God is in "Carousel." So is human love and sexual desire, but let's leave that aside for a moment. In 1945, Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II created the greatest musical ever written…
Tribune photographer Chris Sweda went behind the scenes at the new, feminist-focused Firebrand Theatre Company as they created their new musical production of "9 to 5 the Musical." The Dolly…
Friday "33 to Nothing": Grant Varjas' drama about keeping the band together, set during a band practice, opens at A Red Orchid. Through May 27 at A Red Orchid Theatre, 1531 N. Wells St.; 312…
Martin Scorsese will direct a Netflix original comedy special about the legacy of the Emmy-winning sketch comedy show "SCTV" (Second City TV), Netflix announced Thursday. The reunion special…
When the Glasgow-born filmmaker Lynne Ramsay adapts a novel, she does what any responsive writer-director must. She listens to what speaks to her, personally, in the material, and creates co…
Chicago stage veterans Carrie Coon and Tracy Letts recently welcomed their first child, Rolling Stone reports. Coon, who lives in Wicker Park with Letts, told the magazine that she rushed to…
In its marketing materials, director Kenny Leon's complicated new Broadway revival of "Children of a Lesser God," which opened Wednesday night at Studio 54, justly describes itself as "the m…
Harmony France, the artistic director of the feisty Firebrand Theatre, is a fountain of fabulous ideas. Her latest? Take the flop Broadway show known as "9 to 5 the Musical" and stage it in …
The Chicago-based John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, in partnership with the Prince Charitable Trusts and the Richard H. Driehaus Foundation, will invest $24.3 million over the n…
Lookingglass Theatre Company welcomed more than 400 guests to its 30th anniversary "gglassquerade" celebration March 24 at the Four Seasons Chicago. Themed "Under the Seas: Reflecting on 30 …
Elaine May " the iconic actress, comedian, writer and director who first emerged in Chicago in the 1950s alongside her partner Mike Nichols " is to return to Broadway next season. May, 85, w…
A former Tribune colleague of mine sent me a note with a question this week. He'd been with his wife to see the Steep Theatre production of Simon Stephens' "Birdland," a fantastic show that …
Chicago playwright Evan Linder's "Byhalia, Mississippi" will be part of the Kennedy Center's upcoming season, it was announced Tuesday. Linder's drama, about a young Southern couple navigati…
On a cold, bright afternoon, just a few blocks from the United Center, a group of actors gather in the sunroom of an unassuming brick building. Aside from the occasional question, or sniffle…
One of the many questions answered on the Zanies website FAQ page is whether any of the locations host an open-mic night. Though there is some information about a showcase at the Rosemont lo…
Andy Cohen and Anderson Cooper almost went on a date in the '90s, before either of them was very famous. In their first phone conversation, Cohen made the historic mistake of asking Cooper a…
Over the years, Second City has thrown some material into its revues that is just not funny at all. I've always loved the awkward silence that then descends on the room " the way the party-m…
"Sometimes I feel like an iPhone without a case," muses one of the teens in the new Broadway musical "Mean Girls," written by Tina Fey and set among the cliques and geeks of what now is a ca…
Five songs into musical comedy legend "Weird Al" Yankovic's second sold-out night at the Vic for his "Ridiculously Self-Indulgent, Ill-Advised Vanity Tour," I scanned the crowd and caught a …
They're nocturnal creatures. Their natural habitat is posh hotels " although, like me, you might have glimpsed the odd one preening through a casino or scurrying in their sunglasses through …
In 1955, a 14-year-old African-American boy was kidnapped and murdered in Mississippi. His name was Emmett Till. Till's mother insisted on a glass topped casket for his funeral. The story is…
Does intelligence make a white person any less inherently racist? How about a white neurologist who actually does research into his own racism? Those questions " which are interesting ones t…
Taking a cue from the hit musical "Hamilton," the Chicago Cubs are offering the team's first-ever lottery for the upcoming baseball season at Wrigley Field: 60 seats in the terrace reserved …
Friday "Gaslight District": The Second City e.t.c.'s 42nd revue takes on everything from aliens to the alienated. Open run at Second City, 1608 N. Wells St.; 312-337-3992 and www.secondcity.…
Pride Films and Plays will produce five shows in its 2018-19 season, all dealing with chosen families, the company announced Thursday. Kicking off the season will be Jordan Seavey's "Homos, …