4,886 stories by "Chris Jones"
On the day that the Chicago production of "Hamilton" opens for preview business, a new six-month block of tickets will go on sale. The producers of the hit Broadway musical announced Thursda…
At the age of 42 " and despite days that include both stage performances and radiation treatments " Donica Lynn is having a moment. She's starring in the superb revival of "Smokey Joe's Cafe…
"Wonderful Town," the highly enjoyable new Goodman revival of the challenging 1953 Broadway musical with a book by Joseph A. Fields and Jerome Chodorov, lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Gre…
"Do you think people in a hundred years will care how hard we worked?" asks one of the characters in the very smart and self-aware Aaron Posner play at the Lookingglass Theatre, "Life Sucks.…
The death of Edward Albee " at home on Long Island on Friday " surely came as no surprise to Edward Albee. That may sound like a callous way to begin an appreciation of one of the greatest A…
Edward Albee, an acerbic, absurdist and biting dramatist who won the Pulitzer Prize for drama three times, and who harnessed the techniques of the great European absurdists to examine Ame…
Little more than a week before the opening of its high-profile world premiere of David Rabe's "Visiting Edna," the Steppenwolf Theater Company has parted company with one of the show's actor…
You might think of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival as a proving ground for edgy parodies and stand-up comedians. But the critical hit of the 2012 festival " euphoric reviews, we're talking " w…
"Business is the new arts," declared a business-savvy, artistically inclined pal of mine this week. I laughed. And then thought more about it. And shivered some. Consider: Once derided by MB…
Tom Stoppard's "Arcadia" needed only a room and a table. Stephen Sondheim's "Company" was fine with a New York apartment. It has taken until now for the extraordinary production capabilities…
Tears were dampening the face of actress Michelle Lauto during the opening-night bows Tuesday night of "In the Heights," as produced by the Porchlight Music Theatre in Chicago and featuring …
On Monday, the Chicago cast members of "Hamilton" officially arrived in town from their New York rehearsals and began settling into their apartments. On Tuesday morning, they all stood in th…
If you were to set out to write a series of the most offensive lyrics imaginable, you could do worse than to study the song suite of the prurient new musical, "Helldrivers of Daytona," which…
Mention "Chicago-style" theater to an aging member of the cultural cognoscenti in New York or Los Angeles, and your listener's head likely goes first to Steppenwolf Theatre, then to the play…
Mister Punch " the Anglicized, swazzle-voiced derivative of the Pulcinella character of the Italian commedia dell'arte " has been a fixture at the British seaside since before there was a Br…
More than 22 years after I saw the world premiere of "Smokey Joe's Cafe" " then known as "Baby That's Rock 'n' Roll" " I did not expect this proven celebration of the jaw-dropping song catal…
Looking for tickets to the Chicago run of "Hamilton" and seeing only sold-out houses? Look again Monday and over the next couple of days, says Jeffrey Seller, the hit musical's lead producer…
Lighten up, Paramount Theatre in Aurora. You're doing "Mamma Mia!" I'm all for truth in storytelling " even with a song whose musical treats, and I mean that sincerely, includes the immortal…
Michael Cristofer is a handsome theatrical man of the old school " the kind of ageless gentleman you'd imagine in a Hennessy Cognac commercial, or sitting behind a Cadillac, or maybe pushing…
So what if you want to go the theater in Chicago this fall with one simple aim in mind " having a great, relaxing, laugh-encrusted, superfun time? No brain power required. Far be it from me …
Here, on a sweaty August Monday at the Edison Ballroom in Midtown, Lin-Manuel Miranda, now one of the most sought-after celebrities in America, is doing something he absolutely no longer nee…
You could be forgiven for not realizing, but "Hamilton" is not the only show opening in Chicago this fall. And every other theater ticket is cheaper and easier to snag.Here are 10 especially…
With the dominance of "Hamilton" receding (a little), the U.S. Open reaching its climax and the thick early September air demanding relief, Broadway is firing up for the fall season. Here " …
Chicago has Nelson Algren. New Orleans has Tennessee Williams. Los Angeles has Raymond Chandler. But what of Naperville? What literary giant has immortalized the fifth-largest city in the gr…
Amiri Baraka died in 2014 at the age of 79; his best known drama, "Dutchman" remains one of the great plays of the 20th century. Just how formidable this play is courses through my mind as I…
