American Blues Theater Archives

Three actors gather around a piano where a fourth is seated. Two others look on from the background, which includes a large Christmas tree

George Bailey and American Blues Theater get a new home

by Kerry Reid October 27, 2023October 28, 2023

Sometimes you gotta take glimmers of hope where you find them when the news is consistently horrifying. And despite all the recent anxiety-inducing bulletins about the state of live performance, there are some positive signs on the horizon. (For an in-depth view of the local scene, I’d also suggest this recent American Theatre essay by […]

A group of six Black actors (three women, three men) crouch in a circle, their arms stretched out and supporting each other.

Ghost Light

Looking back at some of the best productions and biggest stories of 2022

by Kerry Reid December 13, 2022December 28, 2022

During 2020, my running joke was that, although there weren’t any plays happening, there was always plenty of drama to report on in Chicago theater. In fall of 2021, we started seeing some theater return, though the season was cut short by last December’s COVID surge. (Not to be confused with the one we’re currently […]

Danny Goldring is pictured standing outside a locked gate in an alleyway, posed as if he's trying to unlock it. He has reddish hair and a mustache, and wears a dark suit with a light shirt and maroon tie.

Performing Arts Feature

Remembering Danny Goldring

by Kerry Reid December 12, 2022December 16, 2022

When news broke over a week ago that Danny Goldring had died at 76, there was (as is often the case these days) an immediate outpouring of tributes on social media. I learned the news from Chicago actor Gary Houston; I sometimes met Goldring and his wife, actor Diane Dorsey, over the years at parties […]

In the foreground is a man at the piano. Two women stand on either side of another man standing behind the pianist. In the background, we see a Christmas tree and another man and woman looking on.

Theater Review

American Blues plants a whole holiday garden

by Dan Jakes November 30, 2022November 30, 2022

Frank Capra’s 1946 Christmas classic film is packed frame-by-frame with small moments of storytelling perfection, and as I get older, there’s one that just guts me like a fish. Exhausted, panicked, and facing certain financial and reputational ruin, George Bailey tries in vain to cajole Zuzu, his littlest one, to bedtime. “I’m not sleepy,” she […]

Foreground: a Black man stands center between a Black man on the left and a Black woman on the right. The men are in work coveralls, the woman in a dress and white apron. The set is whitewashed planks. Behind them on a bench sit two more Black men.

Theater Review

Heat in August

by Kelly Kleiman July 13, 2022July 14, 2022

It is a truth universally acknowledged that it’s actually harder to write a rave review than it is to write a pan. How to communicate the thrill of seeing a show that’s just exactly what it should be without simply saying GO SEE THIS SHOW? Fences Through 8/6: Thu-Fri 7:30 PM, Sat 2:30 and 7:30 […]

City Life

American music, Black Pride, and the Chosen Few

by Kerry Reid, Micco Caporale and Salem Collo-Julin July 1, 2022July 1, 2022

Summer’s in full swing . . . get out there and enjoy our city!

Photo of Monty Cole, a Black man in a black T-shirt, blue denim jacket, and a tan stocking cap

Ghost Light

Swinging for the Fences with Monty Cole

by Kerry Reid June 30, 2022June 30, 2022

In 2016, Monty Cole made his directorial debut in Chicago with Eugene O’Neill’s The Hairy Ape at now-defunct Oracle Productions—and what a debut it was. His staging of the story of Yank, a swaggering stoker on a steamship who is ultimately destroyed by a society that sees him only as a brute, brought together a […]

Daytime rendering of planned exterior of new American Blues Theater space, with a man on bicycle across the street and people walking by the entrance.

Ghost Light

A new home for American Blues

by Kerry Reid March 23, 2022March 25, 2022

Like almost every long-running Chicago theater company, American Blues Theater has been through its share of ups and downs. Founded in 1985, ABT has long carried the banner for the classic Chicago-style ensemble, and they went Equity in 1988. They lost some money on a production of Keith Reddin’s Peacekeeper in 1990, but by 1993, […]

Older white-haired man in a suit stands pointing out toward audience, with a jumble of desks and chairs piled up behind him.

Theater Review

Solo guru, collective experience

by Dan Jakes March 22, 2022March 22, 2022

In the longstanding tradition of solo performers benevolently fucking with their audiences, Dean Evans’s masterful 2012 Honeybuns holds a special place in Chicago storefront history as a sweet spot between gently antagonistic and subtly profound crowd work. I was warmly reminded of it at key points throughout writer-director John Kolvenbach’s new hour-long piece, which takes […]

City Life

Otters, Monday Night Foodball, and the Messiah

by Kerry Reid, Micco Caporale and Salem Collo-Julin December 10, 2021December 14, 2021

Looking to fill your dance card? Here’s some events and activities to consider this weekend and beyond. FRI 12/10 The Japanese Arts Foundation is teaming up with the Logan Theatre to present Tekkonkinkreet. Also known as Black & White, the movie is based on a manga series of the same name that follows a pair […]

Theater Review

Bedford Falls is live in Chicago

by Kerry Reid December 8, 2021December 8, 2021

Who needs four ghosts to remind you of the meaning of life when one angel (second class) can do the job? Frank Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life by now is right up there with A Christmas Carol as a holiday classic delivering lessons about the importance of love over money. (Well, a Sam Wainwright waiting […]

Drag performer Mz. Ruff N' Stuff at Lips Chicago

City Life

More comedy, movies, and art, please

by Salem Collo-Julin, Kerry Reid and Brianna Wellen August 6, 2021August 18, 2021

Upcoming events and recommendations for the next seven days

Arts & Culture

Lanise Antoine Shelley is opening up the House

by Kerry Reid March 11, 2021September 22, 2021

The new artistic director wants to take ‘amazing feats of storytelling’ into more diverse realms; Rick Bayless wants to give more money to local theaters.