Theater events: Lake Forest's Citadel revives 'Carnage'
Citadel's ‘Carnage'
Citadel Theatre Company presents “God of Carnage,” Yasmina Reza's deliciously bitter comedy of bad manners. Wayne Mell directs Citadel's revival of the dark comedy about a playground altercation between two boys that sparks a war between their upper-middle-class, middle-aged parents who indulge in behavior so childish and nasty it would likely make their children cringe.
Opens Friday, Feb. 8, at 300 S. Waukegan Road, Lake Forest. $32.50, $37.50. (847) 735-8554 or citadeltheatre.org.
Cory in concert
Cory Goodrich, who won a Joseph Jefferson Award for her performance as Mother in Drury Lane Theatre's “Ragtime,” turns troubadour. The singer/actress/songwriter headlines her first solo concert at Oak Brook's First Folio Theatre where she performs original compositions and Broadway favorites as part of the company's fundraising event.
8 p.m. Monday, Feb. 11, and Tuesday, Feb. 12, at Mayslake Peabody Estate, 1717 W. 31st St., Oak Brook. $25. (630) 986-8067 or firstfolio.org.
Suburban ‘Soldiers'
Schaumburg actor Tim Walsh and Brian Keys, from Aurora, appear in Raven Theatre's revival of “A Soldier's Play,” Charles Fuller's Pulitzer Prize-winning drama examining racial tension within the military. Set on a segregated Louisiana Army base in 1944, the play centers on the investigation of an African American officer into the murder of an African American sergeant. Artistic director Michael Menendian directs the production, which stars Frank Pete as Captain Richard Davenport.
Previews begin Tuesday, Feb. 12, at 6157 N. Clark St., Chicago. The show opens Feb. 18. $22, $36, $15 for active military and veterans. (773) 338-2177 or raventheatre.com.
Other theater events:
Ÿ Porchlight Music Theatre and Second City music director Matthew Loren Cohen remount their 2012 collaboration “Best Musical! A Completely Improvised Musical Comedy,” at Stage 773, 1225 W. Belmont Ave., Chicago. Set during the fictional Bestie Awards ceremony, the ensemble performs nominees for the best song from a musical category based on audience suggestions. In the second act, the ensemble returns to perform a fully improvised musical featuring the winning song. Wednesdays through March 6. (773) 327-5252 or porchlightmusictheatre.org or stage773.com.
Ÿ Theatre in the Woods presents its first musical, “It's a Grand Night for Singing,” a Rodgers and Hammerstein revue comprised of songs from “South Pacific,” “Carousel” and “Oklahoma” among others. Performances begin Friday, Feb. 8, at the Estonian House, 14700 Estonian Lane, Riverwoods. (847) 604-1990 or theatreinthewoods.net.
Ÿ Performances begin Friday, Feb. 8, for Provision Theater's production of “Fish Eyes,” a tale of two brothers who meet a prophet who changes their lives. Performances run through March 31 at 1001 W. Roosevelt Road, Chicago. (312) 455-0066 or profisiontheater.org.
Ÿ Actor Julian Sands (“A Room with a View”) performs “A Celebration of Harold Pinter,” incorporating the playwright's poems and prose and drawn from Sands' recollections of working with the Nobel laureate, at 7:30 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 10, at Steppenwolf Theatre, 1650 N. Halsted St., Chicago. The performance, directed by John Malkovich, is in conjunction with Steppenwolf's production of Pinter's “The Birthday Party.” (312) 335-1650 or steppenwolf.org.
Ÿ Previews begin Tuesday, Feb. 12, for The Den Theatre's world premiere of “City of Dreadful Night,” Don Nigro's play inspired by film noir, painter Edward Hopper and 1940s crime dramas. The action centers on Gus, a small-time gangster who believes his girlfriend is hiding something and enlists a shellshocked World War II veteran to find out what it is. Den ensemble member Ron Wells directs the show, which opens Feb. 15 at 1333 N. Milwaukee Ave., Chicago. (773) 609-2336 or thedentheatre.com or brownpapertickets.com.
Ÿ Dog & Pony Theatre Company presents the world premiere of “Counterfeiters,” Aaron Weissman's vaudeville-inspired show combining magic, music and buffoonery performed by Benjamin Franklin in an examination of life, liberty and the pursuit of the American dream. Previews begin Wednesday, Feb. 13, at the Flat Iron Arts Building, 1579 N. Milwaukee Ave., Chicago. The show opens Feb. 16. (773) 360-7933 or dogandponychicago.org.
Ÿ Idle Muse Theatre Company concludes its 7th season with the Chicago area premiere of Lee Blessing's “Lonesome Hollow” set in the near future in which sexual offenders are housed in camps near small, rural towns where they can be held indefinitely and incommunicado. Previews begin Thursday, Feb. 14. The show opens Feb. 16 at The Side Project theater, 1439 W. Jarvis Ave., Chicago. (773) 340-9438 or idlemuse.org.
Ÿ “Crime Scene: A Chicago Anthology,” the latest world premiere from Collaboraction, begins previews Thursday, Feb. 14, at the Flat Iron Arts Building 1579 N. Milwaukee Ave., Chicago. Conceived and directed by Anthony Moseley, the show examines true Chicago crimes to question how poverty, segregation, the media and popular culture impact our response to it. The crimes dramatized include the 2000 mistaken identity killing of 12-year-old Orlando Patterson, the racially motivated attack of 13-year-old Lenard Clark in Bridgeport which left him in a coma and the beating of Stacy Jurich and Natasha McShane blocks from the theater in 2010. The show opens Feb. 18. (312) 226-9633 or collaboraction.org.
Ÿ A chorus of prostitutes living in a dystopian Thebes where sex is the new currency narrate The Arc Theatre's retelling of Sophocles “Oedipus Rex,” beginning performances Thursday, Feb. 14, at Chemically Imbalanced Theatre, 1422 Irving Park Road, Chicago. Arc artistic director Mark Boergers directed and conceived the show in collaboration with the Good Night Ladies arts collective. See arctheatrechicago.org.
Ÿ Tommy Gun's Garage celebrates St. Valentine's day with a dinner and interactive 1920s-inspired music and comedy review Thursday, Feb. 14, through Sunday, Feb. 17, at 2114 S. Wabash Ave., Chicago. Following each performance is a re-enactment of the St. Valentine's Day Massacre. Tickets range from $65 to $75. (312) 225-0273 or tommygunsgarage.com.
Ÿ Newcomer (re) discover theatre begins its second season with its adaptation of Shakespeare's “As You Like It” about Rosalind, the daughter of a usurped duke who flees the kingdom disguised as a boy and encounters Orlando, with whom she falls in love. Performances begin Thursday, Feb. 14, at 1244 W. Thorndale Ave., Chicago. (312) 884-1733 or rediscovertheatre.com.
Ÿ Theatre at the Center, 1040 Ridge Road, Munster, Ind., opens its 2013 season with “The Fox on the Fairway,” a madcap comedy about love and golf centered around rival country clubs' annual grudge match in which the president of one of the country clubs bets everything he has and then finds himself in danger of losing it when his best golfer is a no-show. Previews begin Thursday, Feb. 14. The show opens Feb. 17. Artistic director William Pullinsi directs Chicago favorites Lance Baker, Linda Gillum, Michael Mahler and Kate Bergeron among others. (219) 836-3255 or (800) 511-1552 or theatreatthecenter.com.
Ÿ It's a Valentine's Day treat at Theatre at the Center, 1040 Ridge Road, Munster, Ind. Felicia P. Fields debuts her new show “Mess Around & Fall in Love,” comprised of standards like “I Got It Bad (And That Ain't Good),” “You Can Have My Husband But Don't Mess with My Man” on Thursday, Feb. 14. Dinner-theater packages available for $50 per person. Tickets to the show only are $35. (219) 836-3255 or (800) 511-1552 or theatreatthecenter.com.
Ÿ Performances continue of Gorilla Tango Theatre's 2012 “I'm Writing a Musical” competition winner, “Dial with a Smile! An Office Musical” about employees whose jobs are about to be outsourced unless they can do something about it. The show runs through March 29 at both 1919 N. Milwaukee Ave., Chicago, and at 7924 Lincoln Ave., Skokie. (773) 598-4549 or gorillatango.com.
Ÿ After selling out its initial nine-week run and several subsequent extensions, Mary-Arrchie Theater Company will remount its hit revival of Tennessee Williams' “The Glass Menagerie” at Theater Wit, 1229 W. Belmont Ave., Chicago beginning May 22. (773) 975-8150 or maryarrchie.com or theaterwit.org.
Ÿ Goodman Theatre announced that Joseph Jefferson Award-winning director Rachel Rockwell will make her Goodman debut with a production of the Alan Jay Lerner and Fredrick Loewe musical “Brigadoon” in summer, 2014.
Ÿ The New Colony recently announced that associate artistic director and founding member Evan Linder has been promoted to co-artistic director with current artistic director Andrew Hobgood. Associate artistic director since 2008, Linder is an actor and playwright (“Frat,” “The Warriors”) whose “5 Lesbians Eating a Quiche” is currently in an open-end run off Broadway at the Soho Playhouse.
Ÿ Lookingglass Theatre welcomes new ensemble members Kevin Douglas and Anthony Fleming III, both of them artistic associates and frequent performers. Their addition brings the number of ensemble members to 24. Fleming made his Lookingglass debut in 2003's “Race,” while Douglas first performed with the group in 2007's “Black Diamond.”
Ÿ Steppenwolf Theatre Company's Garage Rep 2013, a repertory series featuring works from Bailiwick Chicago, Buzz22 Chicago and Theatre Seven of Chicago, begins its 10-week run Friday, Feb. 15, at 1624 N. Halsted St., Chicago. Bailiwick Chicago presents Michael John LaChiusa's three-part musical “See What I Wanna See” set alternately in the 1950s, feudal Japan and post Sept. 11. Buzz22 Chicago offers Qui Nguyen's “She Kills Monsters,” about a girl who finds her late sister's Dungeons & Dragons notebook and discovers a side of her sister she didn't know. Theatre Seven of Chicago presents Christina Anderson's “BlackTop Sky” about the unlikely friendship that develops between a teenage girl from the projects and a homeless man. Performances are at 8 p.m. Wednesday to Friday; 4 and 8 p.m. Saturday and Sunday through April 21. (312) 335-1650 or steppenwolf.org.