Spoofing a 1930s vaudeville show and featuring performers staring into the abyss of vaudeville's future (in other words, no future at all), this might be one of the more deranged homages to …
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 05:04PMI'm predisposed to liking any show that exposes its dark comedic instincts right off the bat, but break up those moments with fully committed, quasi-cheesy dance moves that might as well hav…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 07:14PMI'm predisposed to liking any show that exposes its dark comedic instincts right off the bat, but break up those moments with fully committed, quasi-cheesy dance moves that might as well hav…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 03:00PMSpoofing a 1930s vaudeville show and featuring performers staring into the abyss of vaudeville's future (in other words, no future at all), this might be one of the more deranged homages to …
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 03:00PMConceptually, "The Story of a Story (The Untold Story)" has a lot in common with "[title of show]," which had a terrifically sharp production in Chicago over the summer. Both are extremely m…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 06:52PMConceptually, "The Story of a Story (The Untold Story)" has a lot in common with "[title of show]," which had a terrifically sharp production in Chicago over the summer. Both are extremely …
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 12:01PMThere's a Grabowski-like sensibility that improvisers Ryan Archibald and Craig Uhlir bring to the stage, which isn't as common as you might think from such a resolutely Chicago art form. The…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 03:27PMThis 2005 drama from Peter Morris could just as easily be called "Anatomy of a Monster" or "The Banality of Evil," unspooling as if it were an extended therapy session or late-night confessi…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 02:18PMThis 2005 drama from Peter Morris could just as easily be called "Anatomy of a Monster" or "The Banality of Evil," unspooling as if it were an extended therapy session or late-night confessi…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 06:45PMMordant family dysfunction fuels this 2011 work from Nicky Silver, featuring a patriarch dying of cancer, a matriarch more interested in redecorating the living room than her spouse's termin…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 12:57PMMordant family dysfunction fuels this 2011 work from Nicky Silver, featuring a patriarch dying of cancer, a matriarch more interested in redecorating the living room than her spouse's termin…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 12:30PMUpdated: Comedian Aziz Ansari will perform a surprise trio of shows Thursday night at the Chicago Zanies. Tickets have sold out.
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 02:16PMComedian Aziz Ansari has announced a surprise trio of shows Thursday night at the Chicago Zanies. Tickets are on sale now.
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 10:23PMSince its launch a year ago, the comedy theater Under the Gun has developed shows centered on a premise, such as that of a project next month called "Porn Minus Porn," or staged readings of …
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 05:55PMFunny how sticking an actor in the right context can suddenly reveal a physical resemblance.
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 01:18PMLos Angeles is full of writers and performers who came up through the comedy ranks in Chicago, and it is not unusual to see many them continue to work their improv chops on stage, usually at…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 05:08PMLos Angeles is full of writers and performers who came up through the comedy ranks in Chicago, and it is not unusual to see many of them continue to work their improv chops on stage, usually…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 01:44PMThere is a looseness and also a precision that seasoned improv performers bring to the stage, and it is this combination - disciplined but unpredictable - that can elevate a scene into somet…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 01:13PMThe best scene in this two-person sketch show at Public House envisions a conversation between a Disney studio head reluctantly pulled into a meeting with a young woman who wants to discuss …
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 01:13PMHow good is your memory? Is it shot, like mine? Do you know all your passwords? Can you remember what you did last Tuesday? Now consider the brain power involved in memorizing an entire scri…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 01:51PMOne of the weirder, funnier sketch shows I saw in 2009 was a one-man project called "'Sex' Ed Vincent," starring Paul Brittain as the most ill-informed sex education instructor alive. Britta…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 08:16PMThere's always been something a bit mythical about the earliest years of Bette Midler's career, when she performed her cabaret act in the basement of the Continental Baths in New York City. …
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 06:00AMThe premise sounded amusing 10 years ago when word first started trickling out about this show: a musical about the making of said musical.
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 04:46PMThe premise sounded amusing 10 years ago when word first started trickling out about this show: a musical about the making of said musical.
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 03:20PMKnockdown verbal brawls can work especially well onstage, and it is with considerable skill that playwright David Lindsay-Abaire devises this fight card: Who is right and who is wrong in thi…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 06:24AMA quick note to performers and directors working in the Annoyance's smaller theater: If the air vent is on, folks onstage are going to have to project a lot more if they're going to be heard…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 03:10PMBefore vampires and dystopias, teen movies weren't defined by life-and-death stakes. Matters were more prosaic, such as: If you give a guy a boombox to hold over his head, will this pseudo-g…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 05:43PMResentments have a way of lingering like a bad smell. Such is the family dynamic at the center of Stephen Belber's sprightly (if somewhat frustrating) drama about a retired judge — white, …
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 06:04PMIs the word "love" being used ironically in this 1989 play by Brad Fraser? As in, none of this is anything close to an exploration of love or why we crave it so deeply, but, hey, let's call …
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 03:37PMResentments have a way of lingering like a bad smell. Such is the family dynamic at the center of Stephen Belber's sprightly (if somewhat frustrating) drama about a retired judge - white, co…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 03:37PMIn an empty room with white walls and just a single wooden deck chair, a man assesses the environment: "Hotter," he says of the room's temperature. "I want her to melt."
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 03:21PM
