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The Simon and Garfunkel Story in Chicago at CIBC Theatre
The Simon and Garfunkel Story set for CIBC Theatre in Chicago

When we talk about music icons of the 20th century, names like The Beatles, Bruce Springsteen, Metallica, U2, and Aretha Franklin are just a few names from many industry titans who serenaded the airwaves. Simon and Garfunkel were two incredibly talented lyricists and brilliant harmonists. They are known to have created a soundtrack for an entire generation that.... Read More

Mary Rose in Chicago
Lingering In The Lobby: Slow Starting 2022 Theater Season Finds Its Stride

Philosophers have likened Time to a river in constant flow, dismissing attempts to circumscribe its boundaries as mere convenience proposed by upstart mortals. This might explain why, for theater artists and audiences, the 2019-2020 season ended in mid-May and didn't resume until JULY of 2021, when the discovery and release of Covid-19 vaccines signaled the beginning of the.... Read More

Moulin Rouge! The Musical
Moulin Rouge! The Musical set for Nederlander Theatre in Chicago

Moulin Rouge! The Musical is probably one of the most popular shows in the musical world. The tragic story of love, lust, greed, and ultimately heartbreak has been a huge hit and has won 10 Tony Awards including Best Musical. Theatre fans can rejoice as the musical is will make its grand entrance at the Nederlander Theatre.... Read More

Chicago Theatre Gift Certificates
Give the Gift of Theatre with Theatre Gift Certificates

If you are stuck figuring out what to buy family and friends this holiday season, think of live theatre to get you out of a gifting dilemma. Theatre gift certificates make great holiday presents. In fact, you are not just giving gifts; you are giving enjoyable experiences to your loved ones.

A 20-year study.... Read More

Plays in Chicago
Catching Up And Starting Over: Non-Holiday Plays for "The Rest of Us"

Ho-Ho-Hos, Fa-la-las and Bless Us, Every Ones are always welcome, of course, but after eighteen months of shuttered playhouses, what many theatergoers this year want for Christmas are not just in-person performers staging indoor pageants reflecting the yuletide season, but shows exploring the kinds of topics ignored during those solitary days spent staring at screens.
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Holiday shows in Chicago 2021
Theatre In Chicago's 2021 Holiday Show Round-Up

The holiday season is approaching faster than we realize, and there is no better time to soak up the festive spirit. The holiday season is not complete without a trip to the theater to watch your favorite holiday plays. The stage is set, the lights are ready, and the costumes are sparkling as ever - here is a.... Read More

The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice at Court Theatre
Welcome Back, Will: Shakespeare Returns to Chicago Theaters in October

Now that playhouses are cautiously opening their doors again, audiences are united in their enthusiastic welcome to live performance of every kind—musical extravaganzas, topical dramas and drag slapstick alike. For some theatergoers, however, a season just isn't a bona fide season without some SHAKESPEARE.

Fortunately, October features not one, but three, of Willie Shakes'.... Read More

Kinky Boots at Paramount Theatre
If The Shoe Fits: Working the Kinks out of Paramount Theatre's Kinky Boots

Don't be misled by the title—there's nothing kinky in Cindy Lauper and Harvey Fierstein's multiple award-winning musical fable. On the contrary, Kinky Boots is about sons trying to fill the big shoes left by their fathers. It's about putting the shoe on the other foot, setting aside prejudices bred of dissimilar cultures and uniting in pursuit of.... Read More

The Tempest at Oak Park Festival Theatre
Intermission's Over: Shows Halted by the Shutdown Re-Emerge Victorious

After what seemed like an eternity of actors phoning in their performances (literally) and dramatic narratives assembled by wired-in videographers, it was probably inevitable for the news of the playhouses reopening to spur a few theatergoers to wonder at the delay necessary for companies to—well, get their acts together.

What? Have we forgotten that.... Read More

An Improbable Fiction at American Players Theatre
Surviving The London Lockdown of 1642: Shakespeare's Heroes Share Alehouse Confidences in James DeVita's Improbable Fiction

After more than a year of exhortations to keep our distance from one another, is it any wonder that so many of our besties during these lonely times should be imaginary—Lizzie Bennett, Jackson Lamb, Meg Langslow. Maybe we, ourselves, can't share a beer with the loyal companions we have come to know so intimately, but given the cosmopolitan.... Read More

Measure for Measure at Goodman Theatre
Social Justice, Shakespeare-Style: Provocative Streaming Productions of Measure for Measure Look at Recent History

Why is Measure for Measure still classified as a Romantic Comedy? Its lovers are forced to endure fraud, hypocrisy, blackmail, sexual assault, breach of promise and covert surveillance, all of it orchestrated by an authority figure whose idea of a satisfactory resolution is to forgive Bad Men their misdeeds before legally binding them to Good Women—a boon he.... Read More

I, Banquo at Chicago Shakespeare Theatre in Chicago
Ambitious, But Not Evil: I, Banquo Contemplates the Cost of Loyalty in Uncertain Times

"I am not Prince Hamlet, nor was meant to be [but only] an attendant lord, one that will do to swell a progress," lamented the meek J. Alfred Prufrock, in the poem by T.S. Eliot. How many of us, after all, are destined for glory—or notoriety? That being so, however, why has it taken so long for somebody.... Read More

Baskerville
All The 1BR's A Stage: Do-It-Yourself Tech Design in the Age of Theater-From-Home

Was it really less than a year ago that "a night at the theater" became an evening hunkered down at our desks watching dimly-lit, fuzzily-recorded archival videos on our laptops like ham-radio fugitives in science-fiction dystopiads? And later, after these home-movies gave way to newly-crafted scripts, did we then struggle to accustom ourselves to such visual quirks as.... Read More

Online Play Festivals 2021
Looking Forward To A New Year: Online Play Festivals Usher In an Optimistic 2021

While the impact of such innovations as headshot acting, long-distance repartee and crowd-sourced musicals remains to be seen, theater historians have been chronicling the progress of necessity-bred inventions sparked in response to the lingering closures of playhouses and isolation of its inhabitants. Among these is the adoption of technology borrowed from radio, film and television—know-how rendering productions once.... Read More

Holiday Plays In Chicago
Lighting The Way To 2021: Online Plays For The Holidays

Back in March, many artists were gloomily predicting the end of theater in Chicago, but YOU weren't one of them—were you? After all, if London playhouses could survive being closed for eighteen years (1642-1660), why should we complain after only ten months? Hasn't art always found a way to thrive in even the most adverse conditions?
.... Read More

An American In Paris at Drury Lane  Theatre
Drury Lane Wins Big at 2020 Jeff Awards

In its 52nd annual celebration of theater excellence, the Jeff Awards has recognized 39 recipients for the 2020 awards, selected from among 142 theater artist nominees across 30 artistic and technical categories. Award-winning Chicago actor, singer and teaching artist Michelle Lauto hosted the online awards announcement program and tribute to the theater community that featured work of many.... Read More

Run the Beast Down
What Does The Fox Say: Furry-Pawed Urban Guerilla Protest in Run the Beast Down

Urban centers boasting plentiful green spaces are often home to squirrels, rabbits and the occasional possum colony, while outlying communities report sightings of raccoons, skunks and deer, but our impressions of foxes are almost wholly drawn from pop songs, PBS nature documentaries, and CGI-animated Disney fables.

The Reynards and Volpones in Titas Halder's Run the.... Read More

Airport 1970 Something
A Fall Season After All: Streaming and Zooming in the Shutdown of 2020

A miracle didn't arrive to chase away the fear and the gloom, but history has demonstrated that art will always find a way. As the weather cools and days shorten, theaters mired down in despair during the spring of this annus horribilis have shaken off their shellshock and rallied to the challenge of respite for audiences grimly and.... Read More

Drive in Theatre in Chicago
Tar Beaches And Asphalt Parks: Outdoor Theatergoing During the Shutdown

Some blamed the ambience: cozy low-ceilinged, windowless rooms, accessed by narrow entrances and closely-spaced seats suddenly perceived as microbe-congested cells. Others faulted the intended market—hadn't we been repeatedly warned that elderly people were especially vulnerable to respiratory infections? Or were playgoers of all ages simply wary of making plans, after months of disappointment at one cancellation notice after.... Read More

Littlebrain Theatre Groups of 10
Going Digital (and Prestidigital): Streaming Shakespeare, Sitcoms and Sleight-of-Hand

You see, there's these four companions who propose taking time off from from social life in order to concentrate on scholarly pursuits, but no sooner does their sabbatical commence than they are visited by a quartet of like-minded acquaintances. Sound familiar? Sure it does! It's Shakespeare's Love's Labour's Lost—except that in 2020, with the restrictions of a viral.... Read More