Friday, May 17, 2013
Northlight's comedy-drama takes us on a masterfully acted, well written tale of two people who have experienced loss but are finding the courage to open their hearts again. It features Rhea Perlman and Francis Guinan.
When life and love have punched you in the heart and left you sprawled on the sidewalk, is it really possible to pick yourself up and expose your tender feelings again to the possibility of new love? Though it's cloaked in comedy, that's the central question in Northlight Theatre's Stella & Lou. This beautifully-constructed play, in which playwright Bruce Graham tempers his musings on loneliness and courage with quick-witted comedy based on human vanities, is a marvel in itself. With Rhea Perlman, formerly of the TV show Cheers, bringing out Stella's warmth, wise-cracking and down-to-earth compassion, and Steppenwolf Theater Company veteran Francis Guinan exploring the nuances of Lou's reticence to leave the past behind, it's clear 10 …
Tuesday, May 15, 2012
THEATER REVIEW. This show about writing a show could have been more tightly edited, but at times seems so spontaneous it creates an in-the-moment feel. It's playing in Skokie at Northlight Theatre.
THEATER REVIEW When all the members of an ensemble cast pull their own weight and play off their characters' personality differences, they create a pleasure for the audience to watch. The four actors in Northlight Theatre's [title of show] nailed it on that count. Yes, [title of show] is the title of the show. It's a bit confusing until you learn the characters are writing a show to enter into a theater festival, and they don't have a ready answer for the part of the entry form that says [title of show]. So-- in this show about writing a show, Matthew Krowle lets his demons and his creative juices all hang out as he plays Hunter, the main scribe, and that's balanced nicely by the way Stephen Schellhardt plays Jeff, his composer-…
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Northlight Theatre cast milks the comedy in British farce.
In England, the Christmas feasting and drinking continues for three days, from Christmas Eve to Boxing Day. That's a long time to be closed in with relatives, especially if you don't get along all that well. Alan Ayckbourn mines the comedy that scenario presents by taking one family's tensions from a simmer to a boil in "Seasons Greetings," playing at Northlight Theatre in Skokie through Dec. 18. The cast, an assortment of Chicago theater pros, nimbly portrays the oddball family members, who include a hypochondriac, a weapons freak, a mousy young woman, a doctor obsessed with putting on a boring puppet show for the kids, an unfulfilled wife, two slacker husbands who won't lift a finger to help and a visiting single man who injects sexual …
Pam DeFiglio
6:04 pm on Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Susan, I noticed the Metropolis Theater has $10 tix for everyone 25 and under--I guess they're trying to cultivate young adults as theater-goers. Thanks for your comment. Oh, and the Metropolis is in Arlington Heights. The review of its "A Christmas Carol" is running on Patch soon. more ›