Chicago Broadcasting Network

Puccini’s popular opera La Bohème at Lyric Opera of Chicago is a story of youth, passion, love and loss where idealism comes face-to-face with life’s realities such as poverty, illness and death. Yes, this is the opera where the young lady with the bad cough dies at the end.  Listen to our synopsis and podcast review.

Music Theater Works production of “Guys and Dolls” at the North Shore Center for the Performing Arts in Skokie is good old fashioned mid-century style musical theater fun.  The story lampoons the idea of middle class morality, lambasting both the good guys and bad guys for taking themselves so seriously. Guys and Dolls has been performed by numerous companies over the past fifty-plus years but sti...

In this hilarious musical riff on Romeo and Juliet at the Skokie Theater, Romeo has awakened from a 400-year slumber to find his beloved Juliet long turned to dust. Instead, he finds a teenaged American tourist Bernadette Penza whose mother Camille has brought the family to Italy to get in touch with her Veronese roots. Camille is a descendent of Juliet’s family and Bernadette the very image of Ro...

Hedda Gabler is the self-absorbed, only daughter of a military officer who has an overblown grandiose sense of her own importance, and a lack of empathy for others. She feels trapped in a world of bourgeois values full of expectations she cannot control. It is her perception that the men around her seem to enjoy much more freedom to pursue their own public and private interests with less scrutiny...

A sparsely furnished motel room dominates the stage. Along the perimeter an empty swimming pool, an imposing neon MOTEL sign, a massive telephone pole and bits of scrub grass suggest this is essentially the bottom of the barrel in the middle of nowhere somewhere at the end of the line. The massive sky in the background adds to the fact that this is a story of two people stuck in a small room focus...

“Glassheart” is a modern-day reimagining of the well-known tale of Beauty and the Beast playing through February 23rd 2025 at CityLit Theater on Chicago’s northside near Bryn Mawr and Sheridan Road.  What are you willing to sacrifice to be the light in someone else’s life? Are you able to look past the superficial and artificial barriers that cause us to disregard and reject those who may be deser...

Holidays have a unique way of punctuating our lives. Through this activity we assess alliances, trade information, and mark the passage of time. In The Long Christmas Dinner written by Thorton Wilder, presented by TUTA Theatre in Chicago we join an affluent Midwestern family, sometime in the not-too-distant past, at their Christmas table.   What is unusual is that, this is not just one dinner, it...

Mike Royko was an outspoken Chicago journalist, who in the 1960s through 1990s railed against the political machine and championed the cause of the underdog with the same zeal he displayed toward his beloved Chicago Cubbies. Mitchell Bisschop’s roughly two-hour performance as Royko serves as a reminiscence for those of a certain age, and as an entertaining summary of our recent history for those o...

Reno Lovison, Executive Producer at ChicagoBroadcastingNetwork.com comments on the documentary Time Passages by Chicago filmmaker Kyle Henry who tenderly reviews his relationship between himself and his mother, whose memory is slowly slipping away due to dementia. Looking at other people’s lives is always interesting. We can’t help but to compare our experiences to theirs perhaps in a quest to see...

An aspiring African American actress, Vera Stark (Ashayla Calvin) works as a personal maid to fading 1930s movie star Gloria Mitchell (Caitlin Jemison), once known as “America’s Little Sweetie-Pie.” The two have a close relationship and have a shared struggle to find success. However, due to race barriers and prejudices it is clearly more difficult for Stark than it is for Mitchell. Playing at the...

This is a film review of "The Light of Truth: Richard Hunt's Monument to Ida B. Wells follows the Chicago artist's creation of a monument to the civil right champion and woman’s suffrage leader. The film that premiered at the 60th Annual Chicago International Film Festival in 2024 follows his process as an opportunity to showcase each of their contributions to society while doing so within the gre...

Letter writing is more akin to internal dialogue and can have a kind of naked intimacy that is difficult to achieve in the flesh. Dear Elizabeth is smart biographical drama providing a glimpse into the lives and thoughts of two interesting people who through their own words, demonstrate to us the value of friendship and human connectedness.

The Goodman Theatre reminds us that the more things change the more they remain the same in this production of the classic courtroom drama, “Inherit the Wind.” Small town school teacher Bertram Cates (Christopher Llewyn Ramirez) is on trial for breaking a state law that prohibits the teaching of evolution.

Lyric Opera of Chicago expounds on Beethoven's message of freedom of expression in this captivating contemporary production of Fidelio. It's interesting to see how easily this 18th Century music transforms to modern times. It is and story of good triumphing over evil and most importantly a story of hope combined with the courage to speak truth to power and taking action to stand up to tyranny and...

Kicking off this popular Chicago ensemble theater company’s 49th season, an incompetent troupe of actors are expertly portrayed by a considerably expert cast, in Steppenwolf’s revival of the classic screwball comedy “Noises Off,” directed by Anna D. Shapiro. 

A timeless classic that deserves to be seen and heard. Whether you are experiencing it the first time or you are coming from a place of nostalgia, the musical South Pacific includes some of the best and most recognizable tunes by the composing team of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II. Based on a novel by James Michener and adapted by Hammerstein and Josh Logan, the 1949 play boldly address...

If you think you know something about Georgia O’Keeffe, be prepared to be pleasantly surprised.  Her styles at this time seems to have generally drifted away from her previous more colorful works and amorphous forms, and instead varied from monochromatic abstracts to more realistic sepia toned cityscapes reminiscent of Stieglitz’ photos.  Georgia O’Keeffe: “My New Yorks” is at the Art Institute of...

In 1938 twenty-five-year-old Orson Welles became famous after his radio play based on the novel "A War of the Worlds" shook the airwaves, purportedly nearly causing national panic. The book’s seventy-five-year-old author H.G. Wells was not amused at how his intellectual property was in his mind misused without permission.  Written by Amy Crider the play is inspired by an actual encounter in 1940 w...

“Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil” is the best musical I have seen in years.  Opening night was one to remember. John Berendt, the author of the best-selling book, was on hand for the curtain call and to see this new musical version written by Taylor Mac come to life. The excitement of the evening spilled out into the street as people chattered about what a great time this was. At the Goodm...

When you cannot adequately express yourself with the nuance and clarity of a native speaker, people do not know that you are actually smart, funny, and kind. Instead, they only hear your imperfect pronunciation and limited vocabulary. You may be easily assumed to be inferior with little or nothing to offer. PULITZER PRIZE-WINNING PLAY BY SANAZ TOOSSI EXTENDED BY POPULAR DEMAND.

“9 to 5: The Musical” playing at the Metropolis Theater in downtown Arlington Heights is a kind of women’s lib version of “How to Succeed in Business.”  While his wife is away on a four week cruise a trio of women manage to hog tie and subdue their boss in his home. Signing his name to numerous memos they commence making much appreciated changes and improvements to staff morale and office producti...

Podcast theater review by Reno Lovison of Judgment Day - written by Rob Ulin, directed Moritz von Stuelpnagel, starring Jason Alexander at Chicago Shakespeare Theater through May 26, 2024.  Includes review of Offshore Rooftop Bar at Navy Pier. Bonus content : Rikki Lee Travolta interviews the creators of "Little Orphan Boy - The Musical at the annoyance theatre in Chicago. 

An update of a few events we enjoyed recently and a look to what’s happening soon including an excerpt of Rikki Lee Travolta’s interview with Evan Jackson, artistic director of “What the Weird Sisters Saw” a retelling of Macbeth from the Witches' point of view performed by Idle Muse at the Edge Theater. Also a few shoutouts to some northside Chicago restaurants.

Jersey Boys currently on stage in Chicago features 30 musical numbers while walking us through the life and times of Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons a New Jersey based rock and roll quartet that appealed largely to blue collar teens nationwide in the 1960s with songs like “Sherry” and “Walk Like A Man.”   Podcast theater review by Reno Lovison includes a short excerpt of an interview by Rikki L...

In this podcast episode Rikki Lee Travolta interviews Ronni Marmo appearing in “I’m Not a Comedian….I’m Lenny Bruce” under the direction of multi-award-winner Joe Mantegna at the Biograph Theater in Chicago. This production  tells the story of the life and early passing of one of the most legendary comedians of all time. Rikki Lee talks with Marmo about the development of the work and his associat...