Tuesday, June 18, 2019
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…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 06:00AMMonday, June 17, 2019
The play’s the thing wherein to catch the conscience of the queen in Timothy Findley’s 2001 drama “Elizabeth Rex,” now in an al fresco staging with Oak Park Festival Theatre. Fitting…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 04:15PMIn its best moments, Steven Levenson’s “If I Forget” is like a Jewish “August: Osage County,” a relatable familial potboiler that simmers with religious, generational, marital and …
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 03:20PMBabes With Blades announced its 22nd anniversary season, titled “Take Control. Take Action. Make History,” reflecting women taking ownership of their environments and the ways in which t…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 11:30AM“Alright, come on,” comedian Hannah Gadsby said to the uproarious applause that greeted her when she walked abruptly out onto the stage of the Chicago Theatre Sunday night, eschewing an …
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 10:55AMSunday “Ada and the Engine”: During the start of the Industrial Revolution, Ada sees the unlimited potential in Charles Babbage’s invention of the first mechanical computer. This play …
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 10:50AMSaturday, June 15, 2019
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…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 12:15PMFriday, June 14, 2019
On Thursday, AshtonRep announced its production lineup presented at its new artistic home, The Edge Theater in Edgewater. The season opener will be “Equus” by Peter Shaffer (Sept. 27-Oct…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 11:30AMA Red Orchid announced its 2019-20 lineup including two Chicago premieres and one world premiere. The 27th season begins with the world premiere of Levi Holloway’s “Grey House” (Oct. 1…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 10:00AMThursday, June 13, 2019
On Wednesday, Theo Ubique announced its 2019-20 season lineup for the company’s second year in new artistic home. Things kick off with the fall production of Michael John LaChiusa’s “H…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 01:00PMFRIDAY “If I Forget”: Before Sept. 11, three siblings clash when reunited to celebrate their father’s 75th birthday. Will they negotiate how much of their past, family secrets, and lon…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 06:00AMWednesday, June 12, 2019
“Lifetime achievement,” said the writer Terrence McNally at the Tony Awards last weekend. “Not a moment too soon.” That dry opening joke by the 80-year-old author of such dramatic ma…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 02:25PMTuesday, June 11, 2019
The Den Theatre — the hip, multi-stage venue on Milwaukee Avenue in Wicker Park — has been one of the great success stories of the last decade in Chicago theater. For the past generation…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 04:00PMOn Tuesday, Interrobang Theatre Project announced its production lineup for its 10th season, titled “No Man’s Land,” exploring the fear and anxiety that accompany journeys into the unk…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 03:00PMBarbara E. Robertson has graced pretty much every major theater in Chicago: Goodman, Steppenwolf, you name ‘em. She played for a while in “Wicked,” too. But her performance in Firebran…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 01:30PMForget the fiery passions and howling heartbreaks of youth. If you want to stare into the real abyss of human rage, loss and despair, try figuring out how to take care of the people who rais…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 10:50AMSunday, June 9, 2019
"Hadestown," a stylized, bluesy, steampunk-influenced Anais Mitchell musical based on the "Orpheus and Eurydice" myth and set partly in the underworld, beat out its more traditional rival "T…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 11:30PMIf 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…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 11:00AMFriday, June 7, 2019
On Thursday, Writers Theatre announced casting for its previously introduced 2019-2020 season, which includes Stephen Sondheim’s and James Lapine’s “Into the Woods,” Henrik Ibsen’s…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 02:40PMTV talk show host James Corden steps back into the role of Tony Award host Sunday, not planning anything too political and not worried about any online snark. "I hope people will find joy in…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 01:10PMThursday, June 6, 2019
Most theatergoers have a mental image of what Shakespeare looks, sounds and feels like: puffy shorts, British dialect, almost falling asleep in a hundred-dollar balcony seat. There’s not m…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 11:45AMBack before Tinder and OKCupid, making a suitable match — for single men in possession of a good fortune and the single women depending upon finding them — was a fraught proposition. One…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 06:00AMFRIDAY "Sweet Texas Reckoning": Kate comes home to Texas with her African American wife. Artemisia Theatre at the Den Theatre, 1333 N. Milwaukee Ave.; www. artemisiatheatre.org SATURDAY "Get…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 06:00AMWednesday, June 5, 2019
A million dollars for the new TimeLine Theatre in Chicago’s Uptown neighborhood; $2 million for the South Side Community Arts Center; $850,000 for the Puerto Rican Arts Alliance; $927,500 …
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 02:03PMKenneth Lin — a writer for "House of Cards" among other TV shows — has written a really lovely little play, all about people who have risen in life on the back of their affinity for numb…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 12:20PMChicago Shakespeare Theater has never moved a show to Broadway. Might that change with “Six,” its big hit this summer? If the theater keeps its head on its shoulders. (I’m here all wee…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 06:00AMTuesday, June 4, 2019
Walk into “Ms. Blakk for President,” the new Steppenwolf Theatre show from Tarell Alvin McCraney and Tina Landau about the remarkable political odyssey of Terence Smith, one of the found…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 02:30PMOn Monday, Trap Door Theatre received a special citation at the Non-Equity Jeff Awards, recognizing the company’s “endeavors in opening a magical door to an evocative and surreal world o…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 01:00PMGiven the state of the world, who wouldn’t want to be abducted? I mean, it would at least be nice to keep that option in one’s back pocket: When our streets fill with water and our plane…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 12:00PMMonday, June 3, 2019
The Theo Ubique Cabaret Theatre, a recent transplant to Evanston and a longtime favorite of the Joseph Jefferson Awards Committee, shared top honors at the 2019 Non-Equity Jeffs with The Art…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 11:00PMA political soothsayer and savant, the English playwright and novelist W. Somerset Maugham despised the hypocrisy of war. And as early as 1933, from his home in southern France, Maugham coul…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 03:25PM