As tens of thousands of jubilant Chicagoans partook of the bacchanal known as Lolapalooza, a few tens of we diehard melancholics shuffled into the Den Theatre in Wicker Park on Thursday for …
In its greatest moments, the Chicago theater has invented entirely new forms of creative expression. In 1955, for example, David Shepherd created a comedy-cabaret group called the Compass Pl…
You might recall Christine Ebersole was once on "Saturday Night Live" (same cast as Eddie Murphy and Tim Kazurinsky). You might now know that she got the gig after smoking the right joint in…
About an hour into director Scott Weinstein's production of "Murder For Two" at the Marriott Theatre on Sunday afternoon, an actor's microphone went out. If you've read the title, it won't c…
Back in 1997, I watched a guy named Rick Stone appear in a Black Ensemble Theater tribute to Otis Redding. A few weeks later, I went back to see another show there. Stone was taking my ticke…
In 2004, Dove launched its "Campaign for Real Beauty," one of the most successful marketing plans in history and, inarguably, a prescient bit of Madison Avenue understanding as to how the ad…
Sir Philip Sidney, a modest and courtly chap of Shakespearean vintage, self-described his 1580 heroic prose poem "Arcadia" as "a trifle, triflingly handled." Back in the misogynistic wastela…
At the age of 80, the Michigan-born Martha Henry has played many of the roles in the Shakespeare canon during her 44 years at the flagship theater of her adopted Canada. As 10 artistic direc…
In April, the Paramount Theatre in Aurora will stage its first pre-Broadway tryout: "August Rush," a new musical by Mark Mancina and Glen Berger, based on the Keri Russell movie about an 11-…
It's popular to lament the isolation of the digital age. But "The End of TV," the deeply moving show from Manual Cinema now at the Chopin Theatre mainstage for the next few days, is a useful…
Working at the Drury Lane, director Marcia Milgrom Dodge treats Tennessee Williams' "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" as if it were a spooky story of scary shadows from the all-American past. Haunting…
What better company at the theater than summer campers? Especially in a show that not only asks you to be up for an adventure but to bring a fairy back to life. (Before noon.) No problem for…
The Broadway musical based on "The Color Purple" tried out in Atlanta in 2004. Sitting there in Georgia, I admired the zest and accessibility of the score and, in particular, the artful and …
On Wednesday, Chance the Rapper announced that he had purchased a dormant news-and-culture website called Chicagoist from the New York public radio station WNYC. His means of doing so " shar…
Michael Shannon, his acerbic biography in the program at A Red Orchid Theatre informs, is soon to be enshrined in wax at Madame Tussauds near Times Square. A lifetime achievement, for sure, …
Ten years ago " shudder " I pointed my Honda toward Munster, Ind., to check out a new musical about one of the Hoosier State's most vaunted citizens: Coach Knute Kenneth Rockne of the Notre …
"Heartbreak Hotel," the biographical Elvis musical from the creator of the Broadway shows "Million Dollar Quartet" and "Baby It's You," begins with a spirited gospel performance in an Africa…
"Hamilton: The Exhibition," the ambitious, tented attraction that aims to immerse fans of the hit Broadway musical in the life and nonfictional times of its central character, is postponing …
Lifeline Theatre, the venerable and ensemble-based Rogers Park arts institution known for its theatrical adaptations of literary classics, has a new artistic director. It's Ilesa Duncan, the…
"I've taken some hits," observes Stacy Keach, playing Ernest Hemingway in the solo play "Pamplona" at the Goodman Theatre. The venerable, courageous actor might well have been speaking of hi…
The final Chicago performance of "The Cher Show" at the Oriental Theatre was cancelled Sunday afternoon after a technical malfunction. Instead of the planned performance of the pre-Broadway …
Steppenwolf Theatre has announced a July 16 memorial service for Claude Binder, the theater's former production manager and general manager. Binder died July 1 from cancer. He was 65. A Step…
"We got such a kick out of doing the Tony Awards," Sara Bareilles said the other day, over the phone as she walked around Los Angeles. "Josh and me? We're such theater nerds. And we've been …
The Court Theatre " the long-established Chicago theater in residence at the University of Chicago " has a new executive director from outside the theater industry. Court will announce Tuesd…
Born at Saint Francis Hospital in Evanston, the narrator of Adam Rapp's new play, "The Sound Inside," has ascended to one of those professorships, both tenured and scarce, teaching creative …