Dec. 5-28, 2025: Joffrey Ballet’s “Columbian Nutcracker” (Chicago)

A festive Ferris Wheel, a Dream City, a flurry of snow, dancing dragons, dancing nuts, and dancing rats! It's that time of the year for Chicago’s Joffrey Ballet to stage their spectacular annual production of The Nutcracker, with story set on the fairgrounds of 1893 World's Columbian Exposition. Performances run from December 4-28, 2025, at the Lyric Opera House (20 N. Wacker Dr. in Chicago) This ballet by choreographer Christopher Wheeldon, which premiered in 2016, invites the audience to [...]

By Scott|2025-11-29T18:24:54-06:00November 29th, 2025|Categories: EVENTS, THEATER|Tags: , |0 Comments
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Elevate Winter Guard 2025 performs “In All FAIRness”

The World’s Columbian Exposition has been employed as a theme for several ballet works, and in the spring of 2025 a winter guard treated audiences to a trip to the Chicago fair. Elevate of Indianapolis, Indiana, performed a show titled “In All FAIRness,” inspired by the 1893 World’s Fair and featuring the music of “Merry-Go-Round of Life” by Joe Hisaishi. Competing across the country during the winter months, winter guards perform shows lasting about six-minutes long featuring dance and [...]

By Scott|2025-07-10T12:45:56-05:00July 11th, 2025|Categories: NEWS, THEATER|0 Comments
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Mar. 27–29, 2025: World’s Fair Women in “The Mammy Project” (Blue Lake, CA)

Nancy Green and Ida B. Wells, two women who played important and diverse roles in the 1893 World’s Fair, are the subject of a performance by Michelle Matlock playing in Blue Lake, CA, on Mar. 27–29, 2025. The Mammy Project, written and performed by Michelle Matlock, unearths the gritty truth behind the century-old icon of Aunt Jemima. This bandanna-wearing superstar of minstrel shows, Hollywood epics, and the breakfast nook is reimagined from her dark roots in the antebellum South, [...]

By Scott|2025-04-11T09:42:05-05:00March 25th, 2025|Categories: EVENTS (past), THEATER|Tags: , , |0 Comments
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Dec. 6-28, 2024: Joffrey Ballet’s “Columbian Nutcracker” (Chicago)

A festive Ferris Wheel, a Dream City, a flurry of snow, dancing dragons, dancing nuts, and dancing rats! It's that time of the year for Chicago’s Joffrey Ballet to stage their spectacular annual production of The Nutcracker, with story set on the fairgrounds of 1893 World's Columbian Exposition. Performances run from December 6-28, 2023, at the Lyric Opera House (20 N. Wacker Dr. in Chicago) This ballet by choreographer Christopher Wheeldon, which premiered in 2016, invites the audience to [...]

By Scott|2025-01-15T18:46:20-06:00November 6th, 2024|Categories: EVENTS (past), THEATER|Tags: , |0 Comments
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July 19-Aug. 4, 2024: “White City Murder” at the Phoenix Theatre (Indianapolis)

Murder! Mischief! Dark Comedy! White City Murder, a macabre and hilarious tale of infamous serial killer H.H. Holmes at the 1893 World’s Fair, is playing at the Phoenix Theatre in Indianapolis from July 19 to August 4, 2024. Featuring original music by Ben Asaykwee, the show promises a blend of laughter and chills. In two acts, the play includes over 30 characters, all played by two actors as they sing and dance their way through the life story one [...]

By Scott|2024-09-22T11:07:50-05:00July 20th, 2024|Categories: EVENTS (past), THEATER|Tags: |0 Comments
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May 7, 2024: DREAM CITY musical (Chicago)

A new musical about the 1893 World’s Fair takes the stage at Theater Wit in Chicago for one night only. Dream City, with book and lyrics by June Finfer and music by Elizabeth Doyle, will be offered as a staged reading on May 7, 2024, at 7:30 PM. Finfer and Doyle’s musical is a revision of Burnham’s Dream: The White City, staged in 2018. This new version featured five new songs, two new characters (including a villain), and no [...]

By Scott|2024-06-04T09:23:08-05:00April 22nd, 2024|Categories: EVENTS (past), THEATER|Tags: , , , , , , |0 Comments
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Dec. 2-27, 2023: Joffrey Ballet’s “Columbian Nutcracker” (Chicago)

A festive Ferris Wheel, a Dream City, a flurry of snow, dancing dragons, dancing nuts, and dancing rats! It's that time of the year for Chicago’s Joffrey Ballet to stage their spectacular annual production of The Nutcracker, with story set on the fairgrounds of 1893 World's Columbian Exposition. Performances run from December 2-7, 2023, at the Lyric Opera House (20 N. Wacker Dr. in Chicago) This ballet by choreographer Christopher Wheeldon, which premiered in 2016, invites the audience to [...]

By Scott|2023-12-28T10:39:24-06:00November 4th, 2023|Categories: EVENTS (past), THEATER|Tags: , |0 Comments
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Come on Feel the Fair! Illinois, the musical

“Oh, great White City I've got the adequate committee Where have your walls gone? I think about it now.” —Sufjan Stevens Come on Feel the Fair! A stage musical adaptation of Sufjan Stevens’ acclaimed 2005 concept album Illinois, which features a song about the 1893 World’s Fair, will open this summer. The lyrics in Illinois reference iconic persons, places, and events related to the Prairie State. In addition to tracks about UFOs, zombies, and predatory wasps is the triumphant [...]

By Scott|2023-03-10T08:09:40-06:00March 10th, 2023|Categories: AUDIO, NEWS, THEATER|0 Comments
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Dec. 10-11, 2022: “Sophia Hayden Deserves Better” play reading (Normal, IL)

In 1891 a brilliant 23-year-old woman won an architecture contest to design the Woman’s Building for the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. What should have been the start to a flourishing career in architecture became career-ending. Throughout the two-year process of building the Woman’s Building, the architect quietly endured bullying, micromanaging, and undermining until she finally spoke up. In a time when women were defined as physically and intellectually weaker than men, her concerns were not only not heard, [...]

By Scott|2023-01-17T17:46:43-06:00December 3rd, 2022|Categories: EVENTS (past), THEATER|Tags: , |0 Comments
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Dec. 3-27, 2022: Joffrey Ballet’s “Columbian Nutcracker” (Chicago)

Chicago’s Joffrey Ballet once again will stage their spectacular production of The Nutcracker, with story set on the fairgrounds of 1893 World's Columbian Exposition. Performances run from December 3-7, 2022, at the Lyric Opera House (20 N. Wacker Dr. in Chicago) This ballet by choreographer Christopher Wheeldon, which premiered in 2016, invites the audience to … “journey inside Chicago’s 1893 World’s Fair ... when young Marie and her mother, a sculptress who is creating the fair’s iconic Statue of [...]

By Scott|2023-12-17T08:08:42-06:00November 26th, 2022|Categories: EVENTS (past), THEATER|Tags: , |0 Comments
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Aug. 19-21, 2022: “Sangamon Songs” Musical Play Tells of Illinois Boy Who Visited the 1893 World’s Fair (Skokie, IL)

A diary written by a 16-year-old Illinois boy who visited the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago is the source material for Sangamon Songs: A Musical Play by Tom Irwin and John W. Arden. The show will be performed at the Skokie Theatre for Performing Arts on August 19-21, 2022. After discovering Harry Glen Ludlam’s journal in his family farmhouse, Tom Irwin began composing an acoustic song cycle about late-nineteenth-century life of a teenager in a small town in Central [...]

By Scott|2022-08-23T08:06:14-05:00July 24th, 2022|Categories: AUDIO, EVENTS (past), THEATER|0 Comments
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Mar. 27, 2022: “Sophia Hayden Deserves Better” play reading (Barrington, IL)

In 1891 a brilliant 23-year-old woman won an architecture contest to design the Woman’s Building for the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. What should have been the start to a flourishing career in architecture became career-ending. Throughout the two-year process of building the Woman’s Building, the architect quietly endured bullying, micromanaging, and undermining until she finally spoke up. In a time when women were defined as physically and intellectually weaker than men, her concerns were not only not heard, [...]

By Scott|2022-04-07T13:07:03-05:00March 24th, 2022|Categories: EVENTS (past), THEATER|Tags: , |0 Comments
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Jan. 11-12, 2020: “Sangamon Songs” Musical Play Tells of Illinois Boy Who Visited the 1893 World’s Fair (Skokie, IL)

A diary written by a 16-year-old Illinois boy who visited the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago is the source material for a new musical. Sangamon Songs: A Musical Play by Tom Irwin and John W. Arden will be performed at Skokie Theatre for Performing Arts on Jan. 11 and 12, 2010. After discovering Harry Glen Ludlam’s journal in his family farmhouse, Tom Irwin began composing an acoustic song cycle about late-nineteenth-century life of a teenager in a small town [...]

By Scott|2022-07-24T10:28:28-05:00January 6th, 2020|Categories: AUDIO, EVENTS (past), THEATER|2 Comments
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Nov. 30-Dec. 29, 2019: Joffrey Ballet’s “Columbian Nutcracker” (Chicago)

Chicago’s Joffrey Ballet once again will stage their spectacular production of The Nutcracker, with story set on the fairgrounds of 1893 World's Columbian Exposition. Performances run from November 30 to December 29, 2019, at the Auditorium Theater. This ballet by choreographer Christopher Wheeldon, which premiered in 2016, invites the audience to … “journey inside Chicago’s 1893 World’s Fair with Wheeldon’s critically acclaimed holiday masterpiece. When young Marie and her mother, a sculptress who is creating the fair’s iconic Statue [...]

By Scott|2019-12-31T09:32:14-06:00November 29th, 2019|Categories: EVENTS (past), THEATER|Tags: , |0 Comments
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Sept. 13-Nov. 4, 2019: DEADLY, a New Musical Set at the 1893 World’s Fair (Los Angeles)

A new musical set at the 1893 World’s Fair makes its world premiere at the Sacred Fools Theater Company of Los Angeles this fall. Deadly, written by Vanessa Claire Stewart, with music by Ryan Thomas Johnson, explores the chilling events of the “murder castle” operating near the grounds of the Columbian Exposition. The twin stories of the Fair and the serial killer, which were the subject of Erik Larson’s dramatic non-fiction book The Devil in the White City (2003), have [...]

By Scott|2019-11-10T12:25:01-06:00September 25th, 2019|Categories: EVENTS (past), THEATER|Tags: |0 Comments
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Sean Masterson’s Magic from the Midway

A story about the Midway Plaisance of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition weaves its was through a Chicago magic show. Sean Masterson’s Timeless Magic  blends expert sleight-of-hand trickery, quirky humor, and a personal detective story centering around a World’s Fair commemorative coin. Masterson shares with his audience his quest to discover the origin of his coin, taking us on a tour of several magicians who worked on the Midway and in Chicago at the time of the Fair. (You’ll [...]

By Scott|2022-03-05T10:53:22-06:00August 30th, 2019|Categories: NEWS, THEATER|Tags: , |0 Comments
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June 14-July 7, 2019: “White City Murder” takes the stage in Indianapolis

Eric Larson’s fascinating best-seller The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America (2003) introduced many to the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition. For better or for worse, his pairing of the story of building the World’s Fair in Jackson Park and the exploits of serial killer H. H. Holmes in nearby Englewood has made an enduring connection between the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition and murder. [For the record: no known murders occurred [...]

By Scott|2022-03-05T10:47:55-06:00May 24th, 2019|Categories: EVENTS (past), THEATER|Tags: |0 Comments
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Louis Sullivan’s Transportation Building … in Green

Adler & Sullivan’s Transportation Building. [Image from The World’s Columbian Exposition Portfolio of Views by C. D. Arnold and H. D. Higinbotham (C. B. Woodward Co., 1893).] Finding references to the 1893 World’s Fair--especially in unexpected places--can be a delight. All the more so when images of the White City show up in the context of another personal passion. A few weeks ago, the yellow brick road led to the White City. The Paramount Theater in Aurora, Illinois, [...]

By Scott|2019-01-20T19:07:41-06:00January 20th, 2019|Categories: NEWS, THEATER|Tags: , , , |0 Comments
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Dec. 4, 2018: “Christmas at the Fair: The Joffrey’s New Nutcracker” at the Newberry Library (Chicago)

The Newberry Library’s Pictures from an Exposition: Visualizing the 1893 World's Fair includes a series of rich programs about the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition. On Tuesday, December 4, 2018, the Newberry will host “Christmas at the Fair: The Joffrey's New Nutcracker”. A special conversation with Alison Hinderliter, Ashley Wheater, and Hedy Weiss about the Joffrey Ballet’s 2018 production of The Nutcracker, set during the Columbian Exposition in Chicago.  The lecture runs from 6-7:30 pm in Ruggles Hall at the Newberry [...]

By Scott|2022-10-10T09:00:43-05:00November 4th, 2018|Categories: EVENTS (past), THEATER|Tags: , |0 Comments
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Dec. 1-30, 2018: Joffrey Ballet’s World’s Fair “Nutcracker” (Chicago)

Chicago’s Joffrey Ballet once again will stage their spectacular production of The Nutcracker, with story set on the fairgrounds of 1893 World's Columbian Exposition. Performances run from December 1 to 30 at the Auditorium Theater. This new ballet by choreographer Christopher Wheeldon, which premiered in 2016, invites the audience to … “journey inside Chicago’s 1893 World’s Fair with Wheeldon’s critically acclaimed holiday masterpiece. When young Marie and her mother, a sculptress who is creating the fair’s iconic Statue of the Republic, host [...]

By Scott|2019-01-02T13:36:47-06:00November 1st, 2018|Categories: EVENTS (past), THEATER|Tags: , |0 Comments
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