Barbara Vitello
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'Gas for Less' is touching story of urban renewalJun 05, 2008 11:00 pm - Customers get more than cheap gas at Art Pelenkovic's Chicago filling station. They get conversation. They get companionship. Or at least they did until gentrification o...
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Court's production of 'First Breeze' just stale airJun 03, 2008 11:00 pm - Happy are those who arrive at the theater without expectations, for they are rarely disappointed. Court Theatre raised this theatergoer's expectations when it announced...
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'O, Boy' Holly falls just a little bit shortMay 30, 2008 11:00 pm - There's nothing wrong with "Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story" that a good writer couldn't fix. And there's nothing wrong with Drury Lane Theatre Oak Brook's diligent, well-m...
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A few incomplete 'Answers' don't hurt this playMay 30, 2008 11:00 pm - In "The Lady With All the Answers," Ann Landers the character addresses the audience the same way Ann Landers the advice columnist addressed her readers: with a combinat...
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Reprieved 'Nunsense' hasn't lost its touchMay 23, 2008 11:00 pm - Beginning last fall with a smartly reimagined regional premiere of "The Producers," and continuing with a triumphant revival of "Les Miserables" earlier this year, big s...
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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...