Tuesday, December 5, 2023
This is a contemporary folk tale inspired by the music and sounds of Scotland, earlier seen at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 06:00AMFriday, December 1, 2023
Playing a single woman visited by the ghost of Elvis, Brenda Barrie apparently has decided she is doing Eugene O’Neill and proceeds accordingly. She’s very funny, too.
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 06:30AMThursday, November 30, 2023
Few titles command the affection of “The Wiz,” and the show’s most fabulous songs, including “Ease On Down the Road,” have been sung now for close to 50 years.
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 01:04PMMonday, November 27, 2023
The impressive new two-theater complex will stage the upcoming “It’s a Wonderful Life: Live in Chicago!,” slated to open on Dec. 10.
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 01:32PMTuesday, November 21, 2023
Any fan of Jim Henson shouldn’t miss this truly splendid addition to the seasonal attractions on offer in Chicago’s Loop.
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 12:15PMMonday, November 20, 2023
Granted, Roald Dahl’s dark and complex stories from the 1960s are not easy to adapt into family musicals.
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 02:54PMFriday, November 17, 2023
What you are seeing here is the Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein “Cinderella,” retooled a bit for modern sensibilities.
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 02:21PMThursday, November 16, 2023
Yes, there's a digital set in this revival of Eric Idle's hilarious musical and much of the audience doesn't know the material. But 'tis but a scratch.
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 08:00PMWednesday, November 15, 2023
There’s no better time to get out and support Chicago theater than the festive season, when warm holiday performances abound.
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 06:45AMTuesday, November 14, 2023
John Hoogenakker is a fine Henry II, all cynical and weary. I’d forgotten how much talk there is in this script about aching bones and death.
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 06:30AMMonday, November 13, 2023
Here was a band that could have represented Germany at its best, a combination of Jews and Gentiles singing in perfect harmony.
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 11:18PMThis show bills itself partly as a 90-minute theater piece, partly as a concert and partly as a party.
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 09:00AMNo. 1 reason here is Kaitlyn Davis, a vulnerable, unpretentious actress who knows just how to play Carole King.
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 06:00AMFriday, November 10, 2023
In one corner, you have D’Agata, author of a piece about a suicidal kid jumping off the top of a Las Vegas hotel. In the other corner, you have Jim, who gets the job of fact-checking it.
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 06:45AMThursday, November 9, 2023
My objections? Oh, an incoherent and crass book and tasteless jokes about “Creepy Old Guys” and so on. But Isabella Esler is a huge young talent as Lydia.
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 03:10PMThis show about killers and wanna-be killers of presidents is profoundly cynical, often an effective point of view for a musical, but somehow always troubling here.
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 12:05PMWednesday, November 8, 2023
Opening soon, the latest in a string of pre-Broadway musicals that director Jerry Mitchell has first brought to life in Chicago.
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 06:45AMMonday, November 6, 2023
Selina Fillinger’s comedy has become the most-produced play at American regional theaters this season. It’s not hard to see why.
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 04:10PMSunday, November 5, 2023
This is a goofy and warm-centered show that put me in mind of all the different trends I’ve seen at Second City.
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 11:25AMFriday, November 3, 2023
There's a contagious happiness, warmth and openness in this Shakespeare play. I guarantee you will not be bored.
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 01:15PMThursday, November 2, 2023
Playwright Theresa Rebeck’s new three-character play is about old age and the joy and tyranny of stuff.
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 09:00PMStephen Sondheim believed in the power of love, and in the someone who makes us "aware of being alive." This director has other ideas.
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 06:00AMFriday, October 27, 2023
Dennis Watkins, Chicago’s premiere resident magician, has plied his trade for some 15 years in the Loop and now has the fancy new venue he deserves.
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 12:30PMThursday, October 26, 2023
The quick Broadway transfer replaces a previous plan to first tour the show to more cities, but was not a surprise given the success of the Chicago run.
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 09:00AMWednesday, October 25, 2023
The host for your evening is the magician-comedian Lucy Darling, adept at crowd work and adding to that supper-club vibe.
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 06:45AMTuesday, October 24, 2023
Compared to the Broadway overblown spectacle, the show sits far more easily at Chicago’s intimate Mercury as a fun, Halloween-season entertainment.
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 06:45AMSunday, October 22, 2023
As this new musical confirms, Stephen Sondheim died happy, at the top of his lyrical and compositional game, and clearly in love.
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 10:00PMFriday, October 20, 2023
The 25th anniversary of “O” was a reminder of many things, not the least of which the power of live actors and stage sets over video projections.
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 06:15AMTuesday, October 17, 2023
“Night Watch” is no great masterpiece, but the late Lucille Fletcher, who wrote for “The Twilight Zone," sure knew how to craft a mystery.
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 12:33PMSaturday, October 14, 2023
