For Knight, this represents her first chance to be the original aggressor rather than the avenging victim, and it’s wild to see her twist her narrative. She is stunning and statue-esque, and Olivia whiplashes between actress and countess with skill.
In his first book, Opening Doors: Reimagining the American Musical, John Doyle reflects on the 50-year theatrical journey taken by a boy who never dreamt it could happen to him. Through simply working at his craft and trying to earn a living he gained a reputation for thinking outside of the box and is credited with helping create a new art form – that of actor-musician led musical theatre. Read an excerpt here!
Kathy Voytko takes on the iconic role of Mrs. Potts in the BEAUTY AND THE BEAST national tour. She reflects on the production, her history with Chicago theater, and working with Stephen Sondheim on THE FROGS.
They have managed to restage BUG for 2025, and boy, is it a doozy! You don’t want to miss this revival and reimagining of the Tracy Letts cult classic. The entire company goes for broke, and they create a fiery display of acting, visuals, and audio landscapes that will blow you back in your chair.
This is a wonderfully produced version of an unflinching script, which may be the hardest part of BLACKBIRD. It feels so real that the fear factor of an abuser and a victim seething at each other or, worse, being tender to them feels too real sometimes.
What is more American than apple pie? A small-town waitress with a dream and the ingredients for success! Sugar, butter, flour. These aren’t the only ingredients Jenna, a waitress and expert pie maker, uses to make her famous pies. Stuck in a small town and a loveless marriage, Jenna unexpectedly becomes pregnant, and then finds acceptance and love in the most unexpected place.
Tony Award-winner Santino Fontana, Emily Skinner, Tony Yazbeck, Amy Owens, and special guest vocalist: Len Cariou will join the San Diego Symphony Orchestra in a celebration of Stephen Sondheim next month.
It is a tense Southern psychodrama about family and the results of abuse on members of it. Cicadas, verbal sparring, racism, and outright brawls all make appearances as one would expect. Yet the show is still surprising in many turns and should have audiences laughing and gasping often simultaneously. The darkest of humor surfaces out of tragedy.
Led by a bravura performance from Carli Hardon, Nashville Repertory Theatre’s production of The Color Purple – the musical based on the beloved Alice Walker novel – is yet another extraordinary success from the professional company in the midst of its 39th season. Directed with complete self-assurance and confidence by Reggie Law, with evocative and energetic choreography by Joi Ware and the musical direction of Dion Treece that results in one of the most emphatically sung shows in Nashville Rep history.
A one-night-only reading of the musical All The Rage will be held as part of Spark Theatre Festival this March. The reading will star Broadway's Chilina Kennedy and Constantine Maroulis.
Hart, of Andersonville, has been training actors of all levels since she began teaching in 2006. She taught for five years at the acclaimed Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, as well as at Loyola University, Notre Dame University Summer Shakespeare, and Act One Conservatory. She has served as text coach for Chicago Shakespeare, Strawdog Theatre and Summer Shakespeare at Notre Dame, and her directing credits include Macbeth at City Lit Theatre and Falstaff's Dream at Notre Dame.
There is a short, tight list of Houston actors who could do a show about their life and have it mean anything more than a vanity project, but she is at the top of that register. There is something about Mary Hooper that Houston loves, and if you are lucky enough to catch this one woman show called THE BOOK OF MARY you will learn why.
That Dirt Dogs would choose MISERY for their “season of love” makes perfect sense. As a company they have made a name for themselves by creating plays fueled by testosterone laden energy and provocative rough language. There is an intensity and violence that suggests MISERY would be a perfect project for them, and indeed this production proves that assumption mostly correct.
Porchlight Music Theatre has announced the Chicago Sings Broadway Pop cast and that Rick Boynton of Chicago Shakespeare Theater is the 2023 Guy Adkins Award for Excellence in the Advancement of Music Theatre in Chicago recipient.
Porchlight Music Theatre have announced tickets go on sale Tuesday, Jan. 17 for Chicago Sings Broadway Pop, its annual fundraising concert, Monday, March 27, at the House of Blues Chicago, 329 N Dearborn St, directed by Porchlight's Artistic Director Michael Weber+.
Porchlight Music Theatre has announced Chicago Sings Broadway Pop, its annual fundraising concert, Monday, March 27, 2023 at the House of Blues Chicago, 329 N Dearborn St, directed by Porchlight's Artistic Director Michael Weber+.
Acclaimed director, producer, and advocate Ken-Matt Martin will helm Baltimore Center Stage's Spring 2023 production of Tiny Beautiful Things. Martin replaces previously announced director Stori Ayers. Tiny Beautiful Things begins performances at BCS on March 9, 2023.
This is a morally complex piece of theater, and luckily the cast is up to the challenge of bringing these people to life without judgment or any trace of hesitation. The language, the situations, the truths, are all difficult matters that have to be handled directly and confidently.