I brought my 9-year-old son to see "A Christmas Carol" at the Goodman Theatre last Sunday, and I spent a good chunk of the performance thinking of all the people who would do well to absorb …
It was a nearly impossible feat, a glorious White City, the size and scale of which is almost unimaginable, glistening at the heart of a city that, 20 years earlier, burned almost entirely t…
In January 1951, a 30-year-old black woman with five children was diagnosed with cervical cancer at Johns Hopkins Hospital. After enduring a horrific series of radiation treatments for month…
Stephen Hillenburg, the creator of the megahit Nickelodeon cartoon series "SpongeBob SquarePants," died on Monday. He was 57. The cause of death was ALS, which Hillenburg revealed he had bee…
The aptly named "Familiar," now at the Steppenwolf Theatre Company under the skilled direction of Danya Taymor, is a fine example of the kind of play that many well-educated children of immi…
Ricky Jay, who died last Saturday, was the most genial, smart and loquacious magician you ever could hope to meet. Looking back on all the magic shows I've reviewed over the years in Chicago…
It seems every year that events conspire to make the Goodman's production of "A Christmas Carol" an exercise in both cheery holiday escapism and timely consciousness raising. So it is with t…
"Bit by bit, putting it together," goes the song about the act of creation by Lin-Manuel Miranda's idol, Stephen Sondheim. It wasn't until Miranda was a spectator at his own show, and no lon…
Friday "Twelfth Night, Or What You Will": Viola poses as a man and causes much romantic confusion, while a servant, Malvolio, imagines he can become a nobleman. Through Dec. 16 at Lincoln Pa…
On Thanksgiving Eve at the Oriental Theatre, several hundred of us took time to give thanks for an all-American freedom of expression " the precious right to make fun of our elders, spoof re…
Ready to plan your holiday theater-going? Let me see if I can help. Everything mentioned in this column has been reviewed in, and recommended by, the Tribune, either this year or not too lon…
The touchstone of the glorious Disney animation renaissance, "Beauty and the Beast" had eight masterful songs by Howard Ashman and Alan Menken when it was released as a movie: the likes of "…
How's your week going? Let's hope more smoothly than for the tinny hero of the gorgeous new show at Lookingglass Theatre who, in short order, is tormented by a big baby, propelled from a win…
Anyone who studied Jane Austen " or read her novels for pleasure " will tell you one thing above all else. She wrote juicy, deeply complex characters. This is why her six major novels have b…
With a film career reeking of a grease trap and hairspray, iconic troublemaker John Waters would make the top of any holiday party list. This time around, however, the hellion is inviting ev…
On Tuesday, the Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival announced its roster for 2019, culling artists from around the world. Now in its third biennial run, the fest aims to turn the c…
The usual admonition to turn off your cell phones has a particular intensity at "The Woman in Black," now at the Royal George Theatre. "We use very low level levels of light in this producti…
On Tuesday, Firebrand Theatre announced that award-winning actress Barbara E. Robertson will star as Anna (Annie) Edson Taylor in its Chicago premiere of "Queen of the Mist." Robertson is a …
Given the excitement occasioned by 29-year-old Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, now the youngest woman ever to be elected to the United States Congress, dollars to donuts that a lot of people in TV…
At first, Nora Leonard, 16, called her cancer "Jim." "When we found out it was cancer, it hadn't really hit me yet," she said. "But I knew I didn't like that word. So I said, 'Can we call it…
On Monday, Kokandy Productions announced the appointment of Derek Van Barham as the company's new producing artistic director. He will succeed Allison Hendrix, who served in the position sin…
Chicago Improv Festival, once billed as the biggest sketch and improv fest on the planet, has announced its end after a 20 year run. "Over the past 20 years we have achieved all we set out t…
The Cirque du Soleil will return to Chicago in 2019. But its tent will be pitched not outside the United Center, as has been the case for years, but in the south parking lot of Soldier Field…
The fraught election season of blue and red is (sort of) in the rearview mirror as bright holiday colors deck the halls and malls. Before you're overloaded with shopping and socializing, tak…
Some 26 years after its signature chopper first descended on the Auditorium Theatre, "Miss Saigon" is back in Chicago and still out-selling every other show in town. (Except one, which has a…