Black Ensemble Theater

Blue Heaven – Black Ensemble Theater – Closes October 26, 2025

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Blue Heaven is not a show you go to for the plot or the monologues, which are jammed into the middle section of this 90-minute show to provide some background on the lives of the depicted artists – Howlin’ Wolf, Big Mama Thornton, Muddy Waters, Stevie Ray Vaughan and B.B. King – before it heads into full concert mode.

You do go for the music, and it’s a treat. The only things missing from my days of going to blues clubs were a layer of cigarette smoke and a bottle of beer in hand.

And, if you closed your eyes, the talented cast, aided by a terrific backup band, might make you think you were listening to the original performers. My favorite was probably Cynthia Carter, as Thornton, who brought a delicious feistiness to her part.

The only one of the featured five I ever saw in person was King, as the opening act for the Rolling Stones in 1969. Unforgettable.

I was familiar with about 40% of the songs in Blue Heaven, but, if you’ve listened to enough blues, you think you know the songs even if you’ve never heard them before.

That’s What Friends Are For: Gladys, Dionne, and Patti – Black Ensemble Theater (BET) – August 10, 2025

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Another final performance. My way of avoiding any readers saying that they relied upon my “review.”

I hadn’t been to the BET in almost 6 years, but some things never change. Though she has turned a lot of the creative work over to Daryl Brooks, who wrote and directed this production, Jackie Taylor is still the driving force behind the theater. And it was her birthday! Following the performance, the audience joined the cast in a joyful version of Happy Birthday I had never heard before. Unfortunately, no cake was served in the lobby, as had been the last time I was there, for The Other Cinderella.

There was a lot of emotion during the finale – That’s What Friends Are For – as the mature and young versions of the three leading ladies gathered together one last time. All six are good actresses, but they weren’t acting, the tears were real.

The crowd was engaged and enthusiastic throughout, including one woman in the front row doing lot of chair dancing. But the highest energy of the day was provided by Tamara Batiest, as the mature Patti Labelle, pushing both the vocal and physical edges of the envelope in her take on Labelle. Just when you thought she had taken it as far as she could, she would find another layer and milk it for all it was worth.

I won’t be waiting so long to return to the BET, going back in the fall for Blue Heaven, also written and directed by Brooks, which was on display in 2022, when a lot of people, myself included, were not yet back to normal theater-going. I’ll be going out on a limb, attending before the final performance, so I’ll have to stall writing about it for a day or two afterward.

Chicago Live – Navy Pier – September 23-24, 2023

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Navy Pier, it’s not just for tourists. Well, maybe most of the time, but not at Chicago Live.

Important information I picked up.

From Theo Ubique Theatre – how they pronounce Ubique. Their presentation of Sondheim songs, including Not Getting Married Today, led me to watch again, online, the great rendition by Katie Finneran.

From the Filament Theatre two-person presentation of something (I don’t what, I was just passing by the stage when they caught my attention) that “It’s hard to balance on invisible legs.”

From the young lady at the Hot Tix booth with an acting degree who currently works as a carpenter at local theaters, that the Nacirema (Society), in the name of the current play at the Goodman, is American spelled backwards. Doh!

Also, it sounds like Hot Tix is considering a membership that would allow you to pick your seat, something I could get behind.

From the marvelous Lucy Darling, that she is going to be the emcee of the new Teatro ZinZanni show opening in October. Lucy did a standard empty bag trick, while insulting audience members in a way that would make Don Rickles proud. The contortionist, Ulzii Mergen, also appeared, being attractive, impressive and cringeworthy all at the same time.

Other stuff I saw.

Porchlight Music Theatre promoting its upcoming Cole Porter Festival, which, I am excited to say, will feature Meghan (Big Red) Murphy in the role of Reno Sweeney in Anything Goes. I have it on good information that playing this part has been on her bucket list. I liked Porchlight’s rendition of Now You Has Jazz better than Bing Crosby’s in High Society, though, I admit, having Louis Armstrong playing the trumpet did work in Crosby’s favor.

Lots of percussion – from third Coast Percussion and from a Chicago Philharmonic trio, whose sound was such that I kept waiting for dancers wearing big construction boots and carrying large trash cans to appear.

Dancers did appear for me at Culture Shock Chicago and Chicago Tap Theatre (as my readers know, you can never have enough tap).

Victor Garcia giving a master class on the use of the trumpet mute.

A DJ at a classic show tunes stage presenting a geographical music tour – I heard Kansas City (Oklahoma), Iowa Stubborn (Music Man), and Ohio (Wonderful Town).

Chronologically, the American Blues Theater’s road trip had me from the 50s opening Chuck Berry guitar riff of Johnny B. Goode (though sadly no duck-walking) and cemented my interest with the 60s CCR hit Down on the Corner (which was the song that sustained me while poring over the course catalog junior year of college looking for a new major). I’ll skip ahead to the 2000s to mention Taylor Swift’s Shake It Off because her appearance at the Bears game was apparently the biggest news in the NFL Sunday and thankfully overshadowed the high school team wearing their jerseys against Kansas City.

I love the Black Ensemble Theater but I have to say that I would have liked to hear the performance of Piece of My Heart emulate, not Janis Joplin, but rather the original Emma Franklin version.

Dee Alexander was new to me, but smooth as could be (with a great band behind her). I’ll watch for her in the future and be back at Chicago Live for more next year.

The Other Cinderella – Black Ensemble Theater – December 22, 2019

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My favorite cast member in this incarnation of the Black Ensemble Theater’s annual production of The Other Cinderella was Stewart Romeo, who played the Page. According to his bio in the program, Romeo is a trained singer, actor and carpenter (and he’s funny and can dance). When I saw the carpenter credential, I wondered, given the family atmosphere of the theater, whether Romeo had been enlisted to build any sets. Sure enough, he’s listed in the program under set construction. It reminded me of Harrison Ford, who was a carpenter between early acting roles, and Alexander Godunov, who also danced a little during his career, showing off their carpentry skills while nailing their parts in the barn-raising scene in the movie Witness.

The theater’s family atmosphere continued after the show when the actors went into the lobby and formed a receiving line for the patrons. It was like being at Cinderella and the Prince’s wedding, though, disappointingly, there wasn’t any cake. I was a little embarrassed because I didn’t bring a gift (you have a year, right?), but I didn’t bring one to Tony and Tina’s wedding either.

Also embarrassingly, this was my first time at the theater’s current location – they moved into it in 2011. It’s a nice building, but some things haven’t changed. The indefatigable Jackie Taylor is still running it all as the CEO, and, in addition to having written The Other Cinderella, including many of the songs, over 40 years ago, she’s listed as the producer, director, costume designer, and, why not, understudy for this production.

Though the plot is essentially the same, this isn’t Disney’s or the Grimm Brothers’ Cinderella, or Strabo’s Rhodopis. No brothers from the hood there. And Taylor keeps it updated. I’m pretty sure the original production didn’t include references to Idris Elba, Michael B. Jordan, and social media.