About Us

Allie and The After Party was founded by Alexis Bugajski in 2024. After seeing and reviewing 300+ shows over the past several years, she decided the Chicago reviewer scene was missing something - fun!

Inspired by the mission of a publication she previously wrote for, coupled with the need to bring more candidness to post show reviews, and finally bringing in some of her fellow theater lovers, Allie and The After Party was born. Our goal is to give you enough information about the experience and what the show is like so that you, the reader, can decide if the show is the right fit for you while also giving a space to chat candidly about it.

We don't claim to be critics or that our word speaks for everyone. We believe the audience is a part of the theatre community, not above it! We'll write about our experience at the event and give our opinions and final thoughts if we feel like adding our perspectives to it.

Our primary focus is theatre reviews, however you might find posts about other events or experiences in the city. Currently we're reviewing theatre shows primarily in Chicago, but hope to expand to other cities as well.  

Keep scrolling to find our what makes us different than the rest!

Close-up portrait of alexis

Allie of Allie And The After Party

Tenets

  • Our goal is to give you the best possible idea and picture about the show, event, or experience we're writing a review about so you know what you're about to walk into. Then it's up to you to decide if it would be a good fit for you!

  • We don't claim to be the ultimate authority on shows. We are not trying to point out if this is critically a good show or a bad show. We will, however, provide a rating at the end of the review as a general summary and to be included in theatre aggregate websites. Explanations for the rating scale can be found below.

  • We acknowledge that nothing is ever unbiased and we do have opinions about things (both good and bad). We will express those opinions in a clearly marked section in the written review.

    • We will do our best to honor the hard work the members of the productions have put into these shows.

    • We will disclose any associations or identify any biases before we give our opinion.

    • We invite those with differing opinions to express those as well.

  • Our responsibility is primarily to our readers and potential audience members, however we do also want to support the theatre community in Chicago. We will attempt to cover as many shows as possible that span different viewpoints from a wide breadth of companies here.

  • We also believe love is love and hate has no home here. If we see a show that is discriminatory against protected communities, we will call it out somewhere on the site but will not post a formal review.

Rating Scale

Highly Recommended: This show is an absolute must-see, run right out and see this right away.

Recommended: This show hits a lot of marks a lot of people would enjoy.

Somewhat Recommended:  This show has a specific take that a specific amount of people would enjoy or it missed a few marks and didn't create an enjoyable experience.

Not Recommended: This show did not have a lot going for it and we wouldn't recommend you spending your money to see it.