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23 shows found.
Company: 500 Clown
Venue: Steppenwolf Theatre
Performances: Wednesday 7:30 p.m. , Thursday 7:30 p.m., Friday 7:30 p.m., Saturday 7:30 p.m. (No show July 4), Sunday 7:30 p.m.
Tickets: $20-$28
Closes: Runs Through Jul 11
Buy this elephant. Chicago's favorite punk-rock existential loons have been working on their fourth piece, a musical adaptation of Brecht's "Man is Man," for several years now. Reviews say it's still a bit unfocused (clown work of this caliber takes a while to develop), but it's still twisted, musical, alarming fun. Keep an eye out for Molly Brennan as the MC, whose insane sexuality gives critics spasms of love and confusion. Get more details...
Company: Writers' Theatre
Venue: Writers' Theatre (Tudor Court)
Performances: Tuesday 7:30 p.m. (No performance June 9), Wednesday 7:30 p.m., Thursday 8 p.m., Friday 8 p.m. (No performance July 3), Saturday 4 p.m. & 8 p.m. (No performance July 4), Sunday 2 p.m. & 6 p.m.
Tickets: $40-$65
Closes: Runs Through Aug 9
Josh Schmidt's last play-to-musical adaptation, "The Adding Machine," became a sensation, and transferred to New York. Critics say that his follow-up is almost ready to follow. "A Minister's Wife," based on Shaw's "Candida," is about a staid minister, his loving spouse and the Byronic young poet who disrupts both their lives. Reviews drool over Schmidt's dazzling score and Kate Fry's limpid performance in the title role, but are less enthusiastic about the book (smart, but underpowered) and the production (gorgeous, but stiff). Get more details...Black Ensemble Theatre, your top source for locally grown jukebox musicals, is giving Chicago a summer of croon. Its latest show is set at Steven's Place, a family-owned nightclub with lots of history, but very little future. Will the old-school Stevens brothers and their punk kids find a way to keep the doors open? We don't know. Will they find lots of excuses to sing gorgeous standards from soul men like Nat King Cole and Billy Eckstine? You can bet your ticket price on it. Get more details...
Company: Halcyon Theatre
Venue: Lincoln Square Theatre
Performances: Thursday 8 p.m., Friday 8 p.m., Saturday 3 p.m. & 8 p.m., Sunday 6 p.m.
Tickets: $10-$20
Closes: Runs Through Jul 18
Dear women. Have you noticed that you make up 60 percent of theater audience members, but only 20 percent of produced playwrights? Does that statistic make you want to scream, or does it make you want to watch six lady-penned plays in rotating rep? If you picked door number two, don't miss the second annual Alcyone Festival, a celebration of xx-chromosome-bearing playwrights. (The 2009 festival focuses on plays about terrorism). Dear dudes. You're invited too. Get more details...
Company: N/A.
Venue: Playground Theater
Performances: Saturday midnight, fourth Saturday of the month
Tickets: < $20
Closes: N/A.
Chicago's favorite BYOB burlesque show invites you to bring your hooch down to the Playground for a little hoochy-koo. The Belmont Bombshells are sweet, giggly, artsy-girl-next-door types, Host Jack Midnight has a great laid-back alcoholic schtick, and the evening as a whole has a playful, old-timey patina. Get more details...
Company: Second City
Venue: Second City
Performances: Monday 8 p.m., Saturday 4 p.m.
Tickets: < $20 ($19)
Closes: N/A.
Company: Second City
Venue: Second City
Performances: Tuesday 8 p.m., Wednesday 8 p.m., Thursday 8 p.m., Friday 8 p.m., Saturday 8 p.m., Sunday 7 p.m.
Tickets: $19–$25
Closes: N/A.
Company: N/A.
Venue: Briar Street Theatre
Performances: Tuesday 8 p.m., Wednesday 8 p.m., Thursday 8 p.m., Friday 7 & 10 p.m., Saturday 4, 7 & 10 p.m., Sunday 1, 4 & 7 p.m.
Tickets: $50+
Closes: N/A.
Company: BLEWT! Productions
Venue: Playground Theater
Performances: Saturday midnight (first Saturday every month)
Tickets: < $20 ($10; $5 students)
Closes: N/A.
Company: N/A.
Venue: TimeLine Theatre Company
Performances: Wednesday 7:30 p.m. (6/3, 6/10, 6/17 only), Thursday 7:30 p.m., Friday 8 p.m., Saturday 4 p.m. & 8 p.m., Sunday 2 p.m.
Tickets:
Closes: Runs Through Sep 27
The hit Broadway production of this play never toured Chicago. That's ok. We made our own, and it's better. "The History Boys," about a group of British kids cramming for the exams that will determine their future, is densely human and somehow epic in scope. Get more details...
Company: N/A.
Venue: Steep Theatre
Performances: Thursday 8 p.m., Friday 8 p.m, Saturday 8 p.m.
Tickets: $18
Closes: Runs Through Aug 1
Pioneer folk were anything but simple. They were ruthless, scary, heterogeneous dreamers; that is, real Americans. "The Hollow Lands," an 1800s epic with a 14-member cast, aims to show the true pioneer spirit through the story of Jim, a young Irish immigrant searching for his Manifest Destiny. Steep's ensemble vibe (gruff, warm, and distinctly Midwestern) should make this a fun wagon trail to ride. Get more details...
Company: N/A.
Venue: Theater on the Lake
Performances: Saturday 7:30 p.m., Sunday 6:30 p.m.
Tickets: $17.50
Closes: Runs Through Jul 5
If you find the fall theater scene overwhelming, relax. Theater on the Lake is here to help you catch up, filling every summer weekend with a different remount of a hit from the previous year. This week, drop thy jaws in awe at the Improvised Shakespeare Company. This troupe has perfected the difficult art of ad-libbing in iambic, creating a brand-spanking new pseudo-Bardic play for every performance. Note: rated B for Bawdy. Get more details...Alert the authorities! Grotesque, campy film scripts are invading Chicago stages. The Neo-futurist's hugely popular staged reading series features some of our town's most innovative theater artists in some of America's worst movies. This week: Jack Tamburri of The Plagiarists directs "Cruising," an '80s epic of gay panic. A homicide detective (played, in the original, by Pacino) must go undercover as that most terrifying of creatures, the homosexual male. Get more details...
Company: Route 66 Theatre Company
Venue: Red Orchid Theatre
Performances: Thursday 8 p.m., Friday 8 p.m., Saturday 8 p.m., Sunday 3 p.m.
Tickets: $20-$25
Closes: Runs Through Jul 12
This girl's own ghost story, told by one actress in a tiny theater, has enchanted local critics with its stark theatricality. Particular praise goes to the virtuoso Gwendolyn Whiteside in the lead (and only) role. Whiteside embodies dozens of small-town Ohioans as she spins the tale of Charlotte McGraw, a teen who gained eerie powers after her twin brother's violent death. Or so the urban legend goes. Get more details...
Company: N/A.
Venue: Book Cellar
Performances: Saturday 7 p.m. (last Saturday of the month)
Tickets: $10
Closes: N/A.
If someone tells you that women aren't funny, march that person right over to the Book Cellar for an evening of cupcakes and comedy. On second thought, don't. More cupcakes for the rest of us. This informal evening of sharp stand-up features a rotating cast of Chicago's best female jokers.Critics praise the cozy, sugar-fueled feel and the hosting skills of ringleader Kelsie Huff. Get more details...
Company: The Hypocrites
Venue: Building Stage
Performances: Thursday 8 p.m., Friday 8 p.m., Saturday 8 p.m., Sunday 3 p.m.
Tickets: $20-$25
Closes: Runs Through Jul 12
The Hypocrites can always be relied on to make the stuff of high-school drama classes into the hottest drama in town. Their production of "Oedipus," directed by Sean Graney in his signature promenade style, turns the ultimate marbleized Greek classic into trashy, neon-colored fun. Critics praise the fully committed three-person cast and the goth-wacky original songs. After all, what's so serious about mother/son incest? Get more details...
Company: Second City
Venue: Navy Pier
Performances: Thursday 7:30 p.m., Friday 7:30 p.m., Saturday 3 p.m.,7 p.m.(Appearance by Rod himself)&9:30p.m., Sunday 3 p.m.
Tickets: $25
Closes: Runs Through Aug 9
Power leads to corruption leads to comedy. The inevitable musical send-up of our felonious guv, handled with Broadway glitter and schmaltz by Second City, has critics rolling in the aisles. The show exploits a lucky confluence between the bombast of Andrew Lloyd Webber's “Jesus Christ Superstar” and the Blag's self-dramatizing messiah complex. It also offers a generous helping of local references, making it one for the natives, not just the tourists. If we can't laugh at ourselves, then who can? Get more details...Scientology is anything but undermocked. In fact, this wacked-out sci-fi celebutard religion has been jabbed by everyone from South Park to Les Freres Corbusier. Still, the Annoyance, with its venal, punchy brand of comedy, should take a worthwhile swing at the target. In this spoof musical, the government turns itself over to our new Thetan overlords when an actual alien race invades earth. Get more details...
Company: Theater Oobleck
Venue: Storefront Theatre
Performances: Thursday 7:30 p.m. , Friday 7:30 p.m. (No show July 3), Saturday 7:30 p.m. (No show July 4), Sunday 3 p.m.
Tickets: $15 (Suggested Donation)
Closes: Runs Through Jul 19
The wicked-smart weirdos at Theatre Oobleck are crashing the Loop. Critics say that the company's latest mash-up of high, middle, and low-brow culture is a delightful brain workout, combining crackling intelligence with gut-punching laughs. "Strauss at Midnight" features Oscar and Felix (yes, the Odd Couple), along with Neo-con godfathers Leo Strauss and Allan Bloom, in a tale of death and time-travel. Watch out for those butterflies. Get more details...
Company: Neo-Futurists
Venue: Neo-Futurarium
Performances: Wednesday 11 p.m. (12/31 only), Friday 11:30 p.m. , Saturday 11:30 p.m. , Sunday 7 p.m.
Tickets: < $20 ($7 plus roll of one die)
Closes: N/A.
Company: Tuta Theatre Chicago
Venue: Chopin Theatre
Performances: Thursday 8 p.m., Friday 8 p.m. (Preview May 22), Saturday 8 p.m., Sunday 3 p.m.
Tickets: $15-$25
Closes: Runs Through Jul 26
A bunch of exquisitely melancholic Russians hang out on a country estate, their hearts brimming with unrequited passion as life passes them by. Sure, that's what happens in every Chekhov play, but it works. TUTA's lucid production of "Uncle Vanya" swept critics' top-10 lists in 2008, winning acclaim for its ensemble acting and gleaming new translation of the text. Don't let it pass you by again. Get more details... |
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