Entertainment Columns
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15 shows for fall: Classic tuners, new commissions, ever-resonant dramas among this season's theater highlightsSep 22, 2022 7:30 am - Musicals showcasing determined women; an operatic take on a beloved Broadway tuner; the stage adaptation of a popular film romance; dramas examining racism and the legac...
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Eye-popping social thriller 'Don't Worry Darling' has everything going for it - except a compelling screenplaySep 22, 2022 6:00 am - “Don't Worry Darling” - ★ ★ Let's be charitable to Olivia Wilde's ambitious, carefully crafted (and already critically skewered) second directorial project, the enigmat...
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'SNL' Season 48 scorecard: Neuqua Valley grad Chris Redd departs castSep 22, 2022 6:00 am - NBC's "Saturday Night Live" begins its 48th season next weekend with first-time host Miles Teller ("Top Gun: Maverick") - and a host of first-time cast members. It has b...
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Kudos for 'Cabaret': Metropolis revival boasts solid acting, dynamic chorusSep 20, 2022 11:00 pm - “Cabaret” - ★ ★ ★ ½ “Cabaret” has no shortage of memorable tunes. From the Emcee bidding the audience “Willkommen” in the deliciously naughty opening number to the feve...
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Spotlight: 'Frankenstein' opens at Glenview's Oil Lamp, 'Alma' at American Blues TheaterSep 20, 2022 6:00 am - A tale for the season Oil Lamp Theater stages Vincent S. Hannam's adaptation of "Frankenstein," Mary Shelley's gothic tale of Victor Frankenstein, a physician who aspire...
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Founding Mother confronts her complicity in Steppenwolf's 'Miz Martha Washington'Sep 19, 2022 6:00 pm - "The Most Spectacularly Lamentable Trial of Miz Martha Washington" - Martha Washington has a lot to answer for, and the Black people she and her husband enslaved ...
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Spotlight: Elgin's Janus Theatre puts a new spin on an epic taleSep 16, 2022 6:00 am - Come to the 'Cabaret' In 1929 Berlin, against the backdrop of the rising tide of Nazism, an American writer falls in love with a British chanteuse in John Kander and Fre...
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Leading lady's star turn more than makes up for Marriott's mechanical glitches in 'Hello, Dolly!'Sep 15, 2022 11:00 pm - “Hello, Dolly!” - ★ ★ ★ ½ The road to opening night isn't always smooth. Take Marriott Theatre's jolly revival of “Hello, Dolly!” whose opening was delayed two weeks aft...
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Viola Davis' Oscar-worthy performance royally rules ambitious, sanitized crowd-pleaser 'Woman King'Sep 15, 2022 6:00 am - “The Woman King” - ★ ★ ½ Let's first acknowledge that actress Viola Davis rocks the planet in any movie she makes. She pumps her dramatic characters with humanity, creat...
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Dynamic debuts make Paramount's 'Dreamgirls' a rousing successSep 14, 2022 4:00 pm - “Dreamgirls” - ★ ★ ★ ½ When it comes to “Dreamgirls,” the way to measure a production's success - in addition to the close harmonies and glittering costumes - is the fir...