Journalist, Author & Syndicated Columnist
“I’ve had people tell me I’ve got to be more focused with my career,” says Billy Wirth. “But that’s bull. I don’t want to be just one thing. I do what I want to do because I like it. And as long as I’ve got food on the table, my rent paid and a little spending money, that’s all I need right now.”
There are a lot of disc jockeys that listeners automatically will tune away from. And then there’s Jonathon Brandmeier, the multitalented WLUP radio personality who has fans willing to pay to watch him perform. Saturday night, in the first of two concerts at Poplar Creek, Brandmeier had Chicagoans eating out of his hands.
One of Matthew Sweet’s most appealing aspects is that while he is making a niche for himself as one of today’s hippest singers, his songwriting has maintained a sweet innocence that betrays his ultra-cool musician image.
Charlie Sexton’s self-titled debut album doesn’t make as strong an impact as his debut “Pictures for Pleasure.” But just when you’re ready to accuse him of suffering from the sophomore slump, Sexton’s skillful guitarwork and deep, emoting voice convince you he’s worth believing in.
The audience is almost as important as the cast in the Apple Tree Theatre’s production of “The Mystery of Edwin Drood.” While the actors are responsible for delivering the witty lines succinctly, the audience is expected to determine how each show will end, and to participate in the acting. Shy people may not like hissing at the villain every time he enters, as the audience is instructed to do before the production begins. They may consider it strange to flail both arms in the air every time the show’s title is mentioned. And they also may feel uncomfortable striking up conversations with actors who plop themselves down in chairs next to theirs before, during and after performances.
Actor Stephen Caffrey was born in Cleveland, attended high school in five different states and now divides his time between Los Angeles and New York. But ask him where home is, and he’ll say Chicago. “My father was in a business that moved him around a lot, and as a result I was often uprooted,” Caffrey said. “The longest I’ve ever been in one place was the eight years I spent in Chicago. It’s hard to describe what bouncing around from place to place is like to people who haven’t experienced it. But eventually you end up just grabbing hold of home, and for me that’s Chicago.”
In the first of two Poplar Creek shows, Linda Ronstadt played to an enthusiastic, predominantly adult audience, of many of whom sang along with the Mexican lyrics she belted out in her inimitable, guttoral soprano. I got the impression that if she needed to, she could do just as well without the microphone. The tour is in support of her latest album, “Canciones de Mi Padre” (Songs of My Father). Subtitled “A Romantic Evening in Old Mexico,” the Poplar Creek show was the same production that played for three weeks on Broadway. The two-act revue was as much theater as it was a concert.
Without Jude Law, “Music From Another Room” would be just another so-so film with an improbable plot. But in his role as an artist who believes it is his fate to be with a certain woman, the English actor is so charismatic and convincing that the moviegoer is simply charmed by his presence.
Being the young, blond, beautiful daughter of the executive producer for “The Young and the Restless” isn’t enough when an actress wants a job on the CBS soap opera. It pays to beg, said former Chicagoan Lauralee Bell. The 19-year-old TV star portrays high-fashion model Cricket Blair on the daytime drama.
Tonio K.’s latest album, “Notes From The Lost Civilization,” is a cohesive collection of songs. Utilizing the talents of his friends Sexton, Peter Case, Billy Vera, Booker T. Jones and T Bone Burnett, Tonio K. takes his music less seriously than critics who’ve at turns dubbed him a poet and a jester. K.’s music falls into a happy medium somewhere between serious art and giddy pop.