2,444 stories from chicagoreader.com
There are a lot of substantive and weighty criticisms to be levied at the RuPaul's Drag Race franchise and its global juggernaut influence over drag culture. Then there are petty ones, like …
The four years that young adults spend in high school are widely recognized as some of the most formative (and cringeworthy) years of their lives. It's a space where they come face to face w…
Back in 2014, Theater Wit presented Madeleine George's acerbic but aching comedy, Seven Homeless Mammoths Wander New England, in which the denizens of a small New England college town wrestl…
The central characters of Redtwist Theatre's current production are a conservative male government leader determined to impose his laws on everyone around him and a radical young woman passi…
Maybe it's a sign of our times that musicals about the aftermath of loss and grief have become so prominent in 21st-century life, from Next to Normal to Dear Evan Hansen. But while both thos…
Legendary artist and writer (and onetime Chicago mayoral candidate) Cynthia Plaster Caster passed away in April after a lengthy illness, but Gossip Wolf isn't done mourning. Future generatio…
In the category of things that I didn't see coming . . . My preliminary favorite for this year's biggest "do as I say, not as I do" hypocrite is Elon Musk. Yes, the world's richest man and s…
Neurosis have spent more than three decades redefining what heavy metal is and what it can be. They're a multifaceted beast, moving in many directions depending on where their creative force…
Police and security are meant to keep concertgoers safe, but what happens when they do more harm than good? In summer 2020, as America reckoned with a sickness in its system of law enforceme…
I can't imagine summer in Chicago without the Chosen Few Picnic & Festival, and that's not just because this grassroots house-music gathering is celebrating its 30th annual installment (…
Baz Luhrmann's Elvis is a maximalist dream.
The post Elvis appeared first on Chicago Reader.
In her debut documentary writer-director Rebeca Huntt examines the details of her Afro Latina heritage to provocative effect.
The post Beba appeared first on Chicago Reader.
Last Saturday night at the House of Wah Sun in North Center, Mark Chiang lingered at the table of a few of the night's last customers. His wife, Young Ja Kim, had already wheeled over the eg…
Since 2018, the Chicago Soul Jazz Collective has made waves in town by resurrecting the stylish grooves of the postbop era, which began in the late 1950s"nationally, the sound was shaped by …
This is the first time we've done a summer theater and arts issue, and judging by the full-to-bursting content, that's surprising"especially given how much Chicagoans love getting outdoors i…
Here's some events and activities to close out the month of June and start the summer right. FRI 6/24 Today the Chicago Park District cut the ribbon and officially opened the newly renovated…
In February, teenage Chicago indie rockers Dwaal Troupe contributed a tender, dusty tune called "Everyone Forgot but You" to Porcelain Songs, a 30-track compilation made by fans of enigmatic…
"My dear boy, why don't you try acting?" Laurence Olivier's quippy response to Dustin Hoffman's story of how he stayed up three nights to fully inhabit the sleepless state of his character i…
Siah Berlatsky just graduated this month from ChiArts, but though she's taking a gap year before college, the 18-year-old playwright-director-actor isn't letting the grass grow under her fee…
Every piece of art has a timeliness. When it is born and put into the world, it becomes part of its identity for better or worse. For Godspell, that time has come and gone. First staged in 1…
On giving thought to the cultural forces that may have shaped "preferences"
The post Pride, prejudice, and the 'bamboo cage' appeared first on Chicago Reader.
The Chicago premiere of British playwright Chris Woodley's Tommy on Top, now playing at Pride Arts Center, is a witty farce that elevates crucial questions about representation and authentic…
On the wall of the big-box retail warehouse that forms the setting for Eboni Booth's Paris, now in a midwest premiere at Steep Theatre under Jonathan Berry's direction, there's a sign readin…
We all remember where we were when we saw Cruel Intentions. Its iconic soundtrack (anyone else melt to Counting Crows' "Colorblind"?) and "shameless perversity" (thank you, Buzzfeed, for thi…
My daughter tells me she likes the 1989 movie version of Steel Magnolias because you can have it running in the background while you do other things, and still more or less follow the plot. …
