Friday, August 29, 2014
"Be a great artist," a mentor tells a young Jewish painter who likes to draw Jesus Christ. "It is the only justification for all the pain you are about to cause."
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 05:03PMThursday, August 28, 2014
In an unexpected flurry of late summer activity, it was revealed that two Chicago theater companies are eyeing new homes in buildings that once were put to use by the city of Chicago.
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 07:10AMWednesday, August 27, 2014
Be it a story of sex, booze, cocaine or, in the case of the actor Steven Strafford, crystal methamphetamine, aka the most dangerous drug in the world, the challenge with any personal narrati…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 03:17PMTuesday, August 26, 2014
As a first show for a new, Equity-affiliated theater in Chicago, Mike Leigh's "Ecstasy" is one tough assignment. We can deduce that the Cole Theatre ("'Victory of the People' is our rally cr…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 04:24PMThe Tony Award winning Broadway star of "Beautiful: The Carole King Musical" is to return home--for one night only on September 22. In her first hometown performance since winning the 2014…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 03:58PMTimeLine Theatre is planning a move from its current digs in a Lakeview church to the North Side neighborhood of Andersonville, where the well-respected nonprofit theater will potentailly �…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 11:56AMMonday, August 25, 2014
TJ Jagodowski and David Pasquesi are known nationally as masters of long-form improvisation, that made-in-Chicago art form wherein a single audience suggestion of dialogue or a situation can…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 03:45PMThe Stratford Festival of Canada, a popular summer destination for Midwesterners, has announced its 2015 season, themed around "eureka" moments, which it defines not unlike how Oprah Winfrey…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 08:49AMFriday, August 22, 2014
At one point in "Stupid F***ing Bird," the endlessly self-aware play by Aaron Posner that will be sweet and oft-hilarious relief for anyone who has sat through way too many shattering produc…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 03:00PMThursday, August 21, 2014
Of all the sectors of the arts and entertainment industry in Chicago, none has seen anything close to the level of explosive growth in 2014 enjoyed by the institutions that make people laugh.
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 06:24PMThe flying kilts of "Brigadoon," the immortal barricades of "Les Miserables" and, in general, the lively revivals of director-choreographer Rachel Rockwell dominate the 2014 Joseph Jeffers…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 03:00PMSure, the Bronx is still up and the Battery still down (or flat, in my car's case this morning), but in the last number of "On the Town," the 1944 musical created by the incomparable collect…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 09:50AMWednesday, August 20, 2014
High on my list of the top Chicago shows of 2011 was "En Route," a remarkable show created by a boutique Australian theater company called One Step at a Time Like This. Due in part to its ve…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 05:35PMCourt Theatre said Tuesday that it will host a memorial service at 7 p.m. Monday in honor of its master electrician of the past two seasons, Brenton Wright. Wright, who was 27, was killed Au…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 01:26PMTuesday, August 19, 2014
So many people showed up Monday night for Broadway in Chicago's annual promotional concert in Millennium Park that the gates to the Pritzker Pavilion were closed, with a capacity 11,000 peop…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 04:56PMMonday, August 18, 2014
The first national tour of the Broadway musical "Beautiful: The Carole King Musical" is to play Chicago for 12 weeks during the 2015-16 holiday period, its New York producers announced M…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 04:42PMThursday, August 14, 2014
"About seven years ago, Lauren Bacall showed up at my place for a party," the Pulitzer Prize-winning writer John Patrick Shanley tweeted Wednesday morning. "It was like having a yacht show u…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 03:49PMWednesday, August 13, 2014
Chicago Children's Theatre, a non-profit, Equity-affiliated Chicago theater company that specializes in work for young audiences, is eyeing a potential new home in the West Loop, where this …
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 05:31PMTuesday, August 12, 2014
Broadway in Chicago said Tuesday that it has booked a touring production of "Men Are From Mars - Women Are From Venus LIVE." The one-man comedy show about gender-driven differences, based …
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 05:01PMDomenica Cameron-Scorsese, the daughter of famed movie director Martin Scorsese and a movie and stage actress in her own right, is to perform in a storefront theater in Chicago later this mo…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 01:07PMMonday, August 11, 2014
"Make no little plans" long has been the mantra of this city, a common justification for our hubristic plans for the skyline or lakefront, often trumping fiscal prudence. But between 11 o'cl…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 05:16PMThe time is ripe, you'd think, for a revival of "Reefer Madness," the silly musical spoof of the 1936 exploitation-morality movie that spun the yarn that Mary Jane was lying in wait for all …
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 10:33AMFriday, August 8, 2014
Thursday, August 7, 2014
Steppenwolf Theatre ensemble member Anna D. Shapiro is to be at the helm of Larry David's upcoming Broadway production, entitled "Fish in the Dark."
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 10:48AMWednesday, August 6, 2014
Winston Churchill, inarguably one of the most effective political figures of all time, had a palpable affection for the United States of America. That came in part from his being the child o…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 06:30PMTuesday, August 5, 2014
Staring at Rick Bayless chopping greens -- and, let's face it, most of the ticket buyers at "Cascabel" are paying the big bucks to stare at the famous Chicago chef en personne and eat his de…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 08:00PMMonday, August 4, 2014
Billie Letts, the mother of the Chicago playwright Tracy Letts, died on Saturday in her home state of Oklahoma, according to reports in the Tulsa World and other sources.
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 06:04PMBack when Chicago's Union Stockyards employed more than 25,000 people, processed almost all the meat that entered the American mouth and yet did not have today's sophisticated public relatio…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 05:45PMThursday, July 31, 2014
That which lies behind the door of 1329 N. Milwaukee Ave. is a game-changer for theater in the hip Chicago neighborhood of Wicker Park. I took myself over to that address earlier this week, …
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 06:24PMIn 1883, the company's first year, New York's Metropolitan Opera began to tour. These great overland voyages of ear-pleasing sopranos, colorful tenors and their trunks and accouterments, gre…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 05:44PM 
