Christopher Nigel "Chris" Jones (born September 10, 1963) is an American journalist and the chief theater critic and Sunday culture columnist of the Chicago Tribune. On January 28, 2014 it was announced that he would also become the director of the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center’s National Critics Institute in Waterford, Connecticut. Jones also appears live on the news broadcast of CBS-2 Chicago as a weekly theater critic. In 2001, he was featured in an article in American Theatre magazine about the 12 most influential theater critics in America. In 2016, the New York Times cited Jones as an important reason that Broadway shows try out in Chicago, noting the role his reviews have played in helping producers improve the productions for New York runs.
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Early life and education
A native of Manchester, England, Jones attended the United Kingdom’s University of Hull, from which he graduated in 1984 with a joint BA in Drama and English, graduating with honors. He moved to the United States shortly thereafter to pursue his MA in Theatre at Ohio State University. He received his PhD in 1989 with his dissertation Populism, the Mainstream Theatre, and the Plays of Willy Russell.
Academia
From 1990-2000, Jones taught at Northern Illinois University, variously as assistant professor, associate professor and then as associate chair of the School of Theatre and Dance. From 2000 to 2002, he served as associate dean of The Theatre School at DePaul University, where he remains an adjunct professor. He left his tenured post in academe to join the Chicago Tribune in 2002.
Theatre and cultural criticism
Jones started his career as a critic in the 1980s by contributing film reviews, interviews, and reports for WCBE-FM in Columbus, Ohio, and also served as the long-time film critic for the Columbus Alive alternative weekly newspaper. Beginning in the mid-1980s, he began writing for Variety and Daily Variety, developing a particular specialty in reviewing out-of-town tryouts of Broadway musicals, for which he became nationally known. During this time, his arts criticism was also often published in the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, the Washington Post, American Theatre magazine as well as other newspapers and magazines. He is among the most prolific critics in the nation, reviewing about 200 Chicago shows a year and covering all the major Broadway openings.
Jones has twice served on the jury of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. For some two decades, he has chaired the American Theatre Critics Association committee that annually recommends a theater for the Tony Award to an outstanding regional theatre.
Awards
In 2015, Jones was a co-winner of the George Jean Nathan Award, the most prestigious award for drama criticism in the United States. Chosen annually by the English department chairs from Cornell, Princeton and Yale, the Nathan Award honors scholarly and journalistic dramatic criticism. In making the award, the committee highlighted Jones' review of The Project(s), an American Theater Company docudrama exploring the lives of Chicago public housing residents.
His other honors include the Gold Medallion from the American College Theatre Festival, for his work with young theater critics. He has received five Peter Lisagor Awards from the Chicago Headline Club for arts criticism and arts and entertainment reporting and the Illinois Theatre Association’s 2012 Award of Honor. In 2013 he was awarded the James Friend Memorial Award for Literary and Dramatic Criticism by the Society of Midland Authors for his “exemplary contribution to theater, culture and the arts.” In 2016, he will be the Maegene Nelson Visiting Scholar at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas.
Personal life
Jones is married to Gillian Darlow, who is the chief executive officer of the Polk Bros. Foundation in Chicago. Together they have two young sons.
Publications
Telling the story of Chicago’s theatrical history, his book, Bigger, Brighter, Louder: 150 Years of Chicago Theater (published in 2013 by the University of Chicago Press, ISBN 9780226059266) showcases the plays, writers and productions that went on to shape the country’s theatrical landscape. A tryout of A Raisin in the Sun with then unknown Sidney Poitier, a “lost” interview with Tennessee Williams, the first performance of the musical Grease, and the biting wit of Claudia Cassidy and Peregrine Pickle are collected among dozens of reviews, each featuring commentary by Jones that puts the excerpt into cultural and historical context.
In 2015, Jones also wrote the introduction to How to Write About Theater, a book published by Methuen. (ISBN 9781472520548)