A belated Christmas card has just arrived in Chicago theater. It's a bit grimy around the edges and smells like it spent the holidays passed out in a gin joint. But tarnished tinsel still sh…
Contrasting the lineup for the 2016 GOP presidential nomination (where, whatever their politics, at least candidates and former candidates such as Ben Carson, Bobby Jindal, Marco Rubio and T…
As the Obama years wind down and the election season heats up, Pearl Cleage's funny and cunning, if occasionally discursive, portrait of an earlier time in black political activism still fee…
When the Chicago Sketch Comedy Festival (aka "SketchFest") first started in 2002, it stretched out over seven weeks. Now claiming bragging rights as the world's largest festival of its kind,…
In addition to sharing the "On the Fringe" column with Nina Metz, I have the pleasure of reviewing many other individual shows throughout the year for the Chicago Tribune. Here are three of …
In addition to sharing the "On the Fringe" column with Nina Metz, I have the pleasure of reviewing many other individual shows throughout the year for the Chicago Tribune. Here are three of …
Nothing says "holiday extravaganza" like Alfred Lord Tennyson. Alright " lots of things say that with cheerier panache than the author of "The Charge of the Light Brigade." But one can certa…
First things first: "Barney the Elf," the Other Theatre Company's brand-new entry into the Naughty Holiday Camp category (where Hell in a Handbag has reigned supreme for years) is not for ki…
The British holiday "panto" tradition, which ransacks classic fairy tales through music, parody and healthy doses of audience participation, doesn't have the same broad cultural currency sta…
Few plays could be less seasonal " but more of the moment " than Arthur Miller's 1964 one-act about a group of men gathered in a war zone, wondering if their identity papers will save them o…
Of all the holiday shows in the world, Emerald City Theatre's "A Charlie Brown Christmas," based on the beloved 1965 animated special, is the Charlie Browniest. Ernie Nolan's staging aims f…
Of all the holiday shows in the world, Emerald City Theatre's "A Charlie Brown Christmas," based on the beloved 1965 animated special, is the Charlie Browniest. Ernie Nolan's staging aims fo…
Look around your gatherings this holiday season. Chances are you'll see a blend of the familiar and familial " past, present and future. Ornaments awkwardly crafted by the hands of children,…
The temperatures are cooler and peppermint is elbowing pumpkin spice out of the way " which means it's time for holiday cheer on stage. Presenting our annual holiday entertainment guide to C…
Taken together, the three plays in Eclipse Theatre's season devoted to Terrence McNally provide a series of snapshots about the AIDS epidemic and the fears it unleashed in both gay and strai…
Ten years ago, Neo-Futurist founder Greg Allen hit a comic home run with "The Last Two Minutes of the Complete Works of Henrik Ibsen." As the title proclaimed, that show attempted to filter …
The temperatures are cooler and peppermint is elbowing pumpkin spice out of the way " which means it's time for holiday cheer on stage. Presenting our annual holiday entertainment guide to C…
The line "Let hands do what lips do" in "Romeo and Juliet" may have been the starting point for Red Theater Chicago's American Sign Language-infused "R&J: The Vineyard," presented in associa…
This past April, reports surfaced that actor Jon Hamm had been sued as a college undergrad in the early 1990s in connection with a fraternity hazing incident. While the old story may have ta…
Noel Coward's 1932 "Design for Living," about an (eventual) menage a trois seems placid by today's standards, though it certainly got the knickers of the London theater censors in a twist ba…
Noel Coward's 1932 "Design for Living," about an (eventual) menage a trois seems placid by today's standards, though it certainly got the knickers of the London theater censors in a twist ba…
Remember Toya Graham? She's the mother in Baltimore who, this past April, dragged her teenage son away from a group of young men who were heading out to protest the death of Freddie Gray in …
After the success of last year's "Animal Farm," Steppenwolf for Young Adults returns to the scene of the thought crime with Andrew White's adaptation of George Orwell's "1984," first produce…
After the success of last year's "Animal Farm," Steppenwolf for Young Adults returns to the scene of the thought crime with Andrew White's adaptation of George Orwell's "1984," first produce…
Imagine an August Wilson play performed by the African American a cappella group Sweet Honey in the Rock, and you're getting close to the feeling evoked by Nambi E. Kelley's lyrical "For Her…