Steve O'Connell News

The West Coast engagement of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child celebrates its opening night this week and the cast is prepping for opening with some celebratory magic on the stage of the Curran Theatre!

Every Wednesday, March 4 a?" April 1 The exclusive West Coast production of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child will celebrate Magical Mischief in the Wizarding Worlda?"five special performances in San Francisco where fans discover ways to play with magic and revel in the mischief when it goes wrong.

The exclusive West Coast production of J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Cursed Child celebrated the official opening in San Francisco , Sunday, December 1st, at the Curran Theater. Once preview performances began on October 23, San Francisco and New York became the only destinations in the United States where fans can see the eighth story in the Harry Potter series and the most awarded play in theater history.

FACTORY is proud to present their second CrossCurrents Canada presentation of the 2019-20 Season, the Toronto premiere of BETWEEN BREATHS, an Artistic Fraud of Newfoundland production. Written by Robert Chafe and directed by Jillian Keiley, with an evocative live score by Juno Nominated The Once, BETWEEN BREATHS will be presented at the Factory Mainspace from November 20 a?" December 8, 2019.

Part Two of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child debuted tonight in San Francisco!

The West Coast production of J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Cursed Child welcomed its first audience on Wednesday, October 23, 2019, at San Francisco's Curran Theater. After first announcing the production in June 2018 and following a nearly five-month transformation of the Curran, the theater will open its doors to more than 1,600 fans as the eighth story in the Harry Potter series and the most awarded play in theater history begins its run in San Francisco.

San Francisco will show Hogwarts house pride as City Hall is illuminated in the house colors of Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin The exclusive West Coast production of J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Cursed Child will welcome its first audience on Wednesday, October 23, 2019, at San Francisco's Curran Theater. After first announcing the production in June 2018 and following a nearly five-month transformation of the Curran, the theater will open its doors to more than 1,600 fans as the eighth story in the Harry Potter series and the most awarded play in theater history begins its run in San Francisco.

Sonia Friedman and Colin Callender announced today the cast for the exclusive U.S. West Coast production of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child in San Francisco, currently in rehearsals and beginning preview performances at the Curran Theater on Wednesday, October 23, 2019.

BoHo Theatre opens its 2018 season with the Chicago premiere of CYRANO, adapted by Michael Hollinger and Aaron Posner, based on the play by Edmond Rostand, and directed by BoHo Artistic Affiliate Steve O'Connell. This sharp, lean, nine-person translation of the classic French love story keeps the poetry, but ditches the pretension to create a work full of energy, passion, and theatrical artistry.

BoHo Theatre opens its 2018 season with the Chicago premiere of CYRANO, adapted by Michael Hollinger and Aaron Posner, based on the play by Edmond Rostand, and directed by BoHo Artistic Affiliate Steve O'Connell. This sharp, lean, nine-person translation of the classic French love story keeps the poetry, but ditches the pretension to create a work full of energy, passion, and theatrical artistry.

Erasing the Distance is proud to announce The Holidays Unwrapped, the first Erasing the Distance performance to explore the touching moments and the frustrating fights of the holiday season.

Drury Lane Theatre Young Audiences presents Roald Dahl's James and the Giant Peach the exciting tale of adventure and friendship perfect for the whole family, featuring words and music by Broadway's hottest duo, Academy Award-winners Benj Pasek and Justin Paul (La La Land,Dear Evan Hansen) - and a charming new book by Timothy Allen McDonald.

The unquestioned immortality of Mamma Mia! took a hit last year when its Broadway run came to an end after playing fourteen years, two theatres and 5,773 performances. Now comes the question of its unavoidability. Somehow, I've managed to - okay, maybe not avoid it, which implies snobbishness on my part - but Mamma Mia! has just never been on my radar. It'll be around forever - or at least as long as Boomer nostalgia sells - so that leaves plenty of time to catch up on other things, my thought process went. But now begins what will presumably turn into a licensing blitz, and Aurora's Paramount Theatre leads the bell-bottomed charge into Chicagoland. So here we go again for the first time, I guess.

More than 60 million people in 40 countries on six different continents have reveled in Mamma Mia!, the iconic musical about love and friendship, of lost dreams and that last chance to make it right, all set to the music of ABBA, one of the most popular bands in the world. 

More than 60 million people in 40 countries on six different continents have reveled in Mamma Mia!, the iconic musical about love and friendship, of lost dreams and that last chance to make it right, all set to the music of ABBA, one of the most popular bands in the world. 

Both Melissa James Gibson's play THIS and Windy City Playhouse's production exist on a precipice. For the characters in Gibson's script, they stand on the ledge approaching forty and the onset of middle age, while also waxing nostalgic about the good old college days.These college friends-Jane, Marrell, and Alan (plus Marrell's spouse, Tom, and Jean-Pierre, a new, misplaced member of the circle)-stand firmly in that liminal space. The characters must navigate both the loss of a loved one (Jane is recently widowed) and the creation of new life (Marrell and Tom are parents to a newborn son). And while Gibson's characters seem to be contemplating major life experiences, she also paints them as exceedingly privileged and self-absorbed-in such a way that it becomes rather difficult to sympathize with them. Similarly, Windy City Playhouse's production (with direction by Artistic Associate Carl Menninger) occupies an in-between status-partly entertaining (with an occasional laugh-out-loud funny line delivery), partly striving towards deep emotional complexity. Unfortunately, THIS never swings far enough in either direction to be memorable. 

Windy City Playhouse, Chicago's most sophisticated new theater, presents the off-Broadway hit This, a tart 'melanchomedy' centering on four educated, artistically inclined thirtysomething New Yorkers whose longtime friendship is tested by an act of infidelity. Writer, director and playwright Carl Menninger (a former Deerfield native) returns home from Washington, D.C. to direct this piercing, beautifully crafted new play for lovers of language by Melissa James Gibson. Previews for This begin Wednesday, June 15 at Windy City Playhouse, 3014 W. Irving Park.

Chicago Shakespeare Theater (CST), the City of Chicago, Chicago Park District and Boeing partner to present the annual citywide summer tradition, Chicago Shakespeare in the Parks. This summer, 24 performances of Shakespeare's Greatest Hits travel to 17 neighborhood parks across Chicago, FREE FOR ALL, July 19-August 16, 2015. Shakespeare's memorable characters come to life in a unique and surprising mash-up of scenes from his most celebrated plays. From Hamilton Park and Garfield Park Conservatory to Washington Park and Gage Park, Chicago Shakespeare in the Parks is the single largest professional urban tour of a Shakespearean production, activating communities and giving Chicagoans direct access to their City's cultural treasures.

Sean Graney, who recently returned to Chicago to resume his post as Artistic Director of The Hypocrites, informed the Joseph Jefferson Awards Committee that he just learned the theater company had been operating under an Equity CAT-N contract for the duration of the 2014-2015 Non-Equity season.  Over the past year, requests for judging its productions were made to the Non-Equity Wing without the committee having knowledge of the company's Equity status. The Jeff Committee was aware that two of the productions had Equity performers (as indicated in the program); however, the committee has now confirmed that these were not guest contracts.  As such, the company's productions are not eligible for consideration in the Non-Equity Wing, and all related Non-Equity Jeff Award nominations have been rescinded.  The productions in question will be shifted to the Equity Wing for awards consideration during its current season, which commenced on August 1, 2014 and will end on July 30, 2015.

The Jeff Awards Committee today announced 118 nominations in 24 categories for the 42nd Annual Non-Equity Jeff Awards for productions that opened between April 1, 2014, and March 31, 2015. The Non-Equity Awards honor excellence in Chicago theatres not under a union contract. Jeff judges attended opening nights of 133 productions offered by 56 Non-Equity producing organizations. The Jeff Committee recommended 62 of those shows, making them eligible for Non-Equity Jeff Award nominations. Of the 62 Jeff Recommended productions, 46 received nominations, representing 23 theatre companies.