Wednesday, October 3, 2018
On Tuesday night, the Chicago Cubs learned a tough lesson from “Macbeth”: “Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 04:30PMTuesday, October 2, 2018
Anyone who works in the theater is familiar with struggle. But the Polish-Jewish novelist Sholem Asch had so much strife with his 1907 play, “God of Vengeance,” that he surely must have …
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 04:45PMDrag queens are coming to Motor Row. And they will be serving you dinner. “Lips,” a for-profit, dinner-theater concept that has lasted 22 years in New York, is expected to open in March …
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 02:00PMMonday, October 1, 2018
The best moment in “Tootsie,” which opened its pre-Broadway tryout in Chicago on Sunday night, is not when the remarkable Santino Fontana first appears in a dress as Dorothy, the ill-adv…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 02:00AMSunday, September 30, 2018
As the nonprofit American theater has primarily become a gathering place for educated, like-minded progressives, those who provide its content have a sacred moral and artistic duty not just …
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 09:30PMA charming courtesan is plucked from her former milieu by a rich and powerful patron. Although initially reluctant, she moves into his rooms, relieving his boredom and even helping him, in h…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 02:00PMFriday, September 28, 2018
Hubbard Street’s Season 41 Fall Series asks a lot of its audience: The new environmentalist collaboration between the choreographers Emma Portner, Lil Buck and Jon Boogz runs close to 90 m…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 12:30PMOn Friday afternoon, Mayor Rahm Emanuel will officially announce an estimated $10 million donation to support his Year of Chicago Theatre initiative. The private money, which comes from the …
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 10:50AMThursday, September 27, 2018
Snooker isn’t pool, any more than it’s billiards. The widespread confusion annoys us aficionados of the noble cue sports on both sides of the Atlantic. Any number of snooty leisure activ…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 08:00PM"This is a circus," roared the furious Judge Brett Kavanaugh, reflecting how we often respond when a seemingly controlled life of achievement devolves into escalating chaos that we discover …
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 06:45PMWednesday, September 26, 2018
Not long ago, a New York-based actress named Kelly Felthous found herself auditioning for Roxie Hart in the musical “Chicago.” The audition was in Manhattan, but the theater was the Drur…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 10:15AMTuesday, September 25, 2018
One of the most thrilling developments in the American theater is a broader acceptance of women playing the great male roles of dramatic literature. Instead of the same old wizened dudes doi…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 08:00PMTony Kushner and Jeanine Tesori’s “Caroline, or Change” is a musical that dangles the one quality common to any politician worth the time of day, and to almost every musical ever to ap…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 05:50PMIn 1988, a young humble, quirky, British-American monologuist named David Cale appeared in the studio theater in the old Goodman Theatre. His show, he said at the time, was dedicated to the …
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 04:00PMFriday, September 21, 2018
One fundamental problem faced by America’s oldest Equity actor — that would be the 94-year-old Mike Nussbaum — is that directors keep casting him in age-appropriate roles. Such is his …
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 09:00PMOn CNN Monday, the remarkable Spanish-American chef Jose Andres was interviewed while feeding tens of thousands of the victims of Hurricane Florence in both Wilmington and Raleigh, North Car…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 08:00AMThursday, September 20, 2018
Tracy Letts is to star alongside Annette Bening in a spring Roundabout Theatre revival of Arthur Miller's "All My Sons.” The revival of the moralistic 1947 family drama, set in small-town …
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 04:30PMWednesday, September 19, 2018
Thanks mostly to Chicago’s culture czar, Mark Kelly, and the genuine enthusiasm of Mayor Rahm Emanuel, 2019 has been designated the Year of Chicago Theatre by the city of Chicago. Before I…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 10:00AMMonday, September 17, 2018
Mayor Rahm Emanuel is to make it official on Monday: 2019 is to be the Year of Chicago Theatre. A citywide initiative dreamed up and spearheaded by the Department of Cultural Affairs and Spe…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 01:00AMSunday, September 16, 2018
Here’s a challenge for the growing slate of mayoral candidates in Chicago: How will you ensure that ordinary Chicagoans hear international perspectives on the many troubling issues faced b…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 12:40PMFriday, September 14, 2018
Tragedy is commonly equated with sadness. But it’s really all about chaos. To quote the great songwriter William Finn: “Life is random and unfair, life is pandemonium.” Be they Greek, …
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 10:50AMThursday, September 13, 2018
Without “Little Shop of Horrors,” we wouldn’t have Disney’s “The Little Mermaid,” “Beauty and the Beast” or “Aladdin.” That’s because the spoof 1982 off-Broadway musica…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 05:00PMThose we see every day usually know us best. In the case of Charity Hope Valentine — the Candide of the dance hall — that means her colleagues, the ones who get right to the point while …
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 12:50PMSeated in a corner of the Petterino’s restaurant in the Loop, Brian Dennehy was hopping mad. The objects of Dennehy’s rage — this was in 2004 — were the critics of the American theat…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 08:00AMWednesday, September 12, 2018
Revitalizing a cavernous, historic space in the Loop that has been hidden from full view for decades, the West Coast entertainment company Teatro ZinZanni is to set up long-term shop on the …
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 01:50PMTuesday, September 11, 2018
In its 17-year history — and, for the record, I’ve seen every show — the courageous House Theatre of Chicago has trafficked almost entirely in new work, often with an emphasis on quest…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 04:40PMIn 2015 — when the absurdly reductive short-form listicle became the Hail Mary of flagging entertainment journalism — a prominent New York weekly decided to ask a group of actors, and on…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 04:30PMMonday, September 10, 2018
Hey, let’s do Fyodor Dostoyevsky this sunny September! Two hours and 40 minutes of “Crime and Punishment”! One room! No star names! Not much of a set but lots of atmosphere and acting!…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 02:50PMSunday, September 9, 2018
I often wish August Wilson would come back to life to help us all make sense of our riven America. I walked into the Court Theatre on Saturday night just hours after watching the Serena Will…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 02:15PMFriday, September 7, 2018
There’s a new work from Bruce Norris likely to prove incendiary. Performance artist David Cale stages a piece drawn from his own family history. It’s another day at the office for the 94…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 08:55AMTo be an actress is to be cursed with people asking you which role you would most like to play. This common experience is not to be confused with people offering you the chance actually to p…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 08:00AM 
