Chicago Lifestyle Podcast & Video Blog
Video related to theater and performance art in the Chicago area.
When you cannot adequately express yourself with the nuance and clarity of a native speaker, people do not know that you are actually smart, funny, and kind. Instead, they only hear your imperfect pronunciation and limited vocabulary. You may be easily assumed to be inferior …
Comedy in May. Reno Lovison reviews Judgment Day. “This world premiere comedy is a thought provoking and thoroughly entertaining production with several guaranteed laugh-out-loud moments.” Also a restaurant review of Offshore Rooftop Bar at Navy Pier. Purported to be the nation’s largest rooftop venue. Excerpt …
PODCAST THEATER REVIEW by RENO LOVISON In this musical comedy, three overworked, underpaid and unappreciated 1970’s era office secretaries seize the opportunity to kidnap and blackmail their domineering misogynist male boss in an effort to change the power dynamic and improve their working environment. The …
An update of a few events we enjoyed recently with a look to what’s happening soon including an excerpt of Rikki Lee Travolta’s interview with Evan Jackson, artistic director of “What the Weird Sisters Saw” a retelling of Macbeth from the Witches’ point of view …
Jersey Boys features 30 musical numbers while walking us through the life and times of Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons a New Jersey based rock and roll quartet that appealed largely to blue collar teens nationwide in the 1960s with songs like “Sherry” and …
Rikki Lee Travolta interviews Ronnie Marmo appearing in “I’m Not a Comedian….I’m Lenny Bruce” under the direction of multi-award-winner Joe Mantegna at the Biograph Theater in Chicago. This production produced in partnership with Lenny Bruce’s daughter Kitty Bruce tells the story of the life and …
In this episode of “It’s Showtime with Rikki Lee,” Rikki Lee Travolta interviews Elizabeth Swanson co-director of “A Streetcar Named Desire” (with artistic director Jim Corti) at the Paramount Theatre in Aurora featuring Amanda Drinkall as Blanche, Casey Hoekstra as Stanley, and Alina Taber as …
“Aida” by Giuseppe Verdi under the direction of Francesca Zamnello, and conducted by Enrique Mazzola is opera in the grand tradition at Lyric in Chicago for the first time in more than a decade. [*Please note there was confusion in the names on the podcast. …
Bill Wilson is an alcoholic who realized the help he needed could only come from someone who understood first hand what he was experiencing. After meeting a fellow sufferer of alcoholic addiction, the two realize this process could help others. As a result Bill and …
Can you shake loose the pain of the past and reclaim your legacy? Shortly after the end of the Civil War two former slaves ruminate on their experiences living and working within Monticello, the estate of former President Thomas Jefferson. In doing so they find …
This Madkap Production of “A Chorus Line” at the Skokie Theater, directed by Wayne Mell is on pointe, tapping into the essence of a story of love and dedication to the art of dance. “A Chorus Line” is an anthology of songs and monologues bringing …
Pippin was co-written and originally directed and choreographed by Chicago native Bob Fosse in 1972 who was at the very epicenter of his highly successful and frenetic career and possibly the pinnacle of his drug addiction that at least partly explains this bizarre tale of …