Hedy Weiss: Theater Reviews


Nathan Lane and Brian Dennehy bring the heat in The Iceman Cometh. Hedy Weiss reviews this, and three other highly recommended shows currently on Chicago stages on Chicago Tonight at 7:00 pm. Learn more about the plays below.

The Iceman Cometh at Goodman Theatre
Eugene O’Neil’s The Iceman Cometh, now playing at Goodman Theatre, is not short on theatrical heavy hitters. Set in the early 1900s, the play stars two-time Tony and Emmy Award winner Nathan Lane (The Producers, Guys and Dolls) as Hickey, a traveling salesman who’s turned over a new leaf in sobriety and wants his raucous, whiskey-loving barfly friends to follow suit. Two-time Tony award winner Brian Dennehy, (Death of a Sales Man, Tommyboy), who played the roll of Hickey in an earlier Goodman production of The Iceman Cometh, returns as Larry Slade, an old anarchist. Clocking in at four-and-a-half hours, The Iceman Cometh is nothing less than a time commitment, but the chance to see these two actors take the stage together makes Iceman worth the time block. Robert Falls directs. Tickets are $39.50-$105.50 and the play runs through June 17.

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Goodman Theatre
170 N. Dearborn St.
Chicago, IL 60601

Tick, Tick…Boom at Porchlight Music Theatre
Written by Jonathan Larson, Tick, Tick …Boom is the preceding work to the playwright’s Tony and Pulitzer winning musical, Rent. Directed by Adam Pelty, the musical follows the story of Jon (played by Adrian Aguilar), a soon-to-be 30-year-old aspiring composer living in New York City in the early 1990s. Jon’s girlfriend is pressuring him to propose and move out of the city. His best friend is rolling in money thanks to his plush job on Madison Avenue. All the while, Jon is the proverbial ticking time bomb, wallowing in self-doubt and frustration as he waits tables while pursuing his dream to write the great American play. Tick, Tick …Boom runs through June 10. Tickets are $38.

Porchlight at Stage 773
1225 W. Belmont  Ave.
Chicago, IL 60657

My Kind of Town at TimeLine Theatre
Veteran Chicago journalist John Conroy made a name for himself in the city by painstakingly reporting on the culture of police brutality and unethically coerced confessions of the Jon Burge era. He breathes new life into his stories on stage with My Kind of Town, a political drama revolving around one wrongfully imprisoned man’s fight for justice. Inspired by true cases, though fictionalized for the stage, the play follows the victims, police officers, prosecutors and families impacted by the scandal that started in the early 70s and continues to rock the Chicago Police Department today. Directed by Nick Bowling, My Kind of Town runs through July 29. Tickets are $32-$42.

TimeLine Theatre
615 W. Wellington Ave.
Chicago, IL 60657

A Little Night Music at Writers’ Theater (Glencoe)
Set in turn-of-the century Sweden, Stephen Sondheim’s A Little Night Music follows the romantic philandering of several couples through musical overture. Fredrik Egerman, a wealthy middle-age lawyer married to a 17-year-old, decides to visit his former flame and smoldering actress Desiree Armfeldt. Feeling the wear of her old age, Desiree feels ready to settle down and sets her eyes on Egerman, despite having her own ongoing fling with another married man, Count Carl-Magnus. When all the involved parties – and their significant others – convene at Desiree’s mother’s country estate for a weekend, romantic hilarity ensues. A Little Night Music runs through July 8, and tickets are $55-$75.

Writers’ Theater
325 Tudor Ct.
Glencoe, IL 60022

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