Back before "The Book of Mormon" said hello, "Altar Boyz" brought a sweet satirical touch to proselytization through pop music and the voices of Matthew, Mark, Luke, Juan (he's Mexican) and …
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 05:08PMThe double nature of the late composer/entertainer Peter Allen's life is hinted at in the title of "The Boy from Oz," the jukebox musical about Allen that earned Hugh Jackman a 2004 Tony in …
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 02:45PMWhat happens when you have to do the same show, night after night, with someone you're starting to loathe? That's the premise behind Silent Theatre Company's clever - and surprisingly affect…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 02:04PMOn the Spot Theatre Company misses the mark with "Eugene," Michael Brayndick's dutiful but dull adaptation of Honore Balzac's "Pere Goriot." Set in 1819 Paris, during the Bourbon Restoration…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 05:58PMSmall word choices reveal universes in Robert Tenges' tense "Whatever," now in a world premiere at the Side Project under Adam Webster's direction. The title itself - that well-worn passive-…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 01:33PMOak Park Festival Theatre closes out its summer season with Shakespeare's not-so-fine bromance, "The Two Gentlemen of Verona," directed by Lavina Jadhwani.
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 06:10PMFor some of us, it's impossible to believe that the upheavals of the mid-1990s - the Rodney King riots, the O.J. Simpson trial - happened over 20 years ago. So Guillermo Reyes' "Men on the V…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 02:21PMThe "green-ey'd monster" struts and frets against the green foliage in First Folio Theatre's annual outdoor Shakespeare production. But unlike "Othello," there's no Iago in "The Winter's Tal…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 07:48AMThe decline of traditional industries in northern England in the late 20th century was undoubtedly bad for workers - but it proved to be fertile ground first for filmmakers and then for musi…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 12:57PMLong before "Jaws" (let alone "Sharknado") ever existed, a series of shark attacks off the New Jersey coast in 1916 rattled the nation. But as Dan Caffrey's "Matawan" suggests, there were lo…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 04:41PMIn the pantheon of tear-duct-depleting buddy films, 1988's "Beaches," starring Bette Midler and Barbara Hershey, is up there with "Brian's Song." But instead of the gridiron, the battlefield…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 12:54PMTiming is everything, and The Other Theatre Company's current revival of Martin Sherman's 1979 drama "Bent," about gay men in Germany during the Holocaust, undoubtedly resonates more strongl…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 01:23PMLong before he became the artistic director at Victory Gardens Theater, Chay Yew won plaudits for his 1992 play, "Porcelain," which jumped from London's Royal Court Theatre to numerous produ…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 05:58PMEarlier this year at 16th Street Theater, Elaine Romero unveiled "Graveyard of Empires," the first play in her "U.S. at War" trilogy, which took an elliptical but ultimately poignant journey…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 01:37PMThe image of a black man as Abraham Lincoln seemingly haunts the fertile imagination of Suzan-Lori Parks. She won a Pulitzer Prize for 2002's "Topdog/Underdog," in which a black man named Li…
SOURCE: at 12:43PMHarper Lee's novel packs a wallop at any time. But seeing Christopher Sergel's adaptation of "To Kill a Mockingbird" at Oak Park Festival Theatre the night after the hate-crime shootings at …
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 06:36AMThe late Christopher Hitchens' infamous 2007 screed for Vanity Fair about why women aren't funny reads today as a quaint artifact — almost like coming across a Victorian tract warning wome…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 07:19AMThe late Christopher Hitchens' infamous 2007 screed for Vanity Fair about why women aren't funny reads today as a quaint artifact - almost like coming across a Victorian tract warning women …
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 06:32AMGiven the ever-expanding and soul-numbing roll call of spree-shooting massacres in the United States — Columbine to Aurora to Sandy Hook — the name "Marc Lepine" probably barely register…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 06:00AMGiven the ever-expanding and soul-numbing roll call of spree-shooting massacres in the United States - Columbine to Aurora to Sandy Hook - the name "Marc Lepine" probably barely registers. B…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 06:00AMThe story of the Irish potato famine has been recounted exhaustively, but in America we mostly hear about it as the opening of the floodgates of Irish immigration to the states, with all the…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 04:27PMPivot Arts Festival enters its third year on Thursday with a 10-day line-up of events spread throughout the Uptown, Edgewater and Rogers Park neighborhoods — puppetry to dance, spoken word…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 06:00AMPivot Arts Festival enters its third year on Thursday with a 10-day line-up of events spread throughout the Uptown, Edgewater and Rogers Park neighborhoods - puppetry to dance, spoken word t…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 06:00AMWe get it. Between all the outdoor festivals and the sporting events and replenishing your supply of Vitamin D at the beach, it's tough to find time to go to the theater. But some of the bes…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 06:00AMWe get it. Between all the outdoor festivals and the sporting events and replenishing your supply of Vitamin D at the beach, it's tough to find time to go to the theater. But some of the bes…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 06:00AMThe Savages of Chicago get fictionalized next season on ABC as "The Real O'Neals," in which a close-knit Catholic family turns topsy-turvy when the youngest son — based on author and sex-a…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 11:45AMThe recent HBO documentary "Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck" gave a piquant and forlorn glimpse into the tortured soul of the Nirvana frontman. But though Cobain and Courtney Love's daughter, F…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 11:45AMThe Savages of Chicago get fictionalized next season on ABC as "The Real O'Neals," in which a close-knit Catholic family turns topsy-turvy when the youngest son - based on author and sex-adv…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 11:45AMEarlier this week, a team of biologists and social researchers released a study that suggests being poor literally ages people at the cellular level. And of course they found their research …
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 12:00PMDr. Crippen and H.H. Holmes, have you met George Joseph Smith? Perhaps you might know him as Henry Williams. Or John Lloyd. Whatever you call him, you must recognize him as one of your unhol…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 06:00AMAs anyone who has lost a loved one can attest, memories are both friend and foe. We want to remember and fear forgetting. After all, if we can't find them in memory, then they are truly lost…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 12:44PM
