Sunday, September 24, 2017
The gentle art of drag — a warm and inclusive form of live entertainment that I've loved and consumed my whole life — is an art of precision. Drag queens are a diverse crew, of course, a…
Linked From Chicago Tribune Subscription at 02:05PMFriday, September 22, 2017
“Follow a dancer,” said Glenn Edgerton. I’ve done that before — once for 2,000 miles, but that’s a story for another day. I’ve always found it to be good advice for life. Or mere…
Linked From Chicago Tribune Subscription at 01:00PMAfter a massive loss by the struggling Chicago Bears — such as the 29-7 drubbing last Sunday by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers — the “Bears Coaches Show” on WBBM Newsradio turns into "Grou…
Linked From Chicago Tribune Subscription at 07:00AMThursday, September 21, 2017
Citing the loss of revenue due to the impending end of its multi-year contract with Norwegian Cruise Lines, Second City laid off at least four full-time staffers Thursday. This has been a ch…
Linked From Chicago Tribune Subscription at 12:20PMA quiz for you: Which Chicago venue is the host of the following A-list attractions in October? One week of tapings of "The Daily Show with Trevor Noah." Stephanie Miller's "Sexy Liberal Res…
Linked From Chicago Tribune Subscription at 08:00AMWednesday, September 20, 2017
Regardless of what an amphibian may or may not perceive, I know this: An expansive and beautiful new theater in Chicago is a glorious thing that boggles the eyes. The Yard, which hosted its …
Linked From Chicago Tribune Subscription at 04:20PMTuesday, September 19, 2017
“A play is rarely given a second chance,” Arthur Miller once wrote. He who was right about so many perils of the human condition was wrong about that. To wit: Director Ivo van Hove’s d…
Linked From Chicago Tribune Subscription at 04:20PMMonday, September 18, 2017
I’ve always found the guards in museums at least as interesting as the exhibits. How intriguing are those silent sentinels of the gallery, as sphinxlike as Secret Service agents but charge…
Linked From Chicago Tribune Subscription at 04:35PMDid a 16-year-old housemaid named Grace Marks kill her lecherous employer and his housekeeper in 1843? Or was the impoverished Irish immigrant to Canada merely the stablehand’s unwitting a…
Linked From Chicago Tribune Subscription at 04:30PMSunday, September 17, 2017
When Chance the Rapper asks the question “Is you is or is you ain’t got gas money?” in his song “All Night,” he nods to the legacy of the great songwriter and bandleader Louis Jord…
Linked From Chicago Tribune Subscription at 02:00PMFriday, September 15, 2017
A vista of the pressures faced by Disney Theatrical Productions fills the lobby of the Denver Center for the Performing Arts: Hundreds of bubbly children and unabashed adults dressed as Elsa…
Linked From Chicago Tribune Subscription at 12:00AMThursday, September 14, 2017
A vibrant city with global aspirations — certainly, any city capable of landing the second headquarters built by Amazon — needs frequent access to cultural work and artists from all over…
Linked From Chicago Tribune Subscription at 09:30AMTuesday, September 12, 2017
Scott Morehead, an actor and writer who was a cast member in the Second City e.t.c. revue "A Red Line Runs Through It," has filed a complaint against the storied comedy theater in Chicago al…
Linked From Chicago Tribune Subscription at 05:35PMBonnie and Clyde didn’t get much respect when they tried to shoot up Broadway in December 2011. It was a crowded month: “The Visit” was opening, Kelli O’Hara was starring in “She L…
Linked From Chicago Tribune Subscription at 11:00AMMonday, September 11, 2017
As a loved one dies, funny things can happen. Anyone who has paid a vigil at a bedside can verify the veracity of the central premise of Halley Feiffer’s boldly titled black comedy, “A F…
Linked From Chicago Tribune Subscription at 05:40PMSunday, September 10, 2017
Not long from now, seniors in retirement homes will be head-banging to Whitesnake. A change in the menu in the dining room will risk a spontaneous chorus of "We're Not Gonna Take It," twisti…
Linked From Chicago Tribune Subscription at 02:50PMFriday, September 8, 2017
If you dislike the threat of audience participation — and I am not sure I have ever met any adult who feels otherwise, when sober — then what I am about to describe might well sound like…
Linked From Chicago Tribune Subscription at 02:30PMThursday, September 7, 2017
In the wake of President Donald J. Trump's late-July announcement that transgender Americans would no longer be able to serve in the military, Illinois’ U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth, a Democr…
Linked From Chicago Tribune Subscription at 05:30PMIt was the winter of 2009. On the bill at the Goodman Theatre was the American premiere of "Rouw Siert Electra," a title that did not exactly roll off the tongue, even if it was Dutch for on…
Linked From Chicago Tribune Subscription at 05:00PMWhere does Margaret Atwood meet Jimmy Buffett and Tracy Letts cast glances at “Five Guys Named Moe”? The fall season of Chicago theater, of course. With a nod also to director Ivo van Ho…
Linked From Chicago Tribune Subscription at 02:00PMThe Tony Award-winning musical "Dear Evan Hansen" will be coming to Chicago as part of its 2018-19 national tour, Broadway in Chicago announced Thursday. The news means we will not get our o…
Linked From Chicago Tribune Subscription at 01:00PMJulie Taymor. Amy Schumer. Steve Martin. Uma Thurman. Bruce Springsteen. Keegan Michael-Key. SpongeBob SquarePants. The stars — experienced and debutante, human and poriferan — are out o…
Linked From Chicago Tribune Subscription at 01:00PMThe National Theatre production of Tony Kushner's vaunted American fantasia, "Angels in America," is to move to Broadway in the spring, it was announced Thursday morning. The British product…
Linked From Chicago Tribune Subscription at 10:35AMWednesday, September 6, 2017
It’s fall. Like every year — and, as a loyal reader will understand, there have been a few — I’m looking for something smart, new, risky and exciting. Ideally something like that to …
Linked From Chicago Tribune Subscription at 05:30PMTuesday, September 5, 2017
The north suburban Northlight Theatre plans to return to Evanston, the city of its birth, in a spectacular way: as the street-level centerpiece of a shimmering-rise, 37-story development rep…
Linked From Chicago Tribune Subscription at 08:00PMFriday, September 1, 2017
“Fragile,” said the rigid mailer. “Do not bend.” Inside was a note and a carefully preserved booklet with a woman’s silhouette as the only cover image. “Enclosed is a very old pl…
Linked From Chicago Tribune Subscription at 07:00AMThursday, August 31, 2017
As you may recall from the 1992 Nicolas Cage movie, the retro Broadway musical adaptation "Honeymoon in Vegas" is based on the following premise. Fearing the ghost of his dead mother, Jack f…
Linked From Chicago Tribune Subscription at 04:20PMHow can summer end without our annual celebration of exciting new talent blossoming before our eyes in Chicago theater? The Hot New Faces, Class of 2017, photographed by Tribune photojournal…
Linked From Chicago Tribune Subscription at 07:00AMTuesday, August 29, 2017
A lot of would-be satirists think the core of the art lies in the viciousness of the attack or the bona fides of the attacker. But withering social satire actually is a linguistic art form. …
Linked From Chicago Tribune Subscription at 03:55PMMonday, August 28, 2017
The British monarchy — as manifest for the last 64 years in the personage of Her Royal Highness Queen Elizabeth II — has survived the republicans and the democratic imperative for three …
Linked From Chicago Tribune Subscription at 04:40PMFriday, August 25, 2017
The Steppenwolf Theatre announced Friday that it will host a public memorial this fall, in celebration of the life and work of the late Martha Lavey, its former artistic director. The free e…
Linked From Chicago Tribune Subscription at 03:18PM 
