The novel Kite Runner was first published in 2003 by Khaled Hosseini. It was adapted into a play by Matthew Spangler and the first stage production was in 2007 at San Jose State University. The film version was also released that year. And now it opens at the CIBC Theatre in June of 2024.

Warning: This trailer contains some spoilers for the play.

Amir grew up in Afghanistan with his best friend, Hassan, who is the son of the family servant. After a tragic incident, Hassan’s family decides to move away for safety. Later on, Amir’s father also chooses to move away when the Russians invade. While living in Pakistan, they are granted asylum in the US, and they move to San Francisco. One day, Amir is called upon to return to Afghanistan for a very important mission.

Khaled Hosseini has written a very powerful story. It’s a gut wrenching tale about the difficult life in Afghanistan and the brutality of the hatred between the different groups of people there.

Ramzi Khalaf is outstanding as Amir, who goes through a major transformation in the story. Shahzeb Zahid Hussain is excellent as the joyful and innocent Hassan. Haythem Noor is a powerful force as the father. The rest of the cast puts on an amazing performance as well.

Overall, it’s a very heavy play (don’t bring the kids), but it is well worth the time. As they say in the play, “Sad stories make good books.”

Cost of a ticket: $109 (Orchestra Sides)

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Get tickets now for The Kite Runner through June 23^rd!

Quinn Delaney

David Kwong is the Enigmatist. He is a magician and a crossword constructor. He does many card tricks on stage including one trick where he is holding the full deck in one hand and manages to send a card spinning quickly in the air to his other hand. It’s quite an impressive feat. There are also many tricks that have the audience in awe without any idea how he did them. Also, there are five puzzles in the show that the audience is invited to solve. Lastly, he creates a full crossword puzzle live on stage from scratch. It’s very spectacular, especially after he reveals all the callbacks to earlier in the show that he placed into the crossword.

David Kwong is very charismatic and funny as he introduces each puzzle and magic trick. He describes magic as a puzzle that you can’t solve, which is a great insight.

Overall, it’s an expertly crafted show that all fans of magic and puzzles should definitely see.

Cost of a ticket: $69

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Get tickets now for The Enigmatist through June 30th.

Quinn Delaney

Four students in Iran are taking a class to prepare for the TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language). One of the students needs to pass in order to attend medical school in Australia. Another is learning English to speak to her grandchild. The third student is learning for the abundance of options that it provides. The last fourth’s motives are unknown. Lastly, the teacher lived in Manchester, England, for 9 years, but returned for an unknown reason.

Sanaz Toossi has written a Pulitzer Prize winning drama exploring the lives of these students and their teacher. The stakes of this test can be very high and the difficulty to learn can be very stressful.

Roxanna Hope Radja is great as the teacher, who is very strict about only speaking English in class. Nikki Massoud is solid as the future Australian student who really dislikes the English language. Sahar Bibiyan is fantastic as the grandmother who tries so hard to connect with her son and grandchild. Pej Vahdat is excellent as the student who is very secretive about his plans. Shadee Vossoughi is great as the student exploring her options.

Overall, it’s an excellent exploration of language as a form of identity.

Get tickets now for English through June 16^th!

Cost of a ticket: $55 (Main Floor)

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Quinn Delaney

DeeOhGee are from Nashville, TN. Their name comes from Waylon Jennings’s “Waymore’s Blues”. Tonight is their first show at The Hideout.

Early in the set, they introduce the next song by talking about the photo on the cover of their 2023 single, “Down on the Farm”. It was taken up in Wisconsin. Later on, the farmer sent them the pigs, cut up into little pieces for eating. “So, this next one is for the pigs, RIP!” says the lead singer, Matthew Paige.

Later on they play the title track of their 2021 album, “New Way of Life”. This song launches out of the gate to start and maintains it’s speed throughout. It’s a rocker that has the whole crowd dancing and having a great time.

They also play another single from 2023, “NaNaNa”. It features some great guitar. Also, it’s such a joy to sing along. “Na na na na na na na na…”.

Overall, DeeOhGee put on a fantastic show and they will surely be back in Chicago soon playing larger venues as their popularity grows!

Cost of a ticket: $24

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Quinn Delaney

The film version of Death Becomes Her was released in 1992 starring Meryl Streep, Bruce Willis, Goldie Hawn, and Isabella Rossellini. The musical version just opened at the Cadillac Palace Theatre. Performance will begin on Broadway in October of this year.

Two friends have a major rivalry. One becomes a writer, but doesn’t have a hit. The other becomes a star actress who always likes to hear about her friend’s troubles. One day the writer arrives with her fiancé, and the actress is incredibly jealous. As the actress begin to age, she starts losing her star power. So, she takes a potion which will give her everlasting beauty.

This musical is hilarious. An example of this humor is when the actress tells the writer to give up on her dreams and become a pharmacist. It’s like being a doctor and a cashier! It’s very campy and fun. The music and the dancing are extremely well done. It is definitely Broadway worthy.

Megan Hilty (Smash, Wicked) is fantastic as the self-obsessed actress who will do anything to be the best. Jennifer Simard is superb as the writer, a very competitive frenemy. Michelle Williams (Destiny’s Child) is splendid as the supplier of the potion. Christopher Sieber is solid as the fiancé, the straight man of the play.

Overall, it’s a fantastic experience. It’s the best of Broadway in Chicago and a worthy contender for the hottest ticket in town among the many great shows currently playing in Chicago.

Cost of a ticket: $100 (Orchestra Side)

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Get tickets now for Death Becomes Her through June 2^nd!

Quinn Delaney

A receptionist is taking calls at an office. Most of the staff isn’t in yet, so sends them all to voicemail. One of her coworkers arrives and they are very friendly with each other as they talk about their lives. A man from the central office arrives and asks to speak to the boss. The whole scene seems like a normal office environment, until their business is slowly revealed.

Adam Bock has written a very funny play about office life with a twist. At just 75 minutes, it leaves the audience wanting more.

The receptionist is played fantastically by dado (The Moors), who is so friendly and talkative with everyone. Jessica Ervin is excellent as the first coworker, who is so funny while flirting with the man from the central office. Jacob Alexander is great as this man, who also plays quite the flirt. Dano Duran is solid as the boss, who has many secrets.

Get tickets now for The Receptionist through June 2^nd!

Quinn Delaney

Tei Shi grew up between Colombia and Canada. On stage alone, she dances and sings in both English and Spanish along to her preproduced tracks. Her last headlining show in Chicago was last year on April 16^th.

Midway into the set, she sings “BAD PREMONITION” from this year’s new album, Valerie. “ It’s a bad premonition and it’s coming true / What to do? Can you just give me a sign? “ And for once can I be in the right place at the right time?” It’s a great pop song with a great groove and gets the audience dancing.

She ends the set with “When He’s Done”. “Cause when he’s done / He’ll have taken every little bit of my heart / That’s how it starts / And when he’s gone / He’ll take the words I wrote and throw them away / That’s what they say.” This track is such a great slow groove that truly showcases her excellent vocals.

https://open.spotifycom/intl-es/track/5Vsge67Bs4prEX0NbUSy6q?si=cffb043e29f44b5f

In the encore, she sings “OK crazy” from her 2020 album, Die 4 Ur Love. “All I ever wanted was to make u happy /All I ever really wanted was you under me / Though your feeling like your living in a nightmare / It might be a daydream.” She really belts this one out in a truly emotional performance.

Tei Shi ends the night with her biggest hit, “Bassically”, from her 2015 debut, Verde. It has over 21 million streams on Spotify. She dances all over the stage in this great finale.

See the full setlist here.

Cost of a ticket: $25

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Quinn Delaney

An elementary school director is putting together a 45-minute Thanksgiving play. She first hires her boyfriend, a street performer who will work for free. Next, she hires a local teacher to be the history expert. Lastly, with the money from a Native American grant, she hires a professional actress from Los Angeles. All together they plan to devise the perfectly politically correct and racially appropriate play that won’t offend anyone. It all goes comically wrong.

Larissa Fasthorse has written a very funny play poking fun at woke culture. The characters truly take it to the extreme and the audience loves it.

Paloma Nozicka is so funny as the LA actress, who plays up her simplicity and beauty. Audrey Francis is great as the director, who is incredibly ambitious in her goals for this school play. Nate Santana is superb as the boyfriend who is equally ambitious and socially conscious to the extreme. Tim Hopper is solid as the teacher overjoyed to be contributing to this work of art.

Cost of a ticket: $62

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Get tickets now for The Thanksgiving Play through June 2^nd!  

Quinn Delaney

Early in the set, Alice Merton sings “Vertigo” from her 2022 album, S.I.D.E.S. This song truly rocks and showcases her powerful leading vocals. It’s immediately clear this is going to be a great show.

Later on she talks about how she was in a toxic professional relationship. This person made her feel like the smallest person in the room. She broke contact with this person and wrote “Same Team” about them. “We’re not two sides of the same team anymore / No, I just can’t, I just can’t”. It’s a powerful song about breaking free.

Alice says she moved around a lot as a kid. At 13, she moved from Canada to Germany. She found it very difficult to learn the language. “There are six words for the!” She starts to go into further detail but then stops herself saying she is talking too much. The audience responds that they like it. So, she continues to say that with all this moving around that she never feels “Homesick”, which is the title of the next song. “No, I don’t get homesick / But I’m sick when I’m without you.”

This theme continues on her biggest hit, “No Roots”. “Ask me where I come from, I’ll say a different land”. This song has over 366 million streams on Spotify.

It has been 5 years since her last show in Chicago. The pandemic and some issues with visas caused this long delay. See our review of the opener, Parker Bossley, at this show in April of 2019, here.

Merton ends the set with “Why So Serious” from her 2019 album, Mint. “I stole the phrase from The Joker. Please don’t sue me!” “I wanna live in the now / I’m not gonna live in the past / Don’t wanna care about what-ifs / ‘Cause what if those things don’t last? / And I wanna live with no regrets”. What a great song to end with!

See the full setlist here.

Cost of a ticket: $32

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Quinn Delaney

A middle-aged man is training a young soldier. They are underground in a protected bunker because it’s not safe above ground. They are only in contact with one other survivor. Why isn’t it safe above ground? What is he training the soldier to do?

Levi Halloway (Haven Place, Grey House) has written a fantastic dystopian science-fiction thriller that has the audience on the edge of their seats for the full experience. The audience is searching for clues and answers to this future world he has created. It’s in the same genre and of equally high quality as Silo and Fallout. The set designed by Grant Sabin is absolutely amazing. It looks like it was created for a multi-million dollar movie.

Michael Shannon (Oscar Nominations for Nocturnal Animals and Revolutionary Road) is outstanding as the man determined to succeed past his many failures. Travis A. Knight (Toni Stone) is very impressive as the young soldier trying to figure out his identity and his purpose. Lawrence Grimm (3C) is superb as the other survivor, doing his best to stay alive.

At the end, everyone was in awe. It’s a world class production worthy a great future on Broadway and beyond. It would also make for a great movie that could win Oscars. Do not miss this show!

Cost of a ticket: $75

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Get tickets now for Turret through June 9^th!

Quinn Delaney