To call "August Rush," the new musical at the Paramount Theatre in Aurora, a pre-Broadway tryout is a major overstatement. What is up on that historic stage at present is more akin to a work…
In 1995, his senior year at Ohio State, Eddie George rushed for a school-record 1,927 yards and scored 25 touchdowns, gaining an average of 148 yards per game. Against Notre Dame that season…
The current, vociferous debate over classic Broadway musicals is not unlike that over the Constitution of the United States. On the one hand, you have those who argue that the Constitution s…
"Matilda," the proto-feminist story of a gifted little girl with nasty parents, is perhaps the best family musical of this young century. Prescient for 2010, it managed both to be a thrillin…
If you've not heard of Jireh Breon Holder or his play "Too Heavy for Your Pocket," you might well think that the new drama at the TimeLine Theatre is a long-lost play from the so-called gold…
Some three weeks before leaving office, Rahm Emanuel, the 55th Mayor of Chicago, sat for an interview in his office at City Hall about the arts in Chicago. This is an edited transcript of ou…
Heard of "Venus in Fur"? That's nothing compared to "First Love is the Revolution," a play about a torrid and intensely emotional love affair between a 14-year-old boy and a young vixen. In …
For hopeful new Broadway musicals, Chicago has become the most famous tryout town in America. But Aurora? Come Friday, it gets a piece of the action that has been going almost entirely to ei…
If " strike that, when " the Earth suffers some sort of horrific ecological disaster of our own making, humanity probably won't disintegrate into dust overnight. More likely, some of us will…
As Broadway looks for a safe landing between changing times and the traditional makeup of its audience, this year's Tony Award nominations, announced Tuesday morning, reflected fevered compe…
After six years of a Cirque drought in the desert, the Cirque du Soleil is to bring a new attraction to the Luxor Hotel in Las Vegas later this year. Instead of the acrobats and trapeze arti…
Forget Jussie Smollett. Kim Foxx, the State's Attorney for Cook County, let Hamlet walk on Thursday night. In a murder trial held before the federal judge Joan Lefkow, the relentless Chicago…
For an eleventh-hour replacement, Maurice Jones is a darn fine Hamlet. Jones, a Broadway actor, was only cast in the theater's most iconic role in March, following the withdrawal of Raul …
The Beetlejuice is rancid. And be sure not to bring the kids for a drink. "Beetlejuice" " officially "Beetlejuice the Musical, the Musical, the Musical" " is one of those what-were-they-thin…
Incredibly, the dangerously titled Michael Jackson musical, "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough," is moving forward in New York. Its creators are using what I'll call the complexity defense. It'…
A new 120-seat theater is coming to the Loop. On Wabash Avenue, right by the Halal Guys and a Taco Bell Cantina, just across the street from the Elephant & Castle pub, will sit The Lion …
In its first full season under artistic director Cody Estle, Raven Theatre scored the most nominations in the 2019 Non-Equity Jeff Awards, with the all-volunteer committee of Chicago theater…
"Can I touch you?" John Lithgow's Bill asks Laurie Metcalf's Hillary. If looks could kill, the audience for playwright Lucas Hnath's "Hillary and Clinton" at Broadway's Golden Theatre would …
The most fun you can ever have as a critic is watching a talented scribe take a great leap " in both thematic ambition and theatrical accomplishment. "Cambodian Rock Band," already the winne…
David Korins is best known as a designer of Broadway shows, including, among others, "Dear Evan Hansen," "Passing Strange," "Beetlejuice" and, of course, "Hamilton." But through his New York…
Joanne B. Freeman is one of the world's foremost experts on Alexander Hamilton. A professor of history and American studies at Yale University, Freeman is the historical advisor for "Hamilto…
Lin-Manuel Miranda " the creator of "Hamilton" " needs no introduction. He talked with the Tribune from New York about his mostly parental role in "Hamilton: The Exhibition." This is an edit…
Can the famously smart and creative minds at Hamilton Inc. pull off their biggest gamble yet? With the acclaimed visual designer David Korins spinning the artistic roulette wheel, the brain …
The moody Dane, known to his friends as "Hamlet," is back in town. In honor of Barbara Gaines' new production at Chicago Shakespeare Theater, which stars Maurice Jones, let's take a look bac…
When Lanford Wilson's "Burn/This" was first performed at Steppenwolf in Chicago at 1987, it famously starred John Malkovich and Joan Allen as, respectively, Pale and Anna: the coked-up, gang…