two of the best-known orphans in both literature and musical theater. Rachel Rockwell, …
Tarell McCraney, like his plays, ever moving
HEDY WEISS: The playwright’s “Head of Passes,” about to receive its world premiere at Steppenwolf, is a modern-day take on the Book of Job.
Marriott’s ‘South Pacific’ taps intimacy and transcendence
HEDY WEISS: Director David H. Bell and a sublime cast at the Marriott Theatre make you listen afresh to the show’s exceptionally bold and ambitious book.
‘Still Alice’ probes turbulent waters of Alzheimer’s
Talk about ideal timing. Lookingglass Theatre’s production of “Still Alice” — a stage adaptation of the best-selling 2009 novel by Lisa Genova that looks at an accomplished 50-year-old woman’s sudden descent into early onset Alzheimer’s disease — was in final rehearsals for its world premiere …
