Theatre with a side of life
The Second City presents the 2026 Black Excellence Revue in BLACK AND HIGHLY FLAVORED. For the fourth year, the annual Black Excellence Revue is back onstage at The Second City in celebration of Black History Month. The mash-up of sketch, improv, and audience interaction is a joyful tribute to black artistry and community spirit. Under the ...
Goodman Theatre presents HOLIDAY. Boy meets girl. They fall in love. They get engaged. Then, he finds out her deep, dark secret…. she is filthy rich. Julia is from the Manhattan upper class. Johnny arrives at the family’s Fifth Avenue mansion ready to assimilate. He must win over the relentless mogul father, the drunken drifter brother ...
Chicago Shakespeare Theater presents the US premiere of HAMNET by the Royal Shakespeare Company. Agnes is a free spirit. William is a Latin tutor. They fall in love, get married and have a family. Author Maggie O’Farrell imagines the woman left behind in Stratford as the playwright pursued an extraordinary fate in London. Who was Mrs. ...
Steppenwolf Theatre presents THE DANCE OF DEATH. Edgar is an artillery captain. Alice is a stage actress. When they met, sparks flew. Fast forward twenty-five years later, the sparks are still present, they’ve turned incendiary. Imprisoned together on a remote island, the couple exist on meager provisions and a steady diet of barbs and hate. When ...
Porchlight Music Theatre presents Frank McCourt’s THE IRISH…AND HOW THEY GOT THAT WAY. Pulitzer Prize-winning Author Frank McCourt penned a poignant memoir of growing up poor and hungry in Limerick, Ireland. His “Angela’s Ashes” was a marring tribute to his resilient mother in the 1930s. Published in 1996, the story lingers in my mind for its ...
Redtwist Theatre presents CONFEDERATES. Sandra is a professor at a prestigious university. Someone has placed a disturbing photo on her door. Sara is a slave during the Civil War. Her brother has run away to fight for the Union Army. In different centuries, each woman grapples to find her voice, power and justice within hostile environments. ...
Broadway in Chicago presents the Chicago Premiere of STEREOPHONIC, the 2024 Tony Award-winning Best Play. It’s 1976. As their debut album is climbing the charts, a group of musicians are in the studio wanting to make something bigger and better. They party all night in celebration of the past. They work all day in hopes of ...
Music Theater Works presents ANNIE. The economy is in shambles. Millions of people are out of work. Morale is at an all-time low. Despite the similarity to current day, this show is set in the past during the original Depression. Parents are forced to leave their daughter behind at an orphanage while they fend for survival. ...
Crossroads Live North America and Temple Live Entertainment North America, along with Broadway in Chicago, present ELF THE MUSICAL. In 2003, Will Ferrell introduced the world to Buddy, an oversized, chronically smiling, Christmas-loving elf. In the heartwarming New Line Cinema film written by David Berenbaum, Buddy finds out he is a human. He decides to leave ...
Chicago Shakespeare Theater presents MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING. Beatrice and Benedick despise each other. Their encounters are battles of wit dripping in disdain. Beatrice is the niece of the Governor of Messina. Benedick the loyal soldier to the Prince, Don Pedro. While the Prince is visiting Messina, he decides to play matchmaker. Besides wooing the Governor’s ...