She’ll be swell, she’ll be great…Broadway diva Patti LuPone will once again be singing the words of Stephen Sondheim at the Ravinia Festival. This summer, LuPone will tackle the mother of all stage mothers, Mama Rose in a staged concert of “Gypsy” August 11-13. Ravinia first embarked on its annual Stephen Sondheim festival.... Read More
With each passing day, Victory Gardens Theater's longtime dream of creating An American Center for New Plays at the historic Biograph Theater becomes closer and closer to reality.
Pepper Construction is hard at work, and the Biograph, located 2433 N. Lincoln Avenue in Chicago, is looking more like the new.... Read More
A lot of people are looking at Gary Griffin's production of “A Flea in Her Ear" at Chicago Shakespeare Theater as a homecoming of sorts, which seems to take the veteran Chicago director by surprise. After all, Griffin has been pretty busy working on a little project called “The Color Purple" on.... Read More
Chicago’s record-breaking production of Wicked will soon receive a special visit from another land…the Great White Way! Tony Award winner Carole Shelley, Broadway’s original Madame Morrible, will assume the role in Chicago for a limited appearance from April 25 through June 25, 2006. Shelley steps in as Shiz University head mistress while Rondi Reed.... Read More
Chicago Shakespeare Theater (CST) Artistic Director Barbara Gaines and Executive Director Criss Henderson announced the productions slated for the Theater's 20th Anniversary Season. The season kicks off with both a leap forward and a nod to the past this summer with CST's debut at the Royal Shakespeare Company in Shakespeare's hometown of Stratford-upon-Avon..... Read More
The American Music Theatre Project (AMTP) at Northwestern University, in association with the Johnny Mercer Foundation, will host a weeklong summer festival on the Evanston campus titled “The Power of the American Popular Song.” The American Music Theatre Project is a new initiative at Northwestern University dedicated to the development of new musicals.... Read More
The question reminds me of an amusing book title I saw once: Why Women Are Different. But since New York is still undeniably the standard against which all U.S. theatre is measured, the implied question -- “What makes Chicago theatre different from New York theatre?” -- is maybe not so silly. It certainly has.... Read More
Producers of "The Pirate Queen," an epic musical tale from the writers of "Les Miserables" and "Miss Saigon," have announced that Stephanie J. Block, the former Elphaba in the first national tour of "Wicked,” will star in the pre-Broadway debut in Chicago this fall.
As first announced by Block at the stage door.... Read More
Mattel and Live Nation have announced that actress Erin Elizabeth Coors has been cast as the lead role of Barbie in the elaborate stage production of Barbie Live In Fairytopia. Barbie, the doll with the too-good-to-be-true figure, wardrobe and array of careers, is taking human form for the first time. Coors, from Cincinnati,.... Read More
The Producers of The Color Purple have announced that the National Tour of the Broadway smash hit musical will premiere April 2007 at Chicago’s Cadillac Palace Theatre in association with Broadway In Chicago. This long-run engagement will have an initial block of tickets on sale through June 2007, and the Chicago run will be.... Read More
Emerald City Theatre Company, Chicago's largest professional theater devoted entirely to families, announced a full slate of five family favorites for its 2006/07 season.
Starting this Fall with the newly pared down version of Seussical, and ending next Spring with Narnia, a musical version of C.S. Lewis' first and.... Read More
Actor, director and producer Gary Sinise is embarking on his 17th USO tour to provide a morale boost to Marines, sailors and their family members March 12 at the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center (MCAGCC) in Twentynine Palms, Calif. The trip, sponsored by TriWest Healthcare Alliance, will feature Sinise and the Lt. Dan.... Read More
Martin Short: Fame Becomes Me will make one additional stop prior to coming to Chicago. It has been announced that the show will now play Toronto's Canon Theatre from May 27 - July 2, 2006 in addition to the previously announced engagements at the Curran Theatre in San Francisco April 25 -.... Read More
When actor Harold Gould was approached last year to do a Broadway tour of the stage play version of author Mitch Albom's best-seller "Tuesdays with Morrie," he debated about going out on the road.
"Doing a tour that takes you city to city around the country for months.... Read More
Chicago Shakespeare Theater announced an exciting addition to its spring season. CST will produce the American Premiere of Hecuba, a new adaptation of Euripides' tragedy, written by world-renowned playwright Frank McGuinness. Tony Award-winning director Patrick Mason, in his Chicago directorial debut, stages the production featuring Marsha Mason, in the theater Upstairs at.... Read More
Due to illness, John Mahoney will not appear as the Judge in Goodman Theatre's production of Romance, as formerly announced. Romance is part of the seven-week David Mamet Festival and is the playwright's newest work. The play is a searing courtroom comedy that lampoons our most sacred issues. Pam MacKinnon, who made her .... Read More
Goodman Theatre announces initial plans for its 2006/2007 season, a diverse line-up that unites established and emerging talents to celebrate the 20th anniversary of its Tony Award-winning artistic director, Robert Falls. Falls launches the season in the Albert Theatre with the quintessential theatrical work, William Shakespeare’s masterpiece King Lear, with the estimable Stacy.... Read More
It was born the Majestic Theatre in 1906, reincarnated as the Shubert Theatre in 1945, and will continue life as the LaSalle Bank Theatre, the Chicago flagship property of the Nederlander Organization, following a yearlong renovation and historic restoration. The Nederlanders purchased the 20-story Majestic Building, which includes the theatre, from the Shuberts.... Read More
Acclaimed playwright and filmmaker Neil LaButte’s “autobahn” is set to drive into Chicago and appear at the Profiles Theatre. autobahn is a tantalizing cycle of short plays full of edgy humor and shocking revelations all set in automobiles, which explores the confines of this truly American space. What other locale hosts as much.... Read More
