Articles

How long do Broadway musicals and plays last? Explore typical running times, intermissions and real comparisons from ChicagoCritic’s theater reviews.

Hot Tix is still the first place most of us check when we want cheap Chicago theatre tickets. It’s run by the League of Chicago Theatres, and right now their fall “It’s Theatre Season” promotion is the best single deal in town: buy one, get one half off on select shows with the code SEASON … Read more

Chicago has been a playwright’s city for a century, and many of the best plays written here are also about the city itself: its newsrooms and courtrooms, South Side apartments and North Side storefronts, cabs, bleachers and junk shops. This guide collects the essential plays set in Chicago. For each one we explain why the … Read more

Only a handful of musicals actually take place in Chicago, and they make an unusually varied group: a vaudeville about murderesses, a greaser musical that started in a Lincoln Avenue trolley barn, a Rodgers and Hart show about a nightclub heel, a holiday story about Christmas trees crossing Lake Michigan, and newer shows about the … Read more

Chicago is the rare Broadway musical that carries our city’s name and earned it. Roxie Hart and Velma Kelly grew out of sensational Chicago murder cases that began in 1924 and captivated the city’s newspapers and courts, cases covered by a young Chicago Tribune reporter who turned what she saw into a stage satire. When … Read more

Chicago’s downtown theatre scene is concentrated in and around the Loop, where historic venues host Broadway tours, pre-Broadway engagements, concerts, comedy, dance, opera and other major productions. Broadway In Chicago operates several of the best-known downtown houses, while venues such as the Chicago Theatre and Lyric Opera House add to the area’s broader performing-arts landscape. … Read more

Chicago has appeared in a surprising number of Christmas movies, but there is an important distinction: some films are genuinely set and filmed in Chicagoland, while others only use Chicago as the story setting and were actually shot somewhere else. This guide focuses on that difference. Below you’ll find Christmas and holiday films connected to … Read more

Updated for 2026–27. Originally published October 15, 2022. The Chicago Film Critics Association (CFCA) is a nonprofit professional organization for film critics whose work has a Chicago presence. Its members work across print, online, broadcast and other media, and the association oversees the annual Chicago Film Critics Association Awards, the Chicago Critics Film Festival, critic … Read more

Most Chicago theatres do not have a formal dress code. Casual clothes are generally fine, including jeans and clean sneakers. Some people dress up more for downtown Broadway productions, opening nights, special events or a dinner-and-theatre date, but formalwear is rarely necessary unless the event specifically requests it. The best approach is to dress for … Read more