4,886 stories by "Chris Jones"
George Wendt - the much-loved comic actor, former improviser and "Cheers" star, the man saddled for life with an open-for-business sign on the Norm Petting Zoo - goes to some very dark place…
Infused with a steampunk sensibility, scored with the bluesy songs of Tom Waits and Kathleen Brennan, choreographed by Pilobolus and powered (to re-appropriate a phrase from makers of comput…
On Thursday morning, Second City's co-owner and CEO, Andrew Alexander, met me on his charred theater's stoop at 1616 N. Wells St. Second City's mainstage was to re-open that night following …
On Thursday morning, Second City's co-owner and CEO, Andrew Alexander, met me on his charred theater's stoop at 1616 N. Wells St. Second City's mainstage was to re-open that night following …
"Come look at the freaks," they sing in "Side Show,"' the 1997 Broadway musical with the cult following and a show inspired by the real-life travails of the conjoined twins Daisy and Violet …
Chicago theater companies tend to make their final exit in one of two very different ways. Some disappear quietly into the night, lingering like ghosts of their former selves. And some -…
Some of the arguments made by Kim Davis, the determined Kentucky clerk who refuses to issue marriage licenses to gay couples despite that being the law of the land, are forcefully articulate…
Some of the arguments made by Kim Clark, the determined Kentucky clerk who refuses to issue marriage licenses to gay couples despite that being the law of the land, are forcefully articulate…
In the early 1970s, Michael Manley, the head of Jamaica's People's National Party and the newly elected Prime Minister of that Caribbean nation, displayed an admiration for, and developed ti…
Are you fatigued by mass-produced Facebook clips of the same old late-night shtick? Are you ready for some live laughs? Will you turn off your cellphone? Can you get over the incessant need …
When the late, great Roger Rees, the original co-director of "Peter and the Starcatcher" on Broadway, turned his attentions to the national tour of that hit Peter Pan prequel, he decided to …
In theory, Frank Galati is retired. He left his position at Northwestern University in 2006 after some three decades of distinguished teaching and creative work. He left his longtime positio…
Culled from more than a hundred significant openings between now and the winter holidays, here are 10 fall shows that, for one reason or another, promise to be especially interesting.
Doth the Lord Lloyd Webber need to go back to school? What kind of Tevye will Danny Burstein be? How about Jennifer Hudson as Shug Avery? Will Bruce Willis be miserable on a Broadway stage? …
In the American theater, the Iowa-born playwright David Rabe has turned out to be the great dramatic poet of the Vietnam War era.
STRATFORD, Ontario - The last hurdle for the Von Trapp family - before they head over the Alps with Mother Abbess' "Climb Ev'ry Mountain" ringing in their ears - involves an encounter with a…
Behold the first production of Green Day's "American Idiot" with Chicago origins and a storefront soul. Herein, the ambitious and experimental theater company known as The Hypocrites offer u…
For decades, artists have moved into troubled neighborhoods, made them more desirable places to live and thus more valuable for developers, and then have been pushed out as rents rise. From …
You might have heard of "Les Miserables," a musical by a pair of French guys that has played now and again in Chicago and has sold a few tickets. But did you know that before "Les Miserables…
In some two hours of gripping political theater in downtown Chicago, the investigative journalist Hillel Levin, once the editor of Chicago magazine, lays out his potent dramatic case that Pr…
With an original score by such incongruous music luminaries as David Bowie, John Legend, Cyndi Lauper, Lady Antebellum, and Steven Tyler and Joe Perry of Aerosmith, the animated series…
The Mississippi-raised playwright Beth Henley - best known for penning "Crimes of the Heart" - has as much affection for the label "Southern Gothic" as her fellow scribe Sarah Ruhl does for …
If you've ever tried to sell the possessions of a loved one, you've doubtless encountered the popular game of reducing the seller's expectations. One approaches a dealer with an item - a lov…
GREAT YARMOUTH, ENGLAND - To pass a day at a cloudy British seaside resort in the waning days of summer is to embrace melancholy. The resorts themselves - conceived as great Victorian towns …
The news this week that Rich Cotovsky, one of the great unvarnished characters of the Chicago theater, will be hanging it up at Angel Island after 30 years of the Mary-Arrchie Theatre Compan…
