On July 1, Neil Young played a sold-out concert at Chicago's historic Auditorium Theatre, part of the music legend's summer solo tour. Young saw great historical resonance in the gig, remind…
Above A Red Orchid Theatre in Old Town, there's a room. It's supposedly the A Red Orchid Theatre office, but it also has the air of a kitchen, or a basement, or a Chicago apartment shared by…
There is an atypical new comedy at the Goodman Theatre. Written and directed by women, it is a knowing, highly critical and laugh-out-loud funny work about a group of Americans in crisis: me…
Sharon is a shy, 50-ish Iowan whose kitchen is filled with mason jars and decorated tiles, and who never locks her doors. Robyn is a confident vegan from the Bronx with no affinity for Midwe…
In 2010, a captive whale named Tilikum killed his trainer, Dawn Brancheau, by grabbing the 40-year-old woman's ponytail and pulling her into the water. This was the third death of a human th…
Two crucial, unmet challenges are faced by "The Cher Show," the far-from-finished new musical that celebrates one of the most resilient and self-transformative figures in American entertainm…
After 35 years of stuttering starts, empty promises, a court-ordered sale and oft-reckless neglect, the 4,381-seat, 46,000-square-foot Uptown Theatre " once the gilded crown jewel of the Bal…
In 2009, a beautiful play called "Graceland" by a then-unknown Chicago writer named Ellen Fairey, opened at the now-defunct Profiles Theatre in Chicago. At the time, Fairey was waiting table…
The pop-culture polyglot known as Cher snuck quietly into Chicago this past weekend. She was here to see three weekend preview performances of "The Cher Show," a new Broadway musical about h…
A girl of roughly middle-school age was directly in my field of vision Saturday night at the Den Theatre's mainstage. She was part of a large group of kids who had been taken to the show and…
After a long period of inactivity, the mainstage of Chicago's Royal George Theatre is roaring back to life this fall with a new commercial production of "The Woman in Black," a show that has…
It's warm out. Fancy a road trip? Let's take a look at a few options for combining that excursion with some live performance. If you've been reading my column all these years (and thank you)…
On May 29, D. Nicholas Rudall, actor, director, translator, founding director of the Court Theatre and professor emeritus of classics at the University of Chicago, sent a message to 100 peop…
A new biographical, musical inspired by the life of Michael Jackson, is headed to Broadway, with arrival expected in 2020. The playwright Lynn Nottage, who has two Pulitzer Prizes, will writ…
Here's something no one anticipated when the Harris Theater for Music and Dance was built in 2003: it would begin to function as a neighborhood venue. Here's something I never anticipated: T…
Jacob Harvey, artistic director of the Greenhouse Theater Center since 2016, is exiting the position, effective on Friday. William Spatz, who owns the producing and presenting operation, loc…
At one point in Monty Cole's uber-contemporary "Hamlet" " at the Gift Theatre in Jefferson Park " the title character turns his back on the audience, picks up a can of red spray paint and go…
"The Band's Visit" and "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child" dominated Sunday's Tony Awards. But when will we see these shows " and the other Tony winners " in Chicago? Very little has been of…
Of the many myths surrounding the building of the Taj Mahal " the wondrous mausoleum in the Indian city of Agra " one of the most persistent is that its creator, the Mughal emperor, Shah Jah…
Steep Theatre Company's shattering production of "Lela & Co.," a haunting play about sex-trafficking and abuse, emerged triumphant at Chicago's non-Equity Jeff Awards Monday night at the Ath…
"The Band's Visit," the wry, sad and moving new musical helmed by David Cromer of Skokie " unarguably the leading auteur stage director to emerge from the Chicago theater in a generation" tr…
For risk-loving contemporary dancers, Gaga needs no Lady. It's the name of a technique pioneered by Israeli choreographer Ohad Naharin, artistic director of the Tel Aviv-based Batsheva Dance…
David Cromer " Skokie-hatched, Columbia College-trained, fed and watered in the Chicago theater, the current odds-on favorite to win the Tony Award on Sunday for best direction of a musical …
With "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child" likely to do to its rivals nominated for best play what the Dementors do to Ron and Hermione " in one narrative, anyway " most of the tension at the …
Have you craved the opportunity to see a musical about dead Chicago architects? Did you always hope to catch Daniel Burnham and John Root doing a soft-shoe together? When staring, say, at th…