All stories by Lauren Warnecke on BroadwayStars

Tuesday, November 16, 2021

Holiday entertainment for 2021: Our Top 40 has all the shows and concerts, from ‘Nutcracker’ to Lil Nas X by Lauren Warnecke

Happy holidays! Live shows and events are back this year, and if you've missed celebrating — be it Scrooge or caroling at the Bean — we have a holiday list.

SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 08:00AM
Thursday, October 14, 2021

Review: With ‘Home,’ Joffrey Ballet dances at last in the Lyric Opera Opera by Lauren Warnecke

Joffrey’s Lyric debut runs the emotional gamut, with “Birthday Variations” as the sweet icing on top of the cake.

SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 01:33PM
Wednesday, October 6, 2021

Our Top 10 for Halloween, from Boo at the Zoo to the stuff of nightmares by Lauren Warnecke

Our list for October, including Halloween theater, family outings in the suburbs and a few in the category of truly horrifying.

SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 08:00AM
Wednesday, September 29, 2021

‘Moulin Rouge!’ national tour will launch in Chicago, starring Courtney Reed of Elgin by Lauren Warnecke

The musical, which recently won multiple Tonys in its Broadway production, will launch the tour next February at the Nederlander Theatre in the Loop, starring Connor Ryan as Christian and El…

SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 02:35PM
Wednesday, September 8, 2021

Top 10 for dance in Chicago for fall 2021: Harvest Fest, local gems and a not-to-miss ‘XENOS’ by Lauren Warnecke

Dance companies have been managing their return to live performances in fits and starts, this fall including Deeply Rooted, the Joffrey finally at the Lyric and fan favorites by Ensemble Esp…

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Tuesday, June 18, 2019

Calling all dance experimenters, improvisors, LGBTQ artists and those unafraid to fail — Poonie’s Cabaret is back by Lauren Warnecke

In the summer of 2002, I remember improvising with my Columbia College classmates at Links Hall. We were dressed in black jazz pants and white T-shirts — in hindsight, white T-shirts in Ju…

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Saturday, June 15, 2019

'Internal Geometry' by Natya Dance Theatre is hardly radical but has women telling the story by Lauren Warnecke

Perhaps I’ll start at the end. In the post-performance Q&A for “The Internal Geometry,” a world premiere by Natya Dance Theatre at Links Hall, artistic director Hema Rajagopalan sp…

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Sunday, June 9, 2019

Chicago Tap’s ambitious ‘Saving the World’ is a sassy step into politics by Lauren Warnecke

If Chicago Tap Theatre (CTT) is known for one thing outside the dance world, it’s probably their Pride-themed extravaganzas. Tap dancing, beloved LGBT arts organizations like the Chicago G…

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Friday, May 31, 2019

Concert Dance Inc. at Ravinia is exemplary dance, if an uneven production by Lauren Warnecke

Dance offerings at Ravinia are not nearly as robust as they used to be, but the festival’s long-standing kinship with Chicago legend Ruth Page and her legacy remains, 93 years after Page f…

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Stravinsky and Ravel shine in an otherwise clunky first-time collaboration between the Joffrey and CSO by Lauren Warnecke

This was no ordinary night at the CSO. The Chicago Symphony Orchestra has invited dancers to the stage at Orchestra Hall on a handful of occasions, but surprisingly, a collaborative concert …

SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 12:50PM
Thursday, May 23, 2019

'Stravinsky & Joffrey Ballet' will be a first-ever collaboration between the Joffrey and CSO by Lauren Warnecke

Choreographer Stephanie Martinez is a chameleon. She spent much of her performance career at River North Dance Chicago, and upon retirement began creating dances for contemporary and hip-hop…

SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 12:00PM
Saturday, May 18, 2019

Eifman Ballet's 'Pygmalion Effect' at the Auditorium turns 'My Fair Lady' myth into a baffling ballet with brilliant dancing by Lauren Warnecke

If, like me, your only knowledge of Eifman Ballet of St. Petersburg is the company’s 2017 trip to Chicago for “Red Giselle,” the North American premiere of artistic director Boris Eifm…

SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 02:35PM
Tuesday, May 14, 2019

Mordine & Co. — the reason we have modern dance in Chicago — celebrates its 50th birthday by Lauren Warnecke

“Considering this city’s black thumb when applied to grass roots dance companies, I feel a compulsion to fly some zeppelin blimp over the Dance Troupe’s home at 1725 N. Wells St.” Gi…

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Wednesday, May 1, 2019

For 'Sleeping Beauty,' a Chicago school puts on a full-length ballet, with teen dancers as the princess by Lauren Warnecke

In the summer of 2016, Alexei Kremnev and Anna Reznik formed A&A Ballet. The husband and wife team, originally from Russia, had just lost their positions as directors at the Joffrey Acad…

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Thursday, April 25, 2019

Joffrey Ballet's 'Across the Pond' is a mixed bag with magic, difficult moments by Lauren Warnecke

If you’ve ever watched the sun rise from the seat of a red-eye flight, then you have an idea of what Andrew McNicol’s “Yonder Blue” looks and feels like. “Yonder Blue” opens the …

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Friday, April 12, 2019

'Whipped Cream' at the Auditorium: This is ballet as sugar rush, with daffy furbies and dancing vodka — I fell for it by Lauren Warnecke

Once upon a time, a boy and his cronies go to celebrate their first holy communion at a candy shop in town. The boy gets a belly ache and falls ill, while the candy shop comes alive with mag…

SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 11:00AM
Tuesday, April 9, 2019

American Ballet Theatre returns to Chicago with 'Whipped Cream’: Expect candy, bobbleheads and 'imagination gone wild' by Lauren Warnecke

As word traveled that American Ballet Theatre (ABT) was making a new ballet based on Richard Strauss’ “Whipped Cream,” I think my reaction was similar to most everyone else: Wait, Stra…

SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 06:00AM
Saturday, April 6, 2019

'That was mega': A trio of dances from Israel in Gauthier's Chicago debut at the Harris by Lauren Warnecke

A timeline of Western dance history usually starts in France, with the royal courts of Louis XIV, the Sun King. Russia is a key stakeholder, credited with the classical aesthetic which broug…

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Saturday, March 30, 2019

Chicago Repertory Ballet's 'Macbeth' has only deepened — this is clearly no longer the 'undanceable Shakespeare' by Lauren Warnecke

Ordinarily, I wouldn’t call William Shakespeare’s “Macbeth” particularly timeless — important, obviously, but a bit of a relic. Modern adaptations of the 400-year-old play contextu…

SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 12:50PM
Tuesday, March 12, 2019

La Femme Dance is (just) for women with work about their African-diasporic heritage. And the stronger for it. by Lauren Warnecke

Dancer, choreographer and vocalist Jasmin Williams is moving. The 23-year-old Chicago native has lived in Los Angeles, New York and various places in Europe. Hyde Park is home, but she’s f…

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Thursday, March 7, 2019

Street dance, a mock lynching, a rousing curtain call: 'Lazarus' is Alvin Ailey Dance's way of looking back by Lauren Warnecke

The cornerstone of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater’s 60th anniversary season is “Lazarus,” the company’s first two-act work in its history, created by choreographer-in-residence R…

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Friday, March 1, 2019

An absolutely stunning 'Giselle' at the Harris: Plenty of dance companies remake the classics — none quite like this by Lauren Warnecke

When “Giselle” premiered in Paris in 1841, it was an immediate success, part of a trend revitalizing ballet for everyday socialites by abandoning the Greek legends preferred by the Frenc…

SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 11:45AM
Thursday, February 28, 2019

A forward-looking hip-hop ballet — just the thing to celebrate Alvin Ailey Dance's 50th in Chicago by Lauren Warnecke

The first time Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater performed at the Auditorium Theatre was Feb. 11, 1969. “Mr. Ailey is right up with the times,” wrote Tribune critic Thomas Willis of the…

SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 08:00AM
Tuesday, February 19, 2019

English National Ballet’s transformed 'Giselle' is crossing the pond for a timely U.S. exclusive at the Harris by Lauren Warnecke

Few productions at the Harris Theater have been more highly anticipated than the North American premiere of English National Ballet’s “Giselle.” Running Feb. 28-Mar. 2, the tour of thi…

SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 10:40AM
Friday, February 15, 2019

Girl power message comes in more loud than clear with Ananya at the Dance Center by Lauren Warnecke

Sometimes, a dance can be greater than the sum of its parts. I came away from “Shyamali: Sprouting Words” – through Saturday at the Dance Center by Minneapolis-based Ananya Dance Theat…

SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 09:30AM
Thursday, February 14, 2019

With ‘Anna Karenina,’ Joffrey unveils a modern classic at the Auditorium by Lauren Warnecke

As the overture to composer Ilya Demutsky’s glorious score swelled under the baton of Maestro Scott Speck on Wednesday, haze filled the house of the Auditorium Theatre and billowed across …

SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 10:15AM
Tuesday, February 5, 2019

Dame Libby Komaiko, fearless founder of Ensemble Espanol in Chicago, dies at 69 by Lauren Warnecke

Dame Libby Komaiko, the founding artistic director of Ensemble Espanol Spanish Dance Theater, died Saturday at Chicago’s Illinois Masonic Hospital of pneumonia, according to Ensemble Espan…

SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 01:00PM
Sunday, February 3, 2019

Move over, Michael Flatley: Trinity Irish Dance packs the house at the Auditorium in Chicago by Lauren Warnecke

For the company’s first full evening at home in a decade, the Trinity Irish Dance Company commanded the Auditorium Theatre’s big, beautiful stage on Saturday. The engagement is the secon…

SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 01:00PM
Friday, January 25, 2019

Joffrey has created a rare, new story ballet 'Anna Karenina,' a 'dream come true' for dancer Victoria Jaiani by Lauren Warnecke

It was in 2013, with the addition of Stanton Welch’s “La Bayadere” and Lar Lubovitch’s “Othello” to the repertoire of the Joffrey Ballet, that I began to notice a concerted effor…

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Saturday, January 12, 2019

In Harris Theater debut, Ragamala Dance shows the metaphor and mythology in a board game — and is pure fun to watch by Lauren Warnecke

Founded in 1992, the Twin Cities-based Ragamala Dance Company made its Harris Theater debut Friday with the company’s 25th anniversary performance “Written in Water.” The hour-long wor…

SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 01:30PM
Friday, January 11, 2019

RE | Dance at Hamlin Park: There's puffy white clouds but also a wall as 10th anniversary show goes political by Lauren Warnecke

When going to a RE | Dance Group show, there are a couple things you can usually count on: 1) unapologetically long passages of pretty dancing; 2) poetry woven into the fabric of the dance w…

SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 11:00AM

All that Chat

2023-2024 BROADWAY SEASON
May 30, 2023: Grey House - Lyceum Theatre
Jun 26, 2023: Just For Us - Hudson Theatre
Jul 24, 2023: The Cottage - Hayes Theater
Nov 16, 2023: Spamalot - St. James Theatre
Dec 18, 2023: Appropriate - Hayes Theater
Mar 07, 2024: Doubt - Todd Haimes Theatre
Apr 14, 2024: Lempicka - Longacre Theatre
Apr 17, 2024: The Wiz - Marquis Theatre
Apr 18, 2024: Suffs - Music Box Theatre
Apr 25, 2024: Mother Play - Hayes Theater
Jun 10, 2024: The Drama Desk Awards