4,886 stories by "Chris Jones"
As a first show for a new, Equity-affiliated theater in Chicago, Mike Leigh's "Ecstasy" is one tough assignment. We can deduce that the Cole Theatre ("'Victory of the People' is our rally cr…
The Tony Award winning Broadway star of "Beautiful: The Carole King Musical" is to return home--for one night only on September 22. In her first hometown performance since winning the 20…
TimeLine Theatre is planning a move from its current digs in a Lakeview church to the North Side neighborhood of Andersonville, where the well-respected nonprofit theater will potentailly…
TJ Jagodowski and David Pasquesi are known nationally as masters of long-form improvisation, that made-in-Chicago art form wherein a single audience suggestion of dialogue or a situation can…
The Stratford Festival of Canada, a popular summer destination for Midwesterners, has announced its 2015 season, themed around "eureka" moments, which it defines not unlike how Oprah Winfrey…
At one point in "Stupid F***ing Bird," the endlessly self-aware play by Aaron Posner that will be sweet and oft-hilarious relief for anyone who has sat through way too many shattering produc…
Of all the sectors of the arts and entertainment industry in Chicago, none has seen anything close to the level of explosive growth in 2014 enjoyed by the institutions that make people laugh.
The flying kilts of "Brigadoon," the immortal barricades of "Les Miserables" and, in general, the lively revivals of director-choreographer Rachel Rockwell dominate the 2014 Joseph Jef…
Sure, the Bronx is still up and the Battery still down (or flat, in my car's case this morning), but in the last number of "On the Town," the 1944 musical created by the incomparable collect…
High on my list of the top Chicago shows of 2011 was "En Route," a remarkable show created by a boutique Australian theater company called One Step at a Time Like This. Due in part to its ve…
Court Theatre said Tuesday that it will host a memorial service at 7 p.m. Monday in honor of its master electrician of the past two seasons, Brenton Wright. Wright, who was 27, was killed Au…
So many people showed up Monday night for Broadway in Chicago's annual promotional concert in Millennium Park that the gates to the Pritzker Pavilion were closed, with a capacity 11,000 peop…
The first national tour of the Broadway musical "Beautiful: The Carole King Musical" is to play Chicago for 12 weeks during the 2015-16 holiday period, its New York producers announced …
"About seven years ago, Lauren Bacall showed up at my place for a party," the Pulitzer Prize-winning writer John Patrick Shanley tweeted Wednesday morning. "It was like having a yacht show u…
Chicago Children's Theatre, a non-profit, Equity-affiliated Chicago theater company that specializes in work for young audiences, is eyeing a potential new home in the West Loop, where this …
Sometimes I feel like I've talked to Tevye as many times as Tevye has talked to God.
Broadway in Chicago said Tuesday that it has booked a touring production of "Men Are From Mars - Women Are From Venus LIVE." The one-man comedy show about gender-driven differences, base…
Domenica Cameron-Scorsese, the daughter of famed movie director Martin Scorsese and a movie and stage actress in her own right, is to perform in a storefront theater in Chicago later this mo…
"Make no little plans" long has been the mantra of this city, a common justification for our hubristic plans for the skyline or lakefront, often trumping fiscal prudence. But between 11 o'cl…
The time is ripe, you'd think, for a revival of "Reefer Madness," the silly musical spoof of the 1936 exploitation-morality movie that spun the yarn that Mary Jane was lying in wait for all …
Earlier this week an unusual email arrived in my inbox offering cold, hard cash.
Steppenwolf Theatre ensemble member Anna D. Shapiro is to be at the helm of Larry David's upcoming Broadway production, entitled "Fish in the Dark."
Winston Churchill, inarguably one of the most effective political figures of all time, had a palpable affection for the United States of America. That came in part from his being the child o…
Staring at Rick Bayless chopping greens -- and, let's face it, most of the ticket buyers at "Cascabel" are paying the big bucks to stare at the famous Chicago chef en personne and eat his de…
Billie Letts, the mother of the Chicago playwright Tracy Letts, died on Saturday in her home state of Oklahoma, according to reports in the Tulsa World and other sources.
