Richard Christiansen

In the autumn of 1964, Richard Rodgers, who was then 62, and Stephen Sondheim, then 34, set to work on a new Broadway musical. Rodgers, whose birth centennial will be...

THEATER `2 1/2 JEWS' Nathan Davis, as a cantankerous old widower who is the bane and the blessing of his son's life, is the chief attraction in Alan Brandt's sweet,...

ROCK THE BREEDERS The reconstituted Dayton, Ohio, band, led by twin sisters Kim and Kelley Deal, is fresh from recording a new album in Chicago with Steve Albini, and will...

Hoping to revive some of the innocent thrills of my misspent youth, I made a pilgrimage to Milwaukee last week to visit the first public presentation of the "I Love...

Dee Hoty, three-time Tony Award nominee, has taken over the lead female role in "Mamma Mia!", the musical here through Aug. 11 in the Cadillac Palace. Playing Donna, the spunky,...

It may be too late to do anything about it, but, on the other hand, it's never too late to complain. And, since we are coming up on the big...

ART LECTURE Tom Learner, conservator, the Tate Gallery, London, speaks on "The Impact of Modern Painting"; 6 p.m. Tuesday; Price Auditorium, Art Institute of Chicago, 111 S. Michigan Ave.; free;...

Violent thoughts on a soft summer's day: Reports from England tell of the premiere of a "vicious satire" and "savage comedy" that offers "one of the strangest, sickest romantic moments...

When a new production of a performing arts masterpiece truly revives its subject, it is able to remind us, sometimes in fresh and different ways, why the work came to...

THEATER `THE FATHER' August Strindberg's stinging drama of the war between the sexes, with Michael Canavan, as an immovable martinet, opposed by Shannon Cochran, as his irresistible wife, in a...