Make It Better magazine, March 1, 2014 — If “Venus in Fur” sounds familiar, you’re probably thinking of “Venus in Furs,” the song that plays as the lights come up at Goodman Theatre… Read my review in Make It Better. Photo by Liz Lauren
Category: Theater
Play review: ‘Buzzer’
Make It Better magazine, February 1, 2014 — A predominantly black neighborhood is gentrifying. Once known as a place to score drugs, it’s now welcoming more and more middle-class residents. However, young African-American men are still loitering on the streets, harassing the newcomers as they walk past. That’s the potentially fraught setting… Read my review… Continue reading Play review: ‘Buzzer’
Play review: ‘Russian Transport’
Make It Better magazine, February 1, 2014 — The characters in “Russian Transport” sprinkle their conversations with Russian phrases. Sometimes, they switch over to the language of their motherland for a whole sentence or two. But you don’t need to be fluent in Russian to understand what they’re talking about… Read my review in Make… Continue reading Play review: ‘Russian Transport’
Impoverished in Illinois
Illinois Issues, January 2014 — In some pockets of Illinois, where one in every three people live in poverty or close to it, the need is visible in the landscape: empty lots where buildings once stood in Cairo; abandoned houses marked with X’s in Chicago’s Englewood neighborhood; families living in ramshackle trailers in Kankakee County’s Pembroke… Continue reading Impoverished in Illinois
Play review: ‘Luna Gale’
Play review: ‘Tribes’
Make It Better magazine, December 1, 2013 — The tribe at the center of “Tribes” is an argumentative English family, a bunch of Brits who are prone to shouting matches and cruel taunts. Except, that is, for Billy, one of three adult children in this combative clan… Read my review in Make It Better. Photo… Continue reading Play review: ‘Tribes’
Play review: ‘Everything Is Illuminated’
The Huffington Post, March 1, 2013 — Jonathan Safran Foer brilliantly twisted the English language into delightfully strange sentences in his 2002 debut novel Everything Is Illuminated, spouting much of his story through the comically garbled voice of a Ukrainian translator named Alex who sounds like he’s swallowed a thesaurus… Read my review at the Huffington Post.… Continue reading Play review: ‘Everything Is Illuminated’
Viola Spolin, pioneer of Chicago improv
By Robert Loerzel Originally published in Playbill magazine in June 2012. Theater and comedy in Chicago wouldn’t be what they are without Viola Spolin. She may not be quite as famous as others who left their marks on the city’s theater scene — such as playwright David Mamet or performer John Malkovich — but as an… Continue reading Viola Spolin, pioneer of Chicago improv
Creatures of habit: Actors’ routines
This article by Robert Loerzel originally appeared in Playbill magazine in May 2012. Metallica helped Nick Sandys get into the right frame of mind when he was playing the title character of Macbeth. The Chicago actor blasted the heavy-metal band on his car stereo as he drove to the theater. When he’s in the car… Continue reading Creatures of habit: Actors’ routines
Playbill feature: ‘The Pirates of Penzance’
This article by Robert Loerzel originally appeared in Playbill magazine in April 2012. When it comes to pirates in pop culture, Jack Sparrow is a Johnny-come-lately. He’s been swashbuckling his way across movie screens for a mere nine years — since 2003, when Johnny Depp starred in the first Pirates of the Caribbean film. Sparrow… Continue reading Playbill feature: ‘The Pirates of Penzance’