Barbara Vitello
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'Musical' skewers theater's enduring showsMay 22, 2008 11:00 pm - You don't have to be a theater cognoscenti to appreciate the jokes writers Eric Rockwell and Joanne Bogart liberally sprinkle throughout their oddly titled but affection...
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DeYoung's 'Hunchback' sticks here and thereMay 22, 2008 11:00 pm - Aristotle posited that the whole is more than the sum of its parts. In the case of Dennis DeYoung's "The Hunchback of Notre Dame," it's a bit less. DeYoung's musical ada...
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'Avenue Q' echoes a familiar addressMay 22, 2008 11:00 pm - I arrived at "Avenue Q" a skeptic and left a convert. The wildly successful puppet musical, conceived by composer/lyricists Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx, had gimmick writt...
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Griffin gives teen angst the cool treatmentMay 22, 2008 11:00 pm - "I am so not cool." A lanky teenager utters the altogether subjective (and universally shared) self-condemnation at the beginning of Griffin Theatre's humorous and hear...
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'Wicked' headed over rainbowMay 21, 2008 11:00 pm - The Chicago company of "Wicked" -- a production that defied expectations to become the top-grossing and longest-running musical in Chicago history -- concludes its run a...
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'Nunsense' return reason for thanksMay 19, 2008 11:00 pm - Playing a nun could become a habit for Alene Robertson. But if the star of Marriott Theatre's "Nunsense" were to adopt a woman of the cloth as her signature role, it mi...
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'Zorro' making its markMay 15, 2008 11:00 pm - The hint of camp that hangs over Lifeline Theatre's "The Mark of Zorro" puts a smile on your face without putting you off. Were it played any broader or directed with a ...
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Right spin on ' Not a Game for Boys'May 15, 2008 11:00 pm - In "Not a Game for Boys," Simon Block's darkly funny, deeply perceptive 1995 comedy about identity and obsession set in the cut-throat world of amateur table tennis, the...
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'Osage County' gets 7 Tony nominationsMay 12, 2008 11:00 pm - The folks at Steppenwolf Theatre had to figure their chances of earning Tony Award nominations for the much-heralded dysfunctional family drama "August: Osage County" we...
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Brilliant 'Osage County' uncomfortably realMay 12, 2008 11:00 pm - Originally published Friday, July 13, 2007. "All happy families are alike," wrote Leo Tolstoy in his introduction to "Anna Karenina." "Each unhappy family is unhapp...