Nancy S Bishop
@nancyb.bsky.social
Chicago theater/arts critic, publisher Third Coast Review. Obsessive reader. Always curious.
My latest theater review. On view only until 10/25. Written when Amiri Baraka was still LeRoi Jones.
Trap Door Theatre stages "Dutchman" by Amiri Baraka, a 1964 play about racism, power and politiics. Dated? A little, but still thrilling after all these years. thirdcoastreview.com/stages/2025/...
Review: Trap Door Takes Us Back to the Sixties with Amiri Baraka’s Electric <em>Dutchman</em> | Third Coast Review
Amiri Baraka was still LeRoi Jones when he wrote Dutchman in 1964. The play, now being staged by Trap Door Theatre, is an early dialogue on race, class and power. […]
thirdcoastreview.com
October 11, 2025 at 10:03 PM
My latest theater review. On view only until 10/25. Written when Amiri Baraka was still LeRoi Jones.
I love Kavalier & Clay, but a book and its adaptation (film, theater, opera) are completely different works of art and shouldn't be compared. A 700pp book can't be turned into a 2hr opera. Perhaps the critic shouldn't have read the book.
www.nytimes.com/2025/09/22/a...
www.nytimes.com/2025/09/22/a...
Review: A ‘Kavalier & Clay’ Opera Doesn’t Meet Its Moment
www.nytimes.com
September 25, 2025 at 6:06 PM
I love Kavalier & Clay, but a book and its adaptation (film, theater, opera) are completely different works of art and shouldn't be compared. A 700pp book can't be turned into a 2hr opera. Perhaps the critic shouldn't have read the book.
www.nytimes.com/2025/09/22/a...
www.nytimes.com/2025/09/22/a...
Ashland Avenue, the new play at Goodman Theatre, is a sweet love letter to 1980s Chicago. Solid script and cast, but it lacks the bite that would make it exciting. thirdcoastreview.com/stages/2025/...
Review: In <em>Ashland Avenue</em> at Goodman Theatre, We Relive the 1980s at Pete’s TV and Video Store | Third Coast Review
Goodman Theatre’s new play, Ashland Avenue, is a love letter to 1980s Chicago. The character who epitomizes that era is Pete, proprietor of Pete’s TV and Video, who founded and […]
thirdcoastreview.com
September 18, 2025 at 2:07 AM
Ashland Avenue, the new play at Goodman Theatre, is a sweet love letter to 1980s Chicago. Solid script and cast, but it lacks the bite that would make it exciting. thirdcoastreview.com/stages/2025/...
My review of Richard Engling's third novel about Chicago storefront theater—The Last Production of King Lear. thirdcoastreview.com/lit/2025/08/...
Review: Comedy and Tragedy in Chicago’s Storefront Theater World—<em>The Very Last Production of King Lear</em> by Richard Engling | Third Coast Review
Richard Engling is a Chicago theater guy—actor, director, artistic director. He’s taken his years of experience as the raw material for a trilogy of novels about life in Chicago storefront […]
thirdcoastreview.com
September 12, 2025 at 2:20 PM
My review of Richard Engling's third novel about Chicago storefront theater—The Last Production of King Lear. thirdcoastreview.com/lit/2025/08/...
The Design Museum exhibit—Great Ideas of Humanity—reinvents a great advertising campaign that began in Chicago. thirdcoastreview.com/art/2025/07/...
Review: Design Museum Recreates Classic Great Ideas Series With New Voices and Expanded Focus | Third Coast Review
The Design Museum of Chicago has reached back into design history for a landmark advertising campaign developed by a Chicago corporation; the curators have recreated it as a modern-day exhibit […]
thirdcoastreview.com
August 1, 2025 at 1:26 PM
The Design Museum exhibit—Great Ideas of Humanity—reinvents a great advertising campaign that began in Chicago. thirdcoastreview.com/art/2025/07/...
I read a book about a famous glass house and wrote a book review. thirdcoastreview.com/lit/2025/05/...
Review: Nora Wendl Explores the Relationship That Resulted in That Famous House in <em>Almost Nothing: Reclaiming Edith Farnsworth</em> | Third Coast Review
“The house is a house, but it is also a metaphor; it has been described as a quantity of air trapped between floor and roof, … as a glass cage, […]
thirdcoastreview.com
June 1, 2025 at 1:56 PM
I read a book about a famous glass house and wrote a book review. thirdcoastreview.com/lit/2025/05/...
Photo for theater lovers. HT to LB.
March 4, 2025 at 3:21 PM
Photo for theater lovers. HT to LB.
Raven Theatre stages that under-valued Sam Shepard work, A Lie of the Mind. @theatrecritics.bsky.social thirdcoastreview.com/2025/02/25/s...
Review: Raven Theatre Creates a Sizzling Production of the Sam Shepard Masterwork, <em>A Lie of the Mind</em> | Third Coast Review
A Lie of the Mind, Sam Shepard’s 1983 play about two families and the tragedy that binds them, is a sizzling 2.5 hours of solid acting, direction and pacing. At […]
thirdcoastreview.com
February 26, 2025 at 2:39 PM
Raven Theatre stages that under-valued Sam Shepard work, A Lie of the Mind. @theatrecritics.bsky.social thirdcoastreview.com/2025/02/25/s...
Vote With Your Wallet this Friday! thirdcoastreview.com/2025/02/24/v...
Vote with Your Wallet: Join the Shopping Boycott on February 28th to Protest Billionaires Ransacking the American Government | Third Coast Review
Wondering how to fight fascism funded by corporate greed? Simple. Don’t feed the beast. Withholding unnecessary spending is a powerful form of resistance against today’s robber barons, the American ol...
thirdcoastreview.com
February 24, 2025 at 6:00 PM
Vote With Your Wallet this Friday! thirdcoastreview.com/2025/02/24/v...
Every year, I get tired of these seasonal Christmas plays and their icky holiday cliches. This year, it seemed appropriate to add a dash of fascism. So I reviewed this Tony Kushner play. thirdcoastreview.com/2024/12/13/s...
Review: In Blank Theatre's <em>A Bright Room Called Day</em>, Artists Face Exile as Danger Looms in Nazi-Era Berlin | Third Coast Review
It’s only December 13 and I’ve had enough holiday hilarity and jolly-holly spirit. For a little bah humbug, let’s talk about the rise of fascism in 1932 Germany. Fortunately Blank […]
thirdcoastreview.com
December 19, 2024 at 12:25 AM
Every year, I get tired of these seasonal Christmas plays and their icky holiday cliches. This year, it seemed appropriate to add a dash of fascism. So I reviewed this Tony Kushner play. thirdcoastreview.com/2024/12/13/s...
A new play tells the story of two standup comics through their comedy routines. Interesting dramatic structure by playwright Philip Dawkins. thirdcoastreview.com/2024/11/16/s...
Review: At Raven Theatre, <em>The Comedians</em> Tells a Love Story and More—Through Standup Acts | Third Coast Review
We want to hear from you! Take our brief reader survey now and share your feedback on what you love at Third Coast Review—and what we could be doing better! Plus, everyone […]
thirdcoastreview.com
November 18, 2024 at 12:47 AM
A new play tells the story of two standup comics through their comedy routines. Interesting dramatic structure by playwright Philip Dawkins. thirdcoastreview.com/2024/11/16/s...
A story for book lovers. thirdcoastreview.com/2024/11/14/f...
Feature: The Booker Prize Brings Together Book Lovers Worldwide in a Virtual Book Club | Third Coast Review
Tuesday, November 12, was an exciting day—it was Oscars night for book nerds. That was the day the Booker Prize, the most prestigious literary prize in the world, was awarded. […]
thirdcoastreview.com
November 15, 2024 at 8:39 PM
A story for book lovers. thirdcoastreview.com/2024/11/14/f...
Kara Swisher talks and we report. Also notes on her book. thirdcoastreview.com/2024/03/23/s...
Dialogs: Kara Swisher Talks Tech Bros— They're
Kara Swisher has a lot of opinions—and she doesn’t hesitate to share them, both in her new book and in her conversation with social work professor Brené Brown before a sold-out […]
thirdcoastreview.com
March 24, 2024 at 6:24 PM
Kara Swisher talks and we report. Also notes on her book. thirdcoastreview.com/2024/03/23/s...
My book review on a persistent problem of the retail industry and property owners everywhere.
Have you ever wondered how all those shopping carts congregated in some otherwise-deserted space? Julian Montague has done rigorous analysis (and taken great photos) to answer that question. We review his book, Stray Shopping Carts of Eastern North America.
thirdcoastreview.com/2023/12/27/l...
thirdcoastreview.com/2023/12/27/l...
Review: An Artist/Photographer Analyzes the Wanderlust of Stray Shopping Carts | Third Coast Review
The Stray Shopping Carts of Eastern North America: A Guide to Field Identification By Julian Montague Second edition, 2023, University of Chicago Press Julian Montague published his first edition of ...
thirdcoastreview.com
January 9, 2024 at 3:23 PM
My book review on a persistent problem of the retail industry and property owners everywhere.
The Lehman Trilogy, 180 years of business and family history—with a major gap. My review tries to fill that gap. thirdcoastreview.com/2023/10/01/s...
Review: In The Lehman Trilogy, Three Actors Tell the Story of the Rise and Crash of an Iconic Americ...
Timeline Theatre’s new production of The Lehman Trilogy tells the story of the rise and fall of an iconic American business—starting as an Alabama dry goods merchant and becoming one […]
thirdcoastreview.com
October 4, 2023 at 1:53 PM
The Lehman Trilogy, 180 years of business and family history—with a major gap. My review tries to fill that gap. thirdcoastreview.com/2023/10/01/s...
Trap Door Theatre, at its bizarre best, offers up a visually stunning and somewhat mystifying play by a Polish playwright. My review. thirdcoastreview.com/2023/09/23/s...
Review: Trap Door Stages the Stylish if Mystifying Play, The Pragmatists—Is It an Anti-War Play? |...
Two old friends, their bonds apparently fractured by despair at a collapsing world or something else entirely, meet again. One is artistic and the other is a practical man, a […]
thirdcoastreview.com
September 27, 2023 at 5:41 PM
Trap Door Theatre, at its bizarre best, offers up a visually stunning and somewhat mystifying play by a Polish playwright. My review. thirdcoastreview.com/2023/09/23/s...
Question to the bsky.social crowd. Why did bsky insist I add a content warning to my post about the film based on Milan Kundera's novel, The Unbearable Lightness of Being. I couldn't post my comment without setting that silly content warning. Is this a grownup site or not?
September 16, 2023 at 3:08 PM
Question to the bsky.social crowd. Why did bsky insist I add a content warning to my post about the film based on Milan Kundera's novel, The Unbearable Lightness of Being. I couldn't post my comment without setting that silly content warning. Is this a grownup site or not?
Watching the 1988 film The Unbearable Lightness of Being, because I just reread the Milan Kundera novel. Moving performances by very young Daniel Day Lewis and Juliette Binoche. Compelling footage of Russians invading Prague, ending the Prague Spring. (On Prime Video for $3.)
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Successful surgeon Tomas (Daniel Day-Lewis) leaves Prague for an operation, meets a young photographer named Tereza (Juliette Binoche), and brings her back with him. Tereza is surprised to learn that ...
www.rottentomatoes.com
September 16, 2023 at 3:05 PM
Watching the 1988 film The Unbearable Lightness of Being, because I just reread the Milan Kundera novel. Moving performances by very young Daniel Day Lewis and Juliette Binoche. Compelling footage of Russians invading Prague, ending the Prague Spring. (On Prime Video for $3.)
"Birthday Candles" at Northlight Theatre is beautifully staged and acted. It's a story of life, love and aging--sweet and a little sentimental. But sometimes we need that, right? thirdcoastreview.com/2023/09/15/s...
Review: Birthday Candles at Northlight Theatre Will Light Up Your Evening
Birthday Candles is a new play now on stage at Northlight Theatre. It’s a poignant comedy/drama that will cure your emotional ills for an evening with it
thirdcoastreview.com
September 16, 2023 at 2:54 PM
"Birthday Candles" at Northlight Theatre is beautifully staged and acted. It's a story of life, love and aging--sweet and a little sentimental. But sometimes we need that, right? thirdcoastreview.com/2023/09/15/s...
The first CHIRP Music Film Festival starts tonight! Some feature Chicago bands and music stories. Check out the schedule here. thirdcoastreview.com/2023/09/12/f...
Preview: CHIRP Radio's First Music Film Festival Starts Thursday at the Davis Theater
CHIRP Radio is launching its first film festival this week. But it won’t feature the latest action flick or hot indie rom-coms. As you might expect, CHIRP’s
thirdcoastreview.com
September 14, 2023 at 11:02 PM
The first CHIRP Music Film Festival starts tonight! Some feature Chicago bands and music stories. Check out the schedule here. thirdcoastreview.com/2023/09/12/f...
Every Thursday morning, our man Julian posts Chicago Curated Weekend with plenty of great local events, large and small, some a little weird, but all fun. thirdcoastreview.com/2023/09/14/y...
Your Chicago Curated Weekend: 9/14 and Beyond
The temps may be going down, but the events are at an all-time high! So don't let the chilly days ahead stop you from enjoying everything the city has to offer.
thirdcoastreview.com
September 14, 2023 at 10:56 PM
Every Thursday morning, our man Julian posts Chicago Curated Weekend with plenty of great local events, large and small, some a little weird, but all fun. thirdcoastreview.com/2023/09/14/y...
Today I reviewed a play I first saw 26 years ago and it still gives me a chill — and a thrill. thirdcoastreview.com/2023/09/14/s...
September 14, 2023 at 10:49 PM
Today I reviewed a play I first saw 26 years ago and it still gives me a chill — and a thrill. thirdcoastreview.com/2023/09/14/s...