Court Theatre is in the final weeks of a truly extraordinary five-show season, featuring a quartet of four-star shows. Taken as a whole, Court's 2018-19 productions were far and away the bes…
A Red Orchid Theatre said Friday that it was adding eight new members to its artistic ensemble: Karen Aldridge, Myron Elliott-Cisneros, Levi Holloway, Travis A. Knight, Jess McLeod, Sadieh R…
Hit shows " and, make no mistake, the dynamic new pop musical "Six" has clear Broadway potential " invariably arise from great ideas that fit a moment. Get a load of this mighty shrewd notio…
What makes an acting performance worthy of a Tony Award? It's always a fascinating question on Broadway: Must such a performance command a marquee, spare no prisoners and take change of any …
Malcolm Ewen's first foray into a life in the theater was in his hometown of Winnetka, in a middle school production of "The Hither and Thither of Danny Dither." He played the role of God. …
Cirque du Soleil has brought 25 different shows to the Chicago area over the last 30 years. I've reviewed 24 of them, from "Alegria" to "Saltimbanco" to "Varekai," from the old North Pier to…
In 1991, Joan Jett Blakk ran against Richard M. Daley for Mayor of Chicago. By the following year, the radical drag persona of the courtly, mild-mannered performer Terence Smith was running …
So what, exactly, were Mary Godwin, Percy Shelley, Claire Clairmont and George Gordon Byron all really doing in the Villa Diodati in Lake Geneva (Switzerland, not Wisconsin) in the rainy sum…
Might you find yourself a few steps ahead of the play at "Into the Breeches!," the new comedy from the Northlight Theatre? Is Winnetka north of Wilmette? Actually, so formulaic is George Bra…
"Four Chords and a Gun," the new show from Toronto now at the Broadway Playhouse, is an odd duck. Of course, so were The Ramones. Here was an American punk rock band with influence that ecli…
In 2011, the British author and critic Martin Amis " a man who believes that Saul Bellow was the greatest American writer of the 20th century " stood on a stage in this city and described Ch…
In 1977, the actor Joe Mantegna " then and now a rabid fan of the Chicago Cubs " came up with an idea designed to get baseball lovers into the theater. The result was the legendary Organic T…
Back in 2011, just before the first national tour of Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey's magnificent, Pulitzer Prize-winning musical "Next to Normal" came to Chicago, a dear out-of-town friend asked…
The Chicago production of "Hamilton" will close Jan. 5, 2020, the Broadway producer Jeffrey Seller said in an interview with the Tribune Wednesday evening. The date of closing is not a surpr…
Laurie Metcalf was known to Chicago theater lovers for years before she became a Broadway mainstay. The Steppenwolf ensemble member " also known for her work on the TV sitcoms "Roseanne" and…
In the days leading up to Memorial Day, Chicago traditionally has more theater openings than at any other time of the year. And 2019 is bringing an especially bumper crop of marquee spring a…
Like "The Tempest" and "Cymbeline," William Shakespeare's "The Winter's Tale" traditionally has been seen as a romantic play about forgiveness, penance and reconciliation. Its early dramatic…
Death! Cannibalism! Fire! Michael Shannon on film! All of the above are on offer in A Red Orchid Theatre's cacophonous new production of "Killing Game" ("Jeux de Massacre"), a show, lead by …
On an extraordinary night at Second City in Chicago, a fearless, vulnerable and determinedly transparent Margaret Trudeau took the stage to talk of affairs and mistakes, family and failures,…
In a pivot away from developers and controversial Evanston high-rises, Northlight Theatre says it has made a fresh plan for a new home. Northlight said Friday that it has signed an option ag…
The children of immigrants long have written plays and novels about what it's like to be a first-generation American, trying to build a life in a new country under the watchful eyes of forei…
Most Broadway tours are like those old mimeograph machines: the more times they're toured, duplicated and recast, the more the quality fades. So why is "Chicago the Musical" different? I fou…
In 2015, Justin Trudeau was elected prime minister of Canada. In his Montreal victory speech, delivered in both French and English, he said, "Sunny ways, my friends. Sunny ways!" Historians …
In an extraordinary development likely to transform the fortunes of a bold but small Chicago company, Definition Theatre is to receive $1.6 million in direct funding from the City of Chicago…
For fans of Chicago's legendary indie music scene, Hank's Bar will feel like a fusion of The Hideout, Lounge Ax, Martyrs, the Double Door, and any number of other mission-based small music c…