Sunday, November 20, 2016
Anyone who ever has worked in customer service will tell you that the actual provision of service — doing something nice for someone who might well appreciate your effort — is not the ma…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 03:45PMAn audience disruption took place at the Saturday evening production of "Hamilton" at the PrivateBank Theatre in downtown Chicago. According to audience member Brea Hayes of Batavia, who wa…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 11:00AMFriday, November 18, 2016
For much of the 20th century, being a hemophiliac likely meant a short, unhappy, unemployed life, crippled by repeated bleeds. But by the 1970s, work had progressed on what, in Karen Hartman…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 08:30PMThe Theo Ubique Theatre, since 2003 a mainstay of the Rogers Park cultural district and well known for its skilled, hyper-intimate productions of Broadway musicals, is likely moving to Evans…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 03:00PMLooking for some classy gifts this holiday season for the performing arts lover in your life. Here are some arty, fun, original choices — perchance a little cooler and smarter than most. H…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 12:15AMThursday, November 17, 2016
Those who make art belong to a mostly urban-based creative class that is not without political diversity but, let's be honest, was overwhelming opposed to President-elect Donald J. Trump and…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 04:02PMMike Bartlett's formidably crafted play "King Charles III" is one of those juicy dramas based on a big, audacious, outrageous idea: What if, following the death of Queen Elizabeth II and the…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 02:33PMWednesday, November 16, 2016
There never is a dull moment at the Royal George Theatre, the venerable but unpredictable commercial venue in Lincoln Park. "Chick Flick the Musical," a previously announced lighthearted sho…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 03:01PMMonday, November 14, 2016
No Broadway theater ever has been physically transformed quite like the creaking, aptly named Imperial Theatre has been revolutionized for "Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812," a wild…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 08:00PM"Crime Scene." "Crime Scene: The Next Chapter." "The Gospel of Lovingkindness." "How Long Will I Cry?" "It Shoudda Been Me." "Jabari Dreams of Freedom." "The Project(s)." "Prowess." "Track 1…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 03:22PMSunday, November 13, 2016
In 2003, About Face Theatre produced an early version of an unusual solo play called "I Am My Own Wife" at Chicago's Museum of Contemporary Art. Starring the actor Jefferson Mays, who then w…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 02:53PMFriday, November 11, 2016
To understand the new Drury Lane Theatre production of "Crazy for You," a title that feels apt given recent political events, you really had to see its director and choreographer, Matt Crowl…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 01:32PMThursday, November 10, 2016
"King Charles III," the remarkable 2014 play in blank verse by Mike Bartlett that enjoys its fresh Chicago premiere at the Chicago Shakespeare Theater on Wednesday night, relies on the audie…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 08:00AMWednesday, November 9, 2016
You have to be pretty deep into Westeros and Essos (no Trumpos, except in symbolic referent) to give a hoot about "Graeme of Thrones," the expediently silly touring parody show that has land…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 02:32PMTuesday, November 8, 2016
When it comes to Judy Garland and the theatrical depiction thereof, there are any number of highly discriminating experts living within a few blocks of Stage 773, the North Side theater play…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 04:33PMMonday, November 7, 2016
There are elephant-sized holes in "Out of This World," the latest edition of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. And especially for anyone for whom the Greatest Show on Earth has …
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 02:37PMFriday, November 4, 2016
At one point in "Fun Home," the extraordinarily resonant Broadway musical about a family unable either to tell or live the full truth, the narrator and central character sings a beautiful so…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 02:31PMChicago became a crucial artistic city by focusing on the power of an ensemble, not a star name. It placed its bets on fearless young artists overcoming adversity and never knowing when to s…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 09:50AMThe Chicago production of "Hamilton" did not have its usual curtain call Thursday night. Instead, the mostly New York-based cast of the hit Lin-Manuel Miranda musical led the sold-out audi…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 08:58AMThursday, November 3, 2016
In life, there is head-spinning change: The Chicago Cubs win the World Series! In life, there are immutable constants: The Marriott Theatre in Lincolnshire produces "Singin' in the Rain!" Bo…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 01:42PMIt's time for the post-World Series, pre-Thanksgiving theatrical push! Each fall in Chicago theater, there's a raft of openings in late September and early October, followed by a brief lull,…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 08:00AMWednesday, November 2, 2016
These are challenged times for analog table magic. The venerable art of the false shuffle, the waving of the aces, the Biddle trick and all the other stocks in ancient trade of the cardsharp…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 04:01PMMore than 65 horses will walk, trot, canter and gallop on the south parking lots of Soldier Field next spring, as the international equine extravaganza called "Odysseo" makes its Midwest pre…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 12:00PMTuesday, November 1, 2016
Within the space of less than a month, Chicago theaters have produced two new plays about the long-term impact of school shootings — focused, interestingly enough, on the siblings of the s…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 06:01PMSunday, October 30, 2016
"Les Liaisons Dangereuses" can be a riveting drama of power, sexual conquest and desperate vulnerability. Or it can read as smug, high-end, hyperliterate erotica with an empty heart and an u…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 08:00PMThursday, October 27, 2016
NEW YORK — Of all the love songs in all the Broadway musicals, few compare to the one in William Finn and James Lapine's "Falsettos" sung by a nerdy man named Marvin to a handsome man name…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 09:00PMThe late August Wilson cultivated an informal repertory company of actors — a group that included Eugene Lee, a performer who has spent a good deal of his career on Broadway and beyond int…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 08:30PMEvery time the Chicago Cubs do well — and, as of this writing, the season has been OK so far — somebody brings up "Bleacher Bums." People want to write about it. Or revive it. Or ask som…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 06:24PMWednesday, October 26, 2016
Which Broadway musical from 2015 profoundly altered the form and style of the American musical, diversified the genre, took huge risks when it came to content, and propelled its audience alo…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 02:57PMMonday, October 24, 2016
When the producers of the 1985 Steven Spielberg movie "The Color Purple" were looking to cast the role of Sofia, they contacted Jane Alderman, a Chicago casting director who was hugely influ…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 05:47PMFriday, October 21, 2016
NEW YORK — He had the advantage of the John the Baptist that is Robert Morse and, in his wily partner John Slattery, the oldest, driest and most cynically unlikely Hildy Johnson that ever …
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 12:16AM 
