Richard Christiansen

Richard II" represents director Barbara Gaines and Chicago Shakespeare Theater at their best. This is not to say that it is the best, period, or that there is not room...

Chicago Shakespeare Theater on Navy Pier is adding to its programming a new CST Festival, a mix of performances to be held annually each fall and spring. A highlight of...

Billy -- nobody ever called him William -- Friedkin moved from Chicago to Hollywood when he was still in his 20s, a bright, brash young man who had started work...

In Jonathan Harvey's curious play, "Hushabye Mountain" is heaven, a place of twinkling stars and dead gay icons. Here, in a cloud of fog, Danny arrives, waiting on the threshold...

"My Cousin Rachel's" chief claim to remembrance is that its 1952 film version marked the Hollywood debut of fiery Welsh actor Richard Burton. Daphne du Maurier's original novel, set on...

George Bernard Shaw's most "Irish" play, arrives here at a time when front-page news accounts and photos are showing us acts of hatred in Northern Ireland that Shaw could not...

Theater "Mary Stuart" Director JoAnne Akalaitis, always interesting, takes a crack at Friedrich Schiller's 19th Century drama, with Jenny Bacon and Barbara Robertson portraying the battling royals, Mary of Scotland...

The 2001-02 season marks another first for theater in Chicago. Kate Fry, a young actress who has chalked up dozens of stage credits since she broke into the scene here...

Of all the many kinds of performing arts, the toughest to pull together and get produced may be music theater, especially new music theater. In addition to finding the right...