New Reviews--The Threepenny Opera and Heroes and VIllains

My review of The Hypocrites' The Threepenny Opera at Steppenwolf Garage is up on Centerstage  here.

My review of Collaboraction's Heroes and Villains at Theatre Building Chicago, meanwhile, is up here.

Here's a teaser for Threepenny:

For one of the seminal classics of modern theater, Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill's "The Threepenny Opera" has a surprisingly poor record on stage. Productions often have trouble balancing Brecht's fierce Marxist critique with his wicked sense of play, and frequently miss the proper style for Weill's scorching, gorgeous score. Happily, director Sean Graney's smashing production for The Hypocrites evades virtually all of the pitfalls, and makes for an exceptional evening of theater.

And here is one for H&V

It sounds like a setup for campy fun, but "Heroes and Villains," Daniel Janoff's peculiar but fascinating new play, has deeper things on its mind. The play somehow works as a cross between a gentle small-town love story and a meditation on the need for heroes and the battle between faith and skepticism.