When Luis Carreon takes the stage at the Chicago Magic Lounge, he’s pure old-school vaudeville, an elegant throwback in silver-toed boots and a tuxedo subtly imprinted with crushed velvet …
SOURCE: chicagoreader.com at 12:11PMWhen it took the Tony triumvirate of best musical, original score, and original book in 2004, Avenue Q (music and lyrics by Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx, book by Jeff Whitty, and based on an o…
SOURCE: chicagoreader.com at 10:15AMIn Pearl’s Rollin’ With the Blues, Felicia P. Fields gets a showcase for her indomitable vocals. The Tony nominee (for The Color Purple) is a bona fide star in the land of musical theate…
SOURCE: chicagoreader.com at 04:34PMWatching the 80s through the lenses of its superstars is its own glossy and compelling reward, but Freedom also depicts the carnage of the decade. The post Freedom Uncut appeared first on Ch…
SOURCE: chicagoreader.com at 08:49PMHustle spins a familiar plot into a story that’ll keep you invested even if you don’t know a hoop dream from an embroidery hoop. The post Hustle appeared first on Chicago Reader.
SOURCE: chicagoreader.com at 05:12PMHans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale, “The Little Mermaid,” is a load of hooey. Consider: The titular mermaid throws herself on a dagger in the end, because she can’t bear to go on a…
SOURCE: chicagoreader.com at 11:57AMHere’s the TL;DR version of what to expect from Ain’t Too Proud, the new jukebox musical about soul/blues/disco/rock hitmakers The Temptations, whose catalog of songs spans the 1960s and…
SOURCE: chicagoreader.com at 03:25PMAn immersive art exhibition in DuPage County brings the Sistine Chapel to the former site of the Sears store at Oakbrook Center. It had been almost exactly 30 y…
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 03:19PMCabinet of Curiosity sets sail with a new live show about mermaids, whales, sharks, seagulls—and climate disaster It begins, as many wonderful things do, with …
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 05:15PMEschaton host Tony Grayson rolls out the willkommen mat for a livestream variety show. If the great surrealist painter Salvador Dalí and iconic LSD proponent Ti…
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 03:15PMAbout Face Theatre takes the mystery out of training next-generation LGBTQ+ artists—while putting it into a streaming production. Read from the scroll of off-L…
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 01:45PMThe full musical at Chicago Shakes is on hold, but you can see a streaming mockumentary based on the OG aliens-in-the-desert flick. Bow down to It Came from Oute…
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 03:45PMKristine Thatcher and the late Larry Shue's Waiting for Tina Meyer celebrates barfly connections. Playwright Kristine Thatcher picked up where she and actor-play…
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 03:15PMAfter a year of heartbreak, Heather Chrisler is back to acting, as well as writing and illustrating. In March 2020, playwright Heather Chrisler was holding audit…
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 05:00PMAmerican Music Theatre Project unveils three student-created pieces in this year's online Capstone Festival. Since 2005, Northwestern University's American Music…
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 04:00PMWeirdness and wonder abound in Matei Vişniec's Decomposed Theatre at Trap Door, but be prepared for creepiness, too. With nearly 40 actors, eight directors, and…
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 03:45PMThis interactive performance-piece-by-phone offers a daily dose of oddness. The operatives at The Ministry of Mundane Mysteries (now making their Chicago debut w…
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 05:00PMThe annual festival of storytelling offers the freshest catches for COVID days. In the Before Times—before the Moth, before the Stoop, before the phrase "live …
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 09:45AMTheatre Above the Law's production lets its leads drop the masks for one moment in time. In COVID times, gestures that would have been banal and forgettable a ye…
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 04:00PMJon Tai's intimate take on magic and storytelling comes (virtually) to A Red Orchid. Jon Tai is something of an antimagician. Tricking you, he says, isn't exactl…
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 02:00PMThis year's Bechdel Fest realigns online. Alison Bechdel’s iconic eponymous Bechdel Test isn't the same exam it was when the award-winning graphic writer (Fun …
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 01:05PMFleetwood-Jourdain spearheads a new collaboration "Celebrating Life, Community and the Arts." Shortly after the pandemic shut down the theaters, Fleetwood-Jourda…
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 01:15PMMelissa Leilani Larson and Lavina Jadhwani reimagine a classic for BIPOC voices. More than 30 years into this gig, I've lost track of how many times I've seen Ja…
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 11:15AMWith a trio of walkabout podcasts, Chicago Children’s Theatre urges kids to go take a hike. Aztec deities. Sistine Chapel replicas.…
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 10:00AMThe crafty, supernatural queen hosts the webseries Knitting’s A Drag. The queendom of drag is vast and diverse: There are comedy queens and look queens and ins…
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 03:40PMRandom Acts, Unwell, and PlayMakers Laboratory create scary stories to share (online) in the dark. Exal Iraheta grew up listening to tales from Central American …
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 08:15PMThe Neo-Futurists create short digital plays about the often-overlooked women in the White House. Time was when the future looked rather grim indeed for the late…
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 06:45PMFire, break-ins, and COVID: the Motor Row drag palace has had a bumpy first year. Like many drag queens, Chicago’s Tori Sass has been through it this year. It …
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 02:30PMTheir annual festival is on pandemic pause, but CLATA still celebrates the diversity of local theater companies. When Myrna Salazar founded the Chicago Latino Th…
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 01:40PMEmmanuel Neal joins CHRP as interim managing director, but the founder's comments on Black Lives Matter spark outrage. Add the Chicago Human Rhythm Project (CHRP…
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 01:30PMThe 88-year-old musical theater icon talks about staying home—and coming out. Back in early March, Broadway icon Joel Grey, 88, was finalizing his plans to vis…
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 12:20PM