Kerry Reid – Page 18 –

Nick Cave has been singing about mortality for decades, and he's really good at it. Whether the narratives are biblical or pulpy, the victims innocents or death row convicts, the circumstances comprehensible or cruelly random, Cave's songs are on intimate terms with the infinite ways a life can be extinguished. And yet, "Skeleton Tree", his latest album with his estimable band, the Bad Seeds, is a relatively concise song cycle shadowed by death that feels different than all the rest. <a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/music/kot/sc-music-nick-cave-skeleton-tree-ent-0916-20160916-column.html" target="_blank">Read the full review.</a>

‘Distance’ treats a fading Southern mind with care

May 9, 2019 at 5:36 a.m.

The late humorist Florence King, one of the greatest in the grand tradition of genteel-but-acidic Southern curmudgeons, once observed, "Sanity holds no charm in the South." No less a personage...

Strong-willed Fefu leaves her mark on her friends and Halcyon audience

May 9, 2019 at 5:36 a.m.

It's hard to name a living playwright who is more influential — yet more routinely ignored by major theaters — than Maria Irene Fornes. The 86-year-old Cuban-born avatar of the...

‘Next to Normal’: Musical about mental illness is up-close and intimate

May 9, 2019 at 5:36 a.m.

On a clear day, you can see that loss is forever. So who wouldn't prefer some mental clouds to cover the painful truth? Denial-as-survival is one of the frayed threads...

Daughters sort out geography of a family in ‘Sister Cities’

May 9, 2019 at 5:36 a.m.

Stop me if you've heard this one before: a parent has died and the estranged offspring gather to rehash the past, complete with recriminations, secrets and lots of booze. No,...

Victor Almanzar, who is wrapping up a starring run in "Between Riverside and Crazy" at Steppenwolf, relaxes in his apartment near the theater. The New York-based actor said: "Aside from the distance to the work space, for me the most important element (in guest housing) is the way the apartments are laid out."

First rehearsal to final curtain, out-of-town actors call Chicago home

May 20, 2019 at 8:17 a.m.

When rehearsal is over and the stage lights dim, a lot of Chicago stage artists head straight to the comforts of their own homes. But what about out-of-town talent? A...

Andrew Swanson of Cygneture-Woodworks sands a door outside his studio in Chicago.

From closets to kitchens, how storing our stuff has changed over time

May 30, 2019 at 10:27 p.m.

Comedian George Carlin once observed that the entire meaning of life is "trying to find a place for your stuff. That's all your house is — a place for your...

‘Kin Folk’ examines the struggle to be ourselves

May 9, 2019 at 5:35 a.m.

Transitioning is hard, as anyone who has stood by a loved one in the process of living as their true gender (rather than the one on their birth certificate) can...

David Carl channels Gary Busey in madcap ‘One-Man Hamlet’

May 9, 2019 at 5:35 a.m.

First things first: you're not losing your mind. David Carl's show, now in a short run (it ends Sunday) at Chicago Shakespeare as part of the Shakespeare 400 celebration, was...

Musical ‘Tomorrow Morning’ dives headlong into love and marriage

May 9, 2019 at 5:35 a.m.

Writing a musical around the stages of marriage after Stephen Sondheim's "Company" is a tough proposition. In the words of another Sondheim classic, "You Gotta Get a Gimmick." You can...

‘My Son the Waiter’ tells the story of a life lived lazily

May 9, 2019 at 5:35 a.m.

An actor walks into a restaurant. He says, "I'll take the extra-large order of a Dream Deferred. Hold the ambition." The manager says, "Get to work. You've got tables." That...

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