Chicago Reader

1 day ago | chicagoreader.com | Kerry Reid

In my favorite Kurt Vonnegut novel, Mother Night, the author writes early on, “This is the only story of mine whose moral I know. I don’t think it’s a marvelous moral; I simply happen to know what it is: We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.” Vonnegut’s story involves an American spy who works as a double agent for the Nazis, broadcasting fascist propaganda. Spoiler alert: it doesn’t go well for him.

1 day ago | chicagoreader.com | Kerry Reid

Like a slow-burning comedy routine, Charles Smith’s Golden Leaf Ragtime Blues takes its time with the setup, but the payoff is worth it. Directed by Smith’s longtime collaborator, Chuck Smith, in its local premiere at American Blues Theater and starring longtime ABT ensemble member Dennis Cockrum, the play taps into the bitter nostalgia of aging vaudevillians that won former vaudevillian George Burns an Oscar in 1975’s The Sunshine Boys.

2 days ago | chicagoreader.com | Kerry Reid

Catherine Miller remembers the night they came out as nonbinary. They were coming home from a 2017 Lizzo concert at Thalia Hall with Chicago actor and musician Em Modaff and some other fellow performers they’d met through the Fly Honey Show.

3 days ago | chicagoreader.com | Lori Waxman

In the project 60 wrd/min art critic, writer Lori Waxman explores how art writing can serve an expanded field of artists—including those incarcerated, trying to gain visas, working to establish themselves professionally, or just wanting feedback for a secret hobby. For this iteration, Waxman reviewed a Chicago exhibition curated by Michelle Alexander. “Connective Thread”Does every little girl dream about her future marriage?

4 days ago | chicagoreader.com | Jamie Ludwig

Language can convey a lot, but no matter how thoughtfully and precisely we use it, it can still feel inadequate for expressing emotion. That reality pervades the spacious, somber chamber-folk arrangements and breathy emoting on Moriah Bailey’s most recent album, 2022’s I Tried Words.