Windy City 1985

Broadway in Tucson has announced its 2024-25 season, kicking off this November with Clue. The season continues with a total of six productions through August 2025.

Broadway In Chicago has announced its next season is now on sale. Learn more about the lineup here!

The 2024-25 Broadway season has been announced for Omaha Performing Arts, kicking off this November with Funny Girl. Learn more about the season here!

The new season features eight productions, including Broadway musicals BACK TO THE FUTURE and & JULIET. 

BROADWAY IN HOLLYWOOD has revealed their new 2024-25 Season - consisting of Six Los Angeles Premieres and the return of two blockbuster favorites. See full programming and learn how to purchase tickets!

Hoping to catch a play or musical in the near future but can't make it to New York City? Look no further than BroadwayWorld's comprehensive guide to all of the current and upcoming touring productions!

Chicago will continue to produce some of the most exciting work in the country this Fall. Offerings from the city’s more than 250 producing theatres include a wide variety of plays and musicals, as well as comedy, dance, festivals, and more.

It was exactly one year ago at this time that a lone, veteran Shakespearean actor, ventured out into the streets of the Lincoln Heights neighborhood to present a speech from the works of the immortal bard that he believed reflected the times we were living through.

kweliTV, the ad-free SVOD service for global independent Black cinema, has released their September 2020 slate of new titles, including MISSED CONNECTIONS, a short film starring and executive produced by POSE star Angelica Ross.

BWW Reviewer Peter Nason chooses the 101 greatest protest songs from 1939-2020. See if your favorite songs or artists made the list!

For the holiday season veteran and award-winning stage actor and play director Darryl Maximilian Robinson ( The Founder, Artistic Director and Producer of the multiracial, non-Equity professional chamber theatre, The Excaliber Shakespeare Company of Chicago and a classically-trained Los Angeles-based performer ) returned to his classical theatre experience ( he began his early professional stage career playing leading and featured roles with The 1982 National Shakespeare Company Tour of New York, The 1985 Indianapolis Shakespeare Festival and The 1989 Bristol Renaissance Faire of Kenosha, Wisconsin ) and reunited with talented editor, video-camerman and fellow actor Danny Belrose to record a less-than-perfect 'Street Theatre' rehearsal of the famed 'St. Crispin's Day Speech' as The King from William Shakespeare's 'Henry V' which Mr. Robinson presented upon the steps of The Entrance of LA's Historic Lincoln Heights Jail ( which he referred to as 'The Old Cypress Prison' ) on the afternoon of December 19, 2019 as part of a series of theatrical activities Mr. Robinson is sharing as part of The Excaliber Shakespeare Company Los Angeles Archival Project.

This morning, Alison Krauss announced new Spring tour dates which will find the accomplished bluegrass-country singer and musician performing at Playhouse Square on April 29th.

MerleFest, presented by Window World, is proud to announce the initial lineup for MerleFest 2020, which will be held April 23-26. The annual homecoming of musicians and music fans returns to the campus of Wilkes Community College in Wilkesboro, North Carolina, in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. “For over 30 years, one of the major factors that has built and sustained MerleFest has been the quality of the artists and performances that our guests see over the 4-day festival,” says Ted Hagaman, Festival Director. “People truly feel that the festival is a great value and that is why music fans and families return year after year. We feel that the 2020 lineup again reflects the diversity and quality of performers, and we look forward to another successful festival in April.” The complete lineup for MerleFest 2020 will be announced over the next few months. 

Court Theatre, under the continuing leadership of Charles Newell, Marilyn F. Vitale Artistic Director, and Angel Ysaguirre, Executive Director, has announced casting for August Wilson's King Hedley II, directed by Resident Artist Ron OJ Parson. King Hedley II runs September 12 - October 13, 2019 at Court Theatre, 5535 S. Ellis Ave. The press opening is Saturday, September 21, 2019 at 7:30pm.

AstonRep Theatre Company, under the artistic leadership of Derek Bertelsen and Sara Pavlak McGuire, announces its 2019-20 season, to be presented at its new artistic home, The Edge Theater in Chicago's Edgewater neighborhood.

The Case Western Reserve University/Cleveland Play House MFA Acting Program announces the debut performance of the Class of 2020. Fifth of July, from Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Lanford Wilson, will run in the Helen Theatre at Playhouse Square.

Yesterday, Melissa Mitchell stopped by Windy City LIVE to give us a sneak peek into the current North American Tour of Les Mis. Check out her I Dreamed a Dream below:

Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center will bring a pivotal era of rock music history to life with its new exhibition, 'Bill Graham and the Rock & Roll Revolution,' opening July 16, 2017.

The Rolling Stones Exhibitionism, produced by iEC Exhibitions!, is thrilled to team up with Vamonde, a mobile storytelling platform, to create an interactive experience that will allow Vamonde app users the chance to explore the band's historic Chicago locations featured in Navy Pier's latest exhibit.   Exhibitionism at Navy Pier is a blockbuster music experience that takes guests through The Rolling Stones' expansive career and showcases over 500 rare artifacts. This 18,000 square-foot exhibit runs for a limited time in Chicago through July 30, 2017. For more information and to book tickets to Exhibitionism, visit www.StonesExhibitionism.com.

Visitors to Chicago and Illinois have a guide to help navigate LGBTQ and mainstream events and places to see: The 2017 OUT! Chicago and Illinois LGBTQ Visitor's Guide is now available.

Sex, power, institutional failure, human frailty, betrayal, dreams and madness are at the core of celebrated Cuban-American writer Maria Irene Fornes's Pulitzer-Prize nominated play What of the Night?

Dude, the 80s are like totally back at this year's Printers Row Lit Fest! Local author Laura Quinn will be signing copies of her 80s-inspired novel, Punk Charming, from 2-6 p.m. Saturday, June 11th in Tent A (located at the entrance gate at W. Congress Pkwy and S. Dearborn St). Heralded by Windy City Reviews as 'a delightful romantic romp through the 1980s', Punk Charming is chockablock full of 80s pop culture. As part of the totally tubular signing event, Quinn will be handing out I ©80s stickers and other themed giveaways for fans. To celebrate the awesome decade, anyone wearing 80s attire (neon, favorite 80s band shirt, etc.) can purchase Punk Charming at the special discounted rate of just $12. Promotional updates will be shared on Twitter @PunkCharming80s and facebook.com/punkcharmingbook. Quinn discovered several other 80s connections in the Lit Fest (founded in 1985) 2016 lineup, such as: · Ethan Hawke, whose film debut was 'Explorers' in 1985, makes an appearance Saturday with Greg Ruth to discuss their graphic novel Indeh. · Bill Kurtis discusses history-shaping events Saturday. Among his countless achievements, in 1988 Kurtis was the first American television reporter to enter Chernobyl. · Catherine Lanigan, best-selling romance author of Romancing the Stone and Jewel of the Nile, makes an appearance Sunday. The novels turned into 80s classics films. · Sara Paretsky, international bestselling author, is hosting a flash fiction contest Saturday. Her V.I. Warshawski novels debuted in the 80s, leading to the film starring Kathleen Turner. Maureen Schulman will discuss Eli's Cheesecake's tasty history Saturday, along with a food demo by The Eli Cheesecake Cookbook coauthors Diana Moles and Jolene Worthington. The legendary dessert business launched shortly after the first Taste of Chicago in 1980. · David Swinson, author of Second Girl, appears Sunday with David Heinzmann. Early careers included being a record shop owner and a punk rock/alternative concert promoter in the 80s. · Steve Trout, Major League pitcher throughout the 80s, will be signing his children's book Loosey-Goosey Baseball Sunday. Punk Charming is published by Eternal Press - ISBN # 9781944579265 (print) and 9781944579005 (e-Book). It is available via Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Lulu as well as select local shops, including Bizarre Bazaar in Barrington. Punk Charming is currently being translated to be released as a Spanish-language edition and a Spanish/English edition. Punk Charming Back Cover Blurb: '1986 - Shoulder pads are big, hair is bigger, and American college student Kate Spenser is set to embark on the biggest adventure of her life. Having been accepted to a summer study-abroad program in Oxford, England, Kate travels to Europe for the first time. The eighteen-year-old is psyched about a summer of exploring countries on her own, experiencing new cultures, and perhaps meeting a charming young man along the way. Armed with a French-English dictionary and her Walkman loaded with Duran Duran, Kate is ready to start her adventure in France. Little does she know what awaits her when she arrives, and how she must use her wits to escape peril in Paris. Fortune favors Kate when she meets her Punk Charming, and it's love at first sight. Now, if she could only find him again. James Barrington meets his soul mate while on the run from Paris. Mis-cues and sabotage prevent him from reuniting with Kate, but he can never forget her. If only he had told her the truth before it was too late. Or is it? Can true love conquer all?' Quinn is passionate about writing and traveling, and is happiest when combining the two. She has lived in the Chicago area all of her life, an undergraduate student at DePaul University and a graduate student at Northwestern University and the University of Chicago. Quinn attended British Poetry and British Literature courses at Oriel College, during a summer study-abroad program at Oxford University in 1986. In addition to writing her next two novels (a sequel to Punk Charming and a new mystery series), Quinn teaches creative writing at local colleges and is a writing coach for private clients. She welcomes visitors to her website at LauraQuinnBooks.com or email at LauraQuinnBooks@yahoo.com. Quinn is available for interviews and appearances. Contact Publicist Shaun at 224-256-0174 or via e-mail at lauraquinnbooks@yahoo.com.

But the play is not all philosophical argument, as important as this is: it also is a love story, a family tale, and an account of the 'band of brothers' that was Gay Men's Health Crisis. And like most great playwrights who turn their attention to public events, Kramer maintains a tight relationship between these stories. Kramer's artistic control of the huge canvas on which he paints is in the end what makes the play so powerful.

The latest in unauthorized gossip and buzz from the heart of Chicago's showtune video bars, and musical theater news from Chicago to Broadway. We've got Halloween shows this week, like 'Side Show,' 'Goblin Market,' 'One Brain More' and 'Ride The Cyclone.' There are various 'Rocky Horror' shows, concerts of 'The Nightmare Before Christmas' and 'No One Here But Us Witches,' dueling downtown concerts by Kristen Chenoweth and Leonard Bernstein, a suburban 'Avenue Q,' and the impending close of 'Million Dollar Quartet.' After how long???

More than music, the anti-establishment movement of Punk crashed onto the scene in the mid-to-late 1970s and spread like wildfire around the world. But it all started in Cleveland, Ohio. The films in AMERICAN PUNK celebrate the sub-culture with insightful rockumentaries of the early Punk scene and narratives made in the height of its popularity.