Chicago Sun-Times

In ‘Broadsword,’ a metal band’s thoughts get heavy

Tue, 01 Oct 2013 02:17:32 -0500

HEDY WEISS: Marco Ramirez’ intriguing play, produced by the Gift Theatre, finds faded rockers reunited and contemplating success and failure.

‘Extraordinary Chicago Women’ at Theatre Seven a labor of love

Mon, 30 Sep 2013 02:16:14 -0500

To celebrate the 100th anniversary of the women’s suffrage movement, the company presents seven short plays about greats including Jane Addams, Mavis Staples and Ann Landers.

‘Veronica’s Room’ will creep you out

Tue, 01 Oct 2013 19:25:01 -0500

HEDY WEISS: Scares are certain as BoHo Theatre’s tightly spun story unfolds.

Cautionary tale of concentration camp lacks true depth

Sun, 29 Sep 2013 11:45:42 -0500

The story of the Theresienstadt concentration camp in Czechoslovakia — one of the stranger and more perversely sinister chapters in Holocaust history — has been dealt with in several forms, including the 1980 film, “Playing for Time.” Now it has been turned into a musical.

War truths march on in engrossing ‘Killer Angels’

Fri, 27 Sep 2013 09:40:22 -0500

HEDY WEISS: Lifeline Theatre revives its superb stage adaptation of Michael Shaara’s 1975 novel about the Battle of Gettysburg.

‘Color Purple’ offering free dining

Thu, 26 Sep 2013 17:06:00 -0500

‘The Color Purple,” now playing at the Mercury Theater Chicago, 3745 N. Southport, will have you seeing green, as in a complimentary dinner for two at nearby Cullen’s Irish Pub, when you purchase two tickets to the musical that runs through Oct. 27. The offer is valid only for upcoming 7:30 p.m. performances on Wednesdays, and 2 and 7:30 p.m. shows on Thursdays. For reservations, call (773) 325-1700 and use promo code “Dinner on Us.” For show tickets and times, call (773) 325-1700 or visit MercuryTheaterChicago.com. …

Our ‘national’ humor the core of ‘Old Jews Telling Jokes’

Thu, 26 Sep 2013 04:03:09 -0500

So, where did Jewish humor begin? The Off Broadway comedy “Old Jews Telling Jokes” reveals it’s a lot closer than you might think.

‘Sons’ writer pairs rock, death

Wed, 25 Sep 2013 17:12:02 -0500

The setting of Marco Ramirez’s “Broadsword: A Heavy Metal Play” is a dreary New Jersey basement that has seen happier days. This former rehearsal space still filled with their old equipment is where three former bandmates reunite after a memorial service. Richie, the odd genius who wrote the band’s thundering heavy metal songs, has gone missing and is presumed dead. It’s a play about youthful dreams and grown-up disappointments as well as loyalty and the mix of conflict and joy within a creative collaboration. Ramirez wrote the play when he was studying playwriting at Julliard. The assignment was to create …

‘4000 Miles’ a theatrical journey worth taking

Thu, 26 Sep 2013 02:21:08 -0500

HEDY WEISS: At Northlight, Mary Ann Thebus triumphs in Amy Herzog’s beautifully observed play about an elderly woman reuniting with her neo-hippie grandson.

Steppenwolf regular McCraney among 24 MacArthur Fellows

Thu, 26 Sep 2013 15:19:40 -0500

Tarell Alvin McCraney, the 32-year-old playwright, actor, director and Steppenwolf Theatre ensemble member, was on his way to the airport for a flight to New Haven, Conn., a few weeks ago, when he received a phone call from Cecilia Conrad, vice president of the MacArthur Foundation and director of its Fellows Program (more widely known as “the genius awards”).

“Pullman Porter Blues” rolls along with predictable purpose

Wed, 25 Sep 2013 08:27:34 -0500

‘Pullman Porter Blues,” Cheryl L. West’s play-with-music, receiving a lavish production at the Goodman Theatre, deals with a fascinating, once-iconic, but little-known subculture of African-American life.

Black Ensemble’s ‘Curtis Mayfield’ tale more than ‘all-right’

Thu, 26 Sep 2013 18:02:35 -0500

Black Ensemble Theater delivers a rousing tribute to the life of Curtis Mayfield in latest musical.

Joan Allen’s talents wasted in Steppenwolf war drama

Mon, 23 Sep 2013 02:15:21 -0500

HEDY WEISS: “The Wheel” a faux-surreal mashup weighted down by dull writing and heavy-handed symbolism.

Joan Allen — Steppenwolf’s prodigal daughter returns

Thu, 19 Sep 2013 11:57:53 -0500

After nearly 22 years, actress Joan Allen returns to the Chicago stage, in Steppenwolf Theatre’s production of “The Wheel.”

THEATER — ‘The North China Lover’

Fri, 27 Sep 2013 16:01:52 -0500

Heidi Stillman, who has adapted and directed Marguerite Duras’ “The North China Lover,” for the Lookingglass Theatre, first read the quasi-autobiographical novel by the French writer and filmmaker about 18 years ago. “It was so incandescent, so intriguing, I remember I was almost shaking,” Stillman recalled. “I started an adaptation based on the first three chapters, we did a workshop of it [with a young Mary Zimmerman as the older Duras], and then I just let it go.” But the story told by Duras (1914-1996) — about the remembered love affair between an adolescent French girl in the colonial Indochina …

In Curtis Mayfield musical, he’s played by a fan and a friend

Mon, 23 Sep 2013 08:55:52 -0500

Reginald Torian, who replaced Mayfield in the Impressions, is now portraying the singer in the Black Ensemble Theater production of “It’s All-Right to Have a Good Time: The Story of Curtis Mayfield,” which opens Sunday.