4,886 stories by "Chris Jones"
What does it take to tell a genuinely scary ghost story in the live theater setting, where the challenges are far greater than at the tech-heavy multiplex but the rewards can be far more hum…
On Tuesday night, Dolly Parton, a proud daughter of Sevier County, Tenn., who understands her own privilege, held a telethon that raised $9 million for the hundreds of struggling families af…
If the wisdom of age helps you reconcile with an abandoned love " or merely meet up again with a long-lost friend or family member " after many years of estrangement or absence, two emotions…
In service of the season, an almost impossible task: ranking the 10 best performances of the year in Chicago theater. Why so hard? There were far more than 10 examples of stellar Midwestern …
Chicago's Theater on the Lake is undergoing a total renovation. Meanwhile, the Chicago Park District is announcing a new commission intended to involve the city in the creation of a world-pr…
Poorly behaving males " those who come home a drinkin', who've been a'messin' where they shouldn't have been a'messin', those inclined to bring their barroom habits home to mama " are the ub…
Arrive a few minutes early at the Steppenwolf Theatre for its current mainstage show and you'll find a theater decked out as a church " not the kind of ancient Gothic sanctuary you might fin…
Especially when we're very young, we may travel far in our dreams. Perchance through a world revolving around our hopes and fears. Maybe to a place where a Christmas tree can pierce our hear…
On the wall by the welcome desk for the Second City mainstage, a new sign has appeared. "Second City has a zero tolerance policy and does not allow hate speech of any kind whether it's direc…
In Chicago theater, 2016 was the year of "Hamilton," for sure. But that high-profile attraction " a raiser of all theatrical boats " landed at a moment of rich, diverse and emotional explora…
Theater long has been a safe space for those who, in the immortal words of Jerry Herman, see life from a different angle. And Christopher, the hero of the beautiful Broadway play "The Curiou…
The holidays! Peak theatergoing time! What should you and yours see? Let me walk you through some ideas. Perhaps you'd like to snag some ducats to a little show with some buzz " "Hamilton." …
"Medicine is not a transaction," Dr. Ricardo Rosenkranz observes during his truly unusual and immensely likable magic show at the Royal George Cabaret. "It is," he insists, "the unraveling o…
The 2015 musical "Hamilton" continued to suck up a lot of the Broadway oxygen in 2016 " first during the spring award season and then during the political fallout of the late fall. But theat…
When it comes to chronicling dumb ways to die, William Shakespeare was ahead of the curve. Gander at his much-disputed authorial oeuvre and you'll find no fewer than 75 final exits, shufflin…
This outre "Beauty and the Beast" at Chicago's Museum of Contemporary Art is the work of radical artists, intent on working at the margins. And, please be warned, it is as sexually explicit …
Most teenagers " despite appearances to the contrary " are fragile optimists. And Ben Platt, the astonishing star of the extraordinary new Broadway musical "Dear Evan Hansen," has a way of t…
If you'd told me that Disney's "The Little Mermaid" would form the basis for one of the most innovative musical productions of the season, and that the dude playing Sebastian, the anthropomo…
Few musicals have been inspired by accidents that killed teenagers. Even fewer use a coin-operated fortune teller as their sardonic narrator, a mechanical voice that recounts the fate of a g…
In his self-help book "Rich Dad Poor Dad," Robert Kiyosaki outlines the competing pull of two father figures in his young life " one was staid, honest and boring, the other street-smart, sav…
Late-night TV hosts are struggling with how to deal with the impending presidency of Donald J. Trump. One major problem they face is that the filter-averse president-elect is formidably comp…
On one hand, the magnificent West End and Broadway show "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time" is a quirky mystery, based on a 2003 book by Mark Haddon and adapted for the stage…
"Too Much Light Makes The Baby Go Blind," one of the longest running shows in Chicago history and a fixture at the Neo-Futurarium in Andersonville, is to close Dec. 31. The comedic, sketch-s…
In the aftermath of Donald Trump removing the kneecaps of the elite establishment, without either anesthesia or a majority of the popular vote, what do we make of the cultural legacy of Tony…
While others are trotting out their Scrooges, Claras and tannenbaums for fun and profit, the ever-ambitious Griffin Theatre is asking audiences to spend two hours and 45 minutes in the intim…
