Barbara Vitello
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Holidays herald music, comedy and a couple of new nightspotsNov 01, 2021 10:08 pm - Good for the Jews, a rock 'n' comedy duo made up of David Fagin and Rob Tannenbaum, bring their holiday show, "Putting the Ha! In Hanukkah," to Chicago's Double Door, 15...
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Blindfaith's 'Butterscotch' not so sweetNov 01, 2021 10:08 pm - "Lord Butterscotch and the Curse of the Darkwater Phantom" is rather less than the sum of its parts. The British-style comedy (in its world premiere at Blindfaith Theat...
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Northlight's 'Ella' captures iconic songstess perfectlyNov 01, 2021 10:07 pm - If E. Faye Butler wins the 2008 Jeff Award for lead actress in a musical, she has Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn to thank. Butler plays Ella Fitzgerald in...
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'Is she or isn't she?' That is the questionNov 01, 2021 9:05 pm - Sigmund Freud would have had a field day with Henry James' "The Turn of the Screw." The psychosexual undertones of James' 1898 novella about a governess who believes dem...
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Well-loved film gets modest stage revival at Steel BeamNov 01, 2021 9:17 pm - "A Christmas Story" didn't exactly rake in a sleigh full of cash when it opened just before Thanksgiving in 1983. Despite critics' praise, the film based on Jean Shepher...
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Engaging cast energizes 'Philadelphia Story' revivalNov 01, 2021 9:05 pm - Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant and Jimmy Stewart loom large over "The Philadelphia Story," George Cukor's 1940 big-screen version of Philip Barry's 1939 comedy-of...
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'The Rat Pack' brings Vegas to HemmensNov 01, 2021 9:15 pm - Former Batavia resident Nicholas Brooks plays Sammy Davis Jr. in "Direct From Vegas: The Rat Pack," today at the Hemmens Cultural Center, 45 Symphony Way, Elgin. The 27-...
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Whimsical 'Umbrella' worth catchingNov 01, 2021 8:19 pm - "> An astonishing piece of conceptual theater opened this week at Chicago Shakespeare Theater as part of its world stage program. A pan-cultural specta...
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Signal's take on search for passion comes up solidNov 01, 2021 8:11 pm - "Old Wicked Songs" makes for a pleasant, if predictable duet. Jon Marans' two-character play about a hotshot American piano prodigy who's lost his passion and the aging...
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Fast-paced sex farce raises director's profileNov 01, 2021 8:10 pm - Let's all do director Sean Graney a favor and dispense once and for all with the "wunderkind," "auteur" and "up-and-comer" tags. For years writers described h...