May 12 - June 7, 2020 (remote viewing)

This hit production, which recalls the adventure and romance of Julia and Paul Child’s journey of discovery to Paris during the 1950s, is now offered for a limited time via online video streaming.

MORE ABOUT REMOTE VIEWING

From the French bistro where Julia Child fell in love with food, to the kitchen table where she recreated everything learned during cooking class, to a room where Paul was grilled by U.S. agents about alleged Communist contact, To Master the Art is the story of a larger-than-life culinary icon and her remarkable husband as they struggle to find themselves as Americans abroad.

Commissioned by TimeLine in 2008, To Master the Art received its world premiere at TimeLine in 2010, selling out its 8-week run within days and receiving more than 20 rave reviews and five Jeff Award nominations, including New Work and Production. The production was remounted in 2013 at the Broadway Playhouse via the Chicago Commercial Collective, Broadway In Chicago, and producers Brian Loevner and Aurélia F. Cohen. The video that will stream during this remote viewing run was filmed during the 2013 production.

During its two previous Chicago runs, To Master the Art was acclaimed as “an excellent, intimate, foodie-friendly staging, resonant with atmosphere and the kind of classic, cozy, autumnal kitchen ambiance that makes one want to swear off takeout food from this moment forth” by the Chicago Tribune, and “a total delight—funny, touching, charming and as enjoyable as an exquisite meal enjoyed together with good company” by Talkin’ Broadway. And Woditsch’s performance as Julia Child was declared “magnificent” and “a piece of acting not to be missed” (Chicago Tribune) and “so absolutely perfect … that we left the theater discussing the possibility that she is actually a better Julia Child than [Meryl] Streep” (Newcity).

Use Your FlexPass
The How and the Why

Jan 28, 2014 - Apr 6, 2014

From the writer/producer of television hits like House of Cards and In Treatment comes this smart and compelling new play about science, family, and survival of the fittest. Two women meet for the first time on the eve of a national conference. Both are brilliant evolutionary biologists who share a zeal for science and a bold, contrarian approach to their male-dominated field—even as one challenges the other with a radical new theory that may change the way people regard sex. As mysteries unfold about their relationship, the two scientists clash over differing views on evolution, feminism and generational divides in modern America.

Broadway In Chicago is thrilled to announce TO MASTER THE ART will play the Broadway Playhouse at Water Tower Place for a limited engagement beginning September 10, 2013. The Chicago Commercial Collective will produce the 2010 TimeLine world premiere hit.

Blood and Gifts

Chicago Premiere

Apr 30, 2013 - Jul 28, 2013

This spy thriller—named one of the Top 10 plays of 2011 by The New York Times — goes deep inside the secret United States intrigue that powered the Soviet-Afghan War of the 1980s. A CIA operative struggles against conditions on the ground and politics in the halls of Washington to stop the Soviet Army’s destruction of Afghanistan. As alliances shift and the outcome of the Cold War appears to hang in the balance, he and an Afghan warlord find that the only one they can trust is each other. This bold new play unmasks the actions of men behind one of recent history’s greatest events — the repercussions of which still shape our lives.

Concerning Strange Devices from the Distant West

Chicago Premiere

Jan 15, 2013 - Apr 14, 2013

This sexy, multi-faceted puzzle of a play travels from East to West and across time, exploring provocative themes in both epic scope and human scale. In the 1880s, a Victorian woman visiting Japan is fascinated by a new invention — the camera — that allows people to own images of distant lands they never dreamed they would be able to see. In modern-day Tokyo, a collector navigates shifting relationships in search of physical memories of the past. Along the way we gaze as if through a lens at the mysterious intersection of art and authenticity, where very little is what it appears to be.

33 Variations

Chicago Premiere

Aug 24, 2012 - Oct 21, 2012

TimeLine’s 2012-13 season opener is an elegant waltz between past and present, fact and speculation, a mother and daughter, and art and life. One of classical music’s enduring riddles is why Ludwig van Beethoven devoted four years of his diminishing life writing 33 variations of a mediocre waltz. Two hundred years later, a modern-day music scholar is driven to solve the mystery even as her own health and relationship with her daughter crumbles.

The result is an extraordinary new American play — accompanied throughout by a live pianist playing the variations themselves — about passion, parenthood, and the moments of beauty that can transform a life.

Enron

Chicago Premiere

Jan 17, 2012 - Apr 15, 2012

One of the most infamous scandals in financial history becomes a dynamic new theatrical event that was a sold-out sensation in London. Crafted as sprawling tragedy mixed with savage comedy, Enron follows a group of ambitious men and women through the breathtaking rush of greed and fraud that led to a legendary financial collapse. Along the way we gain disturbing insight into the backroom secrets of big business and confront a world where appearance has little relation to reality.

The Pitmen Painters

Chicago Premiere

Sep 6, 2011 - Dec 4, 2011

Heralded in London and on Broadway, this new play by the Tony Award- winning writer of Billy Elliot is based on a triumphant true story. A group of miners in Northern England taking an art appreciation class start experimenting with painting and soon build an astonishing body of work that makes them the unlikeliest of art world sensations. An arresting and hilarious salute to the power of individual expression and the collective spirit, The Pitmen Painters is a deeply moving and timely look at art, class and politics.

The Front Page

Apr 12, 2011 - Jul 17, 2011

In this landmark comedy set inside the crowded pressroom at Chicago’s Criminal Courts Building during the 1920s, a group of reporters cover a controversial execution and expose the rampant corruption, scandal and hi-jinx associated with Windy City politics and journalism. TimeLine is thrilled to revive a quintessential Chicago classic and to highlight for audiences the wealth of local history embedded in Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur’s hilarious and semi-autobiographical script.

In Darfur

Chicago Premiere

Jan 19, 2011 - Mar 20, 2011

Playwright Winter Miller’s experiences accompanying Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof in Sudan inform this provocative account of the horrors of genocide. In a camp for internally displaced persons in Darfur, three lives intertwine — an aid worker trying to save lives, a Darfuri woman searching for safety and a journalist who believes that one front-page story can help stop the madness. Together they tell an intense, inspired-by-real-life story that demands international attention.

To Master the Art

World Premiere

Oct 26, 2010 - Dec 19, 2010

Commissioned by TimeLine in 2008, this world premiere recalls the adventure and romance of Julia and Paul Child’s journey of discovery to Paris during the 1950s. From the bistro where Julia fell in love with food, to the kitchen table where she recreated everything learned during cooking class, to a room where Paul was grilled by U.S. agents about alleged Communist contact, this is the story of a larger-than-life culinary icon and her remarkable husband as they struggle to find themselves as Americans abroad.

Frost / Nixon

Chicago Premiere

Aug 17, 2010 - Oct 10, 2010

Three years after the Watergate scandal ended his presidency, Richard Nixon has agreed to break his silence in a series of interviews with up-and-coming British broadcaster David Frost. Behind-the-scenes it’s a battle of egos for the upper hand in controlling history, but as the cameras roll, the world is riveted by a remarkably honest exchange between one man who has lost everything and another with everything to gain.

The Farnsworth Invention

Chicago Premiere

Apr 14, 2010 - Jun 13, 2010

From Aaron Sorkin, the creator of The West Wing and A Few Good Men comes this fascinating new play direct from Broadway. Two ambitious visionaries — Philo T. Farnsworth, an Idaho farmboy, and David Sarnoff, head of RCA — battle through corporate espionage, family tragedy, financial disaster and the thrill of discovery for the rights to one of the greatest inventions of all time: the television.

"Master Harold"...and the Boys

Jan 20, 2010 - Mar 21, 2010

Acclaimed for both its universal themes of humanity and its unforgettable dialogue, this widely admired masterpiece explores life in South Africa during the 1950s era of apartheid. When a white 17-year-old and two black workers he has known all his life connect on one rainy day, their wide-ranging discussions illustrate all that unites us, and the gulf of what still divides us.

When She Danced

Nov 4, 2009 - Dec 20, 2009

Visit Paris in 1923 to eavesdrop on the bohemian life of international star Isadora Duncan — renowned as the “mother of modern dance” — in this evocative and incredibly funny portrait. A multi-lingual script of great heart mixes the high comedy of a colorful cast of characters with a poignant view of how art can move and inspire us.

The History Boys

Chicago Premiere

Apr 22, 2009 - Oct 19, 2009

The recipient of more than 30 major awards, including Tony and Olivier awards for Best New Play, The History Boys follows a rambunctious group of clever young men as they pursue higher learning, games, sexual identity and a place at university under the guidance of three wildly different teachers and a headmaster obsessed with results. Set during the 1980s in northern England, it is a hilarious and provocative play about the anarchy of adolescence and the purpose of education — specifically, how history should be taught.

The History Boys premiered in London at the National Theatre’s Lyttelton Theatre in May 2004. It played to sell-out audiences for an extended run before touring to Hong Kong, New Zealand and Sydney, Australia in 2006. The play premiered on Broadway in April 2006 and received six Tony Awards. It has also been adapted into a feature film.

Fiorello! (remount)

Apr 13, 2008 - Jul 20, 2008

Ahead of its time when it premiered in 1959 and now often called a neglected masterpiece, Fiorello! is a classic Broadway musical that features heartbreaking ballads (“When Did I Fall in Love”), rousing chorus numbers (“Politics and Poker”) and melodic showstoppers (“Little Tin Box”) to tell the story of one small, honest man’s struggle against corruption in big-city politics.

With guts and perseverance, Fiorello H. LaGuardia put a bright, new shine on “The Big Apple” and became one of the most enduring figures of the 20th century.

Tesla's Letters

Chicago Premiere

Nov 6, 2007 - Dec 23, 2007

Ideas about war and peace, the uses of science and the exercise of humanity reverberate in this witty, suspenseful, intellectual puzzle of a drama. An American student travels to the former Yugoslavia in 1997 to research the work of Nikola Tesla, the Croatian-born Serbian scientist who invented electricity as we use it today. But as she delves deeper into Tesla’s life and homeland, she is soon forced to make a decision about whether to get involved with the unexpected world of turmoil and suffering around her.

Paradise Lost

Aug 21, 2007 - Oct 21, 2007

Reportedly considered by Odets himself to be his best and most significant work,Paradise Lost is an intense family drama set amid the vast landscape of social and economic challenges faced during the Great Depression. How will financial misfortune affect the values, personalities, relationships and aspirations of the well-educated, middle-class Gordons and their close circle of friends?

Odets’ passionate characters speak with a fast-talking language that sings with big dreams and optimism for the future, despite daunting odds.

Widowers' Houses

May 5, 2007 - Jun 1, 2007

Written and set in 1892, Widowers’ Houses is a hilarious yet scathing look at the ethics of making money. When a young doctor learns that his future father-in-law has earned his wealth by renting slum housing to the poor, the doctor refuses the dirty dowry that awaits him. But he must reconsider his righteous stance when he discovers alarming news about the source of his own income. Don’t miss this rare opportunity to see George Bernard Shaw’s first play — the one that launched his career as one of the wittiest and most widely produced writers of his generation.

Harmless

World Premiere

Jan 16, 2007 - Mar 18, 2007

One of the most acclaimed playwrights to emerge in Chicago in the last decade, Brett Neveu has a reputation for blistering dialogue, complex characters and haunting stories. Described as a “master at establishing mood” (Chicago Sun-Times) and “perhaps the city’s closest equivalent to a young [David] Mamet” (Chicago Tribune), with Harmless, he delivers a gripping three-character drama about a crisis unfolding on a small Midwestern college campus.

A creative writing professor is called to the office of the college president for questioning. What has been going on in his classroom to provoke a growing controversy and attract the attention of the United States military? Is there a real threat, or is it imagined?

The General from America

Chicago Premiere

Aug 22, 2006 - Oct 8, 2006

Tony Award-winning playwright Richard Nelson’s powerful drama about the early, uncertain birth of America introduces us to the new country’s most notorious traitor, General Benedict Arnold. Betraying his reputation as a Revolutionary War hero, Arnold makes an uncharacteristic decision to defect to the British and surrender West Point, a plot that threatens to derail the war. What caused this founding father to betray his fellow colonists? The General from America delves into the complex story of one man’s life, his honor, and the stunning choice that would make him infamous.

Time praised The General from Americaas one of the 10 best plays of 2002, calling it “politically savvy, morally complex and theatrically cunning” and The Spectator praised it and its author as “a rich, rare and remarkable triumph on the stage … in play after play, Nelson has established himself as that contemporary stage rarity, a civilized, urbane, literate, acidic ironist in an age of urban thuggery.”

Fiorello!

May 2, 2006 - Jun 18, 2006

Ahead of its time when it premiered in 1959 and now often called a neglected masterpiece, Fiorello! is a classic Broadway musical that features heartbreaking ballads (“When Did I Fall in Love”), rousing chorus numbers (“Politics and Poker”) and melodic showstoppers (“Little Tin Box”) to tell the story of one small, honest man’s struggle against corruption in big-city politics.

With guts and perseverance, Fiorello H. LaGuardia put a bright, new shine on “The Big Apple” and became one of the most enduring figures of the 20th century.

A Man for All Seasons

Nov 1, 2005 - Dec 18, 2005

First staged in 1960, Robert Bolt’s masterpiece is a ferocious battle between church and state, faith and politics, and one man’s struggle to maintain his principles when he is pressured to abandon them. When England’s Lord Chancellor, Sir Thomas More, is asked by Henry VIII to annul his marriage so he can re-marry, More is torn between serving his King or staying true to his beliefs. His defiance of Henry ignites a political firestorm and forces More to pay the price of his disloyalty.