Chicago Broadcasting Network

This campy, opera style, cabaret performance mostly in drag is oddly compelling. The unconventional storyline comprised of seven sexually ambiguous individuals has the show living up to its tagline of a queer extravaganza. 

Thompson Street Opera Company is worth keeping an eye on. Their recent premiere production of Off-Nights at the Sometimes Café at Bramble Arts Loft in Andersonville was a short run but worth mentioning for the record.

In “Changing Channels” at City Lit Theater in Chicago, Maggie Carlin and boss Eddie Gilroy abruptly learn that creating what will become an iconic TV comedy show is not all fun and games. 

Currently appearing on the fledgling DuMont TV network, Gilroy has an offer to move his wildly popular show to CBS. However, his manager, “Bullets” played by Johnny Moran informs him due to suspected communist infiltration of the new television medium CBS is requiring all of its employees to sign a loyalty oath. 

The storyline of “Changing Channels” is a fictional account of actual events, and the characters are thinly veiled portrayals of real people.

Listen to this full podcast to learn more about this production and the history of the red scare.

Review by Reno Lovison ChicagoBroadcastingNetwork.com

A nonstop “catcaphony” of frenzied feline fun that will create a lasting memory. With elements of musical theater, dance, opera and acrobatics there is definitely something for everyone in Music Theatre Works production of CATS at Skokie’s North Shore Center for the Performing Arts. 

There are two good reasons to see Harvey, by St. Sebastian Players. One is the humorous quirky Pulitzer Prize winning script by Mary Chase and the other is the exceptional performance of Jeff Broitman as Elwood Dowd, the pleasant oddball fellow whose companion and best friend is a six-foot rabbit.

You’ll probably love this if you’re of Irish heritage because of the familiarity of the songs and background message. If you’re a few generations removed or have no Irish heritage you will likely find some insight into this segment of America that makes up about 10% of the overall population.

The Irish and How They Got That Way by Porchlight Theatre Company is at Ruth Page Center for the Arts, tickets are available at PorchlightMusicTheatre.org 

Theater review by Reno Lovison concludes with an original rendition of Danny Boy recorded live at the Roots Room.

Cover photo by LaPenna.

This intimate drama at Redtwist Theater in the Edgewater neighborhood of Chicago delivers a message of unconscious bias and institutional slavery put into motion generations ago but messages that are still very much alive and grappled with today on both sides of the racial divide. Review by Reno Lovison approximately 5 minutes. Highly recommended.

Featuring an impressive, ancient, oppressive, dimly lit three story plaster and brick edifice, that apparently was a former jail, it is now the military home of a company commander and his wife located on an offshore island.  Set in Scandinavia sometime in the late 19th or early 20th Century, Alice (Kathryn Erbe) and Edgar (Jeff Perry) will soon be marking the 25TH anniversary of their mostly unhappy marriage. The structure serves as a physical representation of the couple’s own feelings of entrapment and isolation.

Playwright August Strindberg
Adaptor Conor McPherson
Director Yasen Peyankov
Scenic Design - Collette Pollard
Costume Design - Ana Kuzmanic
Lighting Design - Lee Fiskness

Theater Review by Reno Lovison

“Holiday” at The Goodman is a fresh world-premiere adaptation of the classic boy meets girl - - boy meets girl’s sister romcom by Richard Greenberg based on the original 1928 version by playwright Philip Barry and featuring an outstanding cast. 

ChicagoBroadcastingNetwork.com 

#Theater #Review #Podcast. #Chicago

Stephen Sondheim’s vintage musical “Company” presented by Madkap Productions explores the life choices of Bobby (Graham Todd) the only one of his friends still unmarried at a time when marriage by thirty was expected.

The Chicago International Puppet Festival is a 12 day event that has been taking place in Chicago for several years that has attracts about 22,000 audience members who travel from around the world to be a part of the biggest event dedicated to puppetry in North America.  

This is a wonderful interview conducted by Chicago Broadcasting Network contributor Kim Campbell with Sandy Smith Gerding, Executive Director of the Chicago International Puppet Festival and Taylor Bibat, the festival coordinator and Director of Education. 

Listen, not only, for details of the festival events taking place in 2026 but also interesting tidbits about the art of puppetry and the world of puppetry as a creative art form.

#chicago #puppetry #puppets #puppet #festival