Global reach: World dance projects converge here
The next two weeks will be something of an international dance-o-rama
in Chicago as the work of choreographers from all over the map will be
performed by dancers from every corner of the globe, including those in
Chicago's two leading companies -- the Joffrey Ballet and Hubbard
Street Dance Chicago. Artists with roots in China, Japan, Israel,
Africa, Spain, England and beyond all will be represented in a virtual
cultural Olympics.
The opening scene in "Ten Cent Night," Chicago-based playwright Marisa Wegrzyn's zestily written, impeccably acted dysfunctional family tragicomedy, is a classic piece of Americana.
Thursday, October 9, 2008
'Edward' classic power play Hedy Weiss: Be forewarned: "Edward II," the play about sex, politics and transgression that was penned by Shakespeare's contemporary Christopher Marlowe, is not for the meek. This story -- about a king whose unrestrained passion for his homosexual lover trumps any concern for the crown (and the security of his country) -- is a literal and figurative bloodbath.
Chat arts today at 12:30 p.m. with Hedy Weiss
Can't get enough of the arts? Chat live with Sun-Times theater critic Hedy Weiss. Hedy will answer your questions about anything you ever wanted to know relating to the Chicago theater scene and about upcoming shows in the area.
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Apple Tree's 'Pen' is mighty thanks to story nuances Hedy Weiss: Two easily identifiable song fragments can be heard during scene changes in the Apple Tree Theatre production of "Pen," David Marshall Grant's play about a nuclear family that has long since begun the painful process of fission.
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Who cares about story? This 'Quartet' can rock Hedy Weiss: Just call them the Memphis Boys. Though unlike those urban, blue-collar, mostly first-generation East Coast immigrant kids we now think of as the Jersey Boys, they were poor Southern farm kids by birth. And for a brief period during the 1950s, what linked them together was that they all got their big career breaks thanks to that visionary rock 'n' roll producer Sam Phillips, who recorded them at his Sun Studio storefront in Memphis.
Monday, October 6, 2008
Everyone in the family wants to be elsewhere Hedy Weiss: Sometimes there is so much flamboyance and "high concept" in the theater that plays with a quieter, more deeply satisfying emotional richness get swallowed up in all the noise.
If we are to believe Terrence McNally's 1995 play "Master Class," the students who participated in Maria Callas' tutorials at the Juilliard School of Music spent much of their time with that diva in a state of high anxiety that quickly morphed into mortification.
Brit lit: Griffin Theatre nabs Olivier-winner
Chicago director Jonathan Berry, the man responsible for such radically different productions as Steep Theatre's brute-force Brechtian epic, "The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui," and Griffin Theatre's exquisitely sensitive revival of J.B. Priestley's "Time and the Conways," confesses he was looking for something small to direct this fall -- "a play with three or four actors and a unit set."
'Picnic' gives audience plenty to chew on
There often is something more disorienting about taking a theatrical trip back in time to the 1950s than in stepping back into the Renaissance.
Relentlessly creepy 'Dracula' can become draining
The first hour of director Blake Montgomery's production of "Dracula" is so stunning in every aspect of its artistry that it easily seduced me into following Bram Stoker's familiar yet strangely compelling world of vampires, twisted eroticism (and exoticism) and disturbing transfer of bodily fluids.
Chicago audiences are getting a rare glimpse of ballerina Diana Vishneva this weekend as she dances at the Auditorium Theatre in the Kirov Ballet’s “Giselle” — the story of a village girl who goes mad when she realizes she has been duped by a caddish aristocrat.
Steppenwolf wunderkind Hill spreads wings in 'Kafka' Hedy Weiss: Jon Michael Hill first came into public focus during the summer of 2006 as audiences were settling into their seats for the start of the Steppenwolf Theatre production of Bruce Norris' play "The Unmentionables," a tale of corruption, decadence and brutality in contemporary Africa.
First, a confession: I'm not a big fan of drag shows and tend to find most attempts at the form puerile and tedious. After all, what is left to say these days beyond the obvious? (True, I haven't yet seen "Wig Out!," the newly acclaimed Off-Broadway hit by Tarell Alvin McCraney, a DePaul Theatre School alum.)
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
'10 Cent Night' worth more as slice of Americana Hedy Weiss: The opening scene in “Ten Cent Night,” Chicago-based playwright Marisa Wegrzyn’s zestily written, impeccably acted dysfunctional family tragicomedy, is a classic piece of Americana. Although Wegrzyn’s incest-fueled story easily stretches credibility at times, this is a playwright with a true gift for dialogue, a genuine talent for creating fully playable characters.
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Goodman presents a soothing balm for tough 'Century' Hedy Weiss: Take a peek at "Turn of the Century," the new musical with a snow-globe beauty that opened Monday at the Goodman Theatre, and then think about the sort of movies that thrived during the Great Depression of the 1930s that made the fantasy of wealth a pleasant dream.
Monday, September 29, 2008
Steppenwolf finds the weird charm in Murakami's 'Kafka' Hedy Weiss: To begin with, consider the decidedly twisted weave of characters and story lines that comprise "Kafka on the Shore," director Frank Galati's quirkily poetic, strangely erotic, playfully philosophical stage adaptation of the novel of the same name by Haruki Murakami, one of Japan's most popular contemporary writers.
Sublime is the word to describe every aspect of "There Is a Time," the rarely seen choreographic masterpiece that was created in 1956 by the Mexican-born, American-based modern dance pioneer Jose Limon. Sublime also is the word to describe the rapturous revival of this work by Chicago's Luna Negra Dance Theater -- part of the company's 10th anniversary program, "Ciclos" ("Cycles"), performed this weekend at the Harris Theater for Music and Dance.
Saturday, September 27, 2008
No one's exactly who they seem to be in 'Jekyll' Hedy Weiss: It is a good bet that most of those who head to Skokie's Northlight Theatre production of "Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde" will be familiar with the notion of dual personality that plays itself out to such extremes in Robert Louis Stevenson's frequently adapted tale.
Friday, September 26, 2008
Building Stage's 'Dracula' can become draining
The first hour of director Blake Montgomery's production of "Dracula" is so stunning in every aspect of its artistry that it easily seduced me into following Bram Stoker's familiar yet strangely compelling world of vampires, twisted eroticism (and exoticism) and disturbing transfer of bodily fluids.
A theatrical ‘Picnic’ back into time
There often is something more disorienting about taking a theatrical trip back in time to the 1950s than in stepping back into the Renaissance. Perhaps the world of the ’50s is just close enough to our psyches to be vaguely recognizable, even if seems strangely out of synch with contemporary sensibilities. Or perhaps the distinctive rumblings of ruptures in that society turn out to be louder and more explosive than we might have expected. It’s a period that allows you to look back in a sort of wonderment at its aura of tortured innocence, and also lets you feel things in a surprisingly direct, almost irony-free way that can be quite disturbing.
The soundtrack of our lives
Think of "Turn of the Century, the world-premiere musical opening Monday at the Goodman Theatre, as a jukebox musical with a giant, time-warping twist -- a show driven by songs penned as far back as piano-roll days and as recently (almost) as the arrival of iTunes technology.
In 1920, Czech playwright Karel Capek's play "R.U.R." (short for "Rossum's Universal Robots") introduced the term "robot" to a world newly reeling from the Russian revolution and the application of Marxist theory of "uniting the workers of the world." But despite the play's historically significant blend of science fiction and geopolitical commentary, it is now something of a bore. And for all the energy the Strawdog Theatre Company has applied to its revival of Capek's play, the whole thing seems hardly worth the effort.
Wilde's tale of Faustian deal is bargain at Lifeline Hedy Weiss: "The Picture of Dorian Gray" is Oscar Wilde's Faustian tale of a beautiful young man in Edwardian high society who makes a bargain with the devil. After exchanging his soul for the promise of eternal youth and unfettered experience, Dorian embarks on a life of total narcissism and depravity, leaving all those who love or befriend him either broken or dead, and realizing far too late he also has destroyed himself.
While Congress debates the $700 billion bailout, this nation's networks should think creatively for a night and quickly televise the production of "The Voysey Inheritance," now in a fast-paced, shrewdly cast Remy Bumppo Theatre production directed by James Bohnen.
A few final notes about the San Francisco Ballet’s hugely ambitious weeklong visit to the Harris Theater for Music and Dance that came to an end Sunday. I caught up with both Thursday night’s hourlong gala performance, as well as the Saturday matinee (“Program A”), that featured new works by Christopher Wheeldon, Jorma Elo and artistic director Helgi Tomasson — all commissioned as part of this massive, well-financed company’s 75th anniversary celebrations and four-city national tour.
Monday, September 22, 2008
'Caroline' gets some change for the better
A Category 5 hurricane is sweeping across the stage of Court Theatre at the moment and it bears the name "Caroline, or Change." It comes in the form of a musical (bordering on an opera) with book and lyrics by Tony Kushner, and a feverish, exquisitely layered score by Jeanine Tesori that plays ingeniously with work songs, schoolyard rhymes, spirituals, rhythm and blues and klezmer music.
Friday, September 19, 2008
'Voysey Inheritance' is on the money Hedy Weiss: It was last February, just three weeks before the collapse of that hard-driving investment banking firm Bear Stearns, when director James Bohnen and his Remy Bumppo Theatre Company decided to produce "The Voysey Inheritance" as their opening production this fall.
Two anniversaries are being celebrated this week as the San Francisco Ballet pays its first visit to Chicago in decades.
Thursday, September 18, 2008
New production of 'Amadeus' is work of genius Hedy Weiss: While Daniel Radcliffe, the now grownup Harry Potter, is baring all in his Broadway debut in Peter Shaffer's fabled play "Equus," Chicago Shakespeare Theater is giving us an altogether bravura account of another Shaffer masterwork, "Amadeus." And director Gary Griffin's radiant revival, with a truly starry cast all its own, easily can stand beside anything Broadway has to offer.
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
'Inspector' uncovers obvious yuks Hedy Weiss: Two real-life stories from 1997, when I spent a year traveling in Eastern Europe and the Balkans: First, in Gdansk, Poland, I encountered a schleppy-looking American guy who was convinced he could buy the city's troubled shipyards and turn them around; then, in Belgrade, Serbia, as Slobodan Milosevic was in the early stages of his downfall, another American guy, with a lot more swagger, told me he was about to seal a big business deal in the lumber industry there.
There are a slew of reasons to rejoice about the altogether effervescent Porchlight Music Theatre revival of "Candide" that opened Sunday -- a show rooted in the satirical genius of that wily old French philosopher Voltaire, the protean musical brilliance of Leonard Bernstein and the winning verbal acrobatics of lyricists John Latouche, Richard Wilbur and Stephen Sondheim.
It is a telling sign of the unequivocal magic of director Simon McBurney that within the first few minutes of "A Disappearing Number" even a mathematically challenged member of the audience (that would be me, sweaty palms and all) began thinking about numbers in the most complex and all-consuming ways.
This is a landmark weekend for Chicago's Joffrey Ballet as it officially opens its grand permanent home in the Joffrey Tower at State and Lake. And Thursday night the company gave the city a beautiful gift in return, as 6,000 of its avid fans gathered in Millennium Park for an exuberantly danced, admission-free performance that also touchingly took note of the seventh anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.
When dance afficionados talk about ballet's early history in this country they tend to be entirely New York-centric. After all, that's where three major companies -- New York City Ballet, American Ballet Theater and the Joffrey Ballet -- originated in the mid-20th century.
It was perhaps little more than a fluke that Redmoon Theater scheduled the U.S. debut of its production of "Dr. Egg and the Man with No Ear" last Tuesday night, just hours before scientists at CERN, the European research center in Geneva, were scheduled to turn on their Large Hedron Collider. The Collider is a particle accelerator designed "to replicate conditions that existed just a fraction of a second after the Big Bang," and some scientific observers worried that it might create a mini-black hole "that could tear the earth apart."
Thursday, September 11, 2008
'Dr. Egg' not for the delicate Hedy Weiss: It was perhaps little more than a fluke that Redmoon Theater scheduled the U.S. debut of its production of "Dr. Egg and the Man with No Ear" on Tuesday night, just hours before scientists at CERN, the European research center in Geneva were scheduled to turn on their Large Hedron Collider.
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