Janet Davies' Broadway and Beyond: Recent Episodes
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Forget that Second City handle… Chicago is one of the most thriving and energetic entertainment scenes in the country. This city feeds Broadway, creates award-winning talent, presents the cutting edge and is never boring.
Janet Davies, 17-time Emmy award winner and long-time entertainment reporter, brings you intimate conversations with people who make that magic happen. Sit front row center with Janet as she presents fascinating interviews with performers, directors, producers, writers …. those who give us a peek behind the curtain to the world of Chicago theatre and beyond.
A chat with Steven Brinberg, considered by many to be the definitive Barbra Streisand impressionist.
Operating from 1935-1939, the Federal Theatre Project (FTP) was a federally-funded enterprise, putting thousands of performers to work creating theater across the country. The project was instrumental in reviving American theater at a moment when all but the very rich were struggling. After 4 years the curtain unceremoniously came down.
Actor, writer, comedian… voice-over artist. David Pasquesi is that performer you see and begin -rattling off where you have watched or heard him before. Chicago improv was his launching pad which has actually recently propelled him into the Star Wars world. Really.
In its 67 season, Chicago’s Court Theatre receives a 2022 Regional Theatre Tony. For this stellar professional theatre of The University of Chicago, the award is long overdue.
Grease meets Hairspray with a dash of Xanadu – that’s the description of a completely original, family-friendly new musical. American Idol favorites Diana DeGarmo and Ace Young lead the incredible cast of the new musical, Skates.
Jeff Perry Steppenwolf Theater co-founder and award-winning stage, tv and film actor talks about coming back home to perform in a new state of the art space for the famed company.
Underscore Theatre Company is presenting the world premiere of Notes & Letters featuring book, music and lyrics by Annabelle Lee Revak, based on letters Revak’s great-great grandfather sent to his family upon his immigration to Chicago from Eastern Europe.
She is lauded as a leading director of Shakespeare; one who knows how to make it appealing and accessible to audiences. Over three decades ago Barbara Gaines created Chicago Shakespeare Theatre paving its way toward a Tony and reputation as one of the country’s leading theatres. Now she is stepping away. This woman in her life has made her entrances and exits and played many parts.
Pride, struggle, history, community, purpose, and achievement – African American Theatre has become a rich and vital entity over the years in Chicago. But has it flourished? Has it attracted audiences from one side of town to the other? Where has it been, where is it going?
The Joffrey Ballet in Chicago has a treat and surprise for its fans. John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men has been adapted as a ballet with an original score by an Academy Award nominated composer.
IT ACTUALLY TOOK A GAMBLING BOSS AND POLITICAL OPERATOR TO OPEN ONE OF THE MOST PRESTIGIOUS AFRICAN-AMERICAN CULTURAL INSTITUTIONS IN THE COUNTRY. RENOWNED FOR IT’S ALL BLACK STOCK COMPANY, ORCHESTRA AND SCHOOL FOR ACTORS; CHICAGO’S PEKIN THEATER, ALSO DUBBED THE TEMPLE OF MUSIC, OPENED IN 1905 AND WAS GONE BY 1911. WHAT HAPPENED?
Susan Messing is a co-founder of Chicago’s infamous Annoyance Theatre. An alumna of The Second City and the iO (formerly Improv Olympics), this improv star has instructed at DePaul University, the University of Chicago and The School at Steppenwolf. Messing has acted on the small and large screens. This is one funny and wise woman.
Hedy Weiss leapt from the world of ballet to being an arts critic in Chicago for nearly 4 decades. Once the Windy City had two newspapers with highly influential reviewers – she was one of them.
Chicago’s Goodman Theatre is one of the largest in America. After more than three decades leading its creative operations, Tony Award-winner Robert Falls is soon stepping down as Artistic Director after more than three decades. This is a true visionary director who has created transformative theater throughout his career.
Lesley Nicol is a veteran of stage, screen and most notably, television. She’s a three-time SAG award winner and known for her saucy sassy personality as the cook Mrs. Patmore on Downton Abbey. Nicol is revisiting her musical theater days in an autobiographical production titled How in the Hell Did I Get Here? It has its world premiere in Chicago.
From 1957 when it first burst on Broadway to the 1961 film, to countless stagings at every theatrical level to Spielberg’s current Oscar nominated movie retake – West Side Story continues to be reworked and thrill. How do you make your Tony and Maria relevant? We find out from two current actors portraying on stage those Romeo and Juliet characters.
They were considered somehow ‘lost’ or buried - the Emmett Till trial transcripts are now being brought to life in an immersive reenactment of that Mississippi courtroom. Trial in the Delta is a work that promises to show an authentic account of one of the most horrendously unjust trials of the 20th century.
There is nothing like live theater and no place for it like Chicago. In its tenth year, the Windy City is bringing you more ways to love performance with Chicago Theater Week.
The history of drag queens has evolved from a very old (think Shakespeare) common theater practice to an award-winning form of showbiz that has gained legitimacy in the entertainment world. 25 years ago, one such drag queen began her empire of creating palaces to an ever-growing fan base.
Just because it’s in a library doesn’t mean this collection does not shout from the stage. The Chicago Theater collection at the Chicago Public Library shines a spotlight on the city’s rich and groundbreaking theatre scene… from the 1830’s up to the drama of the pandemic.
You may know her from the hit series “The Chi” or you have seen her act onstage around the country. Tyla Abercrumbie is also a playwright and has tackled a subject very few are familiar with – Blacks in the Victorian Age. The play Relentless is about to make its world premiere in Chicago.
The fourth Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival is happening and this year, it’s also “going annual,” marking a new era for Chicago as an international destination for the art and study of puppetry. This festival is the largest of its kind in the US and represents many styles, works and artistic achievements domestic and international. Don’t think Lampchop or Chucky - think a full-size chimpanzee, flying saucers and 10-foot political protestors.
FOR MORE THAN 400 YEARS, OPERA HAS MADE US HEAR AND FEEL THE WORLD DIFFERENTLY. IT IS A UNIQUELY THRILLING EXPERIENCE, PERHAPS THE MOST EMOTIONALLY DIRECT OF ART FORMS. BUT WHY DO PEOPLE FEEL SO INTIMIDATED BY IT? MAGDA KRANCE WAS, FOR TWO DECADES, A LIASON BETWEEN ARTIST AND AUDIENCE, DIVA AND MEDIA… AT THE WORLD FAMOUS LYRIC OPERA OF CHICAGO.
THE RICH HISTORY OF CHICAGO THEATER HAS NO RIVAL WHEN IT COMES TO IMPROVISING PERFORMANCE STAGES. A NEW COLLECTION OF ESSAYS – MAKESHIFT CHICAGO STAGES - TRACES THE CITY’S PERFORMANCE SPACES FROM EARLY 1800’S TO MODERN DAY SHOWING HOW THEY DEFINED WHAT THEATER SHOULD AND COULD BE.
Are you a geek for Star Wars? So is Charlie Ross. He took his love for the original trilogy (we know as episodes 4,5 & 6) and created a one man force onstage for almost 2 decades. The pandemic proved to be his Death Star for a while. But now Ross is back and definitely not a scruffy looking nerf herder.
Tiny storefronts, big talent. Mind-bending, avant-garde. Chicago from the 1960’s through the 1990’s exploded with companies that created the experimental and socially-conscious on stage. What happened and how did they impact American theatre today? A chat with Mark Larson author of the book “Ensemble: An Oral History of Chicago Theater.
Awkward meet-cutes, over the top songs, dozens of wig changes and lots of silly, actually! Get ready for a scrappy new holiday musical sendup of a favorite rom-com from the people who brought you musical parodies of The Office and Friends. Janet Davies chats with director Tim Drucker of Love Actually? The Unauthorized Musical Parody.
Making yourself necessary – that is what David Cromer learned in his early days of Chicago theatre. Once a high school dropout, this creative directs and acts on Broadway, off-Broadway, and in his Chicago theatrical hometown. His bookshelf has a Tony, a few Obies and numerous other awards. You’ve also seen him on the big and small screens. David Cromer always is necessary when the curtain rises.
As You Like it’
When: Oct. 6 – Dec. 5
Where: Chicago Shakespeare Theater, 800 E. Randolph (on Navy Pier)
Tickets: $49 - $90
Run-time: 2 hours, including one 20 minute intermission
Info:www.chicagoshakes.com
New owners, new leaders and a new awareness of the future of improv. Chicago’s iconic The Second City has had enormous change taking place during the pandemic. Some serious, some funny and some that needed reinventing. Then there’s that thing about Christian Clowns . . .