Richard Christiansen

`Big Love' "Big Love," at the Goodman Theatre through Nov. 18, is derived from ancient Greek tragedy; but it comes to us by way of burlesque, rock 'n' roll, cabaret,...

Until he was 15, Charles L. Mee says, "All I wanted to do was play football and read comic books." In 1953, however, one year before massive field tests demonstrated...

THEATER `CHAGRIN FALLS' Small, exceedingly well-crafted premiere of Mia McCullough's lively, well-written script on the pall of death hanging over a sleepy bar in an isolated Oklahoma town; through Nov....

The first sign of disaster in European Repertory Company's production of "The Tempest" comes in the opening scene. Ariel, the sprite in service to Prospero, lord of an enchanted island,...

Absolution," by the Canadian playwright Robert William Sherwood, hails from the 1990s. And despite a very tight production in its Chicago premiere, there's already a faint aura of mustiness about...

The big celebration will come later, on Nov. 16, when singers Michael Feinstein and Celia Cruz perform in a gala program, but the real anniversary is next Friday, when the...

Tom Dudzick's beguiling family comedy, is just what the doctor ordered. Set in Buffalo, the playwright's hometown, its story carries us back to the Eisenhower years of the 1950s, and...

"Undone" at About Face Theatre, is an 80-minute performance piece by and about the Chicago writer cin salach and how she "broke open," or "became undone," when she acknowledged her...

On July 27, 1928, a few weeks short of his 25th birthday, a young designer who had emigrated from New York to Los Angeles to work in the movies signed...

Of all the benefits held by all the arts organizations in the Chicago area, the annual fundraising affair of Live Bait Theatre may be the most unusual. No dinner-dance or...