Friday, September 8, 2017
If you dislike the threat of audience participation — and I am not sure I have ever met any adult who feels otherwise, when sober — then what I am about to describe might well sound like…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 02:30PMThursday, September 7, 2017
In the wake of President Donald J. Trump's late-July announcement that transgender Americans would no longer be able to serve in the military, Illinois’ U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth, a Democr…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 05:30PMIt was the winter of 2009. On the bill at the Goodman Theatre was the American premiere of "Rouw Siert Electra," a title that did not exactly roll off the tongue, even if it was Dutch for on…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 05:00PMWhere does Margaret Atwood meet Jimmy Buffett and Tracy Letts cast glances at “Five Guys Named Moe”? The fall season of Chicago theater, of course. With a nod also to director Ivo van Ho…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 02:00PMThe Tony Award-winning musical "Dear Evan Hansen" will be coming to Chicago as part of its 2018-19 national tour, Broadway in Chicago announced Thursday. The news means we will not get our o…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 01:00PMJulie Taymor. Amy Schumer. Steve Martin. Uma Thurman. Bruce Springsteen. Keegan Michael-Key. SpongeBob SquarePants. The stars — experienced and debutante, human and poriferan — are out o…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 01:00PMThe National Theatre production of Tony Kushner's vaunted American fantasia, "Angels in America," is to move to Broadway in the spring, it was announced Thursday morning. The British product…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 10:35AMWednesday, September 6, 2017
It’s fall. Like every year — and, as a loyal reader will understand, there have been a few — I’m looking for something smart, new, risky and exciting. Ideally something like that to …
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 05:30PMTuesday, September 5, 2017
The north suburban Northlight Theatre plans to return to Evanston, the city of its birth, in a spectacular way: as the street-level centerpiece of a shimmering-rise, 37-story development rep…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 08:00PMFriday, September 1, 2017
“Fragile,” said the rigid mailer. “Do not bend.” Inside was a note and a carefully preserved booklet with a woman’s silhouette as the only cover image. “Enclosed is a very old pl…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 07:00AMThursday, August 31, 2017
As you may recall from the 1992 Nicolas Cage movie, the retro Broadway musical adaptation "Honeymoon in Vegas" is based on the following premise. Fearing the ghost of his dead mother, Jack f…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 04:20PMHow can summer end without our annual celebration of exciting new talent blossoming before our eyes in Chicago theater? The Hot New Faces, Class of 2017, photographed by Tribune photojournal…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 07:00AMTuesday, August 29, 2017
A lot of would-be satirists think the core of the art lies in the viciousness of the attack or the bona fides of the attacker. But withering social satire actually is a linguistic art form. …
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 03:55PMMonday, August 28, 2017
The British monarchy — as manifest for the last 64 years in the personage of Her Royal Highness Queen Elizabeth II — has survived the republicans and the democratic imperative for three …
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 04:40PMFriday, August 25, 2017
The Steppenwolf Theatre announced Friday that it will host a public memorial this fall, in celebration of the life and work of the late Martha Lavey, its former artistic director. The free e…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 03:18PMThe popular "Ham4Ham" ticket lottery is changing its rules for the Chicago production of "Hamilton," following in the footsteps of a similar new procedure in New York. In place of the previo…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 01:05AMThursday, August 24, 2017
Near the start of “Prince of Broadway,” the long-awaited musical celebration of a theatrical director of incomparable productivity, range, longevity, chutzpah and brio, an actor pops out…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 08:00PMOn Monday, even as the fatally fractured political universe was poised to tremor once again, the moon passed before the sun and a Chicago meteorologist cried viral tears. Strange times, thes…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 05:00PMA Red Orchid Theatre, the 25-year-old mainstay of Old Town and the theatrical home of actor Michael Shannon, is amping up all kinds of things — like the budget, the staffing, the programmi…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 08:00AMWednesday, August 23, 2017
The Drury Lane Theatre in Oakbrook Terrace will not just host Chicago’s 2017 Equity Joseph Jefferson Awards on Nov. 6. On that night, the long-lived suburban musical house will see itself …
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 11:00AMMonday, August 21, 2017
It has been 16 years since “Shockheaded Peter,” the cultish British “junk opera” created by the Improbable Theatre and the Tiger Lillies, was first seen at the Athenaeum Theatre. Las…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 04:15PMThe Australian Ballet announced Monday that it has partnered with the Joffrey Ballet of Chicago to develop a new ballet based on Leo Tolstoy's famously passionate "Anna Karenina." The parter…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 09:01AMSunday, August 20, 2017
“I suppose I gotta marry somebody,” says the sardonic Young Woman of Sophie Treadwell’s “Machinal,” sounding like she’s acquiescing to a death sentence. “All girls do.” The o…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 02:50PMFriday, August 18, 2017
A 21-year-old magician from Kentucky once found himself at the legendary Magic Castle in Los Angeles, where a man named Eugene Burger was performing. The visiting illusionist was inexperienc…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 08:00AMThursday, August 17, 2017
“No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin or his background or his religion," tweeted the 44th president of the United States in the aftermath of white nationa…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 12:15PMWednesday, August 16, 2017
Summer has brought several hits — and extensions — to the Chicago theater, allowing you still to catch some fine artistic experiences before the cares of the fall intrude. Steep Theatre'…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 05:45PMFriday, August 11, 2017
In 1994, an actor named John Lecesne created a solo show in New York City. He ended up starting a movement and saving the lives of uncounted American teenagers. This is the story of Trevor. …
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 08:00AMWednesday, August 9, 2017
What irritates you the most about buying tickets to live entertainment? Let me guess. Booking fees. New York producer Ken Davenport — who is an interesting thinker on the business — had …
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 04:30PMMonday, August 7, 2017
At one point in "The Food Show," the new and original production by the Neo-Futurists about the complexity of your average urban progressive's relationship with what they put in their mouths…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 09:12AMFriday, August 4, 2017
In honor of the 50th anniversary of the Summer of Love, and as a counternarrative to our present Summer of Intolerance, "Hair" has sprung up in the friendly confines of the Mercury Theater i…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 03:25PMThomas Middleton, whose co-authored 1622 play “The Changeling” was the most compelling and timely show I saw at the Stratford Festival of Canada this summer, wrote about lusty sex, crude…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 08:00AM 
