James Sherman began his career as an actor; he joined the Second City in the 70s, while he was still a student at Illinois State, appearing in the shows Once […] The post Chagall’s Camel…
SOURCE: chicagoreader.com at 05:56PMJournalist, playwright, screenwriter, theater critic, arts editor, and novelist Adam Langer was born in Chicago, grew up in West Rogers Park, went to school in Evanston, and spent the early …
SOURCE: chicagoreader.com at 12:25PMWhen Chicago poet, sculptor, and musician Marvin Tate was in elementary school, he had a terrible stutter. To help him, his older sister gave him a poem to practice reading aloud. The poem w…
SOURCE: chicagoreader.com at 12:56PMThis is a great play for the summer—despite its title—because The Winter’s Tale is as much about the coming of spring as it is the dreary desolation of December. At least that is what …
SOURCE: chicagoreader.com at 12:08PMMy 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. …
SOURCE: chicagoreader.com at 10:15AMWriter and artist David Hauptschein has been working in Chicago since the 80s, curating live performances, writing plays, and working in visual arts, but his work has been produced more ofte…
SOURCE: chicagoreader.com at 10:56AMPuppets are cool, but they are also creepy. Very creepy. Even the cute ones, like Kermit the Frog or Ollie the Dragon. There is just something deeply unnerving about how puppets seem like au…
SOURCE: chicagoreader.com at 11:24AMJohn Michalski, onetime Chicago improv teacher and performer, never found great fame. But he embodied the art form at its purest. John Michalski died May 24. In …
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 06:54PMThe rapper-dancer-performance poet rolls with the pandemic punches. 2020 started off so well. January and February were great months for 27-year-old rapper, danc…
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 05:30PMRemembering the comedy theater’s humble beginnings and reflecting on its dramatic end How did you find out about iO closing?…
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 04:45PMA critic reflects on UCB's early history in Chicago. Last week the folks at the Upright Citizens Brigade (UCB) sent out a letter announcing they were permanently…
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 06:25PMA starry cast can't inject a lot of life into Dan Clancy's middlebrow story. Dan Clancy's four-person play about two couples living a middling life in a middle-c…
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 05:45PMThe 1987 Michael J. Fox film gets a toothless musical treatment. This musical version of the 1987 Michael J. Fox vehicle, receiving its world premiere at the Par…
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 07:50PMMercury Theater Chicago's revival of this murder mystery party game can't overcome the dated material. Adapted by Marilyn Abrams and Bruce Jordan from the origin…
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 06:00PMIt's Gershwin for the win in Drury Lane's production. You don't have to know the classic 1951 movie musical to be disappointed by this 2015 stage version, but it…
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 07:20PMAudrey Cefaly's story of a photographer and an agoraphobe goes far beyond Madison County. Audrey Cefaly's new play, receiving its world premiere at 16th Street T…
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 07:10PMRoger Bean's jukebox musical has pleasant songs, but no point to its journey. There is no story in Roger Bean's jukebox musical, nor are there any characters, on…
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 08:00PMSteven Dietz's family drama doesn't give us enough reasons to care. Steven Dietz's family drama lacks high stakes. Nothing is as it seems to be in How a Boy Fall…
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 07:25PMScott Weinstein's staging is far more knock-out than knockoff. It is hard not to have low expectations for yet another revival of Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey's 1…
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 06:00PMHer new monthly showcase at Duke of Perth creates a community for newbies and vets alike. Gina DeLuca is a 32-year-old Chicago-based writer and live lit performe…
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 01:30PMBulgarian playwright Zachary Karabashliev's ddrama shows promise, but falters. Bulgarian playwright Zachary Karabashliev's 2008 play, about two entwined dysfunct…
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 12:45PMThe Guatemalan immigrant shares his own perspectives on failure and finding his voice. Nestor Gomez, "creator, producer, curator, and host" of the immigrant-focu…
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 06:55PMSome familiar cast-offs get a chance to show off their reality-competition chops in this new musical. America's Best Outcast Toy, by Larry Todd Cousineau (book a…
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 06:20PMMaya Malan-Gonzalez's contemporary Latinx take on A Christmas Carol shows promise despite production difficulties. In retelling Charles Dickens's perennial holid…
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 01:30PMA young girl must save Christmas in this new family musical. This original Christmas show (story by Larry Little, music by Dylan MarcAurele, book and lyrics by J…
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 07:01PMThe Dickensian melodrama-turned-musical features an outstanding ensemble. Lionel Bart's musical adaptation of Charles Dickens's 1839 novel Oliver Twist first pre…
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 06:55PMNew American Folk Theatre's world premiere needs stronger characters and a more compelling story to match the music. The story Anthony Whitaker tells in his 90-m…
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 07:00AMOak 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…
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 07:00AMHe 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…
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 07:00AMRonnie 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…
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 07:00AMA real-life Jewish "catcher" for the Gestapo never takes compelling shape in this Agency Theater Collective production. Nicknamed "blond poison" by the Nazis (he…
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 07:00AM