Chicago Shakespeare Archives

The ensemble of Beauty and the Beast at Chicago Shakespeare is pictured clumped together sitting on the floor. Belle is in the center.

Disney delight

by Amanda Finn July 26, 2023July 26, 2023

The stages at Chicago Shakespeare Theater are accustomed to classic tales of daring sword fights, magic spells, and a prince in disguise—just the kinds of stories that Belle loves to read. Although Navy Pier is far from Belle’s French provincial town, CST’s production of the Disney favorite Beauty and the Beast roars to life nonetheless. […]

Diptych of headshots with Edward Hall on the left and Kimberly Motes on the right

Ghost Light

Chicago Shakespeare announces new leadership team

by Kerry Reid July 21, 2023July 26, 2023

Changes at the top of Chicago theaters large and small have been a constant for the past three years—we have definitely been experiencing the biggest shift in leadership I’ve seen in the decades that I’ve been writing about the scene here. Not coincidentally, these changes are happening as regional theaters across the country wrestle with […]

Ross Lehman (left) and Kevin Gudahl (right) as the twin Dromios in The Comedy of Errors. They wear identical "Dutch boy" blonde wigs, blue shorts, yellow-and-blue plaid short-sleeved shirts over gold knit long-sleeved T-shirts, and what looks like pale blue support socks with green slip-on canvas shoes.

Theater Review

Silly swan song

by Kerry Reid April 5, 2023April 5, 2023

Barbara Gaines started her tenure as artistic director for Chicago Shakespeare Theater (then called Chicago Shakespeare Workshop) in 1986 by staging Henry V on the rooftop of the Red Lion Pub. She’s closing it out with a production of The Comedy of Errors that contains a sly homage to that debut in the form of […]

Five actors, representing the Moors, stand in a line. In the center and slightly in front is the Leader of the Moors, wearing brightly colored patchwork trousers, a denim jacket over a white shirt, and a headdress of branches and flowers. The others wear T-shirts and trousers in various dull shades of gray, black, and tan.

Theater Review

Dead romantics

by Kerry Reid February 2, 2023February 2, 2023

Every time I hear someone describe Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights as a “romance,” I die a little inside. It’s a portrait of dysfunction, abuse, codependency, and revenge. Which, sure, I guess is romantic in its own way, but c’mon: Heathcliff and Catherine are the Sid and Nancy of the moors. (Maybe too many people got […]

A young Latinx woman in white robe and blue shawl covering her head kneels center stage. On her right, slightly in the shadows, is an older white man in a monk's robe.

Theater Review

You say you want a revolution?

by Kerry Reid November 3, 2022November 4, 2022

When it comes to bold and audacious stagings of Measure for Measure (for my money, the most unpleasant of Shakespeare’s “problem plays”), it’s hard to top Robert Falls’s dark take-no-prisoners 2013 production at the Goodman, which reimagined Vienna as Times Square, circa the late 1970s. (Think David Simon’s The Deuce on HBO.) But Henry Godinez’s […]

Three different couples, each representing a different age for the two romantic lead characters in The Notebook are onstage. The youngest and middle couples are left and right, respectively, with the younger couple holding hands and the middle couple looking at each other across a space. In the center is the older version, embracing in front of a bed.

Theater Review

As teardrops fall

by Catey Sullivan October 13, 2022October 13, 2022

If you’re a fan of The Notebook—either the romantically waterlogged, sugary-sentimental 2004 movie or the Nicholas Sparks novel that prompted it—you’ll probably be swept away by the musical, directed by Michael Greif and Schele Williams and getting a pre-Broadway run at Chicago Shakespeare. The love story between rich girl Allie and working-class Noah spans decades, […]

Five cast members for It Came From Outer Space stand onstage, leaning in various directions with their arms stretched above them and to the sides. A very large moon is in the background and a row of telephone poles is on the right. They have expressions of shock and surprise on their faces.

Theater Review

Out of this world fun

by Kerry Reid July 6, 2022July 18, 2022

Last year, Chicago Shakespeare offered We Are Out There, a digital sneak peek of Joe Kinosian and Kellen Blair’s goofy musical adaptation of the 1953 Universal Pictures sci-fi film, It Came From Outer Space, which was itself based on an original story by Ray Bradbury. Now it’s finally onstage at Chicago Shakes’s cozy upstairs studio […]

Five dancers in red cloaks crouch in a semi-circle, their hands raised in fists before them.

Performing Arts Feature

Hot weather, hot shows

by Kerry Reid, Irene Hsiao and Deanna Isaacs June 22, 2022July 8, 2022

Summer is officially here, in case the sweat and lightning bugs weren’t enough of a clue. In addition to the shows and artists we profiled in our summer arts preview issue this week, we’ve got just a few suggestions for other offerings in theater, dance, and opera that look promising—whether you’re looking for a nice […]

A young Black woman in a blue dress comforts a Latina woman in a gray dress and yellow cardigan.

Theater Review

He’s just not that into you

by Catey Sullivan May 4, 2022May 4, 2022

Its title and structure clearly classify William Shakespeare’s All’s Well That Ends Well as a comedy. By definition, tragedies end in death, comedies with weddings. Nobody dies during All’s Well, but the climactic wedding in the final act hardly ends with the happy couple basking in the rosy romantic glow of a strongly implied happily […]

The six members of the cast of Six, standing in a semicircle and holding microphones

Theater Review

Tudor lessons

by Kerry Reid April 19, 2022April 19, 2022

After starting life at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2017, then getting its North American premiere at Chicago Shakespeare in 2019 before heading off to Broadway, Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss’s sassy rock musical (directed by Moss and Jamie Armitage) about the most famous sextet of spouses in history is back for a three-month run […]

David Strathairn in khakis and sweater vest, lying on stage floor in front of a wooden table and chair

Arts & Culture

Remembering Jan Karski

by Josh Flanders October 27, 2021October 27, 2021

In this fraught time of political divisions and worldwide calamities, in the face of seemingly impossible odds, how can we find the courage and conviction to stand up for what is right? From November 3-14 at the Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Emmy Award-winning and Academy Award-nominated actor David Strathairn (Good Night, and Good Luck, Nomadland, Lincoln) […]

The company of As You Like It at Chicago Shakespeare dressed like flower children of the 1960s

Theater Review

All you need is As You Like It

by Josh Flanders October 21, 2021October 28, 2021

If England is famous worldwide for two things, it’s the Beatles and Shakespeare. Weaving these two very different artists together in a play may make you cry “zounds!” but methinks there is more in common betwixt these British poets than one may expect. The Chicago Shakespeare Theater is ready to welcome audiences to live shows […]

Public Service Announcement

Chicago culture is too darn hot

by Salem Collo-Julin and Kerry Reid August 27, 2021August 27, 2021

It’s been a hot sweaty week, no doubt about it, but soaking up some vitamin D at outdoor festivals (or just getting out of the house into someone else’s AC) could be good for the humidity blues. Here are some of the best bets for the week ahead. Taste of Greektown brings Greek music and […]