The Jeff Awards announced 185 nominations in 35 categories for Chicago Equity theatrical productions which opened between August 1, 2010, and July 31, 2011. The Jeff Awards sent judges to the opening nights of 130 Equity productions offered by 51 producing organizations. From these openings, 100 productions were "Jeff Recommended," which made them eligible for award nominations.
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Drury Lane Theatre, known for producing acclaimed, innovative and classic musicals and comedies, announced its 2012-2013 season featuring five glorious films brought to new life on stage. The Tony Award-winning phenomenon Hairspray previews April 12, opens April 19 and runs through June 17; the riveting thriller The 39 Steps previews July 5, opens July 12 and.... Read More

The play's title, Black and Blue, refers to the uniforms worn by Chicago's two baseball teams—black and white for the Sox, Blue and Red for the Cubs—in this world premiere play by Nick Digilio and Anthony Tournis. They are the flags under which brothers Jake and Tommy pledge their respective allegiances. Despite their widower father's attempts to.... Read More

Former Saturday Night Live star and Comedy Central regular Colin Quinn is bringing his one-man comedy show Colin Quinn: Long Story Short to Water Tower Place's Broadway Playhouse for a three-week engagement beginning August 24th. Directed by Jerry Seinfeld, Long Story Short was extended twice on Broadway and was nominated for a Drama Desk Award. It ran.... Read More

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.

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Sweeping Generalizations Alert: This article contains extravagant speculation about the differences between Chicago actors/theaters and their counterparts in Los Angeles and New York City. Sensitive, literal-minded and humorless souls with a preference for nitpicking nuance, factual relativism and reality checks may experience toxic side effects to the broader truths in this playful piece. Consider yourself warned.

So on to.... Read More

When death was more public and playhouses bigger, plays frequently featured sensational spectacle difficult to reproduce in modern theaters, where the level of realism achieved in cinema has raised the bar on audience expectations. The biggest obstacle to performing Oscar Wilde's Salomé in 2011 is not its Biblical origins, its lyrical language, or even its leading lady's.... Read More

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