A north-side native who spent his youth frequenting Wrigley Field and following the gospel according to Del Close, Jake Johnson is Chicago to the core.
Tag: Chicago theater
Posted inPerforming Arts Feature
Plays in a pandemic
By the time this year ends (it is gonna end, right?), Reader critics will, by my count, have reviewed 69 live theater and dance performances. That’s far less than in most years, but a veritable cornucopia after the onstage famine that began in March 2020. But just when we think it’s safe to go back […]
Posted inArts & Culture
An actor who stayed
Editor’s note: William J. Norris, a veteran Chicago actor whose career included playing Scrooge for the Goodman production of A Christmas Carol for a dozen years and performing with the late Organic Theater in their legendary sci-fi serial, Warp!, died at his home in Iowa on November 30 at age 75. Mark Larson, author of […]
Posted inBlogs
Sun-Times critic Hedy Weiss is out
Sun-Times critic Hedy Weiss has been dropped after 34 years on the job.
Posted inArts & Culture
Aziza Barnes’s BLKS needs to take itself more srsly
Steppenwolf’s Girls-like latest scores laughs but pulls its own punches.
Posted inBlogs
How Chicago shaped Hugh Hefner and his Playboy empire, and other news
Also, Governor Rauner signs a bill expanding abortion coverage.
Posted inBlogs
Hacked e-mails show Clinton campaign wanted to move Illinois primary from March to April or May, and other Chicago news
Donald Trump’s honorary street sign is gone.
Posted inArts & Culture
Cheers Live, Dog Night, The Happiest Place on Earth, and nine more new theater reviews
The latest Chicago stage shows range from the rawly emotional to the enjoyably ridiculous.
Posted inArts & Culture
Onstage this fall: Race and violence
Chicago’s fall theater season shows a new emphasis on social consciousness.
Posted inBlogs
The Laquan McDonald video effect? Shootings increase, arrests decline, and other Chicago news
Also, Rahm vs. the rats.
Posted inArts & Culture
How Chicago theater artists are diversifying the city’s stages
Efforts are underway to make Chicago’s theater less uniformly white, thin, able-bodied, and gender-conforming.
Posted inBlogs
Chris Jones wins national honor for drama criticism
The Tribune‘s longtime drama critic wins a prestigious Nathan Award.
Posted inBlogs
A lot of Claudia Cassidy and somewhat less of everyone else
Chris Jones publishes an anthology of Chicago Tribune theater criticism.
Posted inBlogs
The Chicago International Film Festival, and the rest of this week’s movies
New reviews and notable screenings in this week’s issue