Labeling young, successful artists as The Next [insert name of popular artist] is as common a practice as it is unfair. Few up-and-coming writers, directors or actors mind the attention and praise, but many hope to succeed on their own terms. Theatre Seven of Chicago’s Is Chicago, which presents Marisa Wegrzyn’s latest play alongside one of David Mamet’s earliest and most talked about scripts, prompts two reactions. It takes some chutzpah to invite comparisons to... more ›

The Goodman Theatre is welcoming David Mamet back home, throwing a party to celebrate the native son, his prolific career and versatile success. Mamet’s best known as the writer of such honest, bruising work as Glengarry Glen Ross, Sexual Perversity in Chicago, and American Buffalo, where characters fight a soul-crushing world and deliver rapid-fire dialogue, spouting salty terms like f&*#^ng c#^>$*{(~#s. But the Pulitzer Prize winner has also written clever nostalgic s#’% like The Old... more ›