Chicago's hospitable Windy City Playhouse on Irving Park Road was founded in 2015 on a populist ideal: Create an affordable, fully professional neighborhood theater, program it with comedy a…
As we spin our way into October, the nights come earlier and last longer, and things go bump in them. In the suburbs, on some nights, there can be heard the sounds of screaming. Mostly Thurs…
Funeral homes in Chicago, which are not much fun, are sometimes located right next to senior living facilities. Noting such a juxtaposition the other day, my son suggested that there would n…
"The Audience" âœâœâœ The longevity of the British monarchy " as manifest for the last 64 years in the personage of Queen Elizabeth II " is at the center of Peter Morgan's pla…
Friday "Ghosts & Zombies": Ibsen's drama meets the walking dead in Akvavit Theatre's latest. Through Oct. 29 at Strawdog Theatre, 1802 W. Berenice Ave.; chicagonordic.org "The Worst of All":…
The Lyric Opera's new partnership with the Joffrey Ballet of Chicago is, at its core, an acknowledgment that it is no longer viable for even a world-class institution like the Lyric to susta…
Last month's Emmy Awards may have represented a stride toward diversity for many artists of color. But as Patricia Garcia of Vogue (and many others) noted, "Where were the awards and nominat…
There is nothing more absurd in the world than familial battles to control the power of overwhelming love which one can see most especially in the brilliant work of CATHERINE COMBS, ANDRUS …
Ginger Reiter lost power in her house when Hurricane Irma visited her in Florida a couple of weeks ago, but that was nothing compared to what happened four decades ago when that human hurric…
Director Barbara Gaines' all-female Chicago Shakespeare Theater production of William Shakespeare's notorious comedy "The Taming of the Shrew" contains references to the Chicago Cubs, a McCo…
"The Cher Show" " a fully authorized, bluntly titled, biographically oriented, Broadway-bound musical celebrating the life, works and times of the iconoclastic cultural phenomenon with the A…
A few days ago, transgender actress Alexandra Billings told The Daily Beast that not only would the second episode of the fourth season of the Amazon comedy-drama series "Transparent" featur…
Elizabeth Gilbert's popular 2006 healing-heartbreak-through-travel memoir, "Eat, Pray, Love," earned backlash from those who saw it as a high-profile example of privileged Western women buyi…
"A New Brain," the musical by William Finn, is a show about a young composer who has been diagnosed with an arteriovenous malformation in his brain stem. Hospital beds, surgeries, drips and …
Links Hall, a well-known incubator and performance venue for dance and performance artists, spent its first 30 years in a raggedy old space above a Wrigleyville pub near the confluence of Cl…
Three dancers will join the Joffrey Ballet's international roster for the 2017-18 season, artistic director Ashley Wheater announced Tuesday. The new dancers include: Olivia Duryea from Hasl…
Chicago's next pre-Broadway tryout: "Pretty Woman: The Musical," a new show based on the 27-year-old Julia Roberts-and-Richard Gere romantic comedy about a Sunset Boulevard prostitute who fa…
If audiences turned out to the Auditorium Theatre over the weekend expecting to see an Olympic-style spectacle, they surely left disappointed. While Shen Wei, the MacArthur "genius"-award wi…
Start late. Kennedy jammed (on a Sunday at noon?), was stupid to take Kennedy. Exit North Avenue, semi-legally, then return to expressway. Exit Racine. Forgot Racine does does not cross trac…
The Marriott Theatre has announced the complete cast of "Newsies," the Disney musical based on the 1992 film inspired by the newsboys' strike of 1899. Patrick Rooney will star as Jack Kelly …
Michael George, a Columbia College graduate and Chicago-based actress, will join the cast of the Chicago production of "Hamilton," it was announced Monday. George will join the company as a …
The gentle art of drag " a warm and inclusive form of live entertainment that I've loved and consumed my whole life " is an art of precision. Drag queens are a diverse crew, of course, and t…
"A View From the Bridge" âœâœâœâœ There is nothing more absurd than allowing familial battles for control to overwhelm love " that's one profound message and the unavoidab…
It's been more than 10 years since the Chicago Human Rhythm Project, one of Chicago's top tap dance companies, last performed at the Dance Center of Columbia College. As the venue's 2017-18 …
"Follow a dancer," said Glenn Edgerton. I've done that before " once for 2,000 miles, but that's a story for another day. I've always found it to be good advice for life. Or merely for an ev…