By Michael Workman Victoria Bradford choreographs a new dance, video records it, distributes it over social media, and produces a movement notation record and image archive of it…ev…
RECOMMENDED Public safety announcement: baritones are endangered! Or maybe you, yourself, are a baritone and already knew that baritones have been relegated to revival shows as their cont…
RECOMMENDED Bruce Norris’ “Domesticated,” now playing at Steppenwolf, paints a grim future for the battle of the sexes, one void of any reconciliation beyond disdainful …
Top 5 Dramas of 2015 "Moby Dick," Lookingglass Theatre Company "Marjorie Prime," Writers Theatre "Brilliant Adventures," Steep Theatre Company "How The World Began," Rivendell Theatre…
What do you get when you combine a washed up Finnish wedding band, a missing Karelian hot pot and an idiot with a fire arm? A hostage situation! Ok, ok, that’s not a joke. Actually,…
As part of Links Hall’s Midwest Nexus Touring Initiative, the upcoming "Ring Sour" performance brings San Francisco touring company Blind Tiger Society to Chicago to perform in a doubl…
RECOMMENDED Showcasing the talents of musicians and dancers from Tokyo, San Francisco and Chicago, this annual festival takes a long view of improvisational dance, as paired with traditional…
RECOMMENDED For the last several years, Molly Shanahan has put movement under a microscope and chipped away at cellular-level tensions that steel the performer against having a truly authent…
By Michael Workman Movement, visual and performance artist Sofia Moreno, long under-recognized in Chicago, sat down with us recently to discuss her exhibit "Tropical Winter" at David Weinber…
"Is this some new genre?" whispered my companion about David Ives' verse adaptation of Jean-François Regnard's eighteenth-century farce, "Le Légataire universel." Perhaps Pomo Eroticism …
RECOMMENDED As the latest torrents of terrorism shatter our souls with their senseless deaths and enhanced suspicions, Lyric Opera of Chicago's world-premiere production of "Bel Canto" could…
RECOMMENDED When was the last time you familiarized yourself with the story of Robin Hood? Perhaps you’ve seen Disney’s foxy 1973 version or swooned over Kevin Costner in “…
RECOMMENDED Visually austere, acoustically clean, aromatically alive, the Lincoln Park Conservatory makes a fine setting for Shakespeare's most sensuous and musical of comedies. When the lov…
RECOMMENDED I must preface this review by noting that the type of comedy you enjoy is a matter of preference. With that said, The Second City's "Holidazed and Confused Revue" is not for e…
RECOMMENDED ‘Tis the season for tradition and “A Q Brothers’ Christmas Carol,” now in its third year at Chicago Shakespeare Theater, is easily on its way to becomi…
RECOMMENDED "The Lion King" is undeniably magical. As the show begins, Rafiki"the baboon shaman"sings the first lines of "The Circle of Life" while a host of actors in brilliantly designed a…
RECOMMENDED Written almost ninety years ago, Nöel Coward's comedy "Private Lives" explores the undiscovered country of couplehood where the heat of love can sometimes burn with hate. The pl…
RECOMMENDED What do the songs "The Loco-Motion," "Take Good Care of My Baby," and "It's Too Late" all have in common? Aside from being number one hits, they were all penned by Grammy Award-w…
RECOMMENDED The show opener of Hubbard Street’s impressive Winter program is “Solo Echo,” a crossover concept from Crystal Pite, who has metabolized a meditation o…
RECOMMENDED Simultaneously charming and edgy, snobby and subversive, frivolous and thought-provoking, Noel Coward's "Fallen Angels" is a delightful feast of contradictions. Coward's satirica…
RECOMMENDED It’s December and you can’t throw a dreidel without hitting a holiday show in Chicago. If you’re a Grinch or are already sick of the Christmas music that’…
RECOMMENDED By the time the titular déjà vu kicks in during the second act of this fast-paced revue (Second City's 104th on the mainstage), the audience is already so heavily invested in…
By Sharon Hoyer Ashley Wheater sat down with me in his office in the Joffrey Tower shortly before the company hit the road to take Robert Joffrey's "Nutcracker" to the Kennedy Center. Forty-…
With a schedule that includes curated fundraising events in New York, San Francisco and, for two consecutive years, Chicago, the Flow Show presented a fun, kid-friendly burlesque show. That&…
Now in its fifth season, this newest iteration of Brenna Pierson-Tucker and Christopher Tucker’s Esoteric Dance Project, with its half decade of extemporaneous choreography, provide…