All stories by Chris Jones on BroadwayStars

Friday, May 8, 2015

Met Ball raises profile of arts benefits — at what cost? by Chris Jones

Along with an increased pollen count, May is high season for the spring ritual known as annual benefits. For those rare creatures who relish plated chicken breast and bottomless decaf, these…

SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 01:08PM[SHARE]
Thursday, May 7, 2015

'Doubt,' in a Glencoe church, has a riveting Sister Aloysius by Chris Jones

The Writers Theatre production of John Patrick Shanley's "Doubt: A Parable," the well-known 2004 play (and then 2008 movie) about a nun who suspects a priest of child abuse, is being staged …

SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 04:52PM[SHARE]

Steppenwolf artistic director is hospitalized by Chris Jones

Martha Lavey, the artistic director of the Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago since 1995, is in a Chicago hospital, recovering from a stroke.

SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 01:30PM[SHARE]

Steppenwolf artistic director is hospitalized by Chris Jones

Martha Lavey, artistic director of the Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago since 1995, is in a Chicago hospital, recovering from a stroke.

SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 01:30PM[SHARE]

Cue summer: Here's what's coming to Chicago stages by Chris Jones

The news this week that the highly entertaining "Louis and Keely 'Live' at the Sahara" was closing at the Royal George on May 17" despite good reviews and fairly robust ticket sales, I'm tol…

SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 12:36PM[SHARE]
Wednesday, May 6, 2015

'The Project(s)': Unforgettable stories from Chicago public housing by Chris Jones

No one who was living in Chicago in 1994 can ever forget the death of 5-year-old Eric Morse, who fell to his death from the 14th floor of the Ida B. Wells public housing complex on Chicago's…

SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 05:56PM[SHARE]

'The Project(s)": Unforgettable stories from Chicago public housing by Chris Jones

No one who was living in Chicago in 1994 can ever forget the death of 5-year-old Eric Morse, who fell to his death from the 14th floor of the Ida B. Wells public housing complex on Chicago's…

SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 04:21PM[SHARE]
Monday, May 4, 2015

'Louis & Keely' not long for the Royal George by Chris Jones

"Louis and Keely 'Live' at the Sahara," the show about the singer-musician Louis Prima and his partner Keely Smith, has posted its closing notice at the Royal George Theatre for May 17.

SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 05:01PM[SHARE]

'Melancholy Play': An unfashionable emotion takes center stage by Chris Jones

If, like me, you frequently find yourself afflicted by melancholy " which we'll define here as a mild but persistent form of sadness of vague or indeterminate cause " then I think you will v…

SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 04:43PM[SHARE]

Erin Myers, a warm-hearted Chicago actress, dies at 41 by Chris Jones

When Sean Graney staged his 12-hour epic "All Our Tragic" for the company known as The Hypocrites last fall, he knew that the audience would need a few warm and funny guides through the dark…

SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 11:29AM[SHARE]

Erin Myers, a warmhearted Chicago actress, dies at 41 by Chris Jones

When Sean Graney staged his 12-hour epic "All Our Tragic" for the company known as The Hypocrites last fall, he knew that the audience would need a few warm and funny guides through the dark…

SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 11:29AM[SHARE]

Russ Tutterow, lover and defender of Chicago playwrights, dies at 68 by Chris Jones

The hospice inside Weiss Memorial Hospital on Chicago's North Side is a quiet and peaceful place. But for the last several days, one room therein has been bustling with people.

SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 09:26AM[SHARE]
Friday, May 1, 2015

'Side Man': Memories of a jazzman father — and the price paid by Chris Jones

At one crucial moment in playwright Warren Leight's "Side Man," a deeply affectionate tribute to the journeyman jazzman and the price he pays for his passion, we see a musician watching Elvi…

SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 01:29PM[SHARE]

When father's not coming home: Absent parents in 'Mad Men' and on stage by Chris Jones

As AMC's "Mad Men" approaches its final three episodes, it's already clear that the series auteur Matthew Weiner is honing in on the anguish of, and the anguish caused by, absent parents.

SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 06:00AM[SHARE]
Thursday, April 30, 2015

In wake of Jeffs reversal, where the Equity lines blur in Chicago by Chris Jones

Last weekend's scandal-ette at the Joseph Jefferson Awards Committee was a reminder of the increased difficulty of carving out hard-and-fast categories from the interconnected (not to mentio…

SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 06:00AM[SHARE]
Tuesday, April 28, 2015

Young Definition Theatre builds a capable 'Doll's House' by Chris Jones

The Definition Theatre Company, an intriguing new Chicago theater company formed by graduates of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and currently in its inaugural season, describ…

SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 05:55PM[SHARE]

2015 Tony Nominations announced by Chris Jones

"Fun Home," the moving new musical with a book and lyrics by Lisa Korn, music by Jeanine Tesori and the subject of the early family life of the lesbian cartoonist Alison Bechdel, was n…

SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 09:16AM[SHARE]
Monday, April 27, 2015

'Wonderland' is Lewis Carroll with indie cool by Chris Jones

They have some competition for the "Alice in Wonderland" title " Taylor Swift-size competition " but the new take on the beloved works of Lewis Carroll at Chicago Children's Theatre is certa…

SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 05:12PM[SHARE]
Sunday, April 26, 2015

A straight-forward trip to the 'Forum' by Chris Jones

If you are a fan of the comedic lyricist's art " the provision of the perfect rhyme, the acknowledgment of alliterative pleasures, the coupling of deliciously contrasting notions, the matchi…

SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 02:25PM[SHARE]
Saturday, April 25, 2015

Jeff Awards disqualify The Hypocrites and release new nominations by Chris Jones

The Joseph Jefferson Awards Committee said on Saturday that it had disqualified The Hypocrites from its 2014-15 non-Equity awards, due to its discovery of the theater's status as a Equ…

SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 01:01PM[SHARE]

Why 'I love you more than Netflix' by Chris Jones

At the Second City e.t.c. comedy show the other night, I was pulled up short. The moment was a sequence of sketches all dealing with our addiction to technology. After watching someone play …

SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 06:00AM[SHARE]
Thursday, April 23, 2015

The 2015 non-Equity Jeff Award nominees are... by Chris Jones

Sean Graney's epic production of "All Our Tragic," a 12-hour adaptation of every Greek play, emerged at the top of the heap of nominations for the Joseph Jefferson Awards honoring excellence…

SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 11:05PM[SHARE]

UPDATED: The 2015 non-Equity Jeff Award nominees are ... by Chris Jones

UPDATE: Here is a full list of the nominations for the Joseph Jefferson Awards honoring excellence in non-Equity Chicago theater during the 2014-15 season. These nominations were changed Apr…

SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 11:05PM[SHARE]

'The Visit': Chita Rivera stars in Broadway musical about revenge by Chris Jones

NEW YORK - When I first saw "The Visit" at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago in 2001, I wrote that here was a strange, difficult, slow-to-build musical that could still pierce the skin with its…

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'Airline Highway' a sensual Broadway toast to the Crescent City by Chris Jones

NEW YORK " With most of its stellar original cast from the Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago intact, Lisa D'Amour's "Airline Highway" moves to Broadway as an affectionate updating of Lanford Wi…

SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 10:00PM[SHARE]

'Airline Highway' a sensual Broadway toast to the Crescent City by Chris Jones

NEW YORK " With most of its stellar  original cast from the Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago intact, Lisa D'Amour's "Airline Highway" moves to Broadway as an affectionate updating of Lanfo…

SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 10:00PM[SHARE]

Simon Amstell makes his neurotic Chicago debut by Chris Jones

At one point in his Chicago show at Thalia Hall in Pilsen Wednesday night, Simon Amstell, the popular young British comedian known for the quiz show "Never Mind the Buzzcocks" and now on a k…

SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 03:19PM[SHARE]

Anna Shapiro: The entrance interview and her plans for Steppenwolf by Chris Jones

In a cafe on the Upper East Side this week, incoming Steppenwolf Theatre artistic director Anna D. Shapiro sat down to talk about her new job in Chicago. For the past year, Shapiro, her husb…

SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 12:59PM[SHARE]

Anna Shapiro: The entrance interview and her plans for Steppenwolf by Chris Jones

NEW YORK - In a cafe on the Upper East Side this week, incoming Steppenwolf Theatre artistic director Anna D. Shapiro sat down to talk about her new job in Chicago. For the past year, Shapir…

SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 06:00AM[SHARE]
Wednesday, April 22, 2015

'Something Rotten!' has its way with the Bard on Broadway by Chris Jones

NEW YORK " For the first half hour of "Something Rotten!" " the wacky new Broadway musical set among insecure creative types in an ersatz version of Elizabethan London where Shakespeare is a…

SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 10:00PM[SHARE]

All that Chat

2025-2026 BROADWAY SEASON
Jun 12, 2025: Call Me Izzy - Studio 54
Sep 16, 2025: Art - Music Box Theatre
Oct 08, 2025: Beetlejuice - Palace Theatre
Nov 13, 2025: Oedipus - Studio 54
Nov 16, 2025: Chess - Imperial Theatre
Mar 23, 2026: Giant - Music Box Theatre
Apr 06, 2026: Becky Shaw - Hayes Theater
Apr 16, 2026: Proof - Booth Theatre
Apr 26, 2026: Drama Desk Cut-Off