Kimberly Katz
"Up" at Steppenwolf
Do you have a dream? The kind of dream that makes your whole family both respect your audacity and think you are crazy at the same time? The kind of dream that may take decades to fulfill, while quite possibly bankrupting your life savings?
"The Seafarer" finds his Peaceful Harbor
If you have ever seen an All-Star basketball game with the “best of the best” passing, shooting and dribbling with uncanny ease - you know what it is like seeing the cast of Steppenwolf Theatre’s The Seafarer in action.
“Meet Me in St Louis!” A Delightful Holiday Treat!
Meet me in St. Louis, now running at The Drury Lane Theatre Water Tower Place through December 21st, is an absolutely delightful production of one of my favorite shows.Imagine you are a young girl, newly in love and in love with one of the greatest and most advanced cities in the world.
"Thunder from Down Under" at Excalibur
Sexy, Sassy and Classy!
Family comedian, Louie Anderson, and the all male revue “Thunder from Down Under” share the same stage space at the Excalibur Hotel.
Cirque Du Soleil's "O" at the Bellagio
"A Beautiful Dream Comes to Life"
It is truly the closest thing to dreaming while being awake. There are very few shows that have so much going on, so many enthralling acts one after another, that you find yourself wondering when you can see the show again before it's even over and "O" by Cirque Du Soleil at the Bellagio Hotel is certainly one of them.
It's hard to even begin to describe the artistry of this masterful combination of ballet, gymnastics, diving and synchronized swimming. I think my jaw dropped about ten minutes into the show and after that I just kept shaking my head in stupefied awe as I tried to follow and digest every one of the nuances of the individual dancer/swimmer/acrobats as they swam, crawled, and flew in and out of the huge pool and filled every foot of space around it with one visually stunning image after another.
The costumes and makeup reminiscent of the 15th to 20th centuries with an emphasis on the Romantic period, defy description as each character stands out uniquely in vivid colors and lavish, flowing designs full of natural movement that glorify the human body on these dancers already remarkable physiques.
The pool, the cranes and giant swinging barge, trapeze and other floating phenomenon compose the structure of this technically compelling and mind boggling masterpiece. It is interesting to know that when they first developed this show they found major difficulties keeping the Las Vegas audience cool and the soaking wet performers warm. The solution was to create two completely separate temperate worlds wherein the pool area and the air above it stays warm enough for all those amazing dives into the 1.5 million gallon pool, and lightning fast costume changes while the auditorium remains a comfortably cool dry 72 degrees.
Inspired by "the concept of infinity and the elegance of water's pure form", there is no real plotline or dialogue in this show, but none is necessary where heady romanticism, and haunting Fellini-esque scenarios evoke such moving and exciting emotions in the audience of tourists from around the globe. The cast is made up of 85 superbly skilled, Olympic quality performers from more than twenty different countries and gives you an incredibly warm feeling of universal oneness. It really reminds one of a veritable UN of the international theatre community. As I looked around at the faces of the enraptured audience and realized that they had all come together and were enjoying this wonderful piece without words in similar ways regardless of their country or language of origin, it gave me a wonderful feeling of pure theatre acting as a catalyst for world peace.
When citizens are exposed to high culture whether it's on the traditional Broadway stage in New York or right there in good old Sin City, they are transformed into peaceable creatures for the night, clapping, laughing and dreaming the same dream. In this case it's a dream of both unlimited possibilities and impossibly spectacular and graceful feats of daring and skill. It's a dream I plan to share with that beautiful cast and equally beautiful audience again on my next trip to Vegas. I highly recommend "O" as one of the must see shows for anyone looking to buy a single ticket that will absolutely deliver on it's high quality promises of delight and wonder.
Jesus Christ is Still a Superstar!
Ted Neely, 64, who has been performing this role for nearly forty years, is absolutely stunning in the role of Jesus, which requires an enormous amount of both technical skill and emotional maturity in order to pull it off to any satisfaction. I told Ted in our interview last year that I need for him to continue...
RENT at The Cadillac Palace
Rent is the blockbuster musical hit of the nineties, a modern version of the opera La Boheme, depicting a community of young artists struggling to celebrate life while battling the first wave of the AIDS epidemic during the late eighties. I can never watch this production without thinking fondly of its...
A Christmas Carol to Sing About
Disneyland might be able to pull off the the same schtick night after night but come on; what does a heartless old fool like Ebenezer Scrooge have on Mickey Mouse and some kick ass Fireworks? Celebrating it's 30th year at the Goodman Theatre you would think enough is enough already. This might ring true if the show was performed the same year after year but we can...
The Rocky Horror Picture Show
My God, has it really been twenty years since the first time my friends and I dressed up in our best Goth and stumbled out at midnight to see what was surely the raciest, and most exciting, interactive movie of the time? Seeing director Steve Hildebrandt’s exciting and highly gifted, mostly Equity cast, brought back a flood of fun memories, and just in time for Halloween!
It's time to RAGTIME again!
The epic sweep of Ragtime is captured in its opening prologue, a nine-minute kaleidoscope of fictional characters mingling with historical figures from the early 20th century as originally captured in E.L. Doctorow’s novel. As the story continues, we meet pianist Coalhouse Walker Jr. and his child's mother, Sarah who has been taken in by a respectable family...
The 37th annual Rhinoceros Theater Festival Returns September 20 – October 26 at Six Chicago venues
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Collaboraction announces two major productions at its new House of Belonging in Humboldt Park in 2026-27
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A Red Orchid Theatre Opens 34th Season with Chicago Premiere of HEROES OF THE FOURTH TURNING October 29 – December 6, 2026
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House of the Exquisite Corpse, Chicago’s only puppet haunted house, returns with the nightmare-inducing new theme LULLABIES, October 8-November 1 at Steppenwolf’s The Merle
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Mean Girls, the hit Broadway musical getting a fierce Chicago premiere at Aurora’s Paramount Theatre, August 26-October 11
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Love and Time On Our Side: The Notebook: The Musical at Broadway in Chicago
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Victory Gardens Theater presents the World Premiere of Zayd Ayers Dohrn's The Humanities beginning September 10th
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Goodman Theatre Presents Dead Girl's Quinceañera September 26th Through November 1st
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Steppenwolf Theatre Presents ADIRONDACK CHAIR CIRCLE – October 22 – December 6, 2026 – World Premiere!
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Writers Theatre celebrates record-breaking 2025/26 Season with artistic growth and unprecedented ticket sales
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Chicago Magic Lounge Welcomes Back David Parr as Fall Artist in Residence with Time Traveler October 7 – December 16
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