Chris Jones (drama critic)

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.

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 to pursue his MA in Theatre at Ohio State University, which he received in 1986. He earned his PhD in 1989 with his dissertation Populism, the Mainstream Theatre, and the Plays of Willy Russell.

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.

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.

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