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I am not a theater critic but I have been devoted to covering theater since my early 1980s reports on the explosion of Chicago storefront theaters for National Public Radio. On The Mara Tapp Show in the 1990s, I was honored to host weekly conversations about and offer scenes from some of Chicago’s best shows, and delighted when those interviews filled houses for our local theaters.
In 2015, at the request of friends, I started a series of emails with recommendations for shows I thought worthy of patrons. Some years later, actors, directors and publicity people in Chicago’s theater world prevailed on me to share these raves, a request I accepted, especially in light of the increasing tensions in the theater world and need to keep Chicago theaters healthy. Read more…
Find out what the critics think at the Review Round-up on the website of TheatreInChicago.com.
Breaking News
The (W)rites of Summer ’24
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I am a huge fan of Tyla Abercrumbie for her always spot-on acting and for her brilliant playwriting. Aside from her dramatic talents, Ms. Abercrumbie is smart as heck and stunningly gorgeous. I long ago dubbed her “the most beautiful woman in Chicago theater.” Many years later, she continues to hold this title.
I’ve raved about Ms. Abercrumbie’s performances in many plays — The Nacirema Society Requests the Honor of Your Presence at a Celebration of Their First One Hundred Years — and raved endlessly about her remarkable play Relentless when I first saw TimeLine Theatre Company’s production in February 2022, and when the Goodman Theatre remounted it. It’s rare that I see the same play twice within two months but this one was worth it. I am delighted to say that another Abercrumbie play is being staged as part of The (W)rites of Summer ’24.
Other plays by Chicago playwrights like Omer Abbas Salem are part of this event. You can find out more about The (W)rites of Summer 2024 at tickets are now LIVE!!!
Raves
Little Bear Ridge Road
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Steppenwolf Theatre Company through August 4
Highly Recommended
How can one not fall for a woman who uses home appliances as weapons and to enforce barriers? Laurie Metcalf is the tough damaged nurse who manages a for-all-appearances impressive balance of burying her sadness so she can care for her patients. As Little Bear Ridge Road starts, she is confronted with the return of her nephew, the son of her late meth-addicted brother.
In my many decades of observing Metcalf onstage, I’ve never seen her make an inauthentic move, even in an atrocious play and, once again, she excels as Sarah Fernsby. This character could easily become the stereotypical rural hard-ass spinster found in small towns across this country but not in Metcalf’s more-than-capable artistic grip.
One of the aspects of Steppenwolf that fascinates me is the way it has aged with its audience. Occasionally it’s lost its footing but if you consider its early days of intense, raw, angry, deeply psychological plays often about dysfunctional families – Metcalf joined the ensemble two years after its 1974 start – they reflected and challenged Steppenwolf audiences at that time. I would argue that as its ensemble and audiences grew, the theater continued to reflect and challenge its patrons. Steppenwolf plays are still intense, raw, angry, deeply psychological and often about dysfunctional families but now they also deal with aging and death. Sometimes they seem to be a slap in the face, a mocking shock or a tonic for patrons. Coping with family trauma is often at the center of Steppenwolf plays. Don’t most of us have that? OK well maybe not a drug addict dad but…
That is certainly the case in Little Bear Ridge Road. Set in rural Idaho, it revolves around the two remaining and estranged members of the Fernsby family, Sarah and Ethan, her gay nephew, who has returned to settle his father’s estate. Micah Stock captures the melancholic lack of ambition of this thirtysomething unsuccessful writer well enough, and his occasional outbursts of emotion are believable and welcome. Aunt and nephew connect over and are knit together by their critiques of bad reality TV on a couch with many secrets that sits at the center of Scott Pask’s appropriately bleak set. Eventually they are joined by graduate student James, played with warmth and compassionate charm by John Drea, who takes a chance on love with Ethan. This twosome offers a calming counterpoint to the aunt-nephew struggle to overcome their family history.
The presence of meth in Moscow, Idaho – the hometown of Playwright Samuel D. Hunter – hovers over Little Bear Ridge Road. Joe Mantello’s clear-eyed directing brings out the profound pain and sharp humor in Hunter’s fine play, as well as the strength of each actor.
If you’re thinking that you just can’t handle another play about another dysfunctional family, summon up the first line of Leo Tolstoy’s classic Anna Karenina, rightfully ranked one of the most famous openings in literature: “All happy families are alike; each dysfunctional family is dysfunctional in its own way.” Little Bear Ridge Road may not be a Russian classic but it’s most definitely worth your time – both to see Laurie Metcalf, and to consider the questions of human connections and how to make them in the face of overwhelming dysfunction and loneliness.
It’s Not Theater But It’s Still Art Worth Seeing!
Georgia O’Keeffe: “My New Yorks”
The Art Institute of Chicago through September 22
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Christina Ramberg: A Retropective
The Art Institute of Chicago through August 11
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Both Highly Recommended
I am a firm believer that brilliant art has the power to transform us, to force us to see the world differently, to make us better people. And so it was with great joy that I took in, and was altered by two extraordinary exhibits now at The Art Institute of Chicago, as were the two friends I invited to accompany me.
Both exhibits of are of artists I admire, Christina Ramberg and Georgia O’Keeffe. I teach O’Keeffe to my eager and adorable elementary-age Chicago Public School students, and sing Louis Armstrong’s “What a Wonderful World,” stressing the lines “I see skies of blue and clouds of white” – apparently forbidden but who knew you couldn’t sing in a museum? – on the stairs under her epic 1965 painting “Sky Above Clouds IV.” It is the song we sing to help our children transition from their school day to our after-school program, and we started our Art Institute tradition on our first post-pandemic field trip, an act that delighted other patrons enough that they burst into applause, which, in turn, delighted our students.
But back to O’Keeffe. With the exception of this painting, I’ve reached my lifetime limit of her Southwestern work. Those flowers do, however, enchant my students so I was pleased on this year’s visit when they gravitated to her 1926 painting, “The Shelton with Sunspots, N.Y.,” which is also in the museum’s collection. It’s one I’ve always adored for its angles, and the way it honors New York architecture with those sparkling sun spots. Imagine, then, my elation at the treasure trove of O’Keeffe’s New York paintings in this new exhibition. Some are absolute stunners, like her 1927 “Radiator Building—Night, New York” and “New York Night.” They capture the architectural gems of the city’s historic skyline, and reveal a less-known side of O’Keeffe.
Though I am usually irritated when an artists’ biography is allowed to eclipse their art, as is so often the case in these days of too much memoir, the stories and quotes here are just right. Photos by her famous husband American Photographer Alfred Stieglitz, some of which are already familiar, confirm his ability to bring out her striking looks. They also show how this promoter of modern art shaped her career in positive and negative ways, and the role her New York paintings played in how she defined herself as an artist. It is almost impossible not to compare their marriage to that of Mexican Artists Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera. There is much here to be seen, learned and enjoyed so I won’t spoil it. My only quibble is with some of the curatorial choices, especially the final painting. I understand the idea was to be chronological but ending with a stronger artwork would have better capped such a monumental show.
The exhibition that stole my heart was Christina Ramberg’s. I knew her work in the Art Institute, and her role in the Chicago Imagists AKA the Hairy Who. I’d always thought of her as an artist whose paintings were about female bondage. I was way off the mark. Her early works were inspired by her watching her mother dress to go out by donning long-line bras and girdles, something I recall from my youth watching my mother. It was a bizarre transformation but Ramberg makes it beautiful. Her later works show the female form in other situations of pain, longing, heartbreak and beauty. She even has a series inspired by hair and another by origami. Without exception, Ramberg’s art is bursting with beauty, content and psychological depth. Her technique is nothing short of genius. The way she builds texture and creates an iridescence on canvasses will take your breath away. Again, the details of Ramberg’s life are just enough to add meaning to what you see without overwhelming it. Again, I don’t want to reveal too much so that you can experience the joy and beauty of what she created.
I will return to both of these exhibits at least once, and perhaps more. I just can’t stop talking about these extraordinary artists to everyone I know, and thinking about what they gave us. It is nothing short of magnificent.
Summer Shakespeare
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Why not enjoy the Bard’s classic Romeo and Juliet in a Chicago park this summer? Midsommer Flight’s doing 6 free performances. Get details & make reservations at
And now for something completely different!
This comes from my brilliant friend Danny (Alias) Duane, who not only edits my Theater Raves but keeps me in stitches. Enjoy!
Bed Bug Love by Danny Alias. Bionik Remix.