items tagged with chicago

Seth MacFarlane, I thought, did a fine job hosting the 85th Academy Awards ceremony. He turned out to be a fine choice for the frequently thankless Oscar-emcee position, tossing in some fine jokes in between the generally fine production numbers and mostly fine acceptance speeches ... .

I’m sorry, but I am alone in thinking that last night’s telecast, in the end, was just a little too “fine”?

Don’t tell anyone. But usually, when it comes to predicting the winners of the Academy Awards’ major races, it doesn’t take much to look like you know what you’re talking about.

The fleet, funny noir opening to the Circa ’21 Dinner Playhouse’s Bootlegger revue The World Goes ’Round is actually quite misleading, as it bears almost no resemblance to the show that follows. Yet rarely have I been so happy to be misled, because the show that follows is a real beauty – thoughtful and nuanced and serious, and oftentimes boasting a gravity and sadness that, coming from the Circa ’21 stage, feels legitimately shocking.

The Reader's chief theatre reviewer, Thom White, saw and wrote about 52 area stage productions in 2011. I saw 39 and reviewed 12. Obviously, during our second-annual breakfast chat on the Year in Theatre, there was a bit to talk about.

While I like David Turley’s work as a director – with this year’s Chicago at the District Theatre and Gypsy with Countryside Community Theatre among his most notable efforts – I’d like to see more of him on-stage. I was wowed by his John Hinckley Jr. in 2008’s Assassins at the Green Room Theatre, tickled pink by his William Barfee in 2010’s The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee at the Harrison Hilltop Theatre, and amusingly intrigued by his Vladimir in that venue’s 2010 Waiting for Godot.