Like the first generation Apple tablet, Broadway in Chicago and threesixty° entertainment’s “Peter Pan” flew into town with deserved graduation-season pomp and circumstance, befitting theater’s prospective next big thing. Common to most new technology, this production simultaneously wows and disappoints. The wow begins walking up to the 1,300-seat, in-the-round theater tent parked in a lot […]
Want to give Mom a great gift for Mother’s Day? What about a mother-daughter theater afternoon or evening? We’ve combed May offerings on stages in Chicago and the suburbs, and found several options to suit various tastes. Broadway Mom “Spring Awakening” May 8-13 Ford Center for the Performing Arts, Oriental Theatre 24 W. Randolph St., […]
Cirque Eloize iD is in Chicago at the Cadillac Palace Theatre for a limited run through May 8. The show is Cirque du Soleil meets “In the Heights”; a grittier, more urban version of the well-known, dreamy shows filled with acrobats and trapeze artists. The show opens in a cityscape filled with blaring horns and […]
Like Studs Terkel himself, the musical “Working,” based on his book of interviews, celebrates men and women from all walks of life. Some characters love their work, others hate it—but either way, the 1-hour-40-minute, no-intermission show explores the many ways that work can give meaning to our lives. In this revised version of the ‘70s […]
The smash hit Broadway musical, which won three Tony Awards and the Pulitzer Prize, will be playing at the Bank of America Theatre for a limited engagement April 26–May 8. Individual tickets for “Next to Normal” go on sale on Friday, February 25. Alice Ripley, who received the 2009 Tony Award for Best Actress in […]
North Shore native Betsy Morgan, who currently stars in Broadway in Chicago’s “Les Miserables,” launched her musical theater career right here in Chicago. She landed a role in “Mamma Mia!”—even after a flustered audition. “I forgot my shoes outside the room, I went in with bare feet and I swore by accident,” she remembered. “They […]
The audience at the Bank of America Theatre got a welcome dose of warm country sunshine on Jan. 19, as well as an in-person visit from the country legend herself.
Girls want to see “Wicked” over and over again because in between flying monkeys, mob scenes and the big Oz machine is a story of friendship between two very different young women. The show, with music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz, is back in at the Cadillac Palace in Chicago, but only through January 23. […]
If your parents loved “Jersey Boys,” you’ll love “Rock of Ages.” It’s the 80s rocking answer to the swooning crooners. The show is fast paced and super high energy, with a sweet but simple story that link songs by Journey, Styx, Pat Benatar and REO Speedwagon. Two innocents—Drew, “a city boy born and raised in […]
The 2001 movie “Shrek” is a quirky fairytale, with its story of a swamp-dwelling ogre and a homely, chubby princess who fall in love. “Shrek, the Musical,” which runs through Sept. 5 at the Cadillac Palace Theatre in Chicago, tells that story in a frantic, over-amplified production, with crude humor (farting and the like) that’s […]
