IlliNOISE!!

 Illinois at the Chicago Shakespeare Theater, a story told through dance and Sufjan Stevens’s immortal music from the album of the same name, is a BANGER.

“Did you know someone in the show?” asked the woman who sat behind me after the last of the audience’s wild applause and affirmative shouts had died away.

I laughed and said no (even though Ahmad Simmons had blown me a kiss during curtain calls), I just loved this album and hadn’t she had it on repeat when it came out?

She may have been referring to my shoulders shaking with sobs I muffled with my hands during “Casimir Pulaski Day” or maybe the way I chanted along with “I made a LOT OF MISTAKES” or perhaps my calls of “BRAVA” after Rachel Lockhart tore down the stage in “Jacksonville.”

Regardless, if the producers are billing this as a dance/CONCERT hybrid and if the players insist on bringing such brilliance, then you better bet they’re gonna get some pretty passionate responses.

But our audience emotions weren’t all jubilant — after the John Wayne Gacy song faded away, with its excruciating lyrics “Oh, the dead/Twenty-seven people/Even more, they were boys/With their cars, summer jobs/Oh my god” still resonating, the entire packed room sat in stunned silence. It was only after the first notes of the next song broke the spell that we exploded into cheers.

I'm grabbing strangers on the way out, asking for a hug, sobbing with joy, babbling about the goodness of it all, and when we hit the lobby, there's one more thrill through the floor to ceiling windows -- the sight of our glorious city and resplendent lake spread out before us in the afternoon light. The crowds on Broadway who flock to this show will never have this unique Illinois experience.

“I’m still vibrating,” said the man in the lobby who witnessed my selfie with Dario, and I know he is not alone.

Here's the New Yorker review, and the