NewCity Stage

Newcity Stage is a website that focuses on providing news, reviews, and special features related to Chicago's theater, dance, comedy, and performance scenes.

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"First Date Comedy Gameshow" at the Laugh Factory, Chicago

1 week ago | newcitystage.com | Carl Kozlowski

Seeing a stand-up comedy show can be a great way to have a fun first date, as the laughter gets the endorphins going and you can learn about each other’s sense of humor right off the bat. But the “First Date Comedy Gameshow” at the Laugh Factory takes the idea to a whole other level, where an audience member is picked to come on stage and choose a comic to have a date with.
“Berlin” at Court Theatre, Chicago

2 weeks ago | newcitystage.com | Mary Wisniewski

Berlin during the Weimar Republic is a great setting for drama—there was jazz, decadence, political turmoil and a rising sense of disaster. It has inspired a great play—the musical “Cabaret.”Any play that takes on the same era must operate in “Cabaret’”s long shadow. “Berlin,” now in its world premiere at the Court Theatre, tells stories from the same period, with wild nightlife and Nazis on the rise.
"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.
"Translations" at Writers Theatre, Glencoe

1 month ago | newcitystage.com | TED FISHMAN

RECOMMENDEDThis production of Brian Friel’s celebrated, poignant and cerebral play brings forth all the magic that a great playwright, a smart director—Writers Theatre artistic director Braden Abraham—and a masterful cast can wring out of a stationary set, a few props and a whirlpool of ideas that grows ever deeper with each line of dialogue. It’s a stunning production that should be seen at least once, though I, for one, wish I could see it a dozen times or more.
W. Kamau Bell at The Den Theatre, Chicago

1 month ago | newcitystage.com | Carl Kozlowski

W. Kamau Bell is a comedian who’s got plenty of perspectives on life in America today.
“The Book of Grace” at Steppenwolf Theatre

1 month ago | newcitystage.com | Mary Wisniewski

RECOMMENDED“Grace says I’m a work in progress,” a man says about his wife. “And I say you’re a piece of work,” his son responds. The son is Buddy, an ex-soldier looking for a job. He’s come home to ask for help from his father, Vet, though he knows Vet is an abusive bully. Vet is a Homeland Security officer patrolling the Texas/Mexican border with excessive rigor—he gives Buddy a cold welcome and dangles promises he may not keep.
"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.
"The Listeners" at Lyric Opera of Chicago

1 month ago | newcitystage.com | TED FISHMAN

RECOMMENDED“The Listeners” is a new opera. It’s an orchestral masterwork composed by American Missy Mazzoli, who from 2018 to 2021 was the Chicago Symphony’s composer-in-residence. Mazzoli has created a bright and terrifyingly complex, often startling, soundscape. Her music demands all from the Lyric’s always superb orchestra under conductor Enrique Mazzola, and gets it.
"Chicago's Funniest Teachers" at Zanies Rosemont

1 month ago | newcitystage.com | Carl Kozlowski

Stand-up comedians dread the prospect of a tough crowd in nightclubs, but Jeanie Doogan and Tom Filline face tough crowds five days a week as schoolteachers. Each turned to stand-up as a source of relief, and found that they could definitely make adults laugh, finding a second career as a result. Now, the two of them are teaming up in “Chicago’s Funniest Teachers” on April 3 at Zanies Rosemont.
The Story of the Kinks at Chicago Shakespeare in "Sunny Afternoon"

1 month ago | newcitystage.com | Mary Wisniewski

The first five notes of the Kinks’ 1964 hit “You Really Got Me” are like a punch. An explosion. An electric jolt to the heart. With a guitar sound distorted by Dave Davies taking a razor blade to his little green amp, the song was a revolution in rock, influencing both punk and heavy metal.