I didn’t meet the revered Chicago Tribune theater critic, Richard Christiansen, until 2016 when I started interviewing him for my book Ensemble: An Oral History of Chicago Theater. He was 84 years old and living at The Selfhelp Home, an assisted living facility for older Jewish adults where a caregiver he particularly liked would sit […]
Tag: Chris Jones
Posted inPerforming Arts Feature
The Saints are marching in to fall performances
Tearing Lady Gaga’s ticket. Seeing a tenor dropped in Tosca. Grooving to Mavis Staples from the rafters. These are the magical moments that happen with live performance. They are also just another Tuesday night for The Saints, the quiet backbone of Chicago theater that’s never stopped working, lockdown be damned. The Saints is the only […]
Posted inColumns & Opinion
Can you trust a newspaper that spells “were” with an apostrophe?
A fine Tribune story is marred by editing oversights.
Posted inBlogs
How Mordecai chef-owner Matthias Merges helped transform modern fine dining
A phone call to PolyScience in Niles resulted in the popularization of immersion circulators in restaurant kitchens.
Posted inBlogs
Theater’s biggest summer drama—Pass Over
Chicago has debated Pass Over all summer, without getting to the merits of the play itself
Posted inColumns & Opinion
In defense of Hedy Weiss
Just because you disagree with her criticism doesn’t make her a bigot.
Posted inBlogs
Tracy Letts’s rebellion against the Jeff Awards is suspiciously woke
What motivated the Steppenwolf playwright to give the Jeffs the cold shoulder?
Posted inFilm
CBS’s Superior Donuts serves up nothing but holes
The TV series based on Tracy Letts’s Steppenwolf stage comedy is a corn-syrup north-side minstrel show.
Posted inBlogs
Week in review: The Oscars disaster that was, and wasn’t
The political rhetoric was real; some of the symbolism was perhaps less so.
Posted inBlogs
From book’s blurbs, you’d never know these critics slammed the play
Haymarket’s published version of Steppenwolf’s This is Modern Art selectively excerpts some of the play’s reviews.
Posted inBlogs
Profiles Theatre belatedly acknowledges use of pseudonyms after Reader investigation
Just look at the screenshots.
Posted inBlogs
‘The statement is a study in crisis management’: Not in Our House leaders decline to meet with Darrell Cox without an apology
Not in Our House plans to present a petition to the theater later this week.
Posted inArts & Culture
At Profiles Theatre the drama—and abuse—is real
For more than 20 years, actors and crew members stayed silent about mistreatment they suffered at the acclaimed storefront theater. Now they’re speaking up, hoping to protect workers in non-Equity theaters across the country.
Posted inBlogs
John Conroy’s drama about police torture gets published not a moment too soon
My Kind of Town dramatizes the former Reader reporter’s writing on police brutality.
Posted inBlogs
Chris Jones wins national honor for drama criticism
The Tribune‘s longtime drama critic wins a prestigious Nathan Award.