What’s New

In Witold Gombrowicz’s fictional kingdom of Burgundia, the royal court is bored. One day Prince Phillip (Keith Surney) and his consort, Simon (Gus Thomas) happen upon Ivona (Laura Nelson), a cowering and often mute peasant girl. Having nothing better to do and looking to outrage his family and friends, the prince announces that Ivona will be his bride. He gets a lot more than he bargained for.

While rarely speaking, Ivona has an ironclad will and an unerring instinct to do the opposite of what is expected of her. She bewitches and confounds King Ignatius (Bill Gordon) and Queen Margaret (Manuela Rentea) while enraging the Lord Chamberlain (Kevin Webb) and Isobel (Cat Evans). Each has ambitions and schemes which Ivona upends by her arrival. She’s a chaos agent they all want to snuff out for individual motives, but every plot is a threat to all the others. It’s a mess and that’s the point.

Princess Ivona Through 2/18: Thu-Sat 8 PM, Trap Door Theatre, 1655 W. Cortland, trapdoortheatre.com, $25 (two for one Thu)

The stage design by J. Michael Griggs is minimal even by Trap Door’s spartan standards: some semitransparent white drapery and a couple of clothing trunks—one long enough to hold a small body. There’s also a picture frame that functions as a mirror one minute, a camera the next. The nonspace in which these privileged little monsters frolic is mostly furnished by their fantasies and desires that seem to mutate and transform whichever way the winds blow. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?

Rachel Sypniewski’s costumes reminded me of Dr. Seuss and Edward Gorey by turns. They’re as loud as the set is quiet. Lord Chamberlain’s habit of shedding gloves only to find a different colored set underneath is a visual summation of the self-delusion and fickleness of everyone in this royal court. By the time he peels the last pair to expose his hands, he’s both horrified and surprised by their appearance. Neither the chamberlain nor anyone else knows or wants to know who they truly are. Ivona might know but is silenced before she can say.

Burgundia feels like a very familiar kingdom in Jenny Beacraft’s staging. A place where loud hollow pronouncements reign and there’s little patience for inwardness or doubt. A country addicted to self-promotion, and one that will backstab anyone who pushes back on the official narrative. 

Ever been to a place like that?

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It would be hard to find a more appealing trio to embody Jonathan Larson’s autobiographical musical tick, tick . . . BOOM! than the ones in BoHo Theatre’s production—and “embody” is very much the relevant word. Director Bo Frazier chose to cast trans and gender nonconforming actors as aspiring composer Jon, his girlfriend Susan, and his best friend Michael. Some cisgender audience members might find these choices startling to begin with, but before the end of the first number they’ll have transcended their shock and be rooting for youth and raw talent in all its forms.  

Tick, tick . . . BOOM! Through 2/5: Thu-Fri 7:30 PM, Sat 3 and 7:30 PM, Sun 3 PM; also industry night Mon 1/30 7:30 PM; open captions Sat 1/21 and 1/28 3 PM; Edge Theater, 5451 N. Broadway, bohotheatre.com, $35 general, $20 seniors, military, and first responders, $12 transgender and gender nonconforming people, students, and educational professionals

Alec Phan as Jon takes the part—a composer on the verge of his 30th birthday, trying to decide whether to “sell out” or keep waiting tables to write music—and infuses it with all the passion and terror of anyone who’s ever discovered that life doesn’t unspool as predicted. As Michael, Crystal Claros has a knockout voice and the comic chops to turn into any number of supporting characters, while Luke Halpern is both a persuasive Susie and an indelible neglectful cigarette-smoking New York agent.

The show itself is more revue than true musical: originally performed solo by Larson himself, its narrative was later supplied by playwright David Auburn. But some of the songs are truly moving (“Real Life”) and others witty, and all get their due and then some from the cast and band under music director Harper Caruso. As the characters struggle with their fear of getting old, it’s hard not to reflect on the fact Larson himself never did, dying at age 35 the day before the first Broadway preview of his signature piece Rent.

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I remember when rock was young. So, evidently, does Chicago playwright Katie Coleman, as she well attests in her intelligent, heartfelt play about two young Soviets, hopping and bopping to a thing called capitalist rock (Elton John, the Rolling Stones, Fleetwood Mac, Blondie, etc.). Coleman actually tells three stories here. There’s a bittersweet one about Svetlana and Vitaly (two Soviet kids doing the best that they can); another, much angrier one about the economic and cultural stagnation of Leonid Brezhnev-era Soviet Union (a teenage wasteland for sure); and a third about the history of Krugozor, a state-owned—and thus state-sanctioned—music magazine that brought carefully vetted Western music into Russian homes via the flexi discs that came with the magazine. Krugozor, initiated by Nikita Khrushchev, must have been an attempt to control the flow of western European ideas into the state without threatening the ossifying bureaucratic power elite. How well it worked is one of the themes Coleman explores in this show. (See Berlin circa 1989.)

Krugozor! Through 2/4: Thu-Sat 7:30 PM, Sun 2 PM, Factory Theater, 1623 W. Howard, theatreevolve.com, pay what you can $5-$100

My summary is making the show sound like something only a history buff would enjoy. But actually, the show is immensely entertaining. The production has a loose Second City feel to it. Scenes are acted out with a bare minimum of props and set pieces.There is also a live band on stage, to give the show a jolt of rock ’n’ roll when things start to get too dark—or light. As if that could happen in a wild, energetic production that mixes performance styles, tone, and mood with the wild, carefree abandon of someone changing stations every few seconds on a car radio. Yet somehow, director Anna Rachel Troy and her cast keep it together, mixing strictly naturalistic scenes, with ones with a more Brechtian tinge, as when the script breaks the narrative flow to relate some facts about Soviet history, or Krugozor, or the myriad ways rock ’n’ rollers overcame government attempts to keep that “decadence” out of the country. (These included “bone music”—the underground trading of bootleg recordings pressed into discarded X-rays.) 

Troy has assembled a strong multitalented cast here, most of whom, at one point or another, join the band to sing or shred guitar, and all of whom know how to mine the emotional ups and downs of Coleman’s story for maximum effect. At the center of it all are Andy Ricci’s Vitaly—he’s just a poor boy but needs no sympathy—and Caroline Kidwell’s Svetlana. She’s the rebellious daughter of a Communist Party official, the Soviet equivalent of a poor little rich girl. As performers, Ricci and Kidwell are riveting, and their story—which shows the lie behind the claims that the USSR was a classless society—is, in the end, utterly devastating.

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The hardest working queen in showbiz? That’d be Ginger Minj (fight me). After three stints on RuPaul’s Drag Race (season seven, All Stars 2, and All Stars 6), the breakout star and two-time RDR finalist has kept busy with countless live shows, small screen hits, a trio of studio albums that showcase her Broadway-worthy belt and theater productions the world over, including last year’s Music Theater Works staging of La Cage aux Folles. Royalty of this caliber deserves better than The Golden Gals Live! (This Fruit Wine Productions offering at Mercury Theater Chicago should not be confused with Hell in a Handbag’s long-running The Golden Girls: The Lost Episodeslocal franchise.)

Neither an homage nor a parody of the groundbreaking, iconic sitcom Golden Girls, Golden Gals lacks a point of view and swings uneasily between tones. One moment, it’s pure, over-the-top camp and broad comedy. The next, it’s a deeply serious drama overloaded with more earnest plot points than a month’s worth of Very Special Episodes. 

The Golden Gals Live!Through 2/12: Thu-Fri 7:30 PM, Sat 2:30 and 7:30 PM, Sun 2:30 PM, Mercury Theater Chicago, 3745 N. Southport, 773-360-7365, mercurytheaterchicago.com, $39-$75

Following the character template of the original, the titular gals include Minj as the boisterously sex-positive Blanche; Divine Grace as the acerbic, formidable Dorothy; Gidget Galore as the dimly sweet Rose and MR MS Adrien as Dorothy’s spitfire mother, Sophia. Jason Richards plays four supporting roles, most of his heavy lifting done by bad wigs. 

The rambling, overstuffed plot is weirdly retro, and not in a good, nostalgic way: a coming out storyline relies heavily on the tired joke where somebody repeatedly confuses being a lesbian with being Lebanese. An ex-husband’s groping handsiness is played for laughs. Far too much stage time is devoted to a tired catfight between Blanche and Sophia as they vigorously attempt to get the same unimpressive dude in bed. 

Joshua Eads (aka Minj’s government name) is credited with both directing the production and writing the script, which runs roughly two hours, although laborious scene changes for the one-set show make it feel like longer. There’s enough solid comedy here for a Drag Race acting challenge, which generally runs a few minutes. 

Minj looks gorgeous as Blanche and the Mercury Bar is a captivating place to hang out.  And really, Golden Gals only needs two things to elevate: a new script and comic timing. For those Minj fans longing for new material (and still waiting for the release of her long-delayed LP Clown Fucker), Golden Gals offers little to applaud.

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The hardest working queen in showbiz? That’d be Ginger Minj (fight me). After three stints on RuPaul’s Drag Race (season seven, All Stars 2, and All Stars 6), the breakout star and two-time RDR finalist has kept busy with countless live shows, small screen hits, a trio of studio albums that showcase her Broadway-worthy belt and theater productions the world over, including last year’s Music Theater Works staging of La Cage aux Folles. Royalty of this caliber deserves better than The Golden Gals Live! (This Fruit Wine Productions offering at Mercury Theater Chicago should not be confused with Hell in a Handbag’s long-running The Golden Girls: The Lost Episodeslocal franchise.)

Neither an homage nor a parody of the groundbreaking, iconic sitcom Golden Girls, Golden Gals lacks a point of view and swings uneasily between tones. One moment, it’s pure, over-the-top camp and broad comedy. The next, it’s a deeply serious drama overloaded with more earnest plot points than a month’s worth of Very Special Episodes. 

The Golden Gals Live!Through 2/12: Thu-Fri 7:30 PM, Sat 2:30 and 7:30 PM, Sun 2:30 PM, Mercury Theater Chicago, 3745 N. Southport, 773-360-7365, mercurytheaterchicago.com, $39-$75

Following the character template of the original, the titular gals include Minj as the boisterously sex-positive Blanche; Divine Grace as the acerbic, formidable Dorothy; Gidget Galore as the dimly sweet Rose and MR MS Adrien as Dorothy’s spitfire mother, Sophia. Jason Richards plays four supporting roles, most of his heavy lifting done by bad wigs. 

The rambling, overstuffed plot is weirdly retro, and not in a good, nostalgic way: a coming out storyline relies heavily on the tired joke where somebody repeatedly confuses being a lesbian with being Lebanese. An ex-husband’s groping handsiness is played for laughs. Far too much stage time is devoted to a tired catfight between Blanche and Sophia as they vigorously attempt to get the same unimpressive dude in bed. 

Joshua Eads (aka Minj’s government name) is credited with both directing the production and writing the script, which runs roughly two hours, although laborious scene changes for the one-set show make it feel like longer. There’s enough solid comedy here for a Drag Race acting challenge, which generally runs a few minutes. 

Minj looks gorgeous as Blanche and the Mercury Bar is a captivating place to hang out.  And really, Golden Gals only needs two things to elevate: a new script and comic timing. For those Minj fans longing for new material (and still waiting for the release of her long-delayed LP Clown Fucker), Golden Gals offers little to applaud.

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For as much as Luka Doncic does for his team on the court, his team does that much less when he’s not on the court. The Dallas Mavericks have recentered themselves in the Western Conference playoff picture courtesy of their young superstar, but they have failed to gain momentum despite Doncic’s nightly MVP performances.

The Mavericks are one of the few teams in the Western Conference playoff picture that have not seen first place. The streaky West has seen nine other teams spend a day in first place so far this season, per ESPN Stats & Information research, and many of which don’t boast a talent like Doncic.

Now the door might be closing for Dallas to make a run to the top of the conference, as the Denver Nuggets and Memphis Grizzlies are putting their feet on the gas with six and 10-game winning streaks, respectively.

The Boston Celtics might also be outpacing anyone in the Eastern Conference. The team that has spent much of the year with the NBA’s best record has put together a seven-game winning streak and has returned to its early-season form.

Note: Throughout the regular season, our panel (Kendra Andrews, Tim Bontemps, Jamal Collier, Nick Friedell, Andrew Lopez, Tim MacMahon, Dave McMenamin and Ohm Youngmisuk) is ranking all 30 teams from top to bottom, taking stock of which teams are playing the best basketball now and which teams are looking most like title contenders.

Previous rankings: Week 1 Week 6

There are more than 100 candidates vying for seats on Chicago’s police district councils in the February 28 election. These councils, like the citywide Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability (CCPSA), were created by the 2021 Empowering Communities for Public Safety ordinance, which the City Council passed in 2021 after years of community organizing.

Read our voter guide to police district council candidates

There are 66 council seats; three in each of Chicago’s 22 police districts. Each council is made up of a chairperson, a community engagement coordinator, and a member of the citywide committee that nominates CCPSA members. Council members are elected to four-year terms beginning in 2023. They must live in the district and cannot have been a member of the Chicago Police Department, Independent Police Review Authority, Civilian Office of Police Accountability (COPA), or the Police Board for at least three years before they assume office. If there is a vacancy on one of the councils, its members will submit three names to the CCPSA, which recommends one to the mayor for an appointment.

Police district council responsibilities

Community interaction and support

The police district councils are required to hold monthly meetings to discuss policing issues. They inform the community about the work the district councils and the Commission are doing, and gather input from the public about public safety and policing in their communities. They’re required to assist the public with such issues and help community members request information about investigations from the police department and the Civilian Office of Police Accountability (COPA).

Police interaction and oversight

Police district councils work with district commanders and community members to develop and implement community policing initiatives, and the councils are specifically tasked with developing and expanding restorative justice and similar programs. They’re required to encourage police officers to help the community access resources, and they provide information to police about their work and the Commission’s work.

CCPSA input

Beginning in 2023, district councils will be able to nominate 14 candidates to the CCPSA, and the mayor will be required to select seven from that list (the City Council nominated 14 candidates to the current interim Commission in 2022).

The police district councils will send one member to quarterly and annual meetings with delegates from all 66 councils. Councils may report their findings and make policy recommendations to the CCPSA.

CCPSA responsibilities

Hiring and firing public safety administrators

When there is a vacancy of the police superintendent, Police Board members, or the COPA chief administrator, the CCPSA sends a list of candidates to the mayor, who selects one whom the City Council confirms.

The Commission is responsible for hiring COPA’s chief administrator (whom the City Council confirms) and can fire them for cause.

At the beginning of the year, the Commission sets goals for the police superintendent and the department, COPA’s chief administrator, the Police Board and its president. At the end of the year, the Commission will evaluate their performance.

The Commission can hold hearings about the police superintendent and members of the Police Board, and take a vote of no confidence in them, which would require the City Council to hold hearings and a vote, as well as a public response from the mayor.

Police department policy oversight

General orders for CPD can be drafted by the department or the Commission, but they require a majority vote by the Commission to become policy. The Commission will post draft policies on its website and invite public comment. The police department is still under a federal consent decree, and policies that are covered by it can’t be set by the Commission. The mayor can veto policies enacted by the Commission, and the City Council can override the veto by a two-thirds majority vote.

The Commission works with the police department on community policing programs and recommends solutions to violence that are preventative, community-based, and include non-policing alternatives.

The Commission can make recommendations about what the Public Safety Inspector General should audit. It also reviews the police department budget and can recommend changes to it before the City Council votes on it.

If the police department and Commission disagree on a policy, there is a process to resolve differences and build consensus between them.

Community engagement and transparency

The CCPSA must hold monthly meetings. It conducts outreach on relations between community and police; department policies and practices; and the department’s accountability system. The Commission can publish reports on matters of community concern, and it can require the police superintendent to answer questions in public and provide reports to the Commission.

The Commission will appoint an advisory council made up of Chicago residents who do not have citizenship.

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There are more than 100 candidates vying for seats on Chicago’s police district councils in the February 28 election. These councils, like the citywide Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability (CCPSA), were created by the 2021 Empowering Communities for Public Safety ordinance, which the City Council passed in 2021 after years of community organizing.

Read our voter guide to police district council candidates

There are 66 council seats; three in each of Chicago’s 22 police districts. Each council is made up of a chairperson, a community engagement coordinator, and a member of the citywide committee that nominates CCPSA members. Council members are elected to four-year terms beginning in 2023. They must live in the district and cannot have been a member of the Chicago Police Department, Independent Police Review Authority, Civilian Office of Police Accountability (COPA), or the Police Board for at least three years before they assume office. If there is a vacancy on one of the councils, its members will submit three names to the CCPSA, which recommends one to the mayor for an appointment.

Police district council responsibilities

Community interaction and support

The police district councils are required to hold monthly meetings to discuss policing issues. They inform the community about the work the district councils and the Commission are doing, and gather input from the public about public safety and policing in their communities. They’re required to assist the public with such issues and help community members request information about investigations from the police department and the Civilian Office of Police Accountability (COPA).

Police interaction and oversight

Police district councils work with district commanders and community members to develop and implement community policing initiatives, and the councils are specifically tasked with developing and expanding restorative justice and similar programs. They’re required to encourage police officers to help the community access resources, and they provide information to police about their work and the Commission’s work.

CCPSA input

Beginning in 2023, district councils will be able to nominate 14 candidates to the CCPSA, and the mayor will be required to select seven from that list (the City Council nominated 14 candidates to the current interim Commission in 2022).

The police district councils will send one member to quarterly and annual meetings with delegates from all 66 councils. Councils may report their findings and make policy recommendations to the CCPSA.

CCPSA responsibilities

Hiring and firing public safety administrators

When there is a vacancy of the police superintendent, Police Board members, or the COPA chief administrator, the CCPSA sends a list of candidates to the mayor, who selects one whom the City Council confirms.

The Commission is responsible for hiring COPA’s chief administrator (whom the City Council confirms) and can fire them for cause.

At the beginning of the year, the Commission sets goals for the police superintendent and the department, COPA’s chief administrator, the Police Board and its president. At the end of the year, the Commission will evaluate their performance.

The Commission can hold hearings about the police superintendent and members of the Police Board, and take a vote of no confidence in them, which would require the City Council to hold hearings and a vote, as well as a public response from the mayor.

Police department policy oversight

General orders for CPD can be drafted by the department or the Commission, but they require a majority vote by the Commission to become policy. The Commission will post draft policies on its website and invite public comment. The police department is still under a federal consent decree, and policies that are covered by it can’t be set by the Commission. The mayor can veto policies enacted by the Commission, and the City Council can override the veto by a two-thirds majority vote.

The Commission works with the police department on community policing programs and recommends solutions to violence that are preventative, community-based, and include non-policing alternatives.

The Commission can make recommendations about what the Public Safety Inspector General should audit. It also reviews the police department budget and can recommend changes to it before the City Council votes on it.

If the police department and Commission disagree on a policy, there is a process to resolve differences and build consensus between them.

Community engagement and transparency

The CCPSA must hold monthly meetings. It conducts outreach on relations between community and police; department policies and practices; and the department’s accountability system. The Commission can publish reports on matters of community concern, and it can require the police superintendent to answer questions in public and provide reports to the Commission.

The Commission will appoint an advisory council made up of Chicago residents who do not have citizenship.

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I rarely read wall labels in art exhibitions as I find the verbiage gets in the way of my experience. My goal is to have a one-on-one reckoning with what I’m looking at without someone else’s words confusing or directing my reaction.

The curators of this survey of some 250 sculptures, masks, and ornaments from all over the African continent have made my modus operandi difficult. Signage and wall texts throughout allude to their aim of reframing how this non-Western work is seen in as Eurocentric a venue as can be imagined: an encyclopedic art museum. They want the viewer to see these pieces of wood, bone, leather, dirt, hair—most made for devotional and communal rituals—the way their makers intended. They propose that we consider various metrics of beauty and ugliness as we stroll through.

This is a fool’s errand. There’s no way to recreate the original context so many years after these often sacred objects were taken from their places of origin, shipped halfway across the world, and displayed as decorations in some rich American’s or European’s home. Even the wall texts admit to not knowing what tribe every piece came from or the dates it was fashioned. All I hope after breaking my rule and reading is that whoever sold the work got a good price.

I’ve spent hours at a time in this show and had many powerful encounters with these figures and faces. I don’t for a second presume to know the intent of the sculptors who cut down a tree trunk, fashioned it into human form, then pierced it with nails, knives, and sharp shards of glass. I look at what they made and recognize a base-level reckoning with what it is to be alive. It’s all anyone can ask for from a work of art. Beauty has nothing to do with it.

“The Language of Beauty in African Art”Through 2/27: Thu 11 AM-8 PM, Fri-Mon 11 AM-5 PM, Art Institute of Chicago, 111 S. Michigan, 312-443-3600, artic.edu, general admission $14-$35 (see website for free days, discounts, and a breakdown of admission fees)

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I rarely read wall labels in art exhibitions as I find the verbiage gets in the way of my experience. My goal is to have a one-on-one reckoning with what I’m looking at without someone else’s words confusing or directing my reaction.

The curators of this survey of some 250 sculptures, masks, and ornaments from all over the African continent have made my modus operandi difficult. Signage and wall texts throughout allude to their aim of reframing how this non-Western work is seen in as Eurocentric a venue as can be imagined: an encyclopedic art museum. They want the viewer to see these pieces of wood, bone, leather, dirt, hair—most made for devotional and communal rituals—the way their makers intended. They propose that we consider various metrics of beauty and ugliness as we stroll through.

This is a fool’s errand. There’s no way to recreate the original context so many years after these often sacred objects were taken from their places of origin, shipped halfway across the world, and displayed as decorations in some rich American’s or European’s home. Even the wall texts admit to not knowing what tribe every piece came from or the dates it was fashioned. All I hope after breaking my rule and reading is that whoever sold the work got a good price.

I’ve spent hours at a time in this show and had many powerful encounters with these figures and faces. I don’t for a second presume to know the intent of the sculptors who cut down a tree trunk, fashioned it into human form, then pierced it with nails, knives, and sharp shards of glass. I look at what they made and recognize a base-level reckoning with what it is to be alive. It’s all anyone can ask for from a work of art. Beauty has nothing to do with it.

“The Language of Beauty in African Art”Through 2/27: Thu 11 AM-8 PM, Fri-Mon 11 AM-5 PM, Art Institute of Chicago, 111 S. Michigan, 312-443-3600, artic.edu, general admission $14-$35 (see website for free days, discounts, and a breakdown of admission fees)

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