Newman, the doyenne of Chicago's collectors of modern art and one of the most cosmopolitan figures on the scene, died Friday. "She had studied painting as a child at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and later fulfilled several commissions for portraits, so the extraordinary collection Mrs. Newman began to build in the late 1940s was the great private one in Chicago formed with the eye of an artist."... ArtsJournalhttp://www.artsjournal.com/diacritical

Okay, so we've signed and sent the agreement for the rights, signed and sent the agreement for the space, and made our payments for both, so I'm now good and ready to tell you bitches what we're up to this fall.

"As the oldest of the city-sponsored downtown music festivals [the Chicago Jazz Festival] has struggled to break out of well-worn habits to create fresh new formats. The question is whether the pace of change has been brisk enough to keep the Chicago Jazz Festival competitive in a rapidly changing music world."... ArtsJournalhttp://www.artsjournal.com/diacritical

Sun Media’s John Coulbourn gives the Toronto production of Jersey Boys FIVE stars in his review and states that if you’ve always harbored a secret desire to hang out with the coolest guys in the neighborhood, the wait is over. In fact, the Jersey Boys might just be the coolest guys on the planet — [...]

News from Jersey Boys: The Broadway Jersey Boys will headline a nationally televised event for the opening of the US Open Tennis Tournament on Monday. The JB stars will perform at the Opening Night Ceremony of the 2008 US Open on Monday, August 25 at 7:30pm EST. Check local listings for details.

TheStar.com’s Theatre Critic Richard Ouzounian states that the story of four guys from New Jersey opened last night at the Toronto Centre for the Arts and it has the capacity to change the lives of four guys from Toronto in very important ways. Ever since it debuted on Broadway in the fall of 2005, Jersey Boys has been a solid gold hit, playing to capacity audiences in New York, winning a nice stack of Tony Awards, including Best Musical, then finding uninterrupted success on a North American tour that proves the hits can indeed keep on a-comin’.

But what’s so special about Toronto? Here are the four Canadian guys whose lives are now deeply intertwined in this American saga and what they have at stake.  read more »

We have four more performances left of Tim Robbin's political drama-satire Embedded. Thu. - Sat. at 8pm and Sun. at 4pm. We cannot hold the show over due to needing to get the space set up for Blackbird, which opens on Sept. 11.

If you've already been out - thank you! Can we ask you for a favor?  read more »

The producers of the "Mamma Mia" movie have announced that they will be releasing a "sing-along" edition of the film into select theaters nationally on August 29th. The new version will feature the lyrics to each of the songs on the screen, encouraging audience members to join in singing their favorite ABBA ditties. It's really a brilliant marketing idea, designed no doubt to enhance revenue by getting people to see the movie a second time. Because the primary attraction of the movie, as well as the hit stage version, has always been the insidiously tuneful and catchy ABBA songs. I almost titled this post "Follow the Bouncing Bomb," but apparently the movie is anything but a bomb. So far, "Mamma Mia" has grossed about $116 million in the U.S., and about $321 million worldwide.  read more »

Peter Polycarpou will play 'Daniel Warshowsky', the head of a family of actors, in the new musical 'IMAGINE THIS', which will have its premiere at the New London Theatre in the West End on Wednesday 19 November, following previews from 4 November