What do you say about a priceless diamond in a shabby setting? That it shines brilliantly, no thanks to what surrounds it—a dull distraction than can, by contrast, sometimes make […]

Just about halfway between MGM’s (and Judy Garland’s) immortal The Wizard of Oz and Broadway’s current box-office smash Wicked, there was another musical retelling of L. Frank Baum’s classic American […]

Like movie theater blockbusters and best-selling fiction franchises, Broadway has its own version of the audience vs. critic debate, where the biggest commercial successes are often the ones least likely […]

The American musical theater has been graced with another revival of Company, Stephen Sondheim’s and George Furth’s 1970 musical about our basic human need for togetherness. In this 2021 Broadway […]

Hamilton has landed in Chicago and I was not prepared for the mania that was opening night. The line wound down State Street from the Nederlander on Randolph for people […]

We can look forward to theater in public parks all over Chicago this summer—and all free. Midsommer Flight will stage Shakespeare’s Cymbeline from July 7 to August 13. Chicago Shakespeare […]

Going to watch a Broadway show during the holiday months of late November through December is a rite of passage for some individuals, friends and families. What better time to […]

Tim Dolan is an  actor—occasionally. But his regular gig is as a Broadway tour guide and entrepreneur. He’s owner of Broadway Up Close, which offers walking tours of the Broadway/Times […]

Leopoldstadt is a place, a Jewish section of old Vienna. It’s also an imagined history of how two intermarried Jewish families lived (or didn’t live) through six decades of the […]