Dates have been announced for Chicago's return engagement of the Tony, Grammy and Olivier Award-winning hit musical JERSEY BOYS, the story of Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons. The musical will make its much-anticipated return to Chicago to play the Bank of America Theatre (18 W. Monroe) nine weeks only; April 5 through June 2, 2012.

JERSEY.... Read More

Audiences attending Redtwist Theatre's revival of Bug—the first in Chicago since its premiere at Red Orchid in 2001—step off Bryn Mawr Avenue into the storefront playhouse's lobby, then into a hall flanked on one side by an Edward Keinholz-styled facade depicting a motor court in the American Southwest. We proceed through a numbered door to find ourselves.... Read More

Acting the same character in the same play is one thing, but tailoring a persona to the demands of different authors, directors and artistic concepts over a series of productions is quite another. A quartet of Chicago actors whose resumés list multiple portrayals of heroes drawn from classic genre fiction weigh in on the joys—and headaches—of wearing the.... Read More

Who could ever love a beast? Apparently many people. A little more than a year after Disney's stage musical version of Beauty and the Beast played to sold-out Chicago crowds, the show is back for a six-week return engagement at the Ford Oriental Theatre June 29 through August 7, 2011, produced by NETworks Presentations.

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At its 38th annual celebration of Chicago's non-union theatre scene, the Jeff Awards honored 27 award recipients for excellence Monday evening at the Park West. The event, emceed by Circle Theatre's Kevin Bellie for the second consecutive year, featured production numbers by the nominated musicals and presentation of awards, two of which were delivered by robots. The robots,.... Read More

Eric and Andy were LIVE From the 38th Anniversary Non-Equity Jeff Awards Ceremony that took place at the Park West in Chicago on Monday, June 6. Take a look at the below highlight reel of the festivities and some of the people that they interviewed prior to the ceremony.                  .... Read More

Nora Dunn first entered our collective consciousness as the brash Pat Stevens during the second golden age of Saturday Night Live. You have watched and loved her in the film "Three Kings" and the.... Read More

Eric Roach and Anderson Lawfer, curators and founders of the insider Chicago Theatre blog Reviews You Can Iews! and writers for TheatreInChicago, will be hosting a "Red Carpet" style event from the Park West Theater at the 38th annual Joseph Jefferson Awards on June 6th, 2011 that will be streamed live and can be seen right here at.... Read More

In Alan Bennett's big-cast historical drama, The Madness of George III, the stage picture often resembles (to our yankee eyes, anyway) portraits of our nation's Founding Fathers—aka "old men in white wigs". The primary reason for this déjà vu is the play's setting in late 18th century England, when fashionable members of the royal court habitually sported.... Read More

If you need some lighting design in this town, there are only a few places to look. One of the leading artists in this field is the beautiful and luxurious Heather Gilbert. We had a chance to talk to her about lighting, prom, and listen to some great war stories from the past! She joined us on the.... Read More

The purchase of a ticket to a live theatrical production (or any entertainment event, for that matter) is a largely anonymous ritual: you go online, select a ticket that you want at a price arbitrarily set by a producer you never see, present that ticket at the box office, and hope that you haven't wasted your money. It's.... Read More

Richard Adams' Watership Down is an epic saga of a community driven from their land and forced to explore unknown territories in search of a new home. After a journey fraught with danger and uncertainty as they encounter a diversity of strangers, some friendly and some hostile, our pilgrims discover their opportunity to make a fresh start,.... Read More

The Jeff Awards announced 106 nominations in 23 categories for Non-Equity Jeff Awards, which honor excellence in Chicago theatres not under a union contract, for productions that opened between April 1, 2010, and March 31, 2011. The Jeff Awards judged the opening nights of 146 productions offered by 62 non-Equity producing organizations and recommended 62 shows.... Read More

A huge hit when it opened at Theater Wit as a vibrnat world premiere by Caitlin Montayne Parrish, "A Twist of Water" has made a major move. This just triumph reopens at Lakeview's Mercury Theater on May 1 to deliver even more shocks of recognition to appreciative audiences. The biggest one is that cities and families.... Read More

When your theatre company gets serious about growing and being the best, you look for the best Managing Director you can find. One woman has proved herself TWICE (Victory Gardens and TimeLine) to be the best and her name is Elizabeth Auman. We invited her to our new home and pill factory in the basement of an old.... Read More

There are basically two kinds of scenic disorder: the jumble representing accumulated clutter, usually applied by crew members during intermission (as employed in True West, for example), and the chaos created right before our eyes when characters give way to grief, anger or frustration with an old-fashioned temper tantrum.

Pandemonium can be generated cheaply by knocking over furniture, pulling.... Read More

Artistic Directors Joe Jahraus and Darrell W. Cox announce Profiles Theatre's 2011 - 2012 Season. Profiles, one of Chicago's longest-running storefront theatres, presents its 23rd season of new and challenging works, including the Midwest premiere of the Broadway hit A Behanding in Spokane by Martin McDonagh, directed by Steppenwolf ensemble member Rick Snyder; the Midwest premiere of.... Read More

There is an irony to actors' favorite roles being non-human ones. But who wouldn't relish playing creatures unshackled by socialized behavior, propelled by ego surpassing even the amorality of babies and cave-dwellers? How better for an artist to display their individual creativity?

Bryce Wissel's Ephemera, currently in production by the Polarity Ensemble, recounts the adventures aboard.... Read More

The Chicago Park District's 59th annual Theater on the Lake season features reprisals of eight artistically diverse Chicago theater companies June 15 - Aug. 7, 2011. The season opens with The Improvised Shakespeare Company (June 15-19) and continues with popular productions by Infamous Commonwealth Theatre (June 22-26); At Play Productions in association with Chicago Dramatists (June.... Read More

This interview was one of our best. We were SUPPOSED to meet Ele Matelan, House Theatre Ensemble Member and member of the Jeff A/T Committee, in the Heart O' Chicago Hotel for a nice talk and maybe some sodas, but Eric had to try some Angel Dust our neighbor was throwing out. At least we THOUGHT he was.... Read More