"When the world is mad," wrote legendary British scholar G.H. Hardy, "a mathematician may find in mathematics an incomparable anodyne." So does that mean that those who consider the ascensio…
Beware the editorial assistant. Everyone in publishing " or the media " knows that those highly educated, inestimably talented, terrifyingly ambitious, tech-savvy (shudder), social-media sav…
The pink bus " the one with two drag performers and a transgender woman traversing the Australian interior and breaking into disco-crusted songs at the mere sight of a mozzie " looks more li…
Should the day arrive when I need to be persuaded to leave my family home for a retirement community, I sure hope my son does not act like Roddy, the callous offspring who shows up in Julie …
Goodness knows: The national tour of "Wicked" is returning to Chicago for a seven-week engagement during the holiday season at the end of this year, Broadway in Chicago announced Monday. The…
"Saturday Night Live" has Alec Baldwin on tap to play " and greatly annoy " the president-elect. The very funny new show at the Second City e.t.c., "Fantastic Super Great Nation Numero Uno,"…
It has come time to pen a requiem for the circus. "Why?" you wonder. Did not the unexpected announcement Saturday night of the closing in May of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus…
The Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, a mainstay of family entertainment in America for 146Â years and a retro throwback to the days of circus trains, parades, pachyderms and old-…
"I fear for our future," wrote the distinguished Cuban-American playwright Maria Irene Fornes. "I feel that we are becoming greedy and heartless. I don't understand what is leading us to the…
To many of us at McCormick Place on Tuesday night, it felt a lot like the end of a Chicago dream. You know, those final, increasingly melancholy moments of reverie before someone wakes you u…
"Her America," the dark-souled and very intriguing new solo piece by Chicago writer Brett Neveu, has a title with a country and a pronoun. Looking at my program at the Greenhouse Theater Cen…
Wayne Brady clearly did not like being called an unusual casting choice for the role of Aaron Burr in the Chicago production of "Hamilton," an assignment he begins Tuesday night at the Priva…
Toward the end of Lin-Manuel Miranda's "Hamilton," George Washington imparts a truth that, he raps, he wishes he had known while still young: Once you're done with whatever it is you do, you…
As first reported by the Tribune last week, Wayne Brady is indeed joining the Chicago cast of "Hamilton" in the major role of Aaron Burr. The producer of the hit show, Jeffrey Seller, made t…
The critically acclaimed "Manchester by the Sea," directed by playwright and screenwriter Kenneth Lonergan and likely to figure in the Academy Award nominations, is a film that explores the …
Chicago's production of "Hamilton" is to lose one of its stars " the critically acclaimed Joshua Henry, who plays the role of Aaron Burr. Henry is to star in the upcoming national touring pr…
At the Neo-Futurarium on New Year's Day, the famous clothesline, a fixture in this Andersonville walk-up theater for a full generation of Chicago artistry, hung no more. The name of the show…
Steppenwolf Theatre has added a new ensemble member, the storied acting ensemble's 47th name. The 2017 inductee is Audrey Francis, 37, a longtime Chicago actress who teaches at the School at…
With 2016 now toast, hooray, it's time to look forward to the cold weather harvest of theatrical bounty in Chicago in 2017. While I never know for sure about a show until I see it, and I usu…
For our final look at Chicago theater of 2016 " our winter preview follows soon " here, in chronological order, are 10 unforgettable moments. In Dominique Morisseau's moving drama "Sunset Ba…
Just as spring was beginning to warm Chicago, an extraordinarily courageous actress named Donica Lynn found herself in an off-Loop production of "Dreamgirls," playing Effie White, a role she…
This was the year in Chicago theater. In January, the New Colony and Definition Theatre Co. scored a hit with "Byhalia, Mississippi," a play about the rural underclass that seemed to anticip…
"Spamilton," the hit musical spoof of the Broadway hit "Hamilton" is headed to Chicago. The off-Broadway parody, penned by the legendary Broadway satirist Gerard Alessandrini, will open for …
There are some extraordinary visuals in the new holiday entertainment at the Lookingglass Theatre " an amazing, life-size wild boar and other critters, as crafted by the gifted artist Blair …
A dozen viewings of "The Phantom of the Opera" has led me to a fascination with the speed of the falling chandelier.This obsession is not entirely out of sync with the show, which is back in…