In 1991, the Steppenwolf Theatre Company opened its $8.28 million theater at 1650 N. Halsted St., finally jettisoning its old digs in a converted dairy barn. It picked the American premiere …
Mel Brooks was ecstatic. Anne Bancroft danced on a nearby table. Matthew Broderick chuckled. Even Nathan Lane cracked a smile. "The Producers" was a hit. In fact, the spin-off musical from t…
Midway through Paula Vogel's "How I Learned to Drive," a man gives fishing lessons to an unseen child. He describes the pompano as "a very shy, mercurial fish," and advises that catching one…
With major new funding from the property developer Sterling Bay, the Harris Theater plans a diverse and ambitious 2019-20 season, including visits from Bangarra Dance Theatre of Australia an…
A bad marriage " I hear " can feel like a trap. Slamming the door on a lousy union can be cathartic. Even if you have no idea what awaits you on the other side. But here's something to think…
City of Chicago is to officially announce Monday that $1 million has been secured in new funding to support the 2019 Year of Chicago Theatre initiative that officially begins this week, in t…
Mother with teenagers " a demographic famous for ignoring its own fragility " invariably worry about them. But African-American mothers, innumerable data points confirm, have particular reas…
The winds have changed again for the long-awaited movie version of the hit musical "Wicked." Universal Pictures says Friday that the film will land in theaters on Dec. 22, 2021. It had origi…
Public figures and celebrities say they "don't see color" or they "don't see race." But race is something that Northeastern Illinois University is bringing to the forefront with its collabor…
The grungy motel in the middle of nowhere is as much a trope for American psychological thrillers as the gloomy country manse in English murder mysteries. From "Psycho" to "Bug," it's where …
Now in its Chicago premiere from the Remy Bumppo Theatre Company, Florian Zeller's "The Father" is a play about dementia, that late-in-life affliction that can take down a giant personality,…
Perhaps the biggest casting news of the week lies in the images of the Oriental being physically recast as the Nederlander " a perfect metaphor for the state and direction of Chicago theater…
"Blue Man Group" âœâœâœ 1/2 "Blue Man Group" has been playing at Briar Street since 1997, a remarkable run of 20-plus years. The Blue Men still chomp marshmallows, bang drums and…
When the next big artistic job opens up in Chicago theater, I've got a name for the recruiters: Vanessa Stalling. In show after show, Stalling keeps making the case that her directing work i…
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 Espanol…
When the name of your theater company is Broken Nose Theatre, the temptation must arise to live up to your own billing. If not broken noses, bruised cheeks, tired calves and a whopping heada…
The Joffrey Ballet announced its 2019-20 season Tuesday, with the Chicago premieres of Cathy Marston's "Jane Eyre" and a work by Justin Peck, as well as the returns of "Don Quixote" and "Nut…
On Monday, the Milwaukee Repertory Theater announced its 2019-20 season, marking Mark Clements' 10th anniversary as artistic director. Kicking things off in the Stackner Cabaret will be "2 P…
Ever since the historical musical "Hamilton" began its march to near-universal infatuation, one group has noticeably withheld its applause " historians. Many academics argue the portrait of …
Friday "Bonnie and Clyde: The Musical": At the height of the Great Depression, Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow went from two small-town nobodies in West Texas to America's most renowned folk …
Nina Simone seemed happy in the 1980s, singing in Ronnie Scott's swinging London jazz club, a resident European star in front an adoring audience, wowing with the incomparable diversity of h…
On Monday, Paramount Theatre in Aurora announced the four musicals lined up for its 2019-20 Broadway season. Things take off with "Newsies," the Disney musical pulled from the headlines abou…
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 second of…
On Friday, Raven Theatre announced the lineup of its 2019-20 season, including two Chicago premieres. The season will kick off this fall with the Chicago premiere of Rachel Bonds' drama "Sun…
On Friday, Theater Wit announced the Midwest premiere of Joshua Harmon's "Admissions," to be directed by Jeremy Wechsler. In the bleak satire, Bill and Sherri Mason, the very liberal leaders…