Amanda Finn

Chicago

Lifestyle and Arts Writer at Freelance

🌈A freelance journalist with an affinity for nerd culture: @yahoo, @newcitystage, @huffpost etc. @Theatre_Critics member (She/They)

Articles

"Man of La Mancha" at Northwestern University

2 weeks ago | newcitystage.com | Amanda Finn

RECOMMENDEDFluorescent lights overhead came on with a startling thunk. Shudders ran through the audience each time it happened. Again and again, we were caught off guard. We were unsettled—which was the point. A brilliant directorial choice for a prescient and moving treatment of “Man of La Mancha” set in a defunct Walmart turned border detention center in Texas. Surrounded by cameras, our play-within-a-play players are stuck in limbo, waiting on a broken bureaucratic system.
Are Conventions... Vacations?

3 weeks ago | nowfrolic.com | Amanda Finn

"This is the best part, getting to do this with all of you," quipped actor Alex Brightman. With an impossibly charming smile on a panel alongside Brandon Rogers for Hazbin Hotel and Helluva Boss, he explained that the casts of the various productions he's been a part of, both on the screen and the stage, are his family. So, too, are all the people he meets at conventions. That's when a chorus of "awwws" mewed out from the audience of Seattle's Emerald City Comic Con (ECCC).
"Titanique" at Broadway In Chicago and Porchlight Music Theatre

1 month ago | newcitystage.com | Amanda Finn

RECOMMENDEDHave you ever watched James Cameron’s “Titanic” and thought, “Wow, this would be really great played as camp?” If you have, we must have the same brain. If you haven’t, I strongly advise you to reconsider because, let’s be honest, it was begging for campification. Luckily, the minds behind “Titanique”—Marla Mindelle, Constantine Rousoul and Tye Blue—were ready and armed with every inside joke you could imagine. At the helm of this jukebox musical is none other than Céline Dion herself.
"Leaf" at Lifeline Theatre, Chicago

1 month ago | newcitystage.com | Amanda Finn

RECOMMENDEDClutching their penguins, polar bears and even at least one Elsa plush, kiddos streamed into the space at Lifeline Theatre. They settled into their seats as not-quite-spring winds chilled the air around the building. It had just been in the sixties, and suddenly, it was winter-ish again.
A long Winter's Tale

1 month ago | chicagoreader.com | Amanda Finn

Among Shakespeare’s fans, “Exit, pursued by a bear,” is one of those lines that delights. Yet, unlike “to be, or not to be,” it isn’t spoken—it’s a stage direction. It’s likely one of the only things most people know of The Winter’s Tale. A bear shows up and chases someone off the stage, which is honestly my favorite Shakespearean death. One of the Bard’s final works, it’s also one that, like Periclesand Cymbeline, isn’t done very often.
Dystopia with cupcakes

1 month ago | chicagoreader.com | Amanda Finn

There is something inherently freeing about performing a dark comedy play about abortion in a church hall in the middle of a hostile government takeover. Lingering in our minds is the omnipresent realization that we are entering the dystopian reality in which the play takes place—but at least the characters have cupcakes! They may not be able to say the word “abortion” or legally access birth control, but they have cupcakes (and each other).
This is Travel

2 months ago | nowfrolic.com | Amanda Finn

Welcome to Now Frolic. You're reading a pre-release introduction to a publication covering a life of adventure and meaningful community. Every week, we tell human-centered stories about travel, the outdoors, nightlife, and civic life. Life should be fun, and we want you to be a part of this journey with us. Want to help build an inclusive, story-driven community? Forward this article to your friends, family, confidants, and colleagues. Share it on social media.
Falling in Love with Puerto Rico... Again

2 months ago | nowfrolic.com | Amanda Finn

Falling in Love with Puerto Rico... Again Finding Paradise and Escape on the Island of EnchantmentI’d desperately hoped to visit Puerto Rico for a long time. My spouse and I were excited to honeymoon in San Juan in 2018, but Hurricane Maria had other plans. I had been ravenous to travel again after the pandemic, and I finally reached the Island of Enchantment in 2022 with Cait, one of my best friends and go-to travel companions.
Some Pyg - Chicago Reader

Feb 11, 2025 | chicagoreader.com | Amanda Finn

In a world where men are quickly dismantling the world around us in favor of themselves, it’s hard to imagine a reality in which they’d just shut up and listen. Yet, in Greta Geiser’s The Pyg Hypothesis, making its world premiere at Theatre Above the Law, one man is taught to do just that. A modern adaptation of George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion, in which Higgins (Abby Gilster) is a no-holds-barred feminist scholar, is exactly what this moment needs.
"Jacob Marley’s Christmas Carol" at Lifeline Theatre

Dec 9, 2024 | newcitystage.com | Amanda Finn

RECOMMENDEDEvery year, we hear over and over that Christmas isn’t about things or gifts. We don’t need to go all out to have a happy holiday. Heck, even the Grinch knew that: “It came without ribbons. It came without tags. It came without packages, boxes or bags.” Yet it’s hard in the season of glitz not to expect it in all the familiar places—which is why “Jacob Marley’s Christmas Carol” is such a delight.