Underscore Theatre Company announced the cast of "Tonya and Nancy: The Rock Opera" on Thursday. Produced in association with Harborside Films, the dark comedy inspired by the 1994 attack on figure skating champion Nancy Kerrigan, will star Amanda Horvath and Courtney Mack as Tonya Harding and Nancy...
In "The Book of Mormon," the role of Elder Cunningham — the runtlike sidekick to the Type A missionary Elder Price — has turned out to be quite a springboard. A squishy springboard, certainly, but a high dive into the baptismal pool of prominence just the same. Josh Gad made his name by originating...
This week's Showcase features a performance from Thom Miller, currently starring as Robert in Writers Theatre's 4-star production of Stephen Sondheim's "Company." Miller sings "Marry Me a Little," the perpetual bachelor's wish on the eve of his 35th birthday, which he spends surrounded by his good,...
Shattered Globe Theatre announced the first two productions of its 2016-17 season Wednesday. Opening in the fall is Sam Shepard’s "True West" (Sept. 8-Oct. 22). The tale of two estranged brothers at each other's throats over a screenplay will be directed by James Yost. The cast includes Joseph...
Chicago, meet your Alexander Hamilton: It's Miguel Cervantes. Meet your Angelica Schuyler: It's Karen Olivo. And meet your (former) King George III: It's Alexander Gemignani. Originally from Texas, Cervantes becomes the first actor other than the show's creator, Lin-Manuel Miranda, to originate...
With tickets typically selling on secondary markets for at least $2,000--and some being offered for ten times that amount--Saturday marks the final performance of the original Broadway cast of "Hamilton," including its writer, composer and creator, Lin-Manuel Miranda. Javier Munoz will take over...
What's the next "Hamilton"? I've been thinking about that question partly because I have become weary of being asked what was the last "Hamilton," in reference to the colossal demand that resulted in lines that snaked through the Loop on Tuesday as single tickets for the Chicago run (beginning...
In this week's Showcase, Dara Cameron, currently playing Audrey in American Blues Theater's production of "Little Shop of Horrors," sings the show's hopeful ballad "Somewhere That's Green." In the killer-plant musical with book and lyrics by Howard Ashman and music by Alan Menken, Audrey dreams,...
How do you kick off your summer when your day (or "Night") job is on a break until the fall? If you're Colin Jost — co-anchor for "Weekend Update" on "Saturday Night Live" — you stop by Chicago for four nights of stand-up at Zanies ("One of my favorite clubs in the country," he said Wednesday night)....
Imagine assembling an ocean liner in your basement, then carting it out onto a body of water, hoping it will float. That must be something like the experience Thodos Dance Chicago has mounting its annual "New Dances" showcase, which reached its 16th year Saturday-Sunday at the Athenaeum. The numbers...
"I tried to make sure Coltrane's poem was the foundation of what we were doing," says tap dancer Jumaane Taylor. "It was a turning point in his life, and that really moved me. So I used his poem — or his prayer, rather, it's more so a prayer — in 'A Love Supreme.' I tried to create some type of...
Biting off more than anyone could comfortably chew, Chicago Dance Crash tackles good and evil in the new "Evil & Good," a rough collection of nine vignettes that actually achieves a semblance of coherence, limping off the battlefield with honor. That's due in no small part to nonstop, entertainingly...
Drag queens, a marching band, a stunt bicyclist, a cheerleading squad and an emcee in stiletto platforms with his own posse of two: "We Will Tap You! A Celebration of the Music of Queen" was not your everyday hoofing show. Add club-style laser lights and enough risque zingers to power a week of...
“Theater is a place where every race, creed, sexuality and gender is equal, is embraced, and is loved,” said James Corden, the host of the 70th Tony Awards, at the somber start of the Sunday night broadcast, an awards show charged with buoying the mood of a nation horrified that very day by the...
In any other year, "Shuffle Along," a show that celebrated African-American song and dance in the first person — and simultaneously offered a rich and searing lesson in cultural history — would be cleaning up at the Tony Awards. It would be the dominant new musical, just as "The Humans," Stephen...
Hold the presses: Holland Taylor and Robert Morse are taking their places on "The Front Page," the Tribune has just learned, alongside the previously announced Nathan Lane, John Slattery, John Goodman, Jefferson Mays and Sherie Rene Scott. Morse, who is 85, was the original star of "How to Succeed...
The ten-dollar founding father stole the cannons of his Broadway rivals as Lin-Manuel Miranda's "Hamilton" dominated the 2016 Tony Award nominations. When the smoke had cleared from the delayed live feed from New York's Paramount Hotel, "Hamilton" had landed in a record-setting 16 different ballot...
Sometimes fairy tale casting just isn't enough, and so it proves with this keenly anticipated production, part of the Kenneth Branagh Theatre Company season at the Garrick. Lily James and Richard Madden are well known for their onscreen swoon appeal: the willowy James in "Downton Abbey," and buff,...