2,444 stories from chicagoreader.com
Black Ensemble Theater's latest bio-musical tells the stories of two great jazz divas.
Lena Horne and Nancy Wilson were two iconic voices, separated by a generat…
Middle schooler Molly Pinta and her mother, Carolyn, have organized the northwest suburb's first pride parade and festival.
Buffalo Grove's inaugural LGBTQ pride…
The annual expo celebrates marginalized voices and individual visions.
Among the many joys of June in Chicago is CAKE, the Chicago Alternative Comics Expo. This …
"Does anyone ever enter a bookstore just to purchase a book?"
When I stepped off the Loyola el station in the summer of 1992, it was oh so very hot. It was my fi…
We asked you (via Twitter) whose lists you wanted to see. And then we asked them.
Fatimah Asghar (poet and filmmaker): Pet by Akwaeke Emezi, Odes to Lithium by S…
Sandra Delgado's immersive musical about a legendary 1960s Latinx nightclub is as heartfelt as ever.
La Havana Madrid, Sandra Delgado's award-winning immersive m…
We waited 108 years for this?
If you love the Cubs and don't see many musicals, then Miracle is the show for you. Like watching a mediocre baseball game, it's pr…
It's a rock musical about suffering from bipolar disorder and getting electroshock treatment.
This award-winning 2008 musical by Brian Yorkey (book and lyrics) a…
It commits the great satirical sin of punching down.
Remember High School Musical? Cool, cool, here's what would happen if someone fused the squickiest parts of …
But at least "Exit, pursued by a bear" finally makes sense.
Now still being the winter of our discontent, it feels unwarranted for the Goodman Theatre to run its…
How and why do you go on making art in the face of indifference?
Theater Oobleck presents the world premiere of Mickle Maher's latest hilarious tragedy. In the b…
We can't worry about odd couple roommates until we know how much danger they're in.
Below the Belt, written by Richard Dresser and presented by Hundo4u Productio…
It should be a trainwreck, but it's not, just so long as you put your intellect on hold.
A stranger walks up to you. They know your name, where you've been, wher…
Why do people always turn into sneering jackasses during dinner parties in plays?
A group of politically engaged Chicago north siders gets together for a casual …
Hey! Ho! Don't go!
John Ross Bowie's 90-minute drama purports to be about the creation of the Ramones' album End of the Century, but it's actually about a quarte…
This is the fourth adaptation this year, if you're still keeping track.
"It was on a dreary night in November," intones teenage Mary Shelley, thrusting a candela…
A career retrospective at the National Museum of Mexican Art shows an artist dealing with the complexities of her identity.
In 1996, the self-taught photographer…
The men may kick and scream, but it's the women who lead.
Whether Augie March turns out to be the hero of his own play, or whether that station is held by the en…
Eifman Ballet views the transformation through the lens of dance.
Eifman Ballet returns to the Auditorium May 17-19 for the North American premiere of artistic d…
There's not enough room in this scattershot world for ideas to deepen.
Eugène Ionesco's Killing Game, first produced in 1970, will always be relevant"which para…
The nostalgic tones don't resonate quite as fully with the modern music scene as they could.
In his 2004 New York Times essay "The Rap Against Rockism," Kelefa S…
'I tried to describe, with visceral specificity, what psychosis is like, and what pre-psychosis is like.'
It took eight years after she first began having halluc…
While it's clearly a labor of love, the proliferation of hooks and lack of commitment make for a underbaked confection.
If I've learned anything from The Great B…
Thankfully, the plot and performances become more compelling halfway through.
Ross Compton's world premiere one-act dramedy ends as a wholly different play than …
If you've ever been to a 12 Step meeting, this will feel familiar.
After undergrad, I spent a dreary year in social work. I was terrible at it for a number of re…
