2,444 stories from chicagoreader.com
Jake Heggie's opera took nearly 20 years to make the journey to Lyric, but it's not to be missed.
It took nearly 20 years for composer Jake Heggie and librettist…
1938 Italy provides the fascist framework for this Invictus staging.
With anti-Semitism on the rise in the U.S. and Europe, it might make perfect sense to revisi…
Shpiel Performing Identity produces this eight-day event as part of the Alliance for Jewish Theatre Conference.
The attack on Pittsburgh's Tree of Life Synagogue…
A new musical about mental illness provided its creators a chance to confront their own struggles.
Mental illness as woman: It's a trope that keeps on giving. Fr…
A musical based on the true-life "Slender Man" attack raises more questions than it answers.
Last week, Payton Leutner, the victim in the Wisconsin "Slender Man"…
Sid Feldman's adaptation has relevance on its side, but not brevity.
Wm. Bullion directs Sid Feldman's update of a 1970 Dario Fo comedy about a chameleon-like ch…
The first in a trilogy, Donja R. Jones's play tugs the heartstrings at First Floor Theater.
I try not to show any emotion when I attend plays as a critic and not…
Prop Thtr's devised ensemble piece is a timely reminder of the importance of remembering the past.
Anna Gelman directs the world premiere of I Am Going to Die Al…
Ronnie Marmo's one-man show isn't hilarious, but it's arrestingly honest.
In the painfully honest spirit of Lenny Bruce, let's begin with a couple of blunt obser…
American Sign Language adds a cunning layer of commentary to Red Theater Chicago's dark romantic fable.
Jeremy wants a girlfriend more than anything, but can't g…
The choreographer's duets about changing partners takes over the Art Institute's Trading Room.
On the northeasternmost edge of the Art Institute of Chicago, wher…
A new immersive show (with dialogue!) from Silent Theatre Company becomes an astonishing experience.
Concentrate on the cookies. Practice your song.…
He never got the big breaks, but the 1990s improv and solo stalwart has figured some things out.
Jimmy Carrane first made a name for himself 28 years ago when he…
Oak Park Festival Theatre's production promenades through the Cheney Mansion.
Staged in various rooms throughout Oak Park's Cheney Mansion, David Rice's clever a…
Sturdy performances can't hide the faulty premise underlying David Alex's new play.
N at the Greenhouse Theater is based on a faulty premise: that a white actor …
The table is set this month with theater world premieres, dance works in progress, and comedy with cured meat.
NOVEMBER THEATER PICKS (Kerry Reid) Laura and the …
Part hangout, part celebration, part theater of the mind, live podcast recordings are a performance medium all their own.
Sometime next month, Action Boyz podca…
Jonathan Foiles's new book explores how systematic forces contribute to mental health issues in Chicago.
Social worker Jonathan Foiles has written about Chicago'…
Strawdog's production leaves a mark in this Chicago premiere.
In Nick Hornby's High Fidelity, Rob Fleming asks, "What came first"the music or the misery? Do all …
Leah Nanako Winkler's raucous and poignant family drama gets a stellar local premiere with the Gift Theatre.
The homecoming prompted by weddings and funerals is …
A great star turn can't quite overcome the limitations of Andrew Lloyd Webber's 1993 musical.
In a city whose theater scene is rooted in an "ensemble" aesthetic,…
Khecari's new duet debuts at Links Hall.
Two women begin with motion that is rapid and unrelenting, fearlessly yielding to momentum, whirring limbs about the axi…
Levi Holloway's horror show for A Red Orchid Theatre gives a feminist makeover to a familiar genre.
Onstage or -screen, the tropes of horror (teens in peril, dem…
A sven-tillating conversation with Chicago's legendary horror host, Rich Koz, on 40 years of Svengoolie, celebrity fans, and BERWYN!
Local television legend Ric…
Cathy Marston's staging features brilliant duets, but her take on Charlotte Brontë's classic has some limitations.
Among the great pleasures of 19th-century n…
