All stories by Chris Jones on BroadwayStars

Friday, May 8, 2015

Met Ball raises profile of arts benefits — at what cost? by Chris Jones

Along with an increased pollen count, May is high season for the spring ritual known as annual benefits. For those rare creatures who relish plated chicken breast and bottomless decaf, these…

SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 01:08PM
Thursday, May 7, 2015

'Doubt,' in a Glencoe church, has a riveting Sister Aloysius by Chris Jones

The Writers Theatre production of John Patrick Shanley's "Doubt: A Parable," the well-known 2004 play (and then 2008 movie) about a nun who suspects a priest of child abuse, is being staged …

SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 04:52PM

Steppenwolf artistic director is hospitalized by Chris Jones

Martha Lavey, the artistic director of the Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago since 1995, is in a Chicago hospital, recovering from a stroke.

SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 01:30PM

Steppenwolf artistic director is hospitalized by Chris Jones

Martha Lavey, artistic director of the Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago since 1995, is in a Chicago hospital, recovering from a stroke.

SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 01:30PM

Cue summer: Here's what's coming to Chicago stages by Chris Jones

The news this week that the highly entertaining "Louis and Keely 'Live' at the Sahara" was closing at the Royal George on May 17— despite good reviews and fairly robust ticket sales, I'm t…

SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 12:36PM
Wednesday, May 6, 2015

'The Project(s)': Unforgettable stories from Chicago public housing by Chris Jones

No one who was living in Chicago in 1994 can ever forget the death of 5-year-old Eric Morse, who fell to his death from the 14th floor of the Ida B. Wells public housing complex on Chicago's…

SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 05:56PM

'The Project(s)": Unforgettable stories from Chicago public housing by Chris Jones

No one who was living in Chicago in 1994 can ever forget the death of 5-year-old Eric Morse, who fell to his death from the 14th floor of the Ida B. Wells public housing complex on Chicago's…

SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 04:21PM
Monday, May 4, 2015

'Louis & Keely' not long for the Royal George by Chris Jones

"Louis and Keely 'Live' at the Sahara," the show about the singer-musician Louis Prima and his partner Keely Smith, has posted its closing notice at the Royal George Theatre for May 17.

SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 05:01PM

'Melancholy Play': An unfashionable emotion takes center stage by Chris Jones

If, like me, you frequently find yourself afflicted by melancholy — which we'll define here as a mild but persistent form of sadness of vague or indeterminate cause — then I think you wi…

SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 04:43PM

Erin Myers, a warm-hearted Chicago actress, dies at 41 by Chris Jones

When Sean Graney staged his 12-hour epic "All Our Tragic" for the company known as The Hypocrites last fall, he knew that the audience would need a few warm and funny guides through the dark…

SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 11:29AM

Erin Myers, a warmhearted Chicago actress, dies at 41 by Chris Jones

When Sean Graney staged his 12-hour epic "All Our Tragic" for the company known as The Hypocrites last fall, he knew that the audience would need a few warm and funny guides through the dark…

SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 11:29AM

Russ Tutterow, lover and defender of Chicago playwrights, dies at 68 by Chris Jones

The hospice inside Weiss Memorial Hospital on Chicago's North Side is a quiet and peaceful place. But for the last several days, one room therein has been bustling with people.

SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 09:26AM
Friday, May 1, 2015

'Side Man': Memories of a jazzman father — and the price paid by Chris Jones

At one crucial moment in playwright Warren Leight's "Side Man," a deeply affectionate tribute to the journeyman jazzman and the price he pays for his passion, we see a musician watching Elvi…

SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 01:29PM

When father's not coming home: Absent parents in 'Mad Men' and on stage by Chris Jones

As AMC's "Mad Men" approaches its final three episodes, it's already clear that the series auteur Matthew Weiner is honing in on the anguish of, and the anguish caused by, absent parents.

SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 06:00AM
Thursday, April 30, 2015

In wake of Jeffs reversal, where the Equity lines blur in Chicago by Chris Jones

Last weekend's scandal-ette at the Joseph Jefferson Awards Committee was a reminder of the increased difficulty of carving out hard-and-fast categories from the interconnected (not to mentio…

SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 06:00AM
Tuesday, April 28, 2015

Young Definition Theatre builds a capable 'Doll's House' by Chris Jones

The Definition Theatre Company, an intriguing new Chicago theater company formed by graduates of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and currently in its inaugural season, describ…

SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 05:55PM

2015 Tony Nominations announced by Chris Jones

“Fun Home,” the moving new musical with a book and lyrics by Lisa Korn, music by Jeanine Tesori and the subject of the early family life of the lesbian cartoonist Alison Bechdel, was n…

SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 09:16AM
Monday, April 27, 2015

'Wonderland' is Lewis Carroll with indie cool by Chris Jones

They have some competition for the "Alice in Wonderland" title — Taylor Swift-size competition — but the new take on the beloved works of Lewis Carroll at Chicago Children's Theatre is c…

SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 05:12PM
Sunday, April 26, 2015

A straight-forward trip to the 'Forum' by Chris Jones

If you are a fan of the comedic lyricist's art — the provision of the perfect rhyme, the acknowledgment of alliterative pleasures, the coupling of deliciously contrasting notions, the matc…

SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 02:25PM
Saturday, April 25, 2015

Jeff Awards disqualify The Hypocrites and release new nominations by Chris Jones

The Joseph Jefferson Awards Committee said on Saturday that it had disqualified The Hypocrites from its 2014-15 non-Equity awards, due to its discovery of the theater's status as a Equity …

SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 01:01PM

Why 'I love you more than Netflix' by Chris Jones

At the Second City e.t.c. comedy show the other night, I was pulled up short. The moment was a sequence of sketches all dealing with our addiction to technology. After watching someone play …

SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 06:00AM
Thursday, April 23, 2015

The 2015 non-Equity Jeff Award nominees are... by Chris Jones

Sean Graney's epic production of “All Our Tragic,” a 12-hour adaptation of every Greek play, emerged at the top of the heap of nominations for the Joseph Jefferson Awards honoring excell…

SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 11:05PM

UPDATED: The 2015 non-Equity Jeff Award nominees are ... by Chris Jones

UPDATE: Here is a full list of the nominations for the Joseph Jefferson Awards honoring excellence in non-Equity Chicago theater during the 2014-15 season. These nominations were changed Apr…

SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 11:05PM

'The Visit': Chita Rivera stars in Broadway musical about revenge by Chris Jones

NEW YORK - When I first saw "The Visit" at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago in 2001, I wrote that here was a strange, difficult, slow-to-build musical that could still pierce the skin with its…

SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 10:00PM

'Airline Highway' a sensual Broadway toast to the Crescent City by Chris Jones

NEW YORK — With most of its stellar original cast from the Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago intact, Lisa D'Amour's "Airline Highway" moves to Broadway as an affectionate updating of Lanford …

SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 10:00PM

'Airline Highway' a sensual Broadway toast to the Crescent City by Chris Jones

NEW YORK — With most of its stellar  original cast from the Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago intact, Lisa D'Amour's "Airline Highway" moves to Broadway as an affectionate updating of Lanfo…

SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 10:00PM

Simon Amstell makes his neurotic Chicago debut by Chris Jones

At one point in his Chicago show at Thalia Hall in Pilsen Wednesday night, Simon Amstell, the popular young British comedian known for the quiz show "Never Mind the Buzzcocks" and now on a k…

SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 03:19PM

Anna Shapiro: The entrance interview and her plans for Steppenwolf by Chris Jones

In a cafe on the Upper East Side this week, incoming Steppenwolf Theatre artistic director Anna D. Shapiro sat down to talk about her new job in Chicago. For the past year, Shapiro, her husb…

SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 12:59PM

Anna Shapiro: The entrance interview and her plans for Steppenwolf by Chris Jones

NEW YORK - In a cafe on the Upper East Side this week, incoming Steppenwolf Theatre artistic director Anna D. Shapiro sat down to talk about her new job in Chicago. For the past year, Shapir…

SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 06:00AM
Wednesday, April 22, 2015

'Something Rotten!' has its way with the Bard on Broadway by Chris Jones

NEW YORK — For the first half hour of "Something Rotten!" — the wacky new Broadway musical set among insecure creative types in an ersatz version of Elizabethan London where Shakespeare …

SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 10:00PM

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