PicksInSix Review: Henry Johnson-Relentless Theatre Group-Victory Gardens Theater

“Why would you ever trust anyone?”
PicksInSix® Review | Ed Tracy

The Chicago premiere of David Mamet’s new play “Henry Johnson” opened Sunday in a matinee performance at Victory Gardens Theater presented in association with Relentless Theatre Group. The play was first performed in 2023 at the Electric Lodge in Venice, California starring Shia LaBeouf as Gene—played here by Thomas Gibson from Criminal Minds and Dharma and Greg—who is also in Mamet’s film version that is scheduled to be released in early May. So, the Victory Gardens/Relentless production is a unique confluence of the two treatments at this particular time.

In a curtain speech, director Edward Torres welcomed a near capacity crowd back to the theater which has been dark, with the exception of a few special and limited run events, since March 2023. Torres was upbeat about the future, citing plans to reinvigorate the programming of the theater, now celebrating its 50th anniversary, and by extension, launching a renewed investment in the performing arts in the North Lincoln Avenue neighborhood. In addition to thanking donors, sponsors and three board members in attendance, Torres warmly acknowledged Dennis Začek who has for decades been a steward of the artistic vision of the Tony award-winning regional theatre. Začek is serving as Executive Producer and no doubt used his finely-honed skills to help assemble the stellar production team and cast for the show including: Gibson, Keith Kupferer, Al’Jaleel McGhee and Daniil Krimer.

“Henry Johnson” plays out in four scenes over roughly 100 minutes including one 20 minute intermission. Henry (Krimer) appears first in an office with his boss, Mr. Barnes (McGhee) who is pressing him about his relationship with a man who has plead to manslaughter in a brutally savage attack. Barnes seems to know a lot more about Henry’s business  and we soon discover that Henry is a man easily influenced and, ultimately, will be facing prosecution himself on multiple related criminal charges.

Time passes and in scene two, Henry’s arrives in prison, sharing a cell with Gene (Gibson), a hardened criminal who knows the ropes. Gibson owns the sticky, often malevolent, center of Mamet’s text here and his is the most compelling performance of the show. Passing through the cell block is a guard, Jerry (Kupferer), who delivers books from the prison library and Gibson tells him that Henry would be a good addition to the library staff. When we next see Henry in the library during the third scene, Gene continues to aggressively groom the hapless man to carry out a plot that leads to the harrowing confrontation that follows.

Unquestionably, the cast is fascinating to watch throughout the course of this drama, even though there are elements of dramatic tension that seem to be stifled by both scene breaks and the intermission. Upon reflection, one of the most interesting developments of the story occurs during the interval, but perhaps the story was not the point all along. Krimer’s Henry plays out as a metaphor for manipulation, coercion and fear—by his boss in the interrogation, by his cellmate in devising the plan, and, in the final scene following the plan’s execution. These are powerful dramatic forces that Mamet has at work, magnified by the presence of audience members on stage left and right that shrink the playing space to be more in line with an isolated prison cell—a physical uneasiness that washes over the audience at every turn.

Hopefully, this all is a harbinger of what is to come for Victory Gardens, emerging from a dark period of great uncertainty to regain the trust and prominence in the Chicago theatre community as a leading incubator for new work. It will take time. Productions like Mamet’s “Henry Johnson” force us to recognize our own fears and vulnerabilities. If we ignore these influences and allow them to cloud our judgement, there can be only one possible outcome: there will be nothing left to save. You have until May 4 to decide for yourself.   

PHOTO | Michael Brosilow

Relentless Theatre Group
in association with
Victory Gardens Theater
present
Chicago Premiere
Henry Johnson
2433 N Lincoln Ave
through May 4

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PicksInSix Review: Translations - Writers Theatre

‘Translations’—The Magic of Language Itself.
PicksInSix® Review | Ronald Keaton

It would be very easy to see “Translations,” the thick, challenging classic by the great Irish playwright Brian Friel, as a treatise about endless attacks on Irish colonialism.  After all, British soldiers travel from town to town and literally change the names of where people live to make them conform with English culture and language—by force, if necessary. And in many ways, this is true. But, as the elegant production at Writers Theatre in Glencoe that opened Friday shows in no uncertain terms, the real story here is about the magic of language itself. Writers Artistic Director Braden Abraham has deftly followed the brushstrokes of the master Mr. Friel in creating this entire world of contradiction and mystery.

This was a period—Ireland in the 1830s, a delicate time historically, if such a word can be used for the Irish—that sat roughly a decade out from the vaunted potato famine, which would kill more than a million people and uprooted many more by some estimates. In order to create a seeming conformity in the Isles, these British soldiers helped establish the first National Schools, which encouraged literacy but provided classes only in English, and thus prohibited the speaking of Irish/Gaelic, which greatly contributed to its decline. This battle focuses on three characters— Hugh, a highly regarded teacher who speaks fluent Greek and Latin; his son Owen, who becomes a kind of interpreter for the soldiers, while caught between them and his love for his native land; and Yolland, a soldier who also maps the countryside and eventually falls for a young lass, rendering him, well, a bit lost in translation himself.

Hugh (the marvelous, rock-solid Kevin Gudahl) teaches adults in this hedge-school, which was illegal and furtive in its existence because of the Anglican stance on who should know what. One easily imagines a kind of drunken philosopher here, as Hugh imparts what wisdom and history he can in eloquent phrases and between lifts of his flask. He believes that the world is affected not by the facts of history, but by how we view those facts—an outlook not totally lost on our world today. But he’s practical as well; he sees with disdain what’s ahead in the coming loss of his own tongue.

His son Owen (Casey Hoekstra as an appealing spirit of not-so-torn allegiance) is a knowledgeable, almost gifted translator between English and Irish, taking to his task with a fervor that rivals the soldiers themselves in its passion. Owen drives the play forward with that fervency and commitment. His brother Manus (Andrew Mueller, persuasively gentler in outlook and demeanor than Owen) attempts to hold down the linguistic fort in wanting to preserve all native language and education, all while remaining in his father’s shadow. Mr. Mueller’s departure from Ballybeg at the top of Act II is absolutely riveting.

There really is all manner of great character work here, a Writers Theatre stamp. Jimmy Jack (a fabulous turn by Jonathan Weir) is a wizened old soul of letters who regularly waxes poetic about his admiration for the gods and goddesses of mythology, often in Greek or Latin. The lovers Lieutenant Yolland (a deeply affected young soldier given wonderful and painful shrift by Eric Hellman) and the comely girl Maire (Tyler Meredith is lovely and quite effective) have the ultimate hill to climb; they cannot communicate on a practical level, because they literally speak different languages. Yet a love emerges. And this plays out achingly, thanks to a chilling moment that Ms. Meredith handles with aplomb.

The almost elfin mute Sarah (Julia Rowley, convincing in an extremely difficult role) finds it hard to even articulate her own name. Gregory Linington valiantly takes on his Captain Lancey, who could have been a thankless taskmaster were it not for the actor’s inherent skill. Doalty (Ian Maryfield) and Bridget (Chloe Baldwin) are both young adult students at Hugh’s school.  They have a constantly energetic and fun exchange whenever they appear. And all this is contained on a set that seems a combination classroom/apartment/lean-to ingeniously offered by Andrew Boyce. The always right Andre Pleuss gives the audience a sound scheme of economy and thought. The dialect work of the cast was stellar; dialect coach Eva Breneman earns kudos here, too. And always Mr. Friel, watching like a voice in one’s ear, making sure that the attempt to change the world through its languages gets a full and proper examination. So graceful, and so telling, in the results.

RONALD KEATON received an Equity Jeff Award for the performance of his one-man show CHURCHILL. www.solochicagotheatre.com  Coming soon, his new solo play “Echo Holler.” www.echoholler.com

PHOTO | Michael Brosilow

Writers Theater
presents
Translations
325 Tudor Court
Glencoe, IL
through May 4

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PicksInSix Review: The Book of Grace-Steppenwolf Theatre Company

“That is yours. This is mine.”
PicksInSix® Review | Ronald Keaton

A thought-provoking play by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Suzan-Lori Parks is being offered at Steppenwolf’s Ensemble Theater through May 18. First produced in 2010 at New York’s Public Theater, “The Book of Grace” seeks, it seems, to create a universal story out of a particular family’s struggles. Not only does it succeed, it makes one think—hard—as the walk home from the performance begins. And because the play’s locale is the Texas/Mexico border, the relevance could not be timelier—one of the characters is a border patrol officer.

Example: “Borders and fences. They say it all without saying a word. That is yours. This is mine.” Not only does this single line reflect what’s ahead in the story, but it also applies to each character in the play. Vet (Brian Marable, a riveting, articulate presence) is that officer, a man of powerful presence and command. He’s much like who’s being honored for his work at a gathering of his peers. Vet lives in a small border town with his partner Grace (a simultaneously strong, almost impulsive performance by Zainab Jah) who is writing a book. It’s partially autobiographical in nature and observational in tone, and it’s entitled “The Book Of Grace.” It’s full of drawings and photos and essays on family, on dreaming, and on life itself. Grace is the one in the house who constantly points toward the good in life; she does her best to live it, because we see a consistent specter in Vet’s presence of threats and potential domestic abuse. Appropriately, her book is a secret from the world. It’s the one thing in her existence that is hers and hers alone. She even hides it under the living room floor, afraid of Vet’s reaction.

Enter Buddy (Steppenwolf Ensemble member Namir Smallwood in a nuanced, fascinating offering), Vet’s son and a young man who’s been through his own challenges. He’s also a veteran, one who’s earned a Bronze Star, and yet he feels forgotten in his return to a previous life of sorts. Buddy is seeing his father for the first time in 15 years, accepting an invitation from Grace to attend Vet’s presentation dinner. In limited contacts, Buddy infused himself with accomplishment (working as a kind of computer specialist for the government) and bravado; he’s a storyteller of some note, although he could be halting and hesitant as he shares about himself in toto. Vet naturally learns the truth in time, as Buddy finally shares the real purpose of his visit—he needs a job and asks Vet to help him find one with the border patrol.

The tension through the play builds as each character ‘solos’ for the audience. Grace eloquently takes us through chapters in her book, pointing out the good as well as the bad. This is her major milieu, as it is for many people with a harrowing background. Vet and Buddy are, quite frankly, two peas from the same pod in how they both are so stoic as to how life has evolved for them. Vet simply refuses to look at life in any way other than his own perceptions and demands the others in the house accept it as gospel. Buddy only identifies with how unfair life has been for him since he left the service and just wants to ‘blow something up’. We get a forceful impression that he’s hustled more than a bit for attempted comfort. And Grace stands oh-so consistently in the midst of it all, wondering how she can be heard through the din of a strong example of toxic masculinity and dealing with her own trauma in the house.

Director Steve H. Broadnax III creates a genuine mini-symphony of emotional movement that is demanded here from the Parks script. The Ensemble Theater stage is in the round and entirely utilized in Arnel Sancianco’s elegant scenic design with the living room, kitchen, outdoor patio and hallways to the rest of the house. It’s greatly complimented in the projections of designer Rasean Davonte Johnson with three large screens overlooking the stage containing chapters in Grace’s book, a home movie of Buddy as a child, and a suggestion of graffiti-drawn walls that reflect Vet’s immovable attitudes toward “aliens” and keeping one’s place. Pools of moody shading and gentle assistance for the storytellers is seen in Jason Lynch’s impressionable lighting design.

There are strong reflections here from other similar moments and characters in other pieces. Vet offers sharp echoes of Troy Maxson in August Wilson’s great treatise Fences. Buddy’s desperate nature is reflective of the younger Walter in A Raisin in the Sun who just wants his own piece of the American pie. And Grace, well, it’s her book, after all. But in doing her optimistic best to retain a stance of ‘good’ she unknowingly feeds into Vet’s intense anger and distrust. From there, “The Book of Grace” is rapidly steered to a tragic closure of those ‘dreams deferred’ that Langston Hughes carves into our conscience.

RONALD KEATON received an Equity Jeff Award for the performance of his one-man show CHURCHILL. www.solochicagotheatre.com  Coming soon, his new solo play “Echo Holler.” www.echoholler.com

PHOTO | Michael Brosilow

Steppenwolf Theatre Company
presents
Chicago Premiere
The Book of Grace

Ensemble Theatre
1650 N. Halsted St.
through May 18, 2025

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PicksInSix Review: TITANIQUE-Porchlight Music Theatre|Broadway in Chicago

Power-Packed Parody ‘Titanique’ Making Waves!
PicksInSix® Review | Guest Contributor | Ronald Keaton

There is quite a unique piece of musical theatre that officially opened Wednesday night at the Broadway Playhouse at Water Tower Place. It’s the Chicago premiere of “Titanique”—produced by Porchlight Music Theatre and presented in association with Broadway in Chicago—a well-devised, power-packed parody of the 1997 film “Titanic” which remains one of the highest-grossing movies in history. “Titanique” takes a boatload of liberties in its campy take on the film it lovingly emulates and pretty much asks the audience one basic question: Could the hero of the film actually be Céline Dion?

Remember that Ms. Dion’s great hit was the theme to the film “My Heart Will Go On.” It was a gigantic single that became her ultimate accomplishment and generated a recurring theme in the James Horner film score. Well, the creators of “Titanique”—Marla Mindelle, Constantine Rousouli and director Tye Blue (a particularly experienced hand at creating satirical productions of famous shows)—went about the task of doing Titanic a treatment of its own.  The codicil was that Ms. Dion’s influence on the success of the film was so important that they decided to make her the focus of the show. So, we are asked to come along the voyage with Ms. Dion as she appears at a kind of Titanic ‘museum’ to share what she says really happened.

The piece is almost maniacally offered at a laugh-a-minute pace, not unlike the recent satire “The Play That Goes Wrong.” The topical and pop culture references all fly by in a hurry, only to be followed by another in its wake that can easily be recognized. Since the cast knows it’s coming to us in such a manner, it actually helps that they will figuratively or verbally ‘wink’ at the punchline, precisely because of the breathless delivery. This approach is maintained all through the production, especially in musical sequences that rapidly push the plot—a smart invention for the writers.

And yes, hardly a moment in the film is spared the “Titanique” treatment. Jack and Rose are put through the mill in taking our imaginations about their blossoming love and showing us in campy, imaginative ways what might happen during the time of the voyage. Cal, Rose’s fiancé, purchased the legendary Heart of the Ocean diamond necklace from Jared’s, he shouts more than once. Oh, and another convention knocked down here is that several of the characters in the play are the actors who played those characters in the film. So, for instance, Molly Brown was played by Kathy Bates. Here in the show, Bates is the actual character, not Brown. Same with the Captain as portrayed by Victor Garber. Garber is the character.  It’s a really fun twist to watch.

The talent here is at a high level, indeed. The Céline Dion character is a combination mother hen/narcissistic dove with Clare Kennedy McLaughlin in real command. Maya Rowe demands our attention in her powerful Rose; it seems so easy for her to plant her feet and make us watch her. Adam Fane is a joy as Jack, right down to the bashful looks and references that made Leonardo DiCaprio a star. As Victor Garber, the versatile Jackson Evans looks every bit the part of the Captain. The great Rob Lindley steals everything he’s in as Ruth, Rose’s mother. Abby C. Smith offers Molly Brown as an almost Southern family matriarch—elegant and forceful. A wonderful surprise was Eric Lewis as The Seaman and The Iceberg… yes, The Iceberg as Tina Turner. The always dynamic Adrian Aguilar plays Cal as both arrogant and touching, a tough act in this company.

Musically, the four players in the band led by Dr. Michael McBride make a great deal of hay with what they’re asked to do. Lots of rock anthem-type songs and derivative pieces from things that we all know from popular music that choreographer Kasey Alfonso takes full advantage of. They even played “Beauty And The Beast,” another Celine Dion hit. It all floats through for the audience at a racehorse’s clip. And the audience learns in a hurry to hang on tight. It’s a lot of fun and has already been extended through July 13.

GUEST CONTRIBUTOR | RONALD KEATON received an Equity Jeff Award for the performance of his one-man show CHURCHILL. www.solochicagotheatre.com  Coming soon, his new solo play “Echo Holler.” www.echoholler.com

PHOTO|Michael Brosilow

Porchlight Music Theatre
in association with
Broadway in Chicago
present
Chicago Premiere
TITANIQUE
Broadway Playhouse
Water Tower Place
EXTENDED through July 13, 2025

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PicksInSix Review: No Such Thing - Rivendell Theatre Ensemble

‘No Such Thing’ Is Anything But.
PicksInSix® Review | Guest Contributor | Ronald Keaton

If ever in Chicago there was a little engine that could, Artistic Director Tara Mallen’s determined Rivendell Theatre Ensemble seems to often be able to do so. RTE celebrates its 30th Anniversary Season with an intriguing, provocative world premiere of “No Such Thing” by RTE Ensemble Member Lisa Dillman, and it runs now through April 27.

Directed in intimate, meaningful strokes by Malkia Stampley, “No Such Thing” shares the tale of Ren (a cast-the-net-wide, fascinating performance by Susan Gosdick), a screenwriter in the midst of mining her life for interesting and substantial stories that can jumpstart her career. Experiencing the reigniting of a career in middle age is something many artists can understand and aspire to. And one of the things that Ren considers in doing so is in adding a layer of inspiring intimacy to her life in the form of a tightly knit affair with someone she meets in a dating app or through personals ads.

The construct here in her exchange with Fallon (fine, articulate work by Josh Odor), an accomplished man of letters, is quite the challenge. They both set rules in their affair: No names, for one, except for what they create within the affair itself. No stories about current life or work. Nothing in the hotel room but lust and opinion and stories they share that may or may not be true. Both Ren and Fallon jump in with both feet, and for a while, the affair is an agreeable, enjoyable journey for both. For a while.

Because meanwhile, back at home, Ren’s husband Ted (the always high-quality performer Matt DeCaro) is a faithful servant of sorts – going to work, coming home, sharing the day, reading the paper, enjoying his bourbon or whatever – all the while unknowingly contributing to the eventual downfall of the marriage. Both Ren and Ted are locked into this pattern. Hence, the affair. There is a daughter Olivia (a bright, knowing portrayal by Jessica Ervin), whose teenaged problems explode over time into personal trauma. Therapy, medication, even a dabble in legal problems occupy the family’s attention in an overly invasive way.

Ren has several meetings with her friend and literary agent Marilyn (the marvelous Cheryl Hamada is a real comic coin for Ren), who acts as the voice over Ren’s shoulder and eventually has to share the fact that her writing has dramatically suffered during all the family upheaval, and that whatever happens, Ren needs to buckle down even more than she is. A tall order, indeed, given the emotional and intellectual walls that need to be surmounted.

The play envelops what seems like a couple of years and there are real surprises in the story. This writer will leave any assessment of the plot to individual minds. Don’t want to give anything away inappropriately. The scenic design of Lauren Nichols offers a quite clever series of sliding panels and walls to indicate different locations; they successfully overcome the necessary limits of Rivendell’s small performance space. But its intimacy is the very thing that helps the audience see this piece for what it is – an examination into the scourges of relevance in life, and how they affect the characters going forward. “No Such Thing” is anything but. It’s a purposeful and powerful treatise that asks its audience to consider such realities as they arise in life, as well as one person’s way in dealing with them. 

GUEST CONTRIBUTOR | RONALD KEATON received an Equity Jeff Award for the performance of his one-man show CHURCHILL. www.solochicagotheatre.com  Coming soon, his new solo play “Echo Holler.” www.echoholler.com

PHOTO | Michael Brosilow

WORLD PREMIERE
Rivendell Theatre Ensemble
presents
NO SUCH THING
5779 N. Ridge Avenue
through April 27, 2025

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TICKETS
773.334.7728

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PicksInSix Review: Sunny Afternoon - Chicago Shakespeare Theater

It’s All About The Music!
PicksInSix® Review | Ed Tracy

The long-awaited Chicago Shakespeare Theater’s North American premiere of “Sunny Afternoon,” based on the music of The Kinks, opened in spectacular form on Friday in The Yard. Directed by CST’s Artistic Director Edward Hall, the show originated in 2014 in London, also directed by Hall and starring the enormously talented Danny Horn and Oliver Hoare as Ray and Dave Davies, the two brothers who formed the explosive core of the band whose music became the soundtrack of a generation during the British invasion of the 1960s.

For those of us in the crowd who witnessed this musical revolution in real time—and just about everyone else—heads were swaying and the response was electric. The Kinks broke out in 1964 and made their US tour debut in June 1965. It was a highly anticipated, and short-lived, experience that led to the group being banned from performing in the U.S. for nearly five years due primarily to union issues flamed by management disagreements and the internal unrest of the band itself. As this story unfolds, it’s clearly a tall order to be young, talented and unable to get along with each other except when you were making music together.

“Sunny Afternoon” falls in the family of jukebox musicals that showcase dozens of the iconic hits around a compelling backstory of survival at all costs. It follows the band’s rise from their first professional contract—signed by Ray and Dave’s father since no one was of legal age—to their return to America and a 1972 concert date at Madison Square Garden. Ray Davies is credited with all music, lyrics and the story for the book by Joe Penhall. The original London production received four Olivier Awards including Best New Musical and Outstanding Achievement in Music for Davies, landing closest in style to “The Who’s Tommy,” “Million Dollar Quartet” and “Jersey Boys,“ and offering a lens into our 1960s appetite for rock ‘n roll with a raucous twist and the unmistakable sound of that raw and rebellious era.

The risks are great in this musical genre. Will the vocal performances live up to the original? What about the instrumentation and collective sound? Does the story lend itself to support the music or will it be an impediment to the overall flow? And, what does it take to recapture the magic for a new audience?

Those questions are answered definitively time and again in Hall’s masterfully staged production, on a Miriam Buether set (and costumes) with a sound wall of 60s era amps and speakers and a runway into the audience that provides wonderful opportunities for the super-charged ensemble. Horn and Hoare, with Michael Lepore (Peter Quaife) and Kieran McCabe (Mick Avory), are brilliant vocalists and flawless musicians who spend nearly all of the two hour, forty minute running time of the show on stage. It all adds up to a magnificently jubilant musical odyssey from the dominate opening riffs of Hoare’s “You Really Got Me” to “Lola,” “Waterloo Sunset” and a string of distinctive hits including “Just Can’t Sleep,” “Dedicated Follower of Fashion,” and “Too Much On My Mind/Tired of Waiting.”

By the time “Sunny Afternoon” bursts on stage, Horn’s Ray has written the musical score of his life and revealed the trials and tribulations of a rock ‘n’ roll force of nature who did not compromise the most important part of his work: the music. Hall has tapped into a unique period that we can relate to. The turbulent times of the 1960s are not so much of the story here, but the subtext looks and feels a lot like what we face today. And it’s Davies’ lyric from “The Moneygoround” that tells the tale: “Oh, but life goes on and on, and no one ever wins, and time goes quickly by, just like the money-go-round, I only hope that I'll survive.” Thankfully, the Kinks have. What a trip!

PHOTO|Carol Rosegg

Chicago Shakespeare Theater
presents
North American Premiere
Sunny Afternoon
The Yard
Navy Pier
through April 27, 2025

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PicksInSix Review: Waitress-Paramount Theatre

Paramount's 'Waitress' is a Dream Pie!
PicksInSix® Gold Review | Ed Tracy

It’s safe to say that everyone in the audience for the opening of Paramount Theatre’s regional premiere production of “Waitress,” directed and choreographed by Katie Spelman, got something at the outset they never expected.

Only minutes into the show, as the lovely and talented Michelle Lauto playing the pie baker/waitress extraordinaire Jenna is in a scene transition from the prep station to Joe’s Diner & Pie Shop, a voice of authority echoed through the theater directing actors to immediately clear the stage as the house lights came up and the curtain came down.

This happens, of course. “It’s live theatre, folks!” a familiar voice bellowed from the back of the house to the delight of the audience.

Several minutes passed and then, to a rousing ovation, the curtain rose again where Lauto, standing alone, unfazed, immediately recaptured the momentum and launched into what will surely be regarded as one of the single most engaging overall performances to grace the Paramount stage in recent memory.

Yes, that is saying a lot, but this show and Lauto’s role in it represents a turning point in a remarkable career. Having spent more than a decade in lead and ensemble roles on Chicago stages large and small, none have been remotely close to Aurora’s awe-inspiring 1800-seat Paramount and the opportunity to shine in a large scale, professional production.

And shine she does. Lauto is a superb actor who has consistently delivered vocally powerful performances with a near limitless range. In “Waitress,” she is all at once emotionally exposed and vulnerable as Jenna whose pies are as sweet as her arresting presence. It’s a multi-layered offering, exuding confidence, maturity and the fearless quality that you equate with a star.

As the story goes, Jenna, the daughter of a loving, but physically-abused mother, is now trapped in a lonely, loveless marriage to her toxic husband Earl (a chilling Ian Paul Custer) from which she desperately wants to escape. To add to everything else, she finds out that she’s six weeks pregnant with Earl’s baby.

Enter Dr. Pomatter (David Moreland at his best), her new gynecologist, who falls for more than Jenna’s sweet confections. As the affair shakes Jenna’s moral compass, Pomatter’s loving attention awakens within her the courage she needs to consider making a change to escape Earl’s manipulative hold on her and give her child a better life.

Jenna’s outrageous co-workers at Joe’s, Becky (Teresa LaGamba) and Dawn (Kelly Felthous), are looking for more in their lives, too. Becky is at playful odds with the cook, Cal (Jonah D. Winston) while the wallflower, Dawn is looking for love everywhere until Ogie (Jackson Evans) responds to her hilarious online profile. Once these two find each other, “Waitress” really starts to heat up. With the company performing Spelman’s innovative dance numbers with comic ease—from Becky and Cal in the kitchen with a spatula and Dawn and Ogie reenacting the Revolutionary War—it’s a laugh-a-minute riot!

The 2016 four-time Tony nominated show—based on the 2007 film written by Adrienne Shelly—with book by Jessie Nelson and music and lyrics by Sara Bareilles, earned a best actress nomination for Chicago’s own Jesse Mueller. Spelman and music director Celia Villacres, who also conducts, have an exceptional eye for talent, amassing a seasoned, all-star Chicago cast that includes delightful, featured roles for Ron E. Rains as Joe, Sophie Grimm as Jenna’s Mother/Nurse Norma, and Reese Bella and Julianna Velez who split the roles of young Jenna and Lulu.

Scott Davis’s smart set design revolves from scene to scene in an instant, punctuated by Eric Southern’s lighting that highlights Mieka van der Ploeg’s costumes. Ivy Thomas’s noteworthy properties make for a realistic setting at every turn.

In the end, “Waitress” is a moving story about overcoming obstacles and the power of friendships, all leading to Jenna’s moment of truth: Lauto’s stunning, soul-searching ballad “She Used to Be Mine”—the showstopping highlight of the night.

PHOTO|Brett Beiner Photography

Paramount Theatre
presents
Waitress
23 E Galena Blvd,
Aurora, IL
through March 30, 2025

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Cast Note: The role of Odie will be played by Jackson Evans through March 16. Nik Kmiecik joins the cast beginning March 19 through 30.

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PicksInSix Review: Betrayal-Goodman Theatre

BETRAYAL: If You Know, You Know.
PicksInSix® Review | Ed Tracy

It is no surprise that there was high anticipation for the opening Monday of the Goodman Theatre production of Harold Pinter’s “Betrayal,” directed by Artistic Director Susan V. Booth. With a seasoned, all-star cast that includes Helen Hunt, Ian Barford and Robert Sean Leonard, the show is a fictionized account of Pinter’s own marital infidelity. It is a remarkably succinct play, told in reverse order with scenes that unfold from 1977, two years after the clandestine seven-year affair ended, to the moment of its inception in 1968 while delving into how these affairs of the heart occur in the lives of otherwise well-meaning and trustworthy adults.

On those last few points, none of Pinter’s flawed characters in “Betrayal” are even remotely close to well-meaning and trustworthy, with the exception of Nico Grelli whose comic turn as an Italian waiter is a delight. We know at the top everyone is playing with fire and it’s just a matter of time for all of the deception, tension and misinformation to be revealed. And when it ends, the 75-minute drama feels remarkably like it is just getting started.

Jerry (Leonard) is married to Judith (unseen) and was best man at the wedding of Emma (Hunt) and Robert (Bedford). As the backstory is revealed to its eventual beginning, the betrayals that the audience are already aware of are realized in such rapid succession that you may need a scorecard to keep track. It’s as if Pinter took a page from the Dale Carnegie playbook: “Tell ’em what you’re going to tell ’em; then tell ’em; then tell ’em what you told ’em.” He with him. She with he. Him with her. And that’s not counting the unseen who are affected, including, well, if you know you know.

Pinter was 38 years old and married a year when his longtime affair with Joan Bakewell began and in his mid-40s when it ended which is more than a decade removed from anyone on the Goodman stage. All that was a conscious decision by Booth in casting the work around Hunt. Leonard plays the closest to that range throughout in a fine performance even if the heat of the romance is a bit more of a glowing ember than a red hot flame. Beford’s Robert pulses with an undercurrent of hostility though not quite enough to serve as an impetus for Hunt’s Emma to seek comfort elsewhere.

There is no doubt that Hunt has the most challenging assignment of all. From the shocking truths of the opening scene to the first embrace, she is fascinating to watch at work mining the complex relationships with both men.  

This all plays out on the very stylized scenescape by Neil Patel that incorporates massive translucent panels providing a palette for Rasean Davonté Johnson’s rich projection design. The atmospheric sound design and composition by Rob Milburn and Michale Bodeen and lighting by Xavier Pierce all combine with Linda Rothke’s costumes to make Goodman’s “Betrayal” a unique and absorbing production.

PHOTO|Joan Marcus

GOODMAN THEATRE
presents
BETRAYAL
170 N Dearborn St

EXTENDED through March 30

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PicksInSix Review: Circus Quixote-Lookingglass Theatre Company

Epic Story of Adventure and Kinship
PicksInSix® Review | Ed Tracy

The Lookingglass Theatre Company has returned to production after an extended hiatus with the world premiere of “Circus Quixote,” an artfully produced work written and directed by Kerry and David Catlin. The show—based on Miguel de Cervantes’ Don Quijote of La Mancha featuring circus by Sylvia Hernandez-Distani and presented in collaboration with Actors Gymnasium—follows in a long and varied path of organically developed theater work that has defined the reputation of the regional Tony Award-winning theater whose home is at the heart of Chicago’s Water Tower Water Works, sparkling and renewed after a major interior renovation to the public spaces in recent months.

That home has a history of stellar works to its credit—memorable recent treatments of classics include “Moby Dick,” “20,000 Leagues Under The Seas,” “Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein,” and “The Steadfast Tin Soldier”—all conceived and developed by the ensemble collective of talent including the Catlins, the great Mary Zimmerman and so many others whose creative theatrical style and magical touch are like nothing else you will ever see.

“Circus Quixote” joins that collective of the always rugged, ambitious and explosive offerings that include imaginative scenic elements and special effects, whimsical costumes, original music, intricate aerial and cirque routines, and puppetry all layered within the storytelling. And it is particularly satisfying to see Lookingglass Theatre return with a show that boasts a youthful, committed company—with many new and multi-talented artists—in what is certainly a colossal assignment to frame Cervantes’ epic story of adventure and kinship on stage.

At the center of the show is the remarkable performance of Michel Rodriguez Cintra as Don Quixote who is ever present throughout the two hour thirty minute odyssey. Edwardo Marinez is terrific as narrator Cervantes and the loyal squire Sancho Panza. Together, the two set out on a fictional quest throughout La Mancha, braving the elements and conquering beasts from the depths often with a wink, a nod and a fanny whack or two to keep things moving along.

The piece was developed in 2022 at The Actors Gymnasium and sits comfortably on Courtney O’Neill’s set that incorporates a number of surprises within a forty by twelve foot book wall, standing aerial poles and rigging, hidden passageways, and an impressive windmill that provide access for Hernandez-Distani’s artful circus elements. There are many imaginative multi-functional stage elements and visual effects to discover along the way enhanced by Sully Ratke’s ingenious costume design.

Cervantes’ aficionados will appreciate the dense storyline that alternates from the wit inherent in much of the script, exemplified in the chemistry and well-paced exchanges of Cintra and Marinez. The slapstick chaos of the ensemble will certainly appeal to everyone who appreciates the Lookingglass aesthetic that is always evolving, striving to tell a deeper story in the most entertaining way possible in the intimate confines of one of Chicago’s most historic settings.

PHOTO | Joe Mazza/brave lux

Lookingglass Theatre Company
in association with
The Actors Gymnasium
presents
World Premiere
CIRCUS QUIXOTE
Joan and Paul Theatre
Water Tower Water Works
EXTENDED through March 30, 2025

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PicksInSix Review: Beautiful: The Carole King Musical - Drury Lane Theatre

“You’re beautiful as you feel.” 
PicksInSix® Review | Guest Contributor | Kaitlyn Linsner

“Beautiful: The Carole King Musical,” an entertaining journey through Carole King’s life, is now playing at Drury Lane Theatre through March 23. Featuring a book by Douglas McGrath and lyrics and music by Carole King, Gerry Goffin, Barry Mann and Cynthia Well, this musical is particularly special and nostalgic for those who grew up listening to the music from the 60s and 70s. 

The show begins with brilliant, 16-year-old Carole (Samantha Gershman) selling her first original song to Donny Kirshner (Michael Lawrence Brown) at the Brill Building in Manhattan. From there, she meets her husband Gerry Goffin (Alex Benoit), who writes the lyrics to her compositions, and the two of them generate hit after hit while their good friends and competitors Cynthia Weil (Alexandra Palkovic) and Barry Mann (Andrew MacNaughton) work across the hall trying to keep up. Carole faces difficult personal struggles as a young mother in the music industry and being married to an absent, unfaithful husband yet she still rises to fame all culminating with her widely successful second studio album Tapestry. 

Directed by Jane Lanier with musical director Carolyn Brady and choreographer Gerry McIntyre, “Beautiful” is an inspiring story, and a delightful behind-the-scenes look at how the music industry worked back when performers often did not write their own songs. While the plot lacks the depth to really explore the relational complexities of Carole’s young life in particular, there is such fun in learning about the origin stories of so many beloved songs. Plus, the talented cast elevates the musical with strong vocal performances throughout.

Gershman shines as Carole bringing such warmth to her heartfelt and earnest performance. She sings beautifully, doing especially well to capture the soft, sultry tones of Carole’s voice. Her performance of “(You Make Me Feel) A Natural Woman” is a top highlight of the show. 

Other highlights include The Drifters’ (Averis Anderson, Makenzy Jenkins, Austin Nelson Jr., Michael Turrentine) flawless and ebullient performance of “On Broadway” and “Will You Love Me Tomorrow” by The Shirelles (Lydia Burke, Raeven Carroll, Allanna Lovely, Chamaya Moody). Palkovic and MacNaughton have such chemistry on stage with MacNaughton bringing a bit of delightful camp to his performance as Mann.

Packed with great music from start to finish, “Beautiful: The Carole King Musical” is a lovely celebration of one of the most successful songwriters in American history. A good choice for all music lovers. 

GUEST CONTRIBUTROR | Kaitlyn Linsner serves as an Assistant Attorney General in the Public Utilities Bureau of the Office of the Illinois Attorney General.

PHOTO | Brett Beiner

Beautiful
The Carole King Musical
Drury Lane Theatre
Oak Brook
through March 23, 2025

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PicksInSix Review: A Raisin in the Sun - Court Theatre

What Happens To A Dream Deferred?
PicksInSix® Review | Ed Tracy

Lorraine Hansberry’s arresting triumph “A Raisin in the Sun” is playing now in a brilliant production at Court Theatre. Directed by Senior Artistic Producer Gabrielle Randle-Bent, the 1957 play—penned by the 27-year-old Hansberry and largely based on her own experiences growing up on the South Side of Chicago—has been lauded since for its defining influence on American theatre, the sheer poetry of the text and its stirring depiction of an urban Black family and their individual dreams for a better life.

Randle-Bent has amassed a powerhouse company, led by the remarkable performances of Shanésia Davis as Lena ‘Mama’ Younger, the matriarch of the family; her impulsive son Walter Lee, played on an emotional edge by Brian Keys; a moving and truly sentient turn by Kierra Bunch as Walter’s pregnant wife, Ruth; Martasia Jones as the progressive daughter Beneatha; and, Jeremias Darville (who alternates with Di'Aire Wilson) as Travis, the youngest son and hope for the next generation in the family.

Set in a cramped South Side tenement in the late 1950s amid the segregation and racially restrictive covenants of the era that fueled the redlining of neighborhoods, Mama and the Younger family are expecting a $10,000 death benefit payment, the legacy of her late husband’s lifetime of service and sacrifice for the family. There is debate about how the money should be spent, but not about who is the decision maker.

On one side, Walter pleads with Ruth to join him in convincing Mama to invest the sum in a liquor store that he hopes will both raise his stature from the service job he has been trapped in and provide a better life for everyone. Ruth and Beneatha, who is studying to be a doctor, both agree that it is Mama’s decision, leaving Walter to make a direct appeal that Mama rejects in favor of her own dream: a home of their own. Once that decision sinks in, Walter embarks on a three-day bender that threatens his employment and alienates everyone in the family. In a true act of trust and love, Mama makes a concession that leads to trouble ahead for the Younger family.

Along the way, we watch Beneatha evolve from a bobby socks college student to free-spirit, influenced by the scholarly atmosphere she inhabits during the day and the attention of George Murchison (Charles Andrew Gardner), a relationship she is far less attracted to than the new ideals of Joseph Asagai (Eliott Johnson), a charming Nigerian suitor who introduces her to a culture that awakens a passion within her. Julian Parker (Bobo), Vincent Teninty (Karl Lindner) and J. Nicole Brooks (Mrs. Johnson) round out the superb cast.

Andrew Boyce’s robust scenic design—an elevated, angular stage framed in a series of large-scale urban-themed panels behind the detailed close quarters of the Younger’s meager row house flat—provides multiple obscure and semi-obstructed interior views while serving as a fascinating template for cast movement in, out and within the space. Maximo Grano De Oro evocative lighting, Willow James’s subtle sound design and superb costumes by Raquel Adorno with Jeanette Rodriguez elevate Court Theatre’s production of “A Raisin in the Sun” to a new artistic standard for this enduring American classic and the show to see now in Chicago.

PHOTO | Michael Brosilow

Court Theatre
presents
A Raisin in the Sun
5535 S Ellis Ave.
Chicago, IL 60637

Extended through March 23, 2025

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(773) 753-4472

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PicksInSix Review: Fool for Love - Steppenwolf Theatre Company

Searing ‘Fool for Love’ At Steppenwolf
PicksInSix Review | Guest Contributor Ronald Keaton

The great Sam Shepard play “Fool for Love,” now playing at Steppenwolf Theatre through March 23, was written in the middle of a quality string of highly volatile, verbally explosive plays about family that he penned in an eight-year period between 1977 and 1985. including “Buried Child” (which won Mr. Shepard his Pulitzer Prize in 1979) and “True West”(which had a legendary Steppenwolf production). In 1984, “Fool for Love” was itself nominated for a Pulitzer Prize and purportedly was written after the playwright’s divorce from his first wife, resulting in a outpouring of personal, emotional fallout that produced this searing piece of theatre.

Make no mistake—the play itself is the star.  May and Eddie are star-crossed lovers who meet yet again in a motel out in the Mojave Desert. There is a taut, difficult dynamic between these two that produces a dreaded secret to face. Sitting outside the motel is the otherworldly spirit of The Old Man, whose influence on this relationship is both relentless and disturbing, because of that secret that no one wishes to discuss.

May (played by Caroline Neff, at once both feisty and vulnerable) has been abandoned by Eddie (Nick Gehlfuss as the brawling rodeo star) one too many times. She wants nothing to do with him and repeatedly demands that he leave.  Yet when he actually threatens to leave, May is suddenly a child-like being, afraid of being left alone. The dichotomy here produces a quite visceral and intense piece of theatre narrative. Eddie feels the need to dominate the proceedings, and even the history between them, as if they would tell two different stories. May bucks right back, reminding him of his endless disloyalty. And the story of their shared lives is unique and shocking.

So May has a date that was planned before Eddie’s arrival. Enter Martin (Cliff Chamberlain, who offers fine comic relief as a bumbling suitor) into the fray. Talk about a fish out of water. Martin is so innocent and shy that his initial exchange with Eddie turns into a kind of staggering fascination as to what kind of man this rodeo guy really is. And Martin is totally drawn into the tale that Eddie tells about his youth, meeting May and discovering a guise of love that he’d never witnessed, let alone felt before. By now, May has come out of the bathroom, having listened through the door at all of Eddie’s story and wanting to immediately correct him on the facts of the matter.

Finally, the Old Man (the appropriately craggy Tim Hopper in an almost Big Daddy guise), whose stance throughout has been to inject his own brutal viewpoint onto the story, finally awakens his ghostly aura, manifesting at last into a genuine voice to Eddie, almost begging him to “tell the truth and represent me.” If a viewer has never seen this play, this writer will spare you the tawdry details of what happens at the end. Suffice it to say that at the time of its writing, “Fool for Love” was a staggering example of “the sins of the father” that Mr. Shepard so comfortably shares here.

Coming from the recent Broadway debut of the stage version of John LeCarre’s novel “The Spy Who Came In From The Cold” is the English director Jeremy Herrin. Todd Rosenthal produces a dependable set design in a seedy motel, complete with neon sign above. Heather Gilbert shows a lighting design with “on-fire” effects shooting into the room from outside visitors. Mikhail Fiksel offers shots and explosions onto Eddie’s truck from those same visitors, as well as the occasional George Strait melody in his sound design.  It’s a short play at roughly 65 minutes or so, but one will find that hour full of passion and a fury all its own.

GUEST CONTRIBUTOR | RONALD KEATON received an Equity Jeff Award for the performance of his one-man show CHURCHILL. www.solochicagotheatre.com  Coming soon, his new solo play “Echo Holler.” www.echoholler.com

PHOTO | Michael Brosilow

Steppenwolf Theatre Company
presents
Fool for Love
1650 N. Halsted St.
(312) 335-1650
through March 23, 2025

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PicksInSix Review: Native Gardens - Buffalo Theatre Ensemble

Neighbor’s Conflict Makes For Engaging Comedy
PicksInSix Review | Guest Contributor Kaitlyn Linsner

Karen Zacarías’ “Native Gardens,” a zippy comedy about a disagreement between new neighbors, is now playing in a Buffalo Theatre Ensemble production at the McAninch Arts Center through March 2. The audience sits just beyond two backyards - one tidy and well-manicured and the other unkempt—split by a flimsy chain link fence. Between the title and the visually stunning Mara Ishihara Zinky set, you may be wondering will the next 90 minutes be spent delving into these glaringly different attitudes toward yard work? Well, sort of.

Directed by Steve Scott, longtime producer at the Goodman Theatre, “Native Gardens” does in fact examine these two yards and how two families maintain them. It also explores the values and belief systems that influence even the most seemingly inconsequential decisions. Digging a bit deeper (but not too much deeper), the show examines how social constructs such as class, race and gender intersect to guide those values, and then what happens when faced with challenges to all of the above.

On one side of the fence stands Pablo (Richard Gomez) and Tonia (Sofia Tew), a younger, progressive, Latinx, married couple new to the neighborhood and eager to finesse the yard of their first home into a native garden that Tonia insists will benefit the environment. Pablo over-zealously invites his entire law firm over for a party that Tonia agrees to host outside only if they replace the unsightly chain link fence with a statelier wooden one.

That brings us to the other side of the fence where Virginia (Kelli Walker) and Frank (Bryan Burke) live. An older couple, the Butleys are white conservatives having lived in the neighborhood for many years. They take no issue with the proposed wood fence. Frank has meticulously tended his garden, and while he agrees that the wood fence is the better choice, he disagrees with Tonia over whether a native garden is really just a plot of weeds and insects. Frank offers to teach Tonia some things. Virginia tries to relate to Pablo about being disenfranchised in the workplace. They even bring Pablo and Tonia wine and chocolate to welcome them to the neighborhood.

How nice! What could possibly go wrong when both sides agree to a nicer looking fence and pretend to like each other? The answer is a lot when Tonia and Pablo discover that their yard extends further into the Butley’s garden. Soon the amiable discussions about flowers, insects and children shift to disagreements over land, intentions and entitlement. The phrase “you people” gets hurled about as the conflict escalates, and this is when “Native Gardens” really hits its stride. The most comedic, amusing and insightful moments shine through the friction especially when the cast volleys lines back and forth at the height of the land battle.

All this to say that while “Native Gardens” explores differences in a rather conventional manner (and has the unsurprising positive ending most folks would want if in the same situation) there is something to be said about all the good parts happening when conflict erupts. Conflict can be beneficial as it can lead to growth, stronger relationships and deeper understandings, and in the case of “Native Gardens,” it can also be quite entertaining.

GUEST CONTRIBUTROR | Kaitlyn Linsner serves as an Assistant Attorney General in the Public Utilities Bureau of the Office of the Illinois Attorney General.

PHOTO | Rex Howard Photography

Buffalo Theatre Ensemble
presents
Native Gardens

McAninch Arts Center
College of DuPage
425 Fawell Blvd.
through March 2

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PicksInSix Review: LOBBY HERO - Shattered Globe Theatre

Ethical Choices Drive Compelling ‘LOBBY HERO’
PicksInSix® Review | Guest Contributor | Ronald Keaton

Shattered Globe Theatre’s latest offering “Lobby Hero," a taut, fascinating piece delivered in an almost improvisational style with several fine performances, is playing at Theater Wit through March 1. The play is written by the accomplished director/playwright/screenwriter/actor Kenneth Lonergan and directed in a tight, emotional fashion by SGT member Nate Santana. “Lobby Hero” is an almost claustrophobic tale of mostly honest, hard-working folk confronted by ethical choices that somehow wind up in the same brew, even as they seem to tell different stories—an admirable feat.

All the action takes place in the lobby of a high-rise apartment building in the heart of Manhattan.  Jeff (Elliott Esquivel in a full, grab-your-attention performance) is a security guard in the lobby who dreams of bigger things, although he’s not always sure of what they are. Jeff uses his sense of humor as his shield, his badge of honor, his protection against people getting too close, even as he earnestly yearns for that human intimacy. His boss William (a smooth, yet somber Terence Sims) is unhappy with Jeff’s work attitude and performance, but he somehow gets past those obstacles to see that Jeff is, in essence, a sweet young man trying to find his own way. William is well-established in his job, having worked his way up to a supervisor position after years in the company, and he finds himself sharing quite a dilemma with Jeff in a problem with William’s brother.  You see, his brother has committed a very violent crime and wants William to help with an alibi for protection.

Meanwhile in a seemingly unrelated turn, two police officers at totally different phases of their careers have just arrived outside that apartment building.  Bill (SGT Ensemble Member Adam Schulmerich, appropriately cynical and tough), a jaded sergeant about to reach a new level of accomplishment in the precinct, is the senior partner to Dawn (the marvelous Emma Jo Boyden), who’s been on the job for three months and has just knocked out a suspect with her nightstick in a previous situation. She’s pretty shaken by it all and wonders if her job, probationary as it is, will be in jeopardy. Bill calms her, saying he has her back and will help protect her against any inquiry that will come. Another wrinkle here is that the two cops seem to have feelings for one another, even as Bill is married with children. The two then go inside and Bill goes upstairs to visit a friend… a friend with whom he’s having sex. And Dawn is left down in the lobby with Jeff, who begins to form a romantic approach to see if he can gain her favor.

That moment begins a slow melding of the two plotlines into one storyline. Jeff unwittingly shares with Dawn that this has happened before, something that shakes her naivete. Her views on Bill suddenly find a new stance as Bill gets off the elevator in the lobby, finished with his ‘visit’.  As they get outside, a betrayed Dawn confronts him. Bill begins a confession about the woman upstairs and her husband Jim, who, Bill says, is having a problem that he is helping him get through. Only there is no Jim up there; Jeff tiptoes out to tell Bill, in the middle of his discussion with Dawn, that “Mrs.” whatever her name is upstairs has called down to let him know that Bill forgot his hat. Bill is busted, tells Dawn to wait outside, and then he goes in to harass Jeff for telling secrets he shouldn’t be telling, intimidating him markedly in the process.

Each character here now has a serious ethical impasse to negotiate. William is forced to make a choice about what to do with and for his brother—tell the truth or provide the alibi. Bill is now having to deal with the results of his own wandering eye, which exposes the prospect for ever-ripening discovery of other doubtful career moments that could derail his professional ambitions. Dawn, wide-eyed and principled, continues to take the abuse from her partner until she knows the entire story—not of Bill, but of William and his brother in a case that has headline-making potential at the risk of her own job. And then who does she tell? Jeff, in all this and despite his own meandering competence, has now become the keeper of all the secrets in this narrative. Does he share with Dawn what he's been told about William’s choice to gain her favor, but lose his job? Can he survive all this and still face Bill, who would certainly seek some kind of retribution against him? What about his own simple dreams, which consist basically of getting his own apartment and that’s pretty much it?

Director Santana has encouraged here a lot of characters talking over each other, which creates an interesting, in-the-moment feel on José Manuel Díaz-Soto’s impressive set design. Santana cinematically utilizes lighting (a comfortable design here by Ellie Fey) to draw the audience into critically intimate moments and then expands on the comedy in an occasional and sudden full brightness onstage. It allows the audience the chance to be swept along without feeling manipulated by the stagecraft, and it’s all such fun to observe.

GUEST CONTRIBUTOR | RONALD KEATON received an Equity Jeff Award for the performance of his one-man show CHURCHILL. www.solochicagotheatre.com  Coming soon, his new solo play “Echo Holler.” www.echoholler.com

PHOTO | Michael Brosilow

Shattered Globe Theatre
presents
LOBBY HERO

Theater Wit
1229 W Belmont Ave Chicago
through March 1, 2025

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PicksInSix Review: Fun Home - Porchlight Music Theatre

“A Raincoat Made Out of Love.”
PicksInSix Review | Ed Tracy

Porchlight Music Theatre is celebrating their 30th Anniversary with an exhilarating revival of the 2015 Tony award-winning musical “Fun Home,” based on cartoonist Alison Bechdel’s 2006 groundbreaking graphic memoir, now playing at the Ruth Page Center for the Arts.

Directed by Stephen Schellhardt with music direction by Heidi Joosten, the show stars Alanna Chavez as Alison, Patrick Byrnes as Bruce and Neala Barron as Helen who lead a stellar cast in bringing the moving Lisa Kron/Jeanine Tesori score to life.

Kron’s book follows Bechdel’s conflicted relationship with her gay father as she discovers and comes to terms with her own lesbian sexuality. Chavez’s Alison serves as a 43-year-old stage voyeur looking back on her life growing up in the family funeral home, her sexual awakening in college and facing the inevitable truth of her father’s destructive behavior, all the while capturing the drama in her artwork. Moving in and out of the scenes with versions of herself as a child—alternating roles for Tess Mae Pundsack and Meena Sood as young Alison and Z Mowry as Middle Alison—Chavez expertly navigates the transitions, never leaving the stage for the entire 100 minute runtime of the piece.

Byrnes is a commanding force as Bruce, sheltering his true nature behind the veil of dutiful teacher, husband, father and community mortician while fighting to control an inner rage that will ultimately tear the family apart. Early on, his efforts to shield Alison and her siblings—Eli Vander Griend and Charlie Long alternating as Christian, and Austin Hartung and Hayes McCracken alternating as John—plays out as a domineering perfectionist but not without a sensitivity to literature, art, culture and a flair for restoration projects like the funeral parlor coined the ‘Fun Home’ by his children.

As Bruce’s anguished wife Helen, Barron gives an outstanding, multi-layered performance culminating in the heart-stopping ballad “Days and Days.” Among the other memorable numbers in the melodic score are the musical commercial “Come to the Fun Home” delightfully showcasing the young talent; Mowry’s “Changing My Major,” the touching anthem to her lover Joan (Dakota Hughes); the poignant “Ring of Keys” duet; and Byrnes “Edges of the World.” Lincoln J. Skoien rounds out the cast playing multiple roles and leads the lively company number “Raincoat of Love.”

Scenic designer Jonathan Berg-Einhorn has transformed the Ruth Page stage into an exquisite and intimate multi-level interior that allows Schellhardt the ability to transition effortlessly between scenes. Denise Karczewski’s lighting design and costumes by Marquecia Jordan complete the visually stunning production. With Matthew R. Chase’s pitch-perfect sound design and Joosten’s five-piece band hitting the right notes all night long, Porchlight’s memorable “Fun Home” is not to be missed.

PHOTO|Liz Lauren

Editor’s Note: Longtime photographer Rich Hein, who published his work as Liz Lauren, passed away on Sunday, January 19. 2025. Rich’s matchless photographic contributions will be sorely missed by the entire Chicago theatre community. We extend our heartfelt condolences to his family, friends. and colleagues. et

Porchlight Music Theatre
presents
FUN HOME
Ruth Page Center
1016 N. Dearborn St.
through March 2, 2025

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PARKING

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PicksInSix Review: JAJA'S AFRICAN HAIR BRAIDING - Chicago Shakespeare Theater

Hilarity, Heartbreak Weaved Together at ‘Jaja’s’
PicksInSix Review | Ed Tracy

Jocelyn Bioh’s vibrant “Jaja’s African Hair Braiding” now playing at Chicago Shakespeare Theater unfolds in a series of fast-paced scenes over a single day in a Harlem salon. The year is 2019, but it could be last year, last month or even this week, considering the looming era of uncertainty. It’s here that during the comings and goings of clients we learn about the promise of immigrant life in America, sisterhood and the struggle for social and economic independence. The show also delivers high-spirited comedy that’s baked into the richly defined characters who create their art one lovely strand of hair at a time.

The salon itself has an ecosystem all its own. Jaja (Victoire Charles), the owner of the salon, is getting married and her daughter Marie (Jordan Rice), the high school valedictorian who is currently managing the salon, has her hands full with a trio of seasoned braiders— Bea (Awa Sal Secka), Ndidi (Aisha Sougou) and Aminata (Tiffany Renee Johnson)—who hold back nothing with each other. A fourth braider, Miriam (Bisserat Tseggai) has a powerful immigrant story that plays out in a conversation with one customer over the course of the play.

Chief among these spirited and feisty entrepreneurs is Bea who was there at the beginning with Jaja (the shop was Bea’s idea, after all) and Ndidi who Bea claims has been stealing her clients and her livelihood. Bea also irritates Aminata, whose marriage is on the rocks, but Aminata gives as good as she gets. There is general agreement that Jaja, who has built the business from the ground up and brought along each of them in one way or another, could be making a mistake, despite the celebratory toast they share when Jaja stops by. How this all plays out, and how the women support each other, is at the heart of the story.

The ensemble is rounded out by the exceptional talent of Melanie Brezill and Leovina Charles who cover a fascinating array of salon clients and Yao Dogie who plays the neighborhood merchants and Aminata’s husband, James.  

Director Whitney White’s ensemble is brilliantly supported by a Tony-nominated artistic and technical team that includes Nikiya Mathis, who received a well-deserved special Tony Award for Hair and Wig Design, and Dede Ayite who received the Tony Award for Best Costume Design. Among the four additional nominations—including White for direction and Bioh for Best Play—are David Zinn’s expertly detailed set design and original music and sound by Justin Ellington and Stefania Bulbarella.

Bioh’s uproarious comic banter leads to a stellar, finely-crafted, gut-punch of reality in “Jaja’s African Hair Braiding” that offers a powerfully moving statement on the immigrant experience. The show, a coproduction with Arena Stage, Berkley Repertory Theatre and La Jolla Playhouse, is playing in a limited run at The Yard through February 2nd and tickets are already in high demand.

PHOTO|T. Charles Erickson

Chicago Shakespeare Theater
presents
JAJA’s AFRICAN HAIR BRAIDING
The Yard
Navy Pier
through February 2, 2025

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PicksInSix Review: SHUCKED - Broadway in Chicago - CIBC Theatre

‘SHUCKED’ — A FIELD FULL OF FUN!
PicksInSix Review |Guest Contributor Ronald Keaton

There’s some grand escapist fare going on at the CIBC Theatre on Monroe through January 19.  SHUCKED is the musical story of a community that seems to want to hide away from the world and be left alone, until their lesson is learned. Now that doesn’t seem like a premise that would appeal to more worldly types, admittedly. But the way in which it’s done is an engaging and deceptively simple story told with huge doses of professionalism and humor. And it’s done with expert contributions from all quarters of the creative cache. It's not just about the active performance onstage.

For instance, the fascinating scenic design by Broadway veteran Scott Pask is an encompassing, barn-like roof with beams that stretch all the way across the stage and to the ceiling, symbolically protecting the citizens from nature like a protective bubble of sorts—all while allowing the sun to shine through on the crop and the denizens involved. That lighting design by Japhy Weideman is rich and full and compliments the action onstage brilliantly. Tony Award winner John Shivers layers in a fun sound scheme in a simultaneously subtle and obvious way. When you see it, you’ll understand that strange comparison.

A real star of the show is the endlessly inventive book by Robert Horn, who has taken the low humor form of the pun and shaken it to its core in a gorgeous manner, sprinkling the entire evening with endless, rollicking jokes that have little to do with the plot and everything to do with simply making us laugh. The story offered is surprisingly thick and challenging, which makes it even more a treat. Another is the decidedly enjoyable dance sequences created by the accomplished choreographer Sarah O’Gleby. I dare you not to sit back and smile at the ensemble dancing with ears of corn in their hands, like countrified Rockettes in tight formation.

Okay. Within this community are little stories galore all over the place. The pride of its existence is in living with/among/for corn. Yes, corn. The folks in town (the actual name is Cobb County) have made all things ‘corn’ their literal survival milieu. They live it, breathe it.  It’s the very taste in the air. They make liquor with it, they dress up in it.  Now one day, it is realized that the Cobb County corn is actually dying. The very entity that they depend on to get up every day seems to be drying up. The focus then shifts to a young engaged couple, Maizy and Beau (with Danielle Wade and a constant, boisterous song about her and Jake Odmark as a stoic, traditional hero whose morals form the foundation of the story). Maizy wants to go out into the world and find an answer to the community problem, while Beau resists her leaving, because of his own fears. And it damages their relationship. But leave she does to the big city of Tampa.

Maizy meets and finds Gordy, a well-dressed con artist (Quinn VanAntwerp in a smart turn), who has financial troubles of his own. He spies a bracelet that Maizy owns and wonders about the value of its stones. This launches him, Maizy and the audience into a hustler’s story of greed and desperation, where Gordy convinces Maizy that he is the one with the answers to the corn blight. Appropriately they all go back to the “corn”, where everyone in town—especially Beau and Lulu (Miki Abraham is an absolute joy to watch as she brings down the house whenever she sings), a cousin of Maizy. In fact, there are several smart performances in the show: Mike Nappi as Peanut, Beau’s brother, who carries the heavy load expertly in making us both laugh uproariously and cringe at the puns; Grandpa (Erick Pinnick with gravitas galore); two young storytellers (Maya Lagerstam and Tyler Joseph Ellis) who keep us on the straight and narrow with their own charm and their own jokes to share; and an ensemble augmenting the tale with joy and commitment to the cause.

Two more things to mention. The score by Brandy Clark and Shane McAnally is marvelous and tuneful, a collection of melodies that become real signposts of the action. And the clean, easy direction of legendary Broadway director Jack O’Brien reminds us that true creativity comes from within us at any age…bravo, sir. There is so much more to share about SHUCKED. Suffice it to say that it is a classic story of low humor and familiar notes, given the highest professional commitment by theatrical artists who know what they are doing.

GUEST CONTRIBUTOR | RONALD KEATON received an Equity Jeff Award for the performance of his one-man show CHURCHILL. www.solochicagotheatre.com  Coming soon, his new solo play “Echo Holler.” www.echoholler.com

PHOTO|Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman

Broadway in Chicago
presents

SHUCKED

CIBC Theatre

through January 19

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PicksInSix Review: 2024 Year in Review

Tip The Hat. Turn The Page.
Memorable Performances for 2024
PicksInSix® Review | Ed Tracy

Singling out six of the most memorable performances of artists we covered in 2024 who turned heads and left lasting impressions long after the final bow was a daunting task. So difficult, in fact, that there is also special mention to others who have had terrific years on multiple Chicago stages.

It was a year that included the Royal Shakespeare Company’s return with “Pericles” at Chicago Shakespeare Company, pre-Broadway runs of “Death Becomes Her,” Steppenwolf’s “Purpose” directed by Phylicia Rashad—and, we expect, Sam Hunter’s “Little Bear Ridge Road,” a compelling new work starring Laurie Metcalf—and touring productions like the sensational “Harry Potter and The Cursed Child,” among others. While all deserving of mention, you will find others on the 2024 PicksInSix Year in Review list, our first post-pandemic yearend review.

A special note of thanks to every theatre company, their dedicated boards, administrative, artistic and technical teams, and the unending support of publicists who invest their time and talent in support of the Chicagoland theater community and made it possible to review these shows. It’s an honor to be invited and a responsibility that we take very seriously.

CONVERSATIONS|PicksInSIx® celebrates 10 years in 2025 and owes much to writers like Ronald Keaton, Scott Gryder and Kaitlyn Linsner who have contributed mightily to our archive of Chicago theatre during that time. Thank you!

And, a deserved tip of the hat to the brilliant Chicago theatre photographers Michael Brosilow, Liz Lauren, Brett Beiner, Joe Mazza and videographers HMS Media, among many others, whose expertise and professionalism continues to document these productions and preserve the image archive for future generations.

So here we go in alphabetical order and with a link to the PicksInSix Review (P6):

Sarah Bockel—Falsettos - TimeLine & Court Theatre - The critically-acclaimed co-production of director Nick Bowling’s “Falsettos” featured an ensemble of superb actors and singers in one of two sung-through shows on this list. In the role of Trina, Bockel delivered an extraordinary performance, navigating a delicate emotional path with heartfelt passion and homespun humor. Stunning! P6  

Mark David Kaplan—Fiddler on the Roof at Drury Lane Theatre - In the little town of Anatevka, director Elizabeth Margolius’s ‘memory play’ was, according to Kaitlyn Linsner, an opportunity for Kaplan to display “excellent comedic timing and whimsy” in the critically-acclaimed turn as Tevya. L'Chaim! P6

Beth Stafford Laird—FROZEN at Paramount Theatre - In an epic production directed by Trent Stork that includes several of Disney’s most popular songs and beloved characters, you just might take for granted a character whose youthful exuberance is at the heart of the story. The multi-talented Laird exudes unmatched charm in a rich performance as Anna that is marked by superb vocals, effortless company dance numbers and a shimmering presence all her own. Spellbinding! P6

Meghan Murphy—Anything Goes at Porchlight Music Theatre - Even a blizzard could not keep us away from director Michael Weber’s “Anything Goes” starring the captivating Meghan Murphy in a commanding performance as the seaworthy siren Sweeney. A topflight, take-no-prisoners, star turn. Anchors Away! P6

Aurora Penepecker—Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812 at Writers Theatre - The other sung-through musical/pop opera on this list—one of the most ambitious all-around artistic undertakings of the year by any theater directed by Katie Spelman—featured an extraordinarily multi-talented ensemble of players. And there, at the center of this glorious production, was Penepecker whose lyrical voice and pristine talent was simply intoxicating. Magnificent! P6    

Sawyer Smith—Little Mermaid at Drury Lane Theatre - When you hear the term “over the top” in stage performances, it is often afforded to a performer who has elevated their role beyond the script and score to a new level of excellence. The showstopping turn for Smith, in the Scott Weinstein directed “Little Mermaid,” set a new standard that is certain to change the trajectory of Smith’s exceptional career. Wowza! P6

There are six other artists who excelled in multiple productions deserving of special mention: 

Jackson Evans displayed his wide range for musical comedy in four critically-acclaimed roles: Porchlight’s “Anything Goes,” Drury Lane’s “Guys and Dolls,” Paramount’s “Full Monty” and the Timeline/Court production of “Falsettos.” 

Heidi Kettenring delivered her special brand of star power to Drury Lane’s “Guys and Dolls,” Marriott’s “1776,” “Cinderella” and her concert performance of “Something Wonderful.” A true Chicago stage treasure!

We have been watching Evan Tyrone Martin for years and his compelling and beautifully sung Pierre in Writers “Comet” was central to the overwhelming success of this challenging production.

In addition to all of the projects the busy Ron OJ Parson has been delivering, Ronald Keaton noted that “East Texas Hot Links” at Court Theatre “bears the unmistakable stamp of the great director Ron OJ Parson, who has a relationship with this piece that forces us, in its sheer professionalism alone, to see an unencumbered view of what Jim Crow has done to our world and continues to do today.”

And as much as we never really give credit to the people who support everyone else, the masterful career of Nick Sula has been elevating the work of Sondheim enthusiasts throughout Chicago. Sula followed last season’s stellar production of “Kokandy’s Sweeney Todd” with the unique two piano presentation of Kokandy’s “Into the Woods.”  We can hardly wait to see what the next project will be.

Last, but not least, a tip of the hat to Charles Newell whose long-standing career as Artistic Director has come to a close at Court Theatre, You can be sure we have not heard the last from him. The Newell directed “An Iliad” starring Timothy Edward Kane returns in early June 2025. Bravo!

Happy Holidays!

See you on the other side of the aisle!

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PicksInSix Review: It's A Wonderful Life: Live In Chicago! - American Blues Theater

Delightful Holiday Classic at American Blues!
PicksInSix® Review | Guest Contributor | Ronald Keaton

Feeling like this is an especially long year? Full of physical challenges and emotional obstacles? Need a nostalgic, heartwarming experience and a hot cup of cocoa to get you in the spirit of the season? One thing we’ve always done as a people, I think, to address times like these is to observe our established mores during the holidays. And what better way to capture that special feeling than to spend a few hours at the new and elegant American Blues Theater performance space on North Lincoln Ave with the superb cast and crew of “It’s A Wonderful Life: Live in Chicago!” Led by their stalwart artistic director Gwendolyn Whiteside, ABT has shared this delightful Chicago holiday tradition—a familiar, yet energetic presentation of a loving story we all know and appreciate—for so many years that it has become a beloved and highly anticipated outing for the whole family.

The show takes the shape of a radio play on Chicago station WABT, circa 1944, complete with a foley artist in charge of live sound effects and noises and all else you can imagine. It falls to the responsible hands of J.G. Smith and I wish there was a way to bring her more focus. When you watch her, it’s apparent that there is an absolute pleasure for this actor to be a kind of soundtrack to the play. Her face lights up with every scene, every moment.  What a joy to watch an actor who knows how to impact a scene through simply listening.

The cast sinks its teeth into the tale with exuberance. Brandon Dahlquist, who has been ABT’s George Bailey for eight years now, has become a font of articulate emotion in his portrayal of a man at the end of his rope, wanting only to see even a little of his dreams in front of him. Mr. Dahlquist is strong and humble, as you might expect the character to be, and the simplicity of his prayer to God at the bar shows us his best work. Then there’s the ABT ensemble itself at work. Audrey Billings is a tender, highly accessible Mary Bailey, a woman who knows her husband well and gives him the room he needs to be himself—even at potential great cost to their family. And the most expressive eyes you’ll see.

Manny Buckley plays both the chief angel Joseph and Uncle Billy with authority and grace. He sits on one side of the stage while actor/musician extraordinaire Michael Mahler mans the keyboard on the other side—along with several musical instruments and an endless versatility in his charming guise of station announcer. Dara Cameron is a fun Violet, always being as fetching as possible to George and every other guy she meets.

The grand surprise for this writer is again Joe Dempsey, who portrays both Clarence, the angel second-class trying to earn his wings, and Mr. Potter, the “Scrooge” of the story who owns everything in town but the Bailey Building and Loan. Two more opposite characters you will not find. So, there’s a great deal to admire in actors like Mr. Dempsey; he cuts the cloth of each character in a vivid, striking manner. Ian Paul Custer is a wonder as Ernie the cab driver, Harry Bailey the war hero brother, and a menage of three or four others, usually with a different accent.

Director Whiteside keeps the brisk pacing consistently through the evening, with nice touches like a WABT “On-Air/Applause” sign that the audience dutifully obeys. There is an engaging pre-show with carols and humor, and then there are the little notes of appreciation the audience is asked to compose. The cast reads them out loud at designated points in the proceedings, so friends can know of those who appreciate them. American Blues Theater has honed and crafted its own tradition through this gratifying piece of American literature. It knows when to stop at the point of being too corny, and it delights us in its regaling of a soft, heartfelt holiday whisper we all continue to love.

GUEST CONTRIBUTOR | RONALD KEATON received an Equity Jeff Award for the performance of his one-man show CHURCHILL. www.solochicagotheatre.com  Coming soon, his new solo play “Echo Holler.” www.echoholler.com

PHOTO|Michael Brosilow

American Blues Theater
presents
It’s a Wonderful Life: Live in Chicago!
through December 22, 2024

5627 N. Lincoln
(773) 654-3103

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2024 BACKSTAGE GUIDE

PROGRAM

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