Chicago

EXTRA! EXTRA! SANTA CAUGHT ON TAPE WITH RAG DOLL! If your little ones are aching for some color and Christmas and you’re looking for a critical and commercial success from Chicago to entertain them, well here it is. Last year, the premiere of Eleanor’s Very Merry Christmas – The Musical was caught and captured so…

A FEAST FOR THE IMAGINATION I have seen three shows from the Chicago-based performance collective Manual Cinema, and the theatricality is truly awesome. You wouldn’t expect this from a simple description, but you must believe me when I say that this endlessly inventive group of artists uses disarmingly simple tools ’” live music, paper puppets,…

CALLING ALL HUMAN TRASHCANS!! (THAT’S YOU, BY THE WAY) Chicago’s amazing avant-garde company Trap Door Theatre is presenting a series of eight episodes adapted from Matei Vişniec’s Decomposed Theatre, or the Human Trashcan. This Romanian playwright and philosopher saw his plays banned under Romanian Communism in the 70s and 80s (gee with titles like How…

STEPPENWOLF BEGINS 2020-21 SEASON Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre begins its NOW virtual stage season with What Is Left, Burns, which “opens” for streaming on November 11, 2020. This world premiere play has been recorded with a spectacular production design, including stunning video and photography by Lowell Thomas  and  Joel Moorman and an original soundtrack composed by Justin Ellington….

UPCOMING READING HIGHLY RECOMMENDED Tony Award winner Rondi Reed  and Steppenwolf’s  Francis Guinan  will star in a world premiere virtual reading of Adam Szymkowicz’s  Such Small Hands,  directed by Artistic Director of Northlight Theatre  BJ Jones  on  October 14, 2020, at 7:30 p.m. CT,  as part of Kane Repertory Theatre’s New Play Lab. The Play: Paul is cancer ridden and descending into dementia. He…

CHICAGO SHAKES UP ITS SEASON Chicago Shakes’  35th Anniversary Season offers an amazing array of options, both in’‘person performances and virtual streaming. Look for plays written and inspired by Shakespeare, new musicals, a timely contemporary opera, and engaging digital content for audiences, students, and teachers. Virtual programming and streamed productions will launch the season in  September  2020. In’‘person…

LITTLE-KNOWN CHICAGO DISASTER BECOMES TOWERING MUSICAL; THE BRILLIANT LOOKINGGLASS THEATRE PRODUCTION STREAMS ONE NIGHT ONLY FOR FREE In 2012, Chicago’s Lookingglass Theatre Company presented the hit, Eastland: An Original Musical, a stunning meditation on one of the most terrible disasters in Chicago history: On the morning of July 25, 1915, an excursion boat overloaded with…

GO TO THE OTHERWORLD Chicago’s premier Science Fiction and Fantasy theatre proudly presents Of Dice And Men – A Play about Dungeons and Dragons! This virtual production is a remount of Otherworld’s first full length production from the spring of 2014, and it has been specifically designed for Otherworld’s digital platform. It will premiere on…

JUST AS MAGICAL REMOTELY Is stuff magical only because it can’t be explained? Perhaps it’s more than just the absence of logic, probability, or reason. There’s a presence too: Magic evokes a child-like sense of wonder in the oldest adults, rewarding their imagination more than their ignorance. At least that’s the working philosophy of House…