83 stories by "C.j. Fernandes"
RISING WATER CAN'T FIND ITS CURRENT A powerful premise sinks under miscasting and flat pacing John Biguenet's Rising Water, a Pulitzer-nominated drama set in the immediate aftermath of Hurri…
THEATER IN STEREOPHONIC A terrific docudrama about artistic temperament and the torment of creation David Adjmi's Stereophonic, now playing at the CIBC, is an unusual piece of theater. It's …
About midway through Martha Graham's powerful Chronicle, performed last Saturday at the Auditorium Theatre in Chicago, I realized that the elevated platform at center stage was not just a pl…
A DELICATE CHAMBER PIECE THAT WILL BREAK YOUR HEART One of the advantages of a small performance space is that, in the right hands, one can set the mood even before the play has begun. In th…
A PRIVILEGED PTA CIRCUS, THEN A VAXNADO The funniest ten minutes onstage, ever, flanked by a modestly amusing satire. In Jonathan Spector's Eureka Day, five concerned parents gather around a…
FOUR UKRAINIAN REFUGEES NAVIGATE WAR'S AFTERSHOCKS IN A NIGHTMARE OF BUREAUCRACY Natalka Vorozhbyt's darkly funny, deeply bruising play finds Trap Door Theatre at its most urgent"and most hu…
A HOLIDAY MYSTERY WITH VICTORIAN MISCHIEF ON ITS MIND Chesterton by way of Conan Doyle, wrapped in Wodehouse-style tomfoolery Arthur Conan Doyle wrote only one Christmas-themed Sherlock Holm…
A THRILLER THAT OUTLASTS ITS TWIST Even when we know what's coming, the tension holds Let's talk about the cojones required to mount a production of Gaslight nowadays. Even if we assume " a …
A FAIRYTALE REBORN ON THE SOUTH SIDE Wheeldon's Chicago-set Nutcracker still casts a decade-long spell Ten years in, Pyotr Tchaikovsky and the World's Columbian Exposition are still a match …
THE OG CHRISTMAS GHOST STORY The Goodman puts the chills back in the chestnuts ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ In some ways, it is remarkable that Goodm…
NO GROWN-UPS ALLOWED " SORT OF CCT's Beatrix Potter party charms kids, critics, and everyone in between ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ "Channel your in…
THE LONGER CHRISTMAS DINNER In Wilder's meditation on time, the actors have to do the heavy lifting ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ "Only time, only the…
TOAD-ALLY DELIGHTFUL Ribbiting from start to finish, this Year goes by in a flash. ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ Arnold Lobel's Frog and Toad series h…
THERE IS NO TAMING THIS PRICKLY AND INVIGORATING SHREW ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ I won't deny it: I squealed in excitement when I received the inv…
THE OTHER CHRISTMAS CAROL A clever, moving tale of a ghost searching for grace ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ Boy does it suck to be Jacob Marley. You …
A WIG-PULLING, EYE-SCRATCHING BAUBLE OF HOLIDAY CHEER ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ When The Real Housewives of Orange County premiered on Bravo in 20…
COARSE, HAIRY FUN ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ The Christmas pantomime, or "panto", as it is colloquially called, is a longstanding English holiday t…
HELL'S ON FIRE Hell's Kitchen, a jukebox musical featuring the music of R&B superstar Alicia Keys (with several new songs) and a book by Kristoffer Diaz, took Broadway by storm in 2024, …
MURDER, MAYHEM, AND A MANUSCRIPT TO DIE FOR Sometimes uncontrollable forces work in your favor. How fortunate then for MadKap productions that on the opening night of their production of Ira…
SHARP CAST, BLUNT SATIRE A Fierce Ensemble Fights for Meaning in Angry Fags Topher Payne's Angry Fags first made its appearance in 2015, in a world that was decidedly different from what it …
THIS HOUSE STANDS ON FAITH AND FURY Invictus Theatre's The House That Will Not Stand blazes with wit, grief, and grace Following the smashing success of its production of Angels in America, …
TOWERING TALENT ELEVATES A MUSICAL AS SCHIZOPHRENIC AS JEKYLL & HYDE THEMSELVES Next up for Halloween, and my second gothic horror in as many days, is Kokandy Productions' presentation o…
A Bite Out of Minimalism: Timothy Griffin's imaginative adaptation turns Stoker's most chilling chapter into a voyage of dread, myth, and mind In 1897, Bram Stoker published a gothic horror …
YOU'RE NEVER GOING TO SEE A BETTER PRODUCTION OF THIS EVERGREEN MUSICAL. JUST BRING SOME CAUTIOUS OPTIMISM. How do you solve a problem like the schmaltz in The Sound of Music? Or even, how d…
ROXIE'S BACK IN TOWN! MY KIND OF PLAY, CHICAGO IS In Jazz Age Chicago, 1924 to be precise, Beulah Annan and Belva Gaertner were tried and subsequently acquitted of murder. A young Tribune re…
