4,886 stories by "Chris Jones"
The holidays are almost here. You know that Chicago is known for its theater and you finally have more time to see a show. But which are the best ones right now? I've seen most of them. So l…
You could escape the lousy times of 2017 on Broadway, whether that was by descending to Bikini Bottom or rising up on your feet, with everyone around, in praise of all that is Bette Midler. …
The cast of RANDY SKINNER's annual high-quality production includes Tonay Award-winning Karen Ziemba and Conrad John Schuck: what's not to like?
Chita Rivera sang "A Boy Like That" from "West Side Story" from the stage of the Steppenwolf Theatre on Monday night. She was, after all, the original Anita. She first performed the song for…
In 1833, the year the British Parliament abolished slavery in the United Kingdom, an African-American actor named Ira Aldridge " New York-born but married to an Englishwoman from Yorkshire "…
There is a history. L. Frank Baum's "The Wizard of Oz" " the stage version, which came long before the Judy Garland movie " had its world premiere in Chicago in 1902 at the Grand Opera House…
Here's the most remarkable thing about the choreography of Crystal Pite: She individualizes and dehumanizes the human body, both at the same time. The Vancouver-based choreographer is a grea…
In an interview given in support of "Michael Jackson's This is It," the 2009 documentary about the London concert series that was never performed due to Jackson's death weeks before it began…
When I last saw Sarah Bockel, she was performing on Belmont Avenue in Chicago in "Parade," a production of the BoHo Theatre Ensemble. If you live in Highland Park, you might have seen her in…
In times of stress and trouble, wise creative souls seek out the wisdom of Chita Rivera. Of course, people have been seeking out the wisdom of the legendary actress-dancer, one of the most b…
At one point in "Gobsmacked!," the godawful small affair that has landed for the week at the Broadway Playhouse, you hear the unmistakable opening strains of David Bowie's "Life on Mars." No…
Matthew, Mark, Luke, Juan and Abraham " otherwise known as the Altar Boyz " have returned to the Chicago stage. At this particular moment in our roiled culture, they feel a lot like cute, gr…
Jeanine Tesori's "Violet," which I first reviewed at the Apple Tree Theatre in Highland Park in 1999 and then again on Broadway in 2014, is a gorgeous musical. The story of a disfigured youn…
Under a highly unusual veil of secrecy, apparently imposed by a contractual arrangement with Amazon Studios, Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre quietly allowed the director Spike Lee to film its …
Sponges lack nervous systems. Just as well. Broadway " where the hooks can come out " is no Bikini Bottom when it comes to hosting an optimistic porifera best known as a kid's cable televisi…
At one point in "Elf the Musical," your spectacular seasonal entertainment at the historic Paramount Theatre in Aurora " yes, Roger "Santa" Mueller really does fly around the theater in his …
The closing number of "Once on This Island," the justly loved one-act musical by Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens now in a Broadway revival at the Circle in the Square Theatre, ends with a n…
Many of the walnuts, ragamuffins, snowflakes and rats are new. But the dancers of the Joffrey Ballet who form the emotional core of choreographer Christopher Wheeldon's revisionist explorati…
When he was drunk, or high from Valium or, occasionally, speed, the legendary improv guru Del Close had a habit of firing entire Second City casts. In the mid-1970s, it was not uncommon for …
The name of Donald Trump is never spoken in playwright Beau Willimon's "The Parisian Woman," a stunningly smug, utterly incredible and wholly inept political satire of the sexual mores of th…
The board of trustees of Writers Theatre in Glencoe said in a statement Thursday afternoon that it had completed its inquiry into the allegations of sexual harassment made earlier this month…
A lot of large entertainments arrive in downtown Chicago next week as the Loop stocks up for the peak theater-going season. You'll know most of them. "Wicked"? Witches, defying gravity and d…
If you're Steve Martin " you know, that off-kilter, one-man cultural conglomerate " and you walk into some Los Angeles house party, you must quickly find yourself surrounded by tediously cha…
A quartet of Scrooges bowed together on the stage of the Goodman Theatre on Monday, part of the theater's opening-night celebration of 40 years of "A Christmas Carol," which the Goodman like…
A rock apologia for she of the 40 whacks, "Lizzie" is the first production from Chicago's new Firebrand Theatre, which declares itself to be "the world's first and foremost feminist musical …
