More in Chicago:
- Revolution Chicago doesn't fully capture the fervor of house music's early daysMickey "Mixin'" Oliver's new autobiographical musical has charm, but is too talky. The rise of house music is a large chapter in Chicago's story, yet Revolution Chicago's retelling makes the genre an uncompelling sidenote. Despite no support from his father and skepticism from his mother, Mickey "Mixin'" Oliver pursues a career DJing house music, eventually […]
- The Ship of Tolerance docks at Navy PierWith a mast composed of paintings created by children all over the world, this ship is a vessel aimed toward a more peaceful future. During a recent orientation on the Ship of Tolerance at MacArthur Middle School in Prospect Heights, Russian artist Emilia Kabakov posed two questions to the students: What problems did they expect […]
- Residents of a postapocalyptic America seek connection in Vanya on the PlainsThe Artistic Home gives Jason Hedrick's world premiere about a grim future a life-affirming production. More postapocalyptic plays about staging Chekhov in people's living rooms, please! The digital has eclipsed the physical in this new show by playwright and theater instructor Jason Hedrick, directed by Kayla Adams.…
- Hong Kong artist Samson Young considers cars, houses, and a better tomorrowHis first solo U.S. museum show explores optimism as characterized by the 1933 Chicago World's Fair. "Little one, I have dreams to sell," begins one of a parcel of two-part choral songs by Alfred H. Hyatt and E. Markham Lee "especially suited for ladies' schools, the higher classes in girls' schools, and well-trained boys' voices," […]
- Cambridge women fight for their academic rights in Blue StockingsJessica Swale's set-in-1896 drama feels depressingly contemporary in Promethean's production. Jessica Swale's 1896-set drama should come with a trigger warning. I mean, perhaps I'm projecting, but when an esteemed scholar ("he dines with Darwin, for crissakes!") starts lecturing on why women are physiologically unfit for education (the brain leaches blood from the reproductive organs) and […]
