As the empire of the movie mogul Harvey Weinstein seemed to collapse this weekend amid a barrage of published allegations of sexual misconduct, there was quiet uneasiness among New York's li…
Is Miguel de Cervantes' "Don Quixote" the most important novel ever written? Probably. Dostoevsky and Harold Bloom both thought so. No "Don Quixote," no Dickens. Maybe no Netflix, given all …
Disaster plans are an excellent idea for families " does yours have one? " and, of course, for media organizations that must stand ready for the periodic all-American horror shows like the L…
At one point in "Motown the Musical," which you might reasonably define as the authorized and sanitized version of "Dreamgirls," Diana Ross (well, not the real Ross, but the character) walks…
"Harry Potter and the Cursed Child," which knocked me for six in London, is about to make profound and lasting changes to the commercial theater industry on this side of the Atlantic. Even m…
There is so much complexity and beauty to Tarell Alvin McCraney's play "Choir Boy," a gorgeous evocation of history, hope and pain, that you find yourself aching for a more complex, fluid an…
Dawn King " the author of a disturbingly dystopian dramatic parable that I've not been able to shake from my mind since Monday night " is one of the hottest new names in British playwriting …
The ABC sitcom "Bewitched," which ran from 1964 to 1972, was, at first glance, formulaic. The setup was yet another version of the stranger-in-a-strange-land structure that long has been a s…
Chicago's hospitable Windy City Playhouse on Irving Park Road was founded in 2015 on a populist ideal: Create an affordable, fully professional neighborhood theater, program it with comedy a…
Funeral homes in Chicago, which are not much fun, are sometimes located right next to senior living facilities. Noting such a juxtaposition the other day, my son suggested that there would n…
The Lyric Opera's new partnership with the Joffrey Ballet of Chicago is, at its core, an acknowledgment that it is no longer viable for even a world-class institution like the Lyric to susta…
There is nothing more absurd in the world than familial battles to control the power of overwhelming love which one can see most especially in the brilliant work of CATHERINE COMBS, ANDRUS …
Director Barbara Gaines' all-female Chicago Shakespeare Theater production of William Shakespeare's notorious comedy "The Taming of the Shrew" contains references to the Chicago Cubs, a McCo…
"The Cher Show" " a fully authorized, bluntly titled, biographically oriented, Broadway-bound musical celebrating the life, works and times of the iconoclastic cultural phenomenon with the A…
A few days ago, transgender actress Alexandra Billings told The Daily Beast that not only would the second episode of the fourth season of the Amazon comedy-drama series "Transparent" featur…
"A New Brain," the musical by William Finn, is a show about a young composer who has been diagnosed with an arteriovenous malformation in his brain stem. Hospital beds, surgeries, drips and …
Chicago's next pre-Broadway tryout: "Pretty Woman: The Musical," a new show based on the 27-year-old Julia Roberts-and-Richard Gere romantic comedy about a Sunset Boulevard prostitute who fa…
Start late. Kennedy jammed (on a Sunday at noon?), was stupid to take Kennedy. Exit North Avenue, semi-legally, then return to expressway. Exit Racine. Forgot Racine does does not cross trac…
The gentle art of drag " a warm and inclusive form of live entertainment that I've loved and consumed my whole life " is an art of precision. Drag queens are a diverse crew, of course, and t…
"Follow a dancer," said Glenn Edgerton. I've done that before " once for 2,000 miles, but that's a story for another day. I've always found it to be good advice for life. Or merely for an ev…
After a massive loss by the struggling Chicago Bears " such as the 29-7 drubbing last Sunday by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers " the "Bears Coaches Show" on WBBM Newsradio turns into "Groundhog Da…
Citing the loss of revenue due to the impending end of its multi-year contract with Norwegian Cruise Lines, Second City laid off at least four full-time staffers Thursday. This has been a ch…
A quiz for you: Which Chicago venue is the host of the following A-list attractions in October? One week of tapings of "The Daily Show with Trevor Noah." Stephanie Miller's "Sexy Liberal Res…
Regardless of what an amphibian may or may not perceive, I know this: An expansive and beautiful new theater in Chicago is a glorious thing that boggles the eyes. The Yard, which hosted its …
"A play is rarely given a second chance," Arthur Miller once wrote. He who was right about so many perils of the human condition was wrong about that. To wit: Director Ivo van Hove's despera…