Seeding the Chicago theater field with new productions and companies

Chicago Reader: In July, Oskar Eustis, the celebrated longtime artistic director of New York’s Public Theater (the venue where both A Chorus Line and Hamilton were birthed), announced he would be leaving his position in two years. In an interview with Michael Paulson of the New York Times, Eustis, while declaring the state of the Public itself “strong,” also said, “I think the American nonprofit theater movement is over. That doesn’t mean any individual theater is over. But every individual theater is having to make its own case and come up with its own business model. We’ve lost a lot of theaters, and we’re going to lose more.”

NOW YOU SEE ME LIVE to Open on Broadway This Holiday Season

BroadwayWorld: Following a year of sold-out engagements in Australia, Singapore, and London's West End, Now You See Me Live arrives in New York City this holiday season for eight weeks only at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre on Broadway.

Pittsburgh Playwright Theatre Premiere Unites Local Artists in 'Paradox of Education'

onstagepittsburgh.com: Few works on Pittsburgh stages have deeper roots within the city limits than Ty Greenwood’s Paradox of Education, directed by Maurice Redwood, and having its premiere this month at Pittsburgh Playwright Theatre Company.

'Company Retreat': How the Hidden Cameras Worked

www.indiewire.com: Production design is always an exercise in worldbuilding. Everything we see on screen was put there by the art team for a very specific reason to tell us something. Colors, textures, shapes, styles; grounded or heightened realism. They’re all an invisible (or not-so-invisible) part of visual storytelling. But rarely is that exercise as much about hidden cameras as it is for “Company Retreat,” the second season of “Jury Duty.”

In ‘Burnout Paradise,’ Running on Treadmills Is Only the Half of It

The New York Times: One night last month at Astor Place Theater, audience members hurriedly hustled onto and off the stage to help four sweat-drenched, exhausted performers jogging on treadmills complete various tasks: shave one actor’s neck, solve a Rubik’s Cube and whip up a pasta dinner from scratch for two audience members to feast on and rate.

‘Curated chaos’: Danny Boyle on the ‘pop culture spectacular’ he is bringing to London’s Southbank Centre

Theatre | The Guardian: Out of chaos come great cultural movements, according to the director and producer Danny Boyle, who will inflict a little curated chaos on London’s Southbank Centre with what has been described as an “epic, one-off pop culture spectacular”.

Michael Arden and Douglas Lyons to Develop Happy Feet Stage Musical

Playbill: Put on your best penguin outfit because Happy Feet is headed to the stage. Warner Bros. has announced that its 2006 animated musical about a tap-dancing penguin will be adapted into a live jukebox musical, with the hopes of eventually coming to Broadway.

Quentin Tarantino’s ‘swashbuckling’ play The Popinjay Cavalier set for West End premiere

Theatre | The Guardian: Since Quentin Tarantino announced last year that he had written his first play, it has remained as mysterious as the contents of Marsellus Wallace’s briefcase in Pulp Fiction. But on Wednesday it was announced that the play, which Tarantino will also direct in London, is to be a “rambunctious comedy of deception and disguise” set in 1830s Europe.

Arena Stage announces new play festival celebrating 75 years of American theater

DC Theater Arts: Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater has announced its 75th Anniversary New Play Festival, a three-day celebration of new work running February 27 through March 1, honoring the theater’s founding commitment to commissioning and developing bold American voices.

‘Try/Step/Trip’ Is a Story of Hip-Hop Rehabilitation, Told in Step

The New York Times: Dahlak Brathwaite was on the rise. He had just graduated from the University of California, Davis, and he had appeared twice as a spoken-word poet on HBO’s “Def Poetry Jam.” Then he was pulled over by a police officer, who found hallucinogenic mushrooms in his car and arrested him.

Review Roundup: DATA Opens Off-Broadway

www.broadwayworld.com: Matthew Libby’s play DATA has officially made its New York stage premiere, directed by Tyne Rafaeli, starring Karan Brar reprising his role from the Arena Stage production, as Maneesh, as well as Brandon Flynn as Jonah, Sophia Lillis as Riley, and Justin H. Min as Alex.

A Play Without Live Actors: Is ‘An Ark’ Theatre’s Afterlife?

AMERICAN THEATRE: As An Ark opens, actor Golda Rosheuvel enters stage right and sits down in one of four chairs. She looks directly at you, maintaining deep, expectant eye contact. She smiles at you and nods understandingly. Do you smile back? I did. Almost involuntarily. A human reflex: subconscious mirroring.

‘A new form of theater’: can Ian McKellen, 52 cameras and ‘mixed reality’ reinvent a medium?

US theater | The Guardian: You sit in a circle at the Shed, the cultural center in Manhattan’s futuristic Hudson Yards, waiting for the show to begin. Through your enhanced glasses, you see four empty chairs facing you, just out of reach. You watch strangers look out for the actors to arrive. As they do, one at a time, you feel unsettled – each locks eyes with you, specifically. “Don’t panic,” the esteemed British actor Ian McKellen assures you, as the actors take their seats.

I Do review – immersive hotel drama as wonderful as a real wedding day

Theatre | The Guardian: When isn’t there big family drama in the buildup to a wedding? The nerves, the tantrums – sometimes even charges of “inappropriate” first dances. Isn’t it all part and parcel of the apparently perfect day?

Bernadette, The Musical Isn't Just the Story of a Saint; It's the Story of a Girl

Playbill: From a theatrical poster stylized to evoke a watercolor painting, a young girl gazes pensively at the viewer, her portrait awash in soft tones of blue, white, and red. While the design may nod to the iconic artwork for Les Misérables, it’s actually promoting another melodic show set in 19th-century France: Bernadette, The Musical which tells the story of an impoverished teenager from Lourdes who saw a series of apparitions believed to be the Virgin Mary.

Teatro de la Luna to present acclaimed theater-mime 'GO'

DC Theater Arts: Teatro de la Luna is pleased to kick off 2026 with GO, a physical theater-pantomime show performed by actor-mimes Pablo Guillén and Rodin Alcerro. The production runs January 30 through February 8 at Casa de la Luna, conveniently located near Georgia Avenue-Petworth station in Northwest DC.

New play ‘Prairie Park’ to get industry reading

www.broadwaynews.com: The new play “Prairie Park,” which tells the story of deeply entrenched family feuds against the backdrop of a struggling Western-themed amusement park in Tampa, Florida, will have an invitation-only industry reading on Jan. 9. The property was previously titled “The Legend of Prairie Park.”

COMING SOON: Retreat!

www.noproscenium.com: Framed as a visit to “The Meadow, LA’s newest upscale retreat” which promises to “re-regulate your nervous system,” Retreat! takes place over eight scenes meant for up to two people at a time, if you bring a friend, asking guests to come as “you as you already are.”

Debbie Allen-directed play about the legacy of Maya Angelou eyes 2028 bow

www.broadwaynews.com: A new play with music about the life and work of the late writer and civil rights leader Maya Angelou continues its developmental process, ahead of a 2028 production. “Phenomenal Woman, Maya Angelou” — which takes its title from Angelou’s poem of female empowerment — is being written by Angelica Chéri and will be directed by Debbie Allen.

New musical in development inspired by the life of ballroom icon José Xtravaganza

www.broadwaynews.com: Producers Isabel Kallman, Laura Mayes, Craig Kallman and Kurt Deutsch are shepherding a new musical based on the life of José Xtravaganza, an icon of the NYC ballroom scene. Tony Award nominee Stevie Walker-Webb is serving as director of the musical, titled “Xtravaganza,” which will receive an invited workshop presentation in association with Baltimore Center Stage at a date to be announced.