Results tagged “chicagotheatre”

Kathy Griffin may claim she's on the D-List, but her fans consider her an A-List talent, and we'd have to agree with that assessment. Seriously, she's vicious, hilarious, and fearless. What more do you want from a comedian?

A thousand might be a little facetious, but between a strong roster of bands playing Ribfest and piles of amazing shows gracing our city's venues this weekend, your options are vast. Here is the weekly rundown of the upcoming shows on sale in the days ahead, and holy crap are there some good ones this week.

'Tis the season of free music in the city, but don't put your wallet in the lockbox for the summer quite yet or you will miss out on these veteran acts gracing two of Chicago's best stages in the coming months.

If you’re a Wizard of Oz fan, you might want to drop by the Chicago Theatre this weekend, where it is running through Sunday. The next time this familiar show visits us, it might not be so familiar. Adding to his Knighthood duties, which include advising American Idol contestants, judging his seventies-tastic British reality show Any Dream Will Do, working on a sequel to The Phantom of the Opera (which we’ve preemptively titled The Phantom Takes Manhattan) and looking exceptionally creepy, Baron Lloyd-Webber (yes, that’s his real title) has decided to fill out his schedule by ruining our childhoods.

You might say Al Gore is compensating for something. A former Vice President, Nobel Peace prize winner, Academy Award winner, New York Times bestseller, Chairman of Emmy award winning independent TV network Current TV, inventor of the Internet and expert kisser, he can also add a recent book deal and Chicago Theatre speaking engagement to his long list of accolades.

Don’t be fooled by the trademark nasal North Carolina accent—David Sedaris owes a lot to his stint in Chicago. Discovered while reading his diary in a Chicago club by another famous nasal voice—Ira Glass—Sedaris went on to National Public Radio fame, five essay collections, numerous New Yorker essays, and legions of adoring literary groupies.

Christopher Guest, Michael McKean and Harry Shearer will be appearing at The Chicago Theatre on May performing as a Spinal Tap cover band.

This American Life is hitting the road to record some live shows this spring. Ira and crew will be hitting the Chicago Theatre on April 19 for a live recording. Per the Theatre's website, "The performance will include extra-special visual components, and feature audience favorites Dan Savage, David Rakoff, Starlee Kine, Mike Birbiglia and Dave Hill." Sounds good to us! Tickets go on sale this morning in...about half an hour, so get your clicking fingers ready! [via Gapers Block]

We fell in love with Denis Leary's vitriol-fueled rants back during his cigarette smoke-spewing days as an MTV station ID man. Back then we considered him to be the result of comedic trend popularized by Dennis Miller ... both had that smart rapid fire delivery to their attacks, only where Miller pounded you over the head with his brains, Leary allowed his intelligence to sucker punch you from behind.

2009 will not only bring us a new President (and hopefully a new governor), but a new speaking series at the Chicago Theatre and boy, does it look awesome. The series features an evening of conversation with the 'Stars of the Political World' at The Chicago Theatre, Radio City Music Hall in NYC and The Wang Theatre in Boston. The lineup is pretty strong and we can't take our eyes off that first one: Maher vs Coulter? It's like every Macho Man vs Hulk Hogan grudge match from our childhood amped up on amphetamines. If you see a rip in the space-time continuum somewhere around State & Lake that night, at least you'll know why. Our one caveat? No Soledad O'Brien. Man, we love her.

Tickets for the Smashing Pumpkins' 20th Anniversary tour Chicago shows go on sale to the general public this Monday, October 13 at 10:00 a.m. They are:

Don't worry, no more extolling the brilliance of the new Sigur Rós record today, just a follow-up on the Icelandic band's much anticipated return to our town. The date and venue have been confirmed as has the on-sale date for tickets. Jonsi & Co. will be visiting the Chicago Theatre on Wednesday, September 24 at 8 p.m. There are the typical presales happening over the next week before the general public on-sale via Ticketmaster next Saturday, June 28, at high noon.

Oh, Eddie Izzard, you lovable scamp. Long before he took over the small screen as a gypsy gone darkly mainstream on The Riches, he was cracking us up with his hilarious stand-up. Perhaps best known for wearing a dress on-stage (and off), Izzard's stream-of-consciousness comedy has kept us in stitches through specials like Glorious and Dress To Kill. Now he's bringing his new show, Stripped, to the Chicago Theatre for a three night run. And if you want to go, you'd better get a move on. Last time we checked, Friday and Saturday's show were sold out, but there were still tickets available for Thursday's show.

Remember those My Morning Jacket shows we told you about? Well, we can now tell you that, according to the Chicago Theatre website, tickets will go on sale via Ticketmaster at 10:00 a.m. on Friday, May 16. So get your mouse clicking finger ready.

Indie rock superstars My Morning Jacket have recently announced a spate of new tour dates ahead of the June 10 release of their new album, Evil Urges. And we're in luck: Jim James and crew are slated to wrap up the tour with two dates at The Chicago Theatre. You just have to be a little patient. While the tour starts in the summer, the Chicago dates don't happen until mid-October. So far, there is no ticket information for the Chicago shows available from the band or Ticketmaster other than the show dates, but several other shows are going on sale in the coming weeks, so we'll keep our eyes peeled and update you when we know.

The Chicago Theatre is being sold to Madison Square Garden. At least that's what Chris Jones is saying. According to the article, Madison Square Garden Entertainment has agreed to purchase the downtown landmark and is just waiting for a few formalities — like the City signing off on the sale — before closing the deal. MSGE owns — duh — Madison Square Garden, plus Radio City Music Hall and the Beacon Theater in NY. It's...

Even though Illinois won't be inundated with presidential candidates like Iowa or New Hampshire, we will be able to boast one thing that residents of those states will not — the Green Party's national convention. The Green Party will hold its convention July 10-13 next year at the Chicago Theatre. The recently renovated (and finally re-opened) Blackstone Hotel will serve as home base for 1,500 or more participants — though we doubt there will be...

The cast of Family Guy will hit Chicago next month to present, live and uncensored, a “classic episode” of the animated series. Perhaps you love the show but would rather see it delivered by actors on book accompanied, Rocky Horror-style, by hundreds of Stewie groupies reciting their favorite punchlines. If so, get your butt down to the Chicago Theatre box office tomorrow morning in time to nab the close-enough-to-smell-Seth-Green’s-mousse seats.

Memorial Day Weekend is under way, so pull out the grill, set up the yard games, and put on your leather. For 29 years now this Chicago weekend has been synonymous with International Mr. Leather—a leather beauty pageant, leather and fetish conference, adult superstore, and cocktail party rolled up into one giant event that attracted some 15,000 leather daddies, leather boys, leather mamas, and leather girls last year. (Folks, that’s an entire town of fetish...

We've only cried twice at rock shows. Once was when the Flaming Lips opened for Beck, and something about "Lightning Strikes The Postman" (was it the strobes? the bullhorn? the crowd's empathic explosion? we don't know) caused our tear ducts to let loose and lose control. The other time was Friday's Arcade Fire show at the Chicago Theatre, as we were surrounded by as unlikely a crowd as we ever expected to see rejoicing in...

It's the first Friday of the month which means The Dollar Store Show, a series of readings and performances based on purchases for a buck, returns to the Hideout. This month's readers include writers James Kennedy and Jonathan Messinger as well as theater performers Sarah Haskins and Diana Slickman. Hideout, Friday, 7 p.m. $1 We can't decide which under-appreciated literary group to support on Saturday so we'll list two and hopefully hop between them. First,...

April, the cruelest month, brings with it north-side commuters’ personal hell. But delays on the CTA’s red, brown, purple and blue lines aren’t just chewing up your time and stoking our comments sections for the next couple years. They’re a threat to the local theater industry, specifically that massive cluster of storefronts barely a stone’s throw from the el tracks. Through early 2009, making that 7:00 curtain may involve unnecessary drama. But if you make...

Another Friday, another snowstorm, another installment of Empty Out Your Wallet. This week we’re not so inclined to whip out the credit card as we have been in past weeks, but here we go. We honestly didn’t know these guys were still around writing songs for the Adult Contemporary crowd. Apparently, they are still popular enough to fill up the Vic. Five for Fighting is best known for "Superman (It's Not Easy)," which was the...

The main tickets going on sale are Cubs tickets, but for those of us who prefer our activities in smaller bars than Wrigley and usually during the night time so our precious flesh doesn’t burn, here are a few choices for dropping some Benjamins.

It’s been a harsh week, hasn’t it? First, we had to walk through a blizzard, prove our love on Valentine’s Day and then it got cold again. The rest of the week they piled work on us here at the office, and now we have to decide what tickets to buy for upcoming shows. Life is just hard sometimes. Too bad the John Legend and Corinne Bailey Rae show didn’t go on sale earlier; it...

Has the Uptown Been Saved Yet?

Still waiting to hear back about those Conan tickets? Yeah, you and 70,999 other people. But NBC has announced guests for some of the four “Late Night” shows to be taped at the Chicago Theatre May 9-12. On Monday, May 9, Sean Hayes, Glen Ellyn native and Illinois State University alum, will be a guest. “Will and Grace” will air its series finale the next week. Dave Chappelle and Common are scheduled to appear on...

Want to score a pair of tickets to see Conan when he comes to Chicago May 9-12? Better act fast. To request tickets (2 per person allowed), send an email to ConanInChicago@nbcuni.com with your name, address, phone number and email address.

Good news for Late Night fans: Conan O’Brien will be string dancing his way into town to broadcast his show for the week of May 9-12. The show has visited locations such as Toronto, Los Angeles and, most recently, Finland, but this will be the first Chicago broadcast. And it’s about friggin’ time.

Few things are certain in this world. But Chicagoist readers getting riled up about smoking is one of them.