CHICAGO – In anticipation of the scariest week of the year, HollywoodChicago.com launches its 2024 Movie Gifts series, which will suggest DVDs and collections for holiday giving.
HollywoodChicago.com Theater Reviews & Interviews
Theater News: Rich Cotovsky at Final ‘Abbie Hoffman Died for Our Sins’ Fest From Aug. 19-21, 2016
Submitted by PatrickMcD on August 19, 2016 - 7:04amCHICAGO – It’s 3am on Saturday night/Sunday morning on August 20th, and you’re just not ready to quit. How about indulging in the 2016 “Abbie Hoffman Died for Our Sins” Theater Festival? The three-day theater marathon is in its 28th edition, and will be sponsored for the final time by the Mary-Arrchie Theatre Company, and hosted by the “Godfather of Storefront Theater,” Rich Cotovsky. It all takes place at the Den Theatre, 1333 N. Milwaukee in Chicago (details below).
Theater Review: Brown Paper Box Co. Exuberantly Pursues ‘Now. Here. This.’
Submitted by PatrickMcD on July 31, 2016 - 10:39amCHICAGO – The Brown Paper Box Co., which embodies the passion and simplistic beauty of the storefront theater tradition, presents another fantastic and insightful musical, “Now. Here. This.” Director M. William Panek guides a splendid cast of two women and two men in a reflective, modern day morality tale.
Theater Review: ‘The King and I’ at Lyric Opera of Chicago
Submitted by PatrickMcD on May 5, 2016 - 10:11amCHICAGO – The venerable musical “The King and I,” by the legendary team of (Richard) Rodgers and (Oscar) Hammerstein, is now 65 years old. The Lyric Opera of Chicago is injecting fresh life into this senior aged play, with a sumptuous new production that is top drawer at every level.
Theater Review: ‘New Country’ is Original, Exuberant & Poignant
Submitted by PatrickMcD on April 23, 2016 - 3:47pmCHICAGO – The Country Music industry has become as huge as any category of music entertainment. So Mark Roberts, the creator of the TV sitcom “Mike & Molly,” has fashioned a boisterous new play about the machinations of that genre of music industry, and gave it the plaintive title of “New Country.”
Theater Review: Chicago Lyric Opera’s Energetic ‘Romeo and Juliet’
Submitted by PatrickMcD on March 1, 2016 - 10:39amCHICAGO – The familiar story of the “star crossed lovers” by William Shakespeare, “Romeo and Juliet,” has been given as many interpretations over the years as there are stars in the sky. The Lyric Opera of Chicago presents the operatic French version, with a bright and venerate staging.
Interview: Richard Cotovsky on Abbie Hoffman Fest, Directing & Final Days of Mary-Arrchie
Submitted by PatrickMcD on February 17, 2016 - 10:13amCHICAGO – In founding and being an artistic director of a theater company for over 30 years, Richard Cotovsky of Mary-Arrchie Co. has a few stories to tell. In Part Two of an interview with the “Godfather of Chicago Storefront Theater” Cotovsky talks about the annual Abbie Hoffman Died for our Sins Festival, and the various acts of producing memorable stage productions.
Theater Review: Mary-Arrchie Co. Goes Out Passionately With ‘American Buffalo’
Submitted by PatrickMcD on February 11, 2016 - 4:41pmCHICAGO – The legacy of the classic Chicago storefront theater has been celebrated at the Mary-Arrchie Theater Company for over 30 years, so for their final piece of stage craft they’re going out with a proper and gritty production bang, “American Buffalo,” by David Mamet.
Interview: Kevin Hanna on The Artist’s Lab Staging of ‘The Cowboy and The Showgirl Cycle’
Submitted by PatrickMcD on February 10, 2016 - 12:07pmCHICAGO – Chicago is a hotbed for new stage talent, and the growth of that creativity is generated in new theater works. The Artist’s Lab at Stage 773 is one such developmental program, and director Kevin Hanna is currently in residence to create a new three part musical production called “The Cowboy and the The Showgirl Cycle.” The first part will have its premiere at Stage 773 on February 11th, 2016 (details below).
Interview: Richard Cotovsky on ‘American Buffalo’ as Last Production
Submitted by PatrickMcD on January 28, 2016 - 8:11amCHICAGO – The final curtain is coming for the theatre company known as “Mary-Arrchie.” The Northside Chicago Angel Island playhouse is opening its final production, “American Buffalo” by David Mamet, on January 28, 2016. It also features the company’s founder, Richard Cotovsky, the “Godfather of Storefront Theater.”
Theater Review: ‘Beautiful: The Carole King Musical’ is a Lifetime of Song-Filled Brilliance
Submitted by PatrickMcD on December 8, 2015 - 8:43am- (You Make Me Feel) Like a Natural Woman
- Barry Main
- Beautiful: The Carole King Musical
- Carole King
- Cynthia Weil
- Don Kirshner
- Douglas McGrath
- Gerry Goffin
- HollywoodChicago.com Content
- It’s Too Late
- Little Eva
- Locomotion
- Marc Bruni
- One Fine Day
- Patrick McDonald
- Some Kind of Wonderful
- Tapestry
- Theater
- Up on the Roof
- Theater, TV, DVD & Blu-Ray
CHICAGO – Carole King, from modest roots and beginnings, went on to become the most successful female songwriter of the last forty years of the 20th Century. So this “natural woman” was perfect for a musical overview of her life and great songs, in “Beautiful: The Carole King Musical.”
Theatre Review: David Arquette’s ‘Sherlock Holmes’ Cheapens Drama With Campy, Unfunny Comedy
Submitted by HollywoodChicago.com on November 26, 2015 - 3:32pmCHICAGO – Different isn’t bad and might be great, but you’d better have an irrefutable reason to change what was never broken. Campy being the only word to accurately convey this alternate-reality version of Sherlock Holmes with an original script, writer Greg Kramer and director Andrew Shaver try too hard to be different without ever figuring out why.
Theater Review: We’ll Always Have Paris in ‘The Merry Widow’
Submitted by PatrickMcD on November 17, 2015 - 7:26amCHICAGO – Standing up at the Lyric Opera house in Chicago is unusual before a show. But in this case, it was the night after a tragedy, and the operetta “The Merry Widow” – set in Paris, France, in 1905 – was about to unfold. The orchestra struck up La Marseillaise, a reminder that we’ll always have Paris.
