Jeanine Tesori's "Violet," which I first reviewed at the Apple Tree Theatre in Highland Park in 1999 and then again on Broadway in 2014, is a gorgeous musical. The story of a disfigured youn…
Friday "The Christmas Schooner": John Reeger and Julie Shannon's warmhearted holiday tale about the first Christmas tree ship sails back to the Mercury Theater. Through Dec. 31 at Mercury Th…
Under a highly unusual veil of secrecy, apparently imposed by a contractual arrangement with Amazon Studios, Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre quietly allowed the director Spike Lee to film its …
Twyla Tharp views her career as a linear one, starting at the beginning and following a path up to now. That path includes more than 160 credits in dance, film, writing and Broadway " more, …
Sponges lack nervous systems. Just as well. Broadway " where the hooks can come out " is no Bikini Bottom when it comes to hosting an optimistic porifera best known as a kid's cable televisi…
At one point in "Elf the Musical," your spectacular seasonal entertainment at the historic Paramount Theatre in Aurora " yes, Roger "Santa" Mueller really does fly around the theater in his …
A day-of-show drawing for $25 tickets to "Wicked" in Chicago will take place throughout the run of the show, Broadway in Chicago announced Monday. On each performance day, fans eager to revi…
The lineup is in place for the 17th annual Chicago Sketch Comedy Festival, according an announcement Monday from SketchFest executive producer Jill Valentine. Running Jan. 11-21 at Stage 773…
The closing number of "Once on This Island," the justly loved one-act musical by Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens now in a Broadway revival at the Circle in the Square Theatre, ends with a n…
Many of the walnuts, ragamuffins, snowflakes and rats are new. But the dancers of the Joffrey Ballet who form the emotional core of choreographer Christopher Wheeldon's revisionist explorati…
Through political turmoil, social unrest and roller-coaster economic developments, one thing remains true: There's always a bull market for alternative facts. Fakery-as-commodity in many hue…
On tap through Friday at Hamlin Park, "In the Presence of Chasms" presents five dance tidbits by choreographers Megan Rhyme and Tanniqua-Kay Buchanan. Producer Rhyme's original spark for the…
When he was drunk, or high from Valium or, occasionally, speed, the legendary improv guru Del Close had a habit of firing entire Second City casts. In the mid-1970s, it was not uncommon for …
The name of Donald Trump is never spoken in playwright Beau Willimon's "The Parisian Woman," a stunningly smug, utterly incredible and wholly inept political satire of the sexual mores of th…
The board of trustees of Writers Theatre in Glencoe said in a statement Thursday afternoon that it had completed its inquiry into the allegations of sexual harassment made earlier this month…
The Goodman Theatre has announced the cast for "Blind Date," an upcoming new play by Rogelio Martinez, directed by Goodman artistic director Robert Falls. "Blind Date" is about Ronald Reagan…
"Burning Bluebeard," that most unlikely and critically acclaimed holiday show, is back again this winter for a short run of six performances, The Neo-Futurists and The Ruffians announced Thu…
Israel Horovitz, the longtime playwright-director who helmed the 2014 film "My Old Lady," has been accused of sexual misconduct by nine women. The women came forward in a report in the New Y…
The next block of tickets for "Hamilton" in Chicago go on sale 10 a.m. Tuesday, Dec. 5, the show announced Thursday. Tickets will be available for performances through Sept. 2, 2018. This is…
A lot of large entertainments arrive in downtown Chicago next week as the Loop stocks up for the peak theater-going season. You'll know most of them. "Wicked"? Witches, defying gravity and d…
If you're Steve Martin " you know, that off-kilter, one-man cultural conglomerate " and you walk into some Los Angeles house party, you must quickly find yourself surrounded by tediously cha…
Chicago Dramatists has announced two new leaders: Vanessa Bamber as managing director and Dana Lynn Formby as interim artistic director. Formby, who has been a resident playwright at Chicago…
Friday | "Pine": Heaters and blankets will be provided at this outdoor performance of a comedy about seasonal workers selling Christmas trees. Through Dec. 10 at Uncommon Ground, 1401 W. Dev…
A quartet of Scrooges bowed together on the stage of the Goodman Theatre on Monday, part of the theater's opening-night celebration of 40 years of "A Christmas Carol," which the Goodman like…
A rock apologia for she of the 40 whacks, "Lizzie" is the first production from Chicago's new Firebrand Theatre, which declares itself to be "the world's first and foremost feminist musical …