• Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is just the ticket for family fun at Marriott Theatre

    Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is just the ticket for family fun at Marriott Theatre

    To pull off a satisfying production of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, you need a good-hearted, yearning Charlie Bucket who has easy chemistry with Grandpa Joe and who can melt the cantankerous heart of chocolatier Willy Wonka as he holds a worldwide contest to entrust his factory to a worthy successor. The Charlie now onstage…

  • A mother’s love and anguish drive Hamnet to stunning emotional heights at Chicago Shakes

    A mother’s love and anguish drive Hamnet to stunning emotional heights at Chicago Shakes

    In the fall of 2024, the Royal Shakespeare Company brought Pericles to Chicago Shakespeare Theater, marking a triumphant return after a 30-year absence. Less than two years later, the RSC is back to launch a national tour of Hamnet thanks to a renewed partnership under Chicago Shakes artistic director Edward Hall, son of RSC founder…

  • The Outsiders delivers tuneful teen turmoil at the Cadillac Palace

    The Outsiders delivers tuneful teen turmoil at the Cadillac Palace

    Like a lot of Gen Xers, I read The Outsiders in school when I was a kid. When I heard there was a musical in the works based on S.E. Hinton’s gritty 1967 YA novel a few years back, I was perplexed. A play along the lines of the 1983 Francis Coppola film adaptation? Sure.…