Chris Jones

About midway through the documentary "Deceptive Practice: The Mysteries and Mentors of Ricky Jay" (opening Friday at the Music Box Theatre), Jay emerges backstage after a performance and is greeted by a roomful of people. As he acknowledges his well-...

Chicago makes a claim on many writers — Nelson Algren, David Mamet, Ernest Hemingway, Carl Sandburg — even if those scribes spent only a portion of their lives within its sweet confines. But Thornton Wilder, the author of such iconic plays...

Look at that face in the photo and try to tell me that is not a great neighborhood face. Aging handsomely and full of life, it is the face of actor Danny Goldring — even the name is neighborhood perfect, Danny — sitting in the barbershop...

When the great English poet Philip Larkin worked at the University of Hull, he liked to say that the need to change trains in Doncaster meant most journalists, academics and other London irritants didn't bother to harass him. The American writer David...

"The Book of Mormon"  is releasing another 12-week block of tickets for its Chicago engagement.  The new tickets, which go on sale Sept. 21, cover performances through June 2. This is not expected to be the last "extension," although it remains an open...

PIGEON FORGE, Tenn. — Given the well-grounded corporate nervousness of those in the leisure industry about being associated with any particular religious belief, it's unusual to approach a roller coaster and be greeted by a Bible verse. But...

"Writing" seems an inadequate word to describe what Stephen Sondheim has done, yet it is the breadth, impact and influence of his writing that have won him the 2011 Chicago Tribune Literary Prize for lifetime achievement. The 81-year-old composer and...

Recalling an age of highly crafted public personas, the new Broadway play “I’ll Eat You Last: A Chat with Sue Mengers” reflects on a Hollywood era when movie deals were made over dinner parties instead of smartphones. Bette Midler...

It has been a good year already for novelist and playwright Ayad Akhtar. His debut novel, “American Dervish,” has garnered high praise. Tribune theater critic Chris Jones enthusiastically embraced “Disgraced,” a play at the...

“Hands on a Hardbody,” a musical about cash-strapped Texans competing for a shiny new pickup truck, pulled into Broadway on Thursday at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre in Manhattan. Based on a 1997 documentary of the same name, the show sets...

It is rare indeed to find such illustrious cultural names sharing a panel: Michelle Boone, Chicago's Commissioner of Cultural Affairs; Rick Bayless, the famous chef and one of Chicago's most important cultural entrepreneurs; Jeanne Gang, the hugely...

5 - 6 a.m. The Saturday Morning Show with Orion Samuelson and Max Armstrong  5:05 a.m.  The role for aerial applicators (formerly known as crop dusters) has grown in Midwest agriculture in the past 5 years. Max shares a visit with one who flies over...