Arts Features

“That’s What She Said” is an empowering and entertaining night of storytelling where local, notable women share personal stories of strength, courage and inspiration. It is a one-night-only affair celebrating the resilience and triumphs of women in our own community. The proceeds will be used to directly support the Children’s Advocacy Center of Illinois. CACI […]

Last week, I watched the courageous and artful William Wyler film The Children’s Hour. Originally a play, it’s based on a true story from 1810 about two Edinburgh school teachers whose lives were destroyed when one of their students falsely accused them of engaging in an “unnatural” relationship. During the intro, I learned about how […]

Aida, a musical by Elton John and Tim Rice, revolves around a Nubian princess who is captured and enslaved after her kingdom is overrun by the Egyptian army. She is brought back to Egypt, where she is “gifted” to Amneris, Pharaoh’s daughter, to serve as another one of her many handmaids. Amneris’ betrothed and Aida’s […]

“His hands look like they’re possessed,” whispered a man sitting near me during the performance by piano virtuoso Aristo Sham at the Illinois Symphony Orchestra’s concert at the UIS Auditorium last Friday, Feb. 7. There was indeed something preternatural about Sham’s playing, with rapturous glissandos and indelible melodies emanating from fingers that seemed to dance […]

As the house lights went down, music from a favorite era filled the Hoogland’s Peggy Ryder Theatre. While the show is not a musical, the pre-show tunes like “Beautiful Girls,” “I’ve Got The World on a String” and “Goody Goody” had me singing along, filled with anticipation for this world-renowned play.  You Can’t Take It […]

The Springfield Theatre Centre closes out 2024 with the Pulitzer Prize-winning rock musical RENT, directed by LaDonna Wilson. This joyfully rebellious, 1990s riff on the Italian opera, La Boheme, is set in New York City’s East Village during the height of the AIDS/HIV epidemic. The story follows a group of young artists grappling with homelessness, […]

Hurricane Diane opens like an ancient Greek stage play. The perpetual character Diane comes out from the audience entrance in a gold gown and a leaf-made diadem on her head. She walks into the circular stage that sits before a barely lit setting that resembles a suburban kitchen. What starts as a comedic monologue quickly […]

The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum will open “Freedom in Form: Richard Hunt” on Oct. 25, an exhibition dedicated to world-famous Chicago-based sculptor Richard Hunt, who died Dec. 18, 2023. This will be the first major show of Hunt’s work since his death. Hunt is known for his large abstract metal works utilizing welding […]

“Sugar, butter, flour” is the sweet lyrical start to Waitress; a soulful, folksy musical written by pop icon Sara Bareilles. With its roots in nostalgic Americana, Waitress transports the audience to a small-town pie shop and into the hard-working hands of protagonist Jenna, played flawlessly by Elizabeth Eckert. Jenna is a gifted baker who uses […]

“Something to help one forget the everyday, humdrum routine of our mortal existence,” muses Sherlock Holmes in Spencer Theatre Company’s newest production, Ken Ludwig’s Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery. The show is loosely based on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Hound of the Baskervilles. No need to brush up on your early 1900s literature, though, […]