I saw myself as a character on the stage at the Den Theatre. It was weird and exhilarating to see the everyday struggles of a young Black woman making her […]

Kenneth Lonergan’s This Is Our Youth takes us back 40-some years … to an era when heavy-duty drugs were not only a path to pleasure (and sometimes pain) but the coinage of […]

City Lit Theater is finishing off local playwright Mark Pracht’s Four-Color Trilogy—about key moments in the history of comic book publishing—with The House of Ideas. Directed by former artistic director Terry McCabe, it’s […]

It has been a hot summer in New York, in more ways than one. On Broadway, 24 shows continue to draw large crowds, with several musicals and plays reaching near-capacity […]

(Title of Show) is a based-on-real-life meta-comedy cataloging the painful and often random creative process. Written by Jeff Bowen and Hunter Bell in just three weeks, the musical tells the […]

“Who cares if a bunch of faggots die?” Larry Kramer did. And, more than 40 years ago, that’s what caused him to write that caustic question in his remarkable play […]

I once attended a church that used the Harry Potter stories as a means of telling the hero’s journey in spiritual terms. The minister once came out dressed as a […]

A raucous night of theater just as the bard intended awaits audiences of the Olde School Shakespeare Collective’s production of The Taming of the Shrew. Hosted at My Buddy’s bar, […]

You’ll want to arrive early if you have a ticket for Network—because the show actually begins 30 minutes before “curtain time.” That traditional convention of naming the hour at which the […]

During the lazy days of summer, who wants to see a depressing show that reminds you of all your troubles? Nobody. Instead, you just want to sit back and be […]

When bad things like a pandemic cause me to despair, I try to find a logical explanation, remember that heroes appear in unusual situations, and know there is a deeper […]

Summer weekends are always an adventure in Chicago. Last weekend was the Air and Water Show, Bud Billiken Parade, White Sox vs the Cubs, and several neighborhood festivals. The best […]