• Ian Barford and Robert Falls rock Amadeus at Steppenwolf

    Ian Barford and Robert Falls rock Amadeus at Steppenwolf

    I can’t remember the last time I’ve heard an ovation as celebratory and raucous in Steppenwolf’s upstairs ensemble theater as the one at the curtain call of Sunday’s opening of Amadeus. The show, directed with aplomb by Robert Falls, is just that delicious. Nearly everyone onstage seems genuinely to be having fun, from Sawyer Smith’s…

  • The Sound of Music brings a timely message with timeless songs to the Nederlander

    The Sound of Music brings a timely message with timeless songs to the Nederlander

    An authoritarian leader casts a dark shadow across the land, employing intimidation to silence dissent while too many citizens stay quiet and hope for the best. If there’s a better analog for the state of America right now than 1938 Austria on the eve of the German anschluss, I can’t think of what it might…

  • With Paranormal Activity, Chicago Shakes serves up a fright feast

    With Paranormal Activity, Chicago Shakes serves up a fright feast

    You might ask why a theater called Chicago Shakespeare would produce a play based on a horror film franchise. The audience at Thursday’s opening of Paranormal Activity got a definitive answer: This taut and terrifying show gives you the willies, and maybe even the shakes. Fly Davis’ shadowy set, a down-at-the-heel, two-story London house, stretches…