White City in the Limelight
The World’s Columbian Exposition
in theater and dance
THEATER WORKS ABOUT THE 1893 WORLD’S FAIR
- 1492: An Operatic Extravaganza words by R.A. Barnet and music by Carl Pflueger (1892)
- America by Imre Kiralfe (1893)
- Show Boat (1927)
- When Chicago Was Young (1932)
- Fair City (1993)
- Loving Little Egypt (2000)
- The White City (2013)
- Love Affairs and Wedding Bells (2015)
- Columbus and the Tesla Box (2017)
- The Light Years (2017)
- Fair Game (2017)
- Burnham’s Dream (2018)
- Deadly (2019)
- Sangamon Songs (2019)
- White City Murder (2019)
- Sophia Hayden Deserves Better (2021)
DANCE WORKS ABOUT THE 1893 WORLD’S FAIR
- The White City (Thodos Ballet, 2014)
- The Nutcracker (Joffrey Ballet, 2016)
RECENT POSTS ABOUT THEATER, DANCE, AND OTHER STAGE WORKS
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 … “journey inside Chicago’s 1893 World’s Fair ... when young Marie and her mother, a sculptress who is creating the [...]
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 spinning equipment. [Photo from Elevate Performing Arts.] Elevate’s costumes borrowed from fashion elements of 1893, while the floor included [...]
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, liberated from her demeaning roles, and unleashed from her pancake box prison onto an unsuspecting audience. Michelle Matlock, a phenomenal [...]
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 … “journey inside Chicago’s 1893 World’s Fair ... when young Marie and her mother, a sculptress who is creating the [...]
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 of the nation's most deadly murderers. The city of Indianapolis has a tie in with the murderer, as two of [...]
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 dancing. Dream City is the story of Chicago in a Gilded Age not unlike today, when immigrants, women, and minorities [...]
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 … “journey inside Chicago’s 1893 World’s Fair ... when young Marie and her mother, a sculptress who is creating the [...]
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 "Come On! Feel the Illinoise!" (Part I: The World's Columbian Exposition – Part II: Carl Sandburg Visits Me in a [...]
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, but she was sent to a sanitarium. Diagnosed with melancholia due to overexertion. Silenced. After the fair, her building was [...]
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 the Republic, host a holiday party, a surprise visit from the charming Great Impresario sets off a Christmas Eve dream [...]