Theater – Page 130 –

Highland Park native Marina Franklin, who has TV and film credits, including HBO’s “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver,” is one of the headliners at the Funny is Female Comedy Festival, Oct. 22-25, at Comedy Plex in Oak Park. (Ashley Chappell)

‘Now there’s a girls’ club’: Funny is Female fest draws 50 comedians to Oak Park

By Myrna Petlicki

October 15, 2026 at 10:20 a.m.

More than 50 comics from around the country will be performing at the Funny is...

Ferdinand (Lawrence Grimm) and Will (Lenin Izquierdo) in "Any Rebellion of Will" at Trap Door Theatre. (George Hudson)

Review: ‘Any Rebellion of Will’ is an absurdist breath of fresh air at Trap Door Theatre

By Chris Jones

October 14, 2026 at 1:24 p.m.

This world premiere, penned by S.L. Daniels and accurately billed as a dark, absurdist comedy...

Director Stuart Gordon, co-founder of the Organic Theater Company, on May 12, 1981. (Anne Cusack/baiduhai)

Column: The legendary Organic Theater is gone, ‘Scream! Bleed!’ brings memories roaring back

By Rick Kogan

October 14, 2026 at 10:25 a.m.

New book remembers the formative Chicago theater company that gave us Joe Mantegna, Dennis Franz,...

Zoie Reams as the ancient prophetess Sibyl in "Night," one of three one-act operas comprising Lyric Opera of Chicago's world premiere "Proximity."

Review: Lyric Opera’s rich Chicago mashup ‘Proximity’ takes on gun violence, loneliness and climate change. It’s a lot.

By Michael Phillips

March 25, 2023 at 7:53 p.m.

Here in Chicago, we have a newly minted trio of one-act operas commissioned by Lyric...

Hubbard Street dancer Alysia Johnson in "Busk" by Aszure Barton.

Review: Coltrane, Edgar Allen Poe and a ‘show pony’ in Hubbard Street’s excellent ‘Elements’ at the MCA

By Lauren Warnecke

March 24, 2023 at 12:46 p.m.

It will be difficult to get a seat for Hubbard Street Dance Chicago's spring series,...

Linedy Genao and Jordan Dobson in "Bad Cinderella" at the Imperial Theatre in New York.

Review: ‘Bad Cinderella’ on Broadway pointlessly blows up a fairy tale

By Chris Jones

March 23, 2023 at 11:00 p.m.

"Bad Cinderella" says it all. Why, one wonders aplenty as one watches, did such a...

Yolonda Ross, center, with Marcus Moore and Kristin Ellis, in rehearsal of Congo Square Theatre's latest production, "How Blood Go," at the Steppenwolf Theatre, March 14, 2023.

Congo Square Theatre’s ‘How Blood Go’ is about racism in the health care system

By Darcel Rockett

March 24, 2023 at 10:35 a.m.

What would you do if your genealogy revealed a relation to patient 001 of the...

Rashun Carter, Christian Bufford, Gregory Stewart Jr and RJ Griffith in "Reasons: A Tribute to Earth, Wind & Fire" at Black Ensemble Theater.

Review: In ‘Reasons: A Tribute to Earth Wind & Fire,’ Black Ensemble brings the hits

By Chris Jones

March 23, 2023 at 5:15 a.m.

Chicago really doesn't talk enough about Maurice White, the life force of the amazing band...

The Biograph Theatre, on March 17, 2023, in the Lincoln Park neighborhood has been empty and locked since Victory Gardens closed.

As the Biograph remains dark, Victory Gardens Theater board speaks out and addresses critics

By Chris Jones

March 22, 2023 at 8:00 a.m.

After a prolonged silence that was attributed to legal obligations and the advice of lawyers,...

Michael Mejia, Carl Herzog, Tyler DeLoatch, Isabel Garcia, Peter Stielstra and Luiza Vitucci in "The Threepenny Opera" at Theo Ubique Theatre.

Review: Theo Ubique is just the theater to put on a fresh and lively ‘Threepenny Opera’

By Chris Jones

March 21, 2023 at 5:15 a.m.

"What is the robbing of a bank compared to the founding of a bank?" had...

The company of "Bob Fosse's Dancin'" on Broadway at the Music Box Theatre in New York.

Review: ‘Bob Fosse’s Dancin” on Broadway is a fascinating if conflicted ’70s throwback

By Chris Jones

March 19, 2023 at 7:00 p.m.

Dancers are athletes; it's just that America doesn't always see. They've got superhuman bodies and...

Lord Brian Hallifax as Dromio of Ephesus (Kevin Gudahl) with help from Monty (Bruce A. Young), while director Dudley Marsh (Ross Lehman) and Priscilla (Maya Vinice Prentiss) look on in Chicago Shakespeare Theater's production of "The Comedy of Errors."

Review: ‘The Comedy of Errors’ at Chicago Shakespeare is a warm and generous farewell from Barbara Gaines

By Chris Jones

March 17, 2023 at 2:18 p.m.

Chicago Shakes will live on but the Barbara Gaines Repertory Company, a robustly skilled and...

Micaela Diamond and Ben Platt in "Parade" on Broadway at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre in New York.

Review: In Broadway revival of ‘Parade,’ a story of Southern anti-Semitism remains too much on the surface

By Chris Jones

March 16, 2023 at 11:34 p.m.

At the new Broadway production of "Parade," the customary recorded admonition to silence cell phones...