Entertainment Columns
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Goodman premiere 'Layalina' needs tweaking to unlock its potentialMar 16, 2023 11:45 am - “Layalina” - ★ ★ ½ “Layalina,” the new play premiering at Goodman Theatre about a family emigrating from Iraq to the United States, begins and ends with celebrations. I...
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Light laughs, dark drama don't mix well in awkward 'Moving On'Mar 16, 2023 6:00 am - “Moving On” - ★ ★ This slightly cringey, comically tone-deaf movie doesn't quite qualify as a black comedy. More like a gray-beigey one that falls far short of its inte...
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Movie legend John Williams returns for the 'scary honor' of conducting the CSOMar 15, 2023 11:00 pm - Movie maestro John Williams will conduct the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Friday, March 24, in a sold-out concert at Symphony Center. Tickets to see the 91-year-old legend...
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Spotlight: City Lit stages 'Happy Days,' Buffalo Grove native stars in Artistic Home's 'Dying for It'Mar 14, 2023 6:00 am - Not so 'Happy Days' Kayla Boye plays a woman who remains endlessly optimistic despite being buried waist-deep in a mound in "Happy Days," Samuel Beckett's tragicomic exa...
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Spotlight: 'Threepenny Opera' at Theo Ubique and classic tuner 'Annie' at Chicago's Cadillac PalaceMar 13, 2023 11:00 pm - 'Threepenny Opera' revived In celebration of its 25th anniversary, Theo Ubique Cabaret Theatre tips its hat to Kurt Weill, whose compositions made up the company's inaug...
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Widescreen: HBO's 'Last of Us' shunned actual gameplay to become the best video game adaptation everMar 09, 2023 5:00 am - Sunday's season finale of “The Last of Us,” at 8 p.m. on HBO, doesn't need to air for me to call the series the best dramatic adaptation of a video game ever. The shocki...
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Suburban theater artists discover joy of puppetry in Music Theater Works' revival of 'Avenue Q'Mar 09, 2023 5:00 am - Comedy is bread and butter to theater artist Melissa Crabtree, whose resume includes roles in such tuners as "A Christmas Story," "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to t...
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Who will win? Film critic Dann Gire makes his Oscars picks, from sure bets to up-for-grabsMar 08, 2023 2:00 pm - Predicting this year's Academy Awards winners might appear to be as easy as blasting womp rats on Tatooine with a T-16 Skyhopper. So who will win big on Sunday night? I ...
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Radically re-imagined, impressively sung '1776' makes for a provocative, timely revivalMar 03, 2023 11:00 am - “1776”- ★ ★ ★ “1776,” the 1969 musical about the drafting of the Declaration of Independence, is not a top-tier work. But the 2022 Broadway revival, a drastically re-ima...
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Spotlight: World premiere 'Layalina' debuts at Goodman, CST's Gaines bids farewellMar 03, 2023 5:00 am - World premiere Goodman Theatre premieres "Layalina," a play about Iraqi immigrants by Martin Yousif Zebari developed through the theater's New Stages program. The play o...