Friday, October 2, 2015
On Tuesday, my colleague John von Rhein reported, the board of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association and the musicians of that venerable orchestra attended separate meetings but came ou…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 07:31AMThursday, October 1, 2015
"A Gentleman's Guide to Love & Murder" did not come easily to the 2014 Tony Award for best musical — an award without which I doubt you would be reading this review of the opening night pe…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 03:10PMThe 2014 Tony Award-winning musical "A Gentleman's Guide to Love & Murder" opened its national tour in Chicago this week. So in honor of its arrival, and with a nod to the gender-parity impe…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 12:13PMWednesday, September 30, 2015
I first saw Willy Russell's "Blood Brothers" in London's West End in 1983. I was already a rabid young fan of Russell's work. Plays such as "Educating Rita," "Our Day Out" and "Stags and Hen…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 06:37PMAlthough there is a long and venerable tradition of splatter theater in Chicago's off-Loop theaters, the adjective "horror" has rarely been applied to shows at the Goodman Theatre. Well, not…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 11:03AMAlthough there is a long and venerable tradition of splatter theater in Chicago's off-Loop theaters, the adjective "horror" has rarely been applied to shows at the Goodman Theatre. Well, not…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 10:00AMTuesday, September 29, 2015
Dexter Bullard, the director of the Chicago premiere of "Sucker Punch" at the Victory Gardens Theater, made his bones working at the intimate, and now defunct, Next Theatre in Evanston, spec…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 06:49PMBrett Batterson, the executive director of the Auditorium Theatre in Chicago since 2004, has taken a new job in Memphis.
Batterson, the Auditorium has announced, has accepted the posit…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 01:02AMMonday, September 28, 2015
Brett Batterson, the executive director of the Auditorium Theatre in Chicago since 2004, has taken a new job in Memphis. Batterson, the Auditorium has announced, has accepted the positi…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 11:13PMSunday, September 27, 2015
"Two stories have haunted us and followed us from our beginning," wrote John Steinbeck in his 1952 novel "East of Eden," a tempestuous biblical allegory and familial saga set in the Central …
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 09:16PM"Two stories have haunted us and followed us from our beginning," wrote John Steinbeck in his 1952 novel "East of Eden," a tempestuous biblical allegory and familial saga set in the Central …
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 07:01PMFirst to the burning question: Would Houston have been satisfied? Yes, there was ignition at Redmoon's Great Chicago Fire Festival of 2015, newly situated on Northerly Island. The spark was …
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 12:27PMRedmoon's Great Chicago Fire Festival of 2015. To answer the burning question of the night: Yes, the fires actually lit this year on Northerly Island.
First to the burning question: Would H…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 12:26PMThursday, September 24, 2015
Even before Spike Lee came along with "Chi-raq," the presence of the term "Chi-Town" on a billboard (usually preceded by "Hey") meant one thing: An out-of-towner wrote the copy.
Who has not…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 08:02PMEven before Spike Lee came along with "Chi-raq," the presence of the term "Chi-Town" on a billboard (usually preceded by "Hey") meant one thing: An out-of-towner wrote the copy. Who has not …
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 06:42PMIf you're interested in the history of Chicago theater, you'll likely know the formidable collection of documents, programs and other memorabilia at the Harold Washington Library Center, the…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 12:28PMWednesday, September 23, 2015
Playwright Aline Lathrop gives us much to think about when it comes to youth and transgender identity in 'Merchild' at 16th Street Theater.
"Nothing ever happens in Wilmette," says one of t…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 07:18PMPlaywright Aline Lathrop gives us much to think about when it comes to youth and transgender identity in 'Merchild' at 16th Street Theater. "Nothing ever happens in Wilmette," says one of th…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 06:02PMGeorge Wendt — the much-loved comic actor, former improviser and "Cheers" star, the man saddled for life with an open-for-business sign on the Norm Petting Zoo — goes to some very dark p…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 06:00PMTuesday, September 22, 2015
Barbara Buncle, the bespectacled heroine of D.E. Stevenson's 1934 novel "Miss Buncle's Book," lives a gray life as a spinster in a provincial English town. But she can write. And Miss Buncle…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 06:48PMMonday, September 21, 2015
Ayad Akhtar's "Disgraced" - a play that began at the American Theater Company in Chicago, moved to Broadway, snagged a Pulitzer Prize and now has shown up at the Goodman Theatre - is the mos…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 10:27PMAyad Akhtar's "Disgraced" — a play that began at the American Theater Company in Chicago, moved to Broadway, snagged a Pulitzer Prize and now has shown up at the Goodman Theatre — is the…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 09:00PMAt the top of director Jim Corti's gorgeously staged and emotionally sophisticated revival of "Oklahoma" at the Paramount Theatre in Aurora - with an 18-piece orchestra in the pit - the curt…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 05:45PMAt the top of director Jim Corti's gorgeously staged and emotionally sophisticated revival of "Oklahoma" at the Paramount Theatre in Aurora — with an 18-piece orchestra in the pit — the …
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 05:05PMSunday, September 20, 2015
For my theater-goring generation in Chicago, the plays of August Wilson were experienced mostly in the order that the master wrote 'em. ("Jitney" was an exception). We grew and changed with …
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 08:33PMFor my theater-going generation in Chicago, the plays of August Wilson were experienced mostly in the order that the master wrote 'em. ("Jitney" was an exception). We grew and changed with t…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 07:10PMGeorge Wendt - the much-loved comic actor, former improviser and "Cheers" star, the man saddled for life with an open-for-business sign on the Norm Petting Zoo - goes to some very dark place…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 05:23PMFriday, September 18, 2015
Infused with a steampunk sensibility, scored with the bluesy songs of Tom Waits and Kathleen Brennan, choreographed by Pilobolus and powered (to re-appropriate a phrase from makers of comput…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 04:44PMOn Thursday morning, Second City's co-owner and CEO, Andrew Alexander, met me on his charred theater's stoop at 1616 N. Wells St. Second City's mainstage was to re-open that night following …
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 07:36AMThursday, September 17, 2015
On Thursday morning, Second City's co-owner and CEO, Andrew Alexander, met me on his charred theater's stoop at 1616 N. Wells St. Second City's mainstage was to re-open that night following …
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 05:17PMWednesday, September 16, 2015
"Come look at the freaks," they sing in "Side Show,"' the 1997 Broadway musical with the cult following and a show inspired by the real-life travails of the conjoined twins Daisy and Violet …
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 06:18PM 
