My review of the North American premiere of Brokeback Mountain at Chicago Shakespeare Theater, the tragic love story of two men in an impossible situation they can't manage to quit: chicagocultureauthority.com/2026/06/06/b...

“During his managing career, Mr. Cox was ejected from 162 games, by far the most in baseball history. ‘The umpire who gave Mr. Cox the heave-ho most often — 6 times — was Bob Davidson. Even he admired Mr. Cox. “If I was a ballplayer,…I’d want to play for Bobby Cox.”’ wapo.st/4uBdsfg

The Royal Shakespeare Company's Hamnet at Chicago Shakes centers fierce maternal love and the indescribable anguish of losing a child. Kemi-Bo Jacobs's performance as Agnes Shakespeare packs such emotional punch that one worries about the toll it might take. This is acting with a capital everything.

Pro tip for Chicago visitors and residents alike: You cannot go wrong with a late-night steak sandwich and a mug of Billy Goat Dark off Lower Michigan Avenue.

Best Musical Tony-winning The Outsiders opened at Broadway in Chicago’s Cadillac Palace Wednesday night for a brief visit. A slick combination of Grease and West Side Story, this saga pitting outcast teens against their affluent classmates in late-60s Tulsa proves a natural for the musical stage.

When I say that Jeff Perry’s singular portrayal of Edgar was like watching Mr. Furley-era Don Knotts wreaking havoc on this grotesquely comic spiritual precursor to Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? please know that’s not a condemnation. chicagocultureauthority.com/2026/02/08/j...

Free Super Bowl ad concept: Kim DoorDashian.

An agent's guide to NEVER THE BRIDE, a psychological thriller #agentsguide #agentguide #thriller

I’ve always been a Twizzlers guy, but Red Vines are the value option. I do wonder about the quality control. You get the big bag and there’s jaggedly broken off pieces like someone on the line was sneaking bites and dropping licorice back onto the belt.

people act like driving out very rich people with extremely high marginal tax rates is bad but it’s why we have “exile on main street,” so

Would you like to be my boss?

A New Year's Toast from Patricia Highsmith (and me) 🥂🥂

Publishers Marketplace, an incredibly useful resource for authors along with everyone else in publishing, is offering a rare free preview on its subscription. If you subscribe and cancel before Jan. 3, they will not charge the fee. Worth exploring. www.publishersmarketplace.com/register/%EF...

And The Secret of the Old Clock! Look for the first in my series of Sam Spade-Nancy Drew mysteries next year… Need some title help, though. Thoughts?

Tell me you’re GenX without telling me you’re GenX. Best laugh I’ve had all day, @aslpinnacle.bsky.social. Well done.

If you get any presents in the mail with no gift giver identified, those are from me.

Crackerjack reporting here.

Townes may be Steve Earle’s best album.

What a blockhead!

All Her Fault on Peacock features a marketing exec at a major publisher in Chicago (sure?) pitching a best-selling author on switching publishers because she believes she can open him up to a whole new audience if she can help him win… an Edgar Award! And he signs with her.

@bencollins.bsky.social Can’t wait to see the visual for your Gehry coverage.

New Stranger Things cast photo dropped.

Yes. And any such list with more Mike Myers than Albert Brooks entries, and that skips The Blues Brothers, is fatally deficient.

More than 200 years before the term “frenemy” was coined, Salieri & Mozart embodied it. Amadeus @steppenwolfthtr.bsky.social, directed w aplomb by @robertfalls.bsky.social, is smart, funny & assured. Ian Barford’s dynamic, empathetic Salieri is a triumph. chicagocultureauthority.com/2025/11/17/i...

Jesus Christ. This is monstrous. Absolutely sickening. The journalists in that room should walk out en masse.

It’a not a free market when bot armies ace regular fans out of the chance to purchase during the regular onsale period. Time for the U.S. to follow suit. Squeeze the parasites out of business.

Thune was backed into a corner by refusing to negotiate ACA until government reopens. Ok, now he must negotiate in good faith and Ds have to insist on a full extension or no additional CR. Still a disaster.

This capitulation is going to cause a firestorm. The only way it possibly works out for the Democrats is if they a) put a marker down that they are giving Republicans a chance to do the right thing while easing the immediate crisis and b) absent an ACA extension by end of January, shutdown is back.

I want to play poker with the Senate Democratic caucus…

I've been on staff for ... 38 years, and I don't remember ever feeling the paper is as focused and consequential as I do now. I can't speak to the effect, but as T.S. Eliot said, "For us there is only the trying. The rest is not our business."

Every company website is so desperate. You're on their page for five seconds and they want to send you notifications for the rest of your life. It's like if you asked somebody at an airport how to get to Terminal D and they told you, then got down on one knee and proposed.

Good list, but I have never enjoyed Chicago Theatre as a concert venue. Musical theatre, yes, and maybe a theatrical show like David Byrne’s, which worked well at the Auditorium. My top 10: Maurer, The Vic, Metro, Hideout, Empty Bottle, House of Blues, Green Mill, Schubas, Reggie’s, Salt Shed.

The Diplomat on Netflix has hit its stride with season three. A gripping depiction of the trials, tribulations and triumphs of a high-powered marriage. Keri Russell and Rufus Sewell are superb.

This will end the shutdown

I asked David Byrne today about what draws him to creative projects like Theater of the Mind, which he’s bringing to Chicago with the @goodmantheatre.bsky.social #chicagotheater #DavidByrne #TalkingHeads #TheaterOfTheMind #GoodmanTheatre

Cap knows the score.

If there’s a better analog for 2025 America than 1938 Austria during the anschluss, I can’t think of what it is. So it’s timely to have The Sound of Music at the Nederlander dispensing lessons in moral courage with a classic Rodgers & Hammerstein score. chicagocultureauthority.com/2025/10/23/t...

I’m so proud of my fellow Americans today. This country’s immune system rejects authoritarianism.

If you’re looking for a seasonally appropriate outing for little ones, Frederick, the first production of Chicago Children’s Theatre’s 20th anniversary season, is a good bet. chicagocultureauthority.com/2025/10/07/f...

Why would a theater called Chicago Shakespeare produce a play based on a horror film franchise? The audience at Thursday’s opening of Paranormal Activity got a definitive answer: This taut and terrifying show gives you the willies, maybe even the shakes. chicagocultureauthority.com/2025/10/17/w...

The amazing thing is, he did it at the $5 table.

This tool could be the plot device of the next Nightmare Alley remake.

“Don’t risk suit damage.” That single sentence opens up a window into the protocols and concerns of being a furry. I mean this with zero snark (probably why I’m a writer; fascinating to learn about different walks of life).

How a Trump appointed judge exposed Trump's Lying Con #TrumpLiesEverytimeHeSpeaks www.nytimes.com/2025/10/12/o...

Bovino saw One Battle After Another and thought Sean Penn was the protagonist.

Dumbest timeline.

Took my daughter and her friend to Six Flags Great America and had a blast at Fright Fest and Oktoberfest. Read on for our haunted house reviews. chicagocultureauthority.com/2025/10/07/d...

The sheep in Alien: Earth looks at people the same way my cat looks at me when I am slow to give her treats.

Chicago is not playing.

“There are lots of different ways that an artistic life looks, but it seems to me like everyone is capable of cutting out some things to be able to prioritize making their stuff — and reveling in that.” -Spencer Tweedy