It’s Mother’s Day weekend and we have you covered with this weekend’s event roundup. There are so many excellent concerts at our favorite venues, film festivals throughout the city, markets, […]

For 66 years, Second City has set the standard for sketch comedy in Chicago and beyond. Its Mainstage shows are rooted in the theater’s long-perfected formula—a two-hour mix of political […]

It’s pretty obvious that both Chicago and the Salt Shed adore the sensational indie-pop outfit Japanese Breakfast. I get the impression that the band has a rather devoted cult following in […]

This Avalanche Theatre world premiere, at the Bramble Arts Loft, might win the Adam Kaz Critic Award for Year’s Coolest Title. Time Is a Color and the Color Is Blue by […]

Serge buys a painting. Marc hates it. Yvan is verklempt over his friends’ feud and his coming wedding. That’s the plotline of Yazmina Reza’s comic drama Art, now being staged by […]

With Thomas Wilkins taking the podium, the Civic Orchestra of Chicago gave a lovely performance at Symphony Center on Monday evening. Being the professional training ensemble for the Chicago Symphony […]

There are a handful of staple bands that undoubtedly carried the alternative music scene in the 2010s and sure enough the eclectic electronic duo, Empire of the Sun, is one […]

South Chicago Dance Theatre’s season eight, featuring surreal themes that challenge the mind and the body, premiered at the Auditorium on May 3. Although I had seen another company attempt a […]

For “Lakeview Day 2025,” the Chicago Humanities Festival featured two tyranny experts, each for an hour-long interview followed by a brief Q&A, on April 27 at the Athenaeum Theatre. The […]

The title of Jake Johnson’s latest book—Unstaged Grief: Musicals and Mourning in Midcentury America—is more than a bit jarring. It’s that part about “Musicals and Mourning” that seems so odd. […]

Theater fans can get a new appreciation of theater of the absurd this month with eight short plays being staged by Gwydion Theatre over the next few weekends. We saw three of […]

The ensemble A.B.L.E., Artists Breaking Limits & Expectations, presented a 90-minute “re-wiring” of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein April 25-27 at Chicago Shakespeare Theater’s Upstairs Studio. Nine neurodivergent actors, including a team […]