Theater Spotlight
Jackie Taylor is well known as the dynamic founder and executive director of Chicago's 41-year-old Black Ensemble Theater. But Taylor also is an acclaimed performer in her own right, and her one-woman show From Jackie with Love ( What the World Needs Now ) features songs, monologues and more from her career in show business. This fundraiser show plays 7:30 p.m. Monday through Wed., March 6-8, at Black Ensemble Theater, 4450 N. Clark St. Regular tickets are $65. Tickets for a VIP event on Wed., March 8 ( includes fundraising reception ) are $150; call 773-769-4451 or visit BlackEnsemble.org .
Critic's Picks
Blizzard '67, 16th Street Theater, Berwyn, extended through March 11. It's an exceptionally well-done revival of Jon Steinhagen's play marks the 50th anniversary of the Big Blow which parallelized Chicago. JA
By the Bog of Cats, The Artistic Home, through March 26. Ireland's ancient ecological graveyards provide the setting for a heartbreaking tale of Love Gone Wrong rendered with all the operatic grandeur of classical tragedy by one of Chicago's most under-recognized ensembles. MSB
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Paramount Theatre, Aurora, through March 19. Director Jim Corti delivers a gloriously grandiose staging of Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler's macabre musical masterpiece. The staging would feel right at home in any opera house. SCM
The Wolf at the End of the Block, Teatro Vista at the Biograph, through March 5. Martyrs wholly without sin being in short supply nowadays, good causes often demand compromises in order to accomplish their goals, and nobody parses this irony better than Ike Holter. MSB
By Abarbanel, Barnidge and Morgan