I've always found the guards in museums at least as interesting as the exhibits. How intriguing are those silent sentinels of the gallery, as sphinxlike as Secret Service agents but charged …
Did a 16-year-old housemaid named Grace Marks kill her lecherous employer and his housekeeper in 1843? Or was the impoverished Irish immigrant to Canada merely the stablehand's unwitting acc…
When Chance the Rapper asks the question "Is you is or is you ain't got gas money?" in his song "All Night," he nods to the legacy of the great songwriter and bandleader Louis Jordan. Jordan…
A vista of the pressures faced by Disney Theatrical Productions fills the lobby of the Denver Center for the Performing Arts: Hundreds of bubbly children and unabashed adults dressed as Elsa…
A vibrant city with global aspirations " certainly, any city capable of landing the second headquarters built by Amazon " needs frequent access to cultural work and artists from all over the…
Scott Morehead, an actor and writer who was a cast member in the Second City e.t.c. revue "A Red Line Runs Through It," has filed a complaint against the storied comedy theater in Chicago al…
Bonnie and Clyde didn't get much respect when they tried to shoot up Broadway in December 2011. It was a crowded month: "The Visit" was opening, Kelli O'Hara was starring in "She Loves Me." …
As a loved one dies, funny things can happen. Anyone who has paid a vigil at a bedside can verify the veracity of the central premise of Halley Feiffer's boldly titled black comedy, "A Funny…
Not long from now, seniors in retirement homes will be head-banging to Whitesnake. A change in the menu in the dining room will risk a spontaneous chorus of "We're Not Gonna Take It," twisti…
If you dislike the threat of audience participation " and I am not sure I have ever met any adult who feels otherwise, when sober " then what I am about to describe might well sound like a v…
In the wake of President Donald J. Trump's late-July announcement that transgender Americans would no longer be able to serve in the military, Illinois' U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth, a Democrat…
It was the winter of 2009. On the bill at the Goodman Theatre was the American premiere of "Rouw Siert Electra," a title that did not exactly roll off the tongue, even if it was Dutch for on…
Where does Margaret Atwood meet Jimmy Buffett and Tracy Letts cast glances at "Five Guys Named Moe"? The fall season of Chicago theater, of course. With a nod also to director Ivo van Hove a…
The Tony Award-winning musical "Dear Evan Hansen" will be coming to Chicago as part of its 2018-19 national tour, Broadway in Chicago announced Thursday. The news means we will not get our o…
Julie Taymor. Amy Schumer. Steve Martin. Uma Thurman. Bruce Springsteen. Keegan Michael-Key. SpongeBob SquarePants. The stars " experienced and debutante, human and poriferan " are out on Br…
The National Theatre production of Tony Kushner's vaunted American fantasia, "Angels in America," is to move to Broadway in the spring, it was announced Thursday morning. The British product…
It's fall. Like every year " and, as a loyal reader will understand, there have been a few " I'm looking for something smart, new, risky and exciting. Ideally something like that to see ever…
The north suburban Northlight Theatre plans to return to Evanston, the city of its birth, in a spectacular way: as the street-level centerpiece of a shimmering-rise, 37-story development rep…
"Fragile," said the rigid mailer. "Do not bend." Inside was a note and a carefully preserved booklet with a woman's silhouette as the only cover image. "Enclosed is a very old playbill we fo…
As you may recall from the 1992 Nicolas Cage movie, the retro Broadway musical adaptation "Honeymoon in Vegas" is based on the following premise. Fearing the ghost of his dead mother, Jack f…
How can summer end without our annual celebration of exciting new talent blossoming before our eyes in Chicago theater? The Hot New Faces, Class of 2017, photographed by Tribune photojournal…
A lot of would-be satirists think the core of the art lies in the viciousness of the attack or the bona fides of the attacker. But withering social satire actually is a linguistic art form. …
The British monarchy " as manifest for the last 64 years in the personage of Her Royal Highness Queen Elizabeth II " has survived the republicans and the democratic imperative for three prin…
The Steppenwolf Theatre announced Friday that it will host a public memorial this fall, in celebration of the life and work of the late Martha Lavey, its former artistic director. The free e…
The popular "Ham4Ham" ticket lottery is changing its rules for the Chicago production of "Hamilton," following in the footsteps of a similar new procedure in New York. In place of the previo…