4,886 stories by "Chris Jones"
So William Petersen, once William L. Petersen, venerable Chicago actor, maestro of the Remains Theatre, bon vivant, actor's actor, decadelong star of "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," whatch…
"Medea: The Musical" sounds more like a "Forbidden Broadway" parody than a serious endeavor. Murderous moms " even ones that killed their brother for their husbands, forsook their exotic hom…
When we first meet Sam, one half of the potential love match at the heart of Rohina Malik's "Yasmina's Necklace," he's arguing with his parents over his name. He has changed it for the usual…
Did you vote for John B. Anderson in 1980? If you were of age and followed the advice of this newspaper, which endorsed the moderate congressman from Illinois in the Republican primary over …
The enthusiastic manifestation of unexpected ecstasy occurs often in playwright Sarah Ruhl's "In the Next Room, or the Vibrator Play," a droll exploration of the early days of electrified de…
A sleep-deprived woman heads into a Brookstone. "What about a demo of this white noise machine?" says the African-American salesman, miming turning it on. "I don't have one black friend, I h…
"All artists," says Andrew Lloyd Webber, in the middle of a long and frank chat with the Tribune, "are insecure about everything." Interesting, coming from the most commercially successful t…
When David Henry Hwang penned the damning and beguiling "M. Butterfly" in 1988, meaningful explorations of the issues of gender assignment and identification were as invisible on Broadway as…
Does the financial compensation received by an actor affect the quality of the show you are seeing? That's a fascinating question " with many minefields waiting for anyone who tries to come …
A former Julliard fellow, the New York-based writer Janine Nabers clearly is well acquainted with the years when former students of prestigious schools hit New York City and find out a few h…
No "Dracula," no "True Blood." But Bram Stoker's uber-vampire yarn still is centered on a creepy, fanged stalker who likes nothing more than to recruit an exposed female neck. How do you tur…
"The thrill is gone?" read the headline on a Tribune story about playoff tickets at Wrigley Field going for "under face value." True. Thanks to the Chicago Cubs' poor performance in the firs…
The Chicago Loop Alliance has commissioned what it describes as Chicago's "first-ever study calculating the estimated economic impact of all arts and culture institutions" located in the Loo…
The creative team behind "Trevor" " the new musical about a lovable young teen with a tough road but a passion for Diana Ross " was gathered in the Times Square offices of U Rock Theatricals…
"What are you staring at?" asks a woman from the stage in "Amarillo," a reflective, experiential production from Mexico City's distinguished, 24-year-old theater company Teatro Linea de Somb…
Top Broadway talent who are all excellent! Tara Rubin casts this show and she knows what she is doing. Chicago run mostly sold out. 3 1/2 Stars last time. FOUR (4) **** NOW!
The Porchlight Music Theatre production of "Billy Elliot," through which I sat Sunday night with misty eyes, is to a great extent what I always hoped this piece would become in Chicago: not …
"People must be amused, squire, somehow," observes Mr. Sleary in Charles Dickens' "Hard Times." "They can't be always a-working, nor yet they can't be always a-learning." Exactly. Go Cubs. S…
Across the years, like a low-rent Javert, I've felt the need to protect Chicago audiences from even a moment in a "Les Miserables" that dared to be less than emotionally devastating. Friday …
The title of Ayad Akhtar's 2014 play, "The Invisible Hand," now in its Chicago premiere at the Steep Theatre, pays homage to Adam Smith. The great economist coined the metaphor in the middle…
Richard Thaler, the University of Chicago economist from the Booth School of Business who won the Nobel Prize on Monday, is an economist we cultural pontificates can love. Why? Simple. His w…
Some baby boomer men manage to stand tall and lean, rock solid with sensual certitude in their seventh or eighth decade " their masculinity reconstructed with new sensitivities but in no way…
As part of his 2018 budget proposal, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel will propose major changes in the city amusement tax that will newly exempt midsize entertainment venues such as Thalia Hall a…
At Monday's moving memorial for former Steppenwolf Theatre artistic director Martha Lavey, many beautiful pictures of the late actress and cultural leader were displayed. One especially haun…
If there was one thing that the great American playwright Arthur Miller hated above all else, it was sanctimonious moral absolutism. "This is a sharp time, now, a precise time," says the ins…
