Wednesday, January 31, 2024
Tuesday, January 30, 2024
In the grim drama “Flood," Mashuq Mushtaq Deen has written an environmentalist allegory with absurdist underpinnings.
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 02:24PMMonday, January 29, 2024
Aurora’s ever-growing Paramount Theatre has been granted the rights this fall to what’s likely to be a hot-selling musical.
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 12:27PMSunday, January 28, 2024
Brian D’Arcy James and Kelli O’Hara play the on-the-rocks couple in Craig Lucas and Adam Guettel’s potent musical.
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 10:00PMThree different singers play the welterweight boxer Emile Griffith in Lyric Opera’s visceral production of Terence Blanchard’s 2013 jazz opera.
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 01:35PMFriday, January 26, 2024
“I think it says something about our times,” she says about the play, “and the loneliness we all feel.”
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 06:30AMHe plans to stage his prior Chicago hit “I’m Not a Comedian ... I’m Lenny Bruce,” as directed by Joe Mantegna, and a new production of “Bill W. and Dr. Bob."
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 06:15AMThursday, January 25, 2024
Wednesday, January 24, 2024
Roche Schulfer, 72, plans to retire from his job as the Chicago theater's executive director, effective Aug. 31.
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 01:00PMPeck is best known as a dance choreographer but he wants "Illinoise," opening soon on Navy Pier, to be a theater piece. There is a narrative.
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 06:45AMMonday, January 22, 2024
“Cinderella” is a barnstormer of a title, but there is no fairy godmother or glass slipper in this emotionally potent “La Cenerentola.”
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 01:30PMThe theater will produce its 2024 season in the venue at the western end of Chicago’s North Center neighborhood.
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 06:00AMSunday, January 21, 2024
As the wife, Max decides to repair herself to her husband’s Southern Baptist seminary. “Why is this woman here?” you keep wondering.
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 03:20PMFriday, January 19, 2024
Thursday, January 11, 2024
The winter theater season is upon us. We have 10 Chicago-area shows opening between now and the end of March that look especially interesting.
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 06:45AMTuesday, January 9, 2024
The play is set partly in 2016 as the far-right candidate Marine Le Pen makes unnerving political inroads and partly in 1946, when many Jewish families had been obliterated.
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 10:00PMThey say they will begin picketing theaters Jan. 16 and will ask audiences not to cross the picket lines.
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 11:46AMWednesday, December 27, 2023
Here, in order of preference, are my top picks from New York's Great White Way on the first full year since the pandemic.
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 06:00AMMonday, December 25, 2023
They were the leads of big musicals ("Boop," "Tommy") or stars in other ways. Including an unprecedented top-10 double appearance.
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 06:00AMSaturday, December 23, 2023
“He was the godfather of the working Chicago actor,” said Barbara Gaines, former artistic director of Chicago Shakespeare Theater.
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 01:20PMTuesday, December 19, 2023
Across the country during the pandemic, nonprofit theaters lost their audiences and were forced to cut staff. Not at the Goodman Theatre.
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 06:45AMMonday, December 18, 2023
Paulson is on fire all night long, torching not just anyone sharing Second Stage with her — including Elle Fanning — but half of the open-mouthed audience.
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 10:00PMWednesday, December 13, 2023
This was an especially fine year for musicals but over the last 12 months, I’ve also admired everything from revivals to daring new plays.
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 06:40AMTuesday, December 12, 2023
Now staged in its new theater on Lincoln Avenue, this holiday show based on the Jimmy Stewart movie has gathered an audience that would follow it anywhere.
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 12:50PMMonday, December 11, 2023
Mysteries and thrillers like this one are having a sudden, surprising renaissance in Chicago theater.
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 03:10PMSome eight years after its London bow, the “Harry Potter” stage play is coming to Chicago next September, and sticking around.
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 10:53AMSunday, December 10, 2023
This new musical focuses on a group of real, young, neurologically atypical persons in Columbus, Ohio, all preparing together for their prom.
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 09:30PMFriday, December 8, 2023
I admire the way director Danny Kapinos’ production is willing to trust the audience with this 1960s musical.
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 12:47PMThursday, December 7, 2023
The relatively unknown Jasmine Amy Rogers turns in an astonishing performance at the heart of “Boop! the Musical” in its pre-Broadway opening, directed by Jerry Mitchell.
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 08:37AMWednesday, December 6, 2023
Everything this longtime British magician does on stage is rooted in personal storytelling — there's an uncommon warmth and openness amid all the illusions and deception.
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 06:45AMTuesday, December 5, 2023
This is a contemporary folk tale inspired by the music and sounds of Scotland, earlier seen at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 06:00AMFriday, December 1, 2023
Playing a single woman visited by the ghost of Elvis, Brenda Barrie apparently has decided she is doing Eugene O’Neill and proceeds accordingly. She’s very funny, too.
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 06:30AMThursday, November 30, 2023
Few titles command the affection of “The Wiz,” and the show’s most fabulous songs, including “Ease On Down the Road,” have been sung now for close to 50 years.
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 01:04PMMonday, November 27, 2023
The impressive new two-theater complex will stage the upcoming “It’s a Wonderful Life: Live in Chicago!,” slated to open on Dec. 10.
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 01:32PMTuesday, November 21, 2023
Any fan of Jim Henson shouldn’t miss this truly splendid addition to the seasonal attractions on offer in Chicago’s Loop.
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 12:15PMMonday, November 20, 2023
Granted, Roald Dahl’s dark and complex stories from the 1960s are not easy to adapt into family musicals.
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 02:54PMFriday, November 17, 2023
What you are seeing here is the Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein “Cinderella,” retooled a bit for modern sensibilities.
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 02:21PMThursday, November 16, 2023
Yes, there's a digital set in this revival of Eric Idle's hilarious musical and much of the audience doesn't know the material. But 'tis but a scratch.
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 08:00PMWednesday, November 15, 2023
There’s no better time to get out and support Chicago theater than the festive season, when warm holiday performances abound.
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 06:45AM