145 stories by "Amanda Finn"
"The Mad Ones" is a calculated musical risk"though however you look at it, Blank Theatre Company's production comes out ahead.
It was the unsecured, random bundle of cords that first caught my eye at Otherworld Theatre's The Lightning Thief: A Percy Jackson Musical. They were slung around the railing to the audience…
Just as Hedwig changed her life amid upheaval, so too will the talented folks behind the groundbreaking Haven. Thank you for over a decade of one-of-a-kind work.
"Beehive the Sixties Musical" is a trip. Even if you don't fancy revues, this one may have you rethinking that stance.
As Dennis Dent's undeniably charming Hustleman makes all too clear, there is always more to every story. And this story? It may be called The Salon, but its roots run far deeper than its par…
Self-indulgent. A blunt word, yet little else feels appropriate for a show that ran three hours and eight minutes"from late start to the end of curtain call"when it is said to be two hours a…
"Sludge and slurry!" Badger (John Drea) frequently exclaims to giggles and muted repeat-backs from the littlest of audience members. Utterly enchanted, the children in this audience seem mes…
Thirteen-year-old Amanda, not quite a Twihard herself but an avid reader who loved Twilight, would have died over Otherworld Theatre's Twihard musical parody. Thirty-one-year-old Amanda thou…
"It is one of my all-time favorite plays, and Invictus Theatre's production is a brilliant example of how to handle this intense two-hander."
"Band's Visit" takes so many of the traditional musical theater-type songs and mashes them together into an enchanting story about what it means to be a person in the world with other people…
When we meet Gigi (Iris GarcÃa) she is having a crisis of personality. Staring horrified in front of her bedroom mirror, the blonde wealthy woman is suddenly a dark-haired Indigenous woma…
Sitting in near silence in an apartment, curtains drawn, television above a whisper, and fans oscillating to feign static sound. That is how we meet Taroon (Owais Ahmed). Alone in a Kabul re…
This is Aaron Posner's very loose adaptation of Chekov's "The Seagull."
Based on the true story of a battle between essayist John D'Agata and fact checker Jim Fingal, "Lifespan" bemoans the realities of journalism that few in the general public truly understand.
A carnival of famous American assassins who got their day in history or missed their mark, Stephen Sondheim uses them as thematic devices. Are they misunderstood outsiders? Misguided patriot…
Settled in the grass at Moore Park in the Austin neighborhood, a baby clad in a vegetable-patterned onesie coos to the music, while a toddler wriggles, wiggly worms in hand, to the aptly nam…
The stages at Chicago Shakespeare Theater are accustomed to classic tales of daring sword fights, magic spells, and a prince in disguise"just the kinds of stories that Belle loves to read. A…
Heidi Schreck's play showcases our narrator regaling us with her complicated love story. This romance between an American teen circa the 1980s and the United States Constitution circa the 17…
No one does thriller or horror like A Red Orchid Theatre, truly.
A simple lit rooftop, church steeple, or body-as-a-temple metaphor greets you as you enter the theater. Two bright lines meet in the middle, seemingly pointing upwards towards something grea…
Like the people in the allegorical Tower of Babel, the citizens of Jacqueline Goldfinger's futuristic Babel are seeking oneness. The kind of oneness that mankind has never reasonably come cl…
Hajja Souad's story, eight decades of life lived, is woven into a narrative of resilience, hope, and the changing tides in Palestine during her long lifetime. Brought to life in the U.S. pre…
We are reminded, subtly, that we too are made up of the stuff of those who have loved us. Whether we like it or not there are characteristics and tendencies we each carry within ourselves ta…
Music Theater Works' production of "Avenue Q" is delightful.
When I read Molly Smith Metzler's now award-winning Cry It Out in 2018, I knew it was something special. I am still not a parent myself nor (at that point) were any of my closest friends. Fa…
