(Weiss’s article appeared in the Chicago Sun-Times, 12/17.)
reporter.com/features/holocaust-su It was an exceptionally good year on Chicago stages. In fact, my initial list for the “10 best of 2015″ contained a solid 60 shows, and it was agonizing to have to whittle it down so dramatically.
Among the many things to be said about theater in this city is the astonishing age range of the talent pool. There was Mike Nussbaum, about to turn 92, as the irrepressible anchor of Arthur Miller’s “The Price” at TimeLine Theatre. And then there were a slew of actors still in their teens (most notably Caroline Heffernan in “Good for Otto” and Nicholas Dantes in “Billy Elliot”), as well as the remarkable youth ensembles of the Albany Park Theatre Project (in “Feast,” at the Goodman Theatre), and the Senn Arts Magnet School High School’s The Yard, in conjunction with The Hypocrites (in “The Fourth Graders Present an Unnamed Love-Suicide”), who turned in uncannily brilliant performances in roles that required them to dominate the stage.
Here is the final list, and I confess to cheating a bit by including a few ties, and omitting three exceptional touring productions: The altogether sparkling “A Gentleman’s Guide to Love & Murder,” Cirque du Soleil’s magical “Kurios,” and a late arrival, “Baritones Unbound,” a terrifically entertaining vocal history, from the Gregorian chant to Broadway, at the Royal George Theatre through Jan. 3.
http://entertainment.suntimes.com/entertainment-news/best-2015-theater-season/