Events Search – Recommended
Faith Healer
Through 2/3: Fri-Sat 7:30 PM, Sun 3 PMTheater & Performance
TurnAround Theatre had a hit with this drama by Irish playwright Brian Friel back in 1995. Now the Den Theatre has reunited director J.R. Sullivan with the original cast for another go. Comprising four monologues by three unreliable narrators, the play recounts the slow unraveling of self-doubting faith healer Frank Hardy (Si Osborne), his embittered wife (Lia Mortensen), and the Cockney showbiz promoter (Brad Armacost) who loves them both. Every second of Sullivan's remount is riveting, thanks to a cast who manage to seem deeply connected to one another even though they're never onstage at the same time. I didn't see the original version, but it's hard to imagine younger performers conveying the same depth and hard-won experience. —Zac Thompson $28
Lady M
Through 2/6: Sat 4 PM, Sun-Wed 7:30 PMTheater & Performance
Laley Lippard has taken apart Shakespeare's "Scottish play" and reassembled it with the idea of making Lady Macbeth the protagonist. To achieve that aim Lippard cleverly elides key elements (the prophetic witches are entirely omitted) and adds others (such as a sultry sex scene) that are merely alluded to in the testosterone-fueled original. If Lippard's deconstruction is effective, her direction is even more impressive. She makes smart uses of minimal space (by banging on the outer walls of the theater, for instance, to simulate inner turmoil) and primitive lighting, relying on little more than four light bulbs, a doorway, and a lantern. Kristi Webb is terrific as Lady Macbeth; the other actors didn't seem as strong to me, but then I may've been distracted by the bizarre decision to outfit them in cargo pants. --Tal Rosenberg $15-$20
The Unveiling and Dozens of Cousins
Through 2/9: Fri-Sat 8 PMTheater & Performance
James Joyce had Stephen Dedalus, David Mamet had Bobby Gould. And Vaclav Havel had a hapless alter ego named Ferdinand Vanek, bearing witness to life's absurdities in four plays that Havel wrote over the course of 25 years. Trap Door Theatre mounts the first and the last of those plays. In 1975's The Unveiling, Vanek spends an excruciating evening with maniacally status-conscious Vera and Michael, who are hell-bent on "resolving his situation" by turning him into a consumerist clone of themselves. In 2010's Dozens of Cousins, Vanek returns to find the dissolute but defiantly condescending couple in the throes of collapse. Beata Pilch's manicured, high-strung staging makes the submerged menace of the pieces hilarious, bracing, and deeply disturbing. Her laser-sharp cast turn 65 minutes of increasing irrationality into a giddy psychological thrill ride. —Justin Hayford $20-$25
Pygmalion
Through 2/10: Thu-Sat 8 PM, Sun 3 PMTheater & Performance
This fine Stage Left/BoHo Theatre coproduction reminded me how much richer and deeper George Bernard Shaw's 1912 comedy is than its sentimentalized musicalization, My Fair Lady. The tale of a misogynistic phonetics professor who teaches a cockney flower girl to speak well—and in so doing, transforms her into an independent woman beyond his control—Shaw's classic brilliantly satirizes gender roles, class, and morality, even as it delivers a sublimated but potent romance. In Vance Smith's staging, leads Steve O'Connell and Mouzam Makkar bring bristling intelligence to their strong-willed characters, both of whom use intellectual achievement to harness their chaotic emotions. —Albert Williams $25
Beautiful Thing
Through 2/17: Thu-Sat 7:30 PM, Sun 2 PMTheater & Performance
Jonathan Harvey's tender, tough dramedy focuses on working-class British teen Jamie and his complicated, sometimes combative relationships with the two most important people in his life: his barmaid mother, who dreams of owning her own pub, and Ste, the handsome young schoolmate who lives with his abusive father in the council flat next door. The material feels familiar because it's true to life, and Harvey's 1993 script tackles still-timely themes--bullying, domestic violence, teenage sexual identity conflicts--with a hard-edged humor that doesn't sacrifice seriousness. The success of John Nasca's Pride Films and Plays production hinges largely on Robert Hilliard's engaging performance as Jamie, a stocky, sports-averse 16-year-old whose confidence blossoms as he journeys toward self-acceptance. --Albert Williams $23-$25
The Glass Menagerie
Through 2/17: Thu-Sat 8 PM, Sun 7 PMTheater & Performance
A Saint Louis family clashes in Tennessee Williams's drama. $15-$25
Barnstormers
Through 2/23: Sat 4 PMTheater & Performance
Two caveats regarding Drinking & Writing Theater's SportsCenter-style comedy show: One, it's a celebration of functional alcoholism, which is inherently icky. Two, although dolled up with sketch bits, it's basically a literary history lesson . . . set in a bar. Get over those hurdles, though, and you arrive at a casually fascinating edutainment covering booze, sports, and journalism, with set pieces on topics ranging from the notorious MLB wife swap involving Yankee Fritz Peterson to Hunter S. Thompson's gonzo Kentucky Derby trip. There are also first-person essays by Drinking & Writing principals Sean Benjamin and Steve Mosqueda. It's far from polished, but that's a part of the appeal. For better or worse, Benjamin and Mosqueda make you feel like their old drinking buddy. —Dan Jakes $15
The Empire Brings Sexy Back
Through 2/23: Sat 10:30 PMTheater & Performance
An all-female version of Star Wars is an interesting proposition to begin with. When those females end most scenes by stripping down to pasties, it just gets even more, well, interesting. The Gorilla Tango Theatre cast pulls it off beautifully in a funny, clever reimagining of Star Wars: Episode V—The Empire Strikes Back that references the original without getting too bogged down in plot. Among the many successful scenes is one where Yoda teaches Luke Skywalker the ways of the Force, a power that in this version is activated through vigorous shimmying. When Luke gets frustrated and complains that she's not well enough equipped to levitate the X-wing fighter, Yoda displays her own modestly sized breasts and gently advises that "cup size matters not." —Julia Thiel $20
Bud, Not Buddy
Through 2/24: Tue-Wed 10 AM, Thu-Fri 10 AM and 6:30 PM, Sat 2 and 6 PM, Sun 11 AMTheater & Performance
Director Derrick Sanders doesn't miss a beat in this well-orchestrated stage version of Christopher Paul Curtis's 1999 children's book, about an African-American boy searching for his father in Depression-era America. Each part of the show just hums along: Sanders's eye-pleasing staging, Rick Simms's ear-pleasing sound design, Courtney O'Neill's superb scenic design, and the tight, playful ensemble. Among the many fine performances are Travis Turner's as the title character and Cedric Young's as a grumpy bandleader who may be Bud's dad. Though clearly pitched to school-aged children, there's enough texture in both the book and the wonderful Chicago Children's Theatre production to move adults as well. --Jack Helbig $36
1016 N. Dearborn St.
Gold Coast/Mag Mile/Streeterville
847-864-5323When the Rain Stops Falling
Through 2/24: Thu-Sat 7:30 PM, Sun 2:30 PMTheater & Performance
Andrew Bovell's 2008 family drama spans two continents, four generations, and about 80 years, from the 1950s to 2039. Jumping back and forth in time, it teasingly reveals the secrets, sins, failed romances, and fraught parent-child relationships that connect the tight-lipped Law family of London with the flinty Yorks of Australia. Bovell's jigsaw approach creates the sense that past, present, and future are alive in each moment. Images and phrases recur, taking on new shades of meaning with each repetition, as in a villanelle. Inasmuch as Circle Theatre usually sticks to crowd-pleasing musicals and comedies, John Gawlik's sensitive and layered staging comes as a welcome surprise. Likewise, the cast turn in performances distinguished by their depth and quiet honesty. --Zac Thompson $15-$32
Boy Gets Girl
Through 3/2: Fri-Sat 8 PM, Sun 3:30 PMTheater & Performance
Boy dates girl. Girl rejects boy. Boy tries to win girl over by sending boatloads of flowers, showing up at her office, leaving lots of messages, and watching her apartment at night. As the girl's coworker points out, "Normal male heterosexual behavior is somewhat psychotic"--so it takes a while for self-possessed journalist Theresa to realize that Tony is stalking her. But the tension in Rebecca Gilman's 2000 play is established right from the start, and builds as Tony's behavior becomes more and more terrifying. Leonard Kraft provides much-needed comic relief as an aging director of erotic films whom Theresa has to interview for an article. Cody Estle's dark staging makes it clear, though, that there's no plausible happy ending. At one point Theresa's colleague urges her not to change her life, because that would mean Tony had won. "He's already won," she replies. --Julia Thiel $36
The Motherfucker With the Hat
Through 3/3: various times, see websiteTheater & Performance
An ex-con quarrels with his girlfriend while attempting to reenter society. Read the full review >> $48-$72
A Grand Night for Singing
Through 3/10: Thu 2 and 7:30 PM, Fri 8 PM, Sat 2 and 8 PM, Sun 2 PMTheater & Performance
The Mercury Theater is aiming to join the ranks of old-school musical-producing companies like Drury Lane and Marriott Lincolnshire--which is fine, since it would be nice to have one within the city limits. And this joyous, reverent revue sends Mercury off on the right foot. Framed by Jason Epperson's elegant, starlit backdrop and accompanied by a six-piece band, Marya Grandy, Robert Hunt, Leah Morrow, Stephen Schellhardt and Heather Townsend sing 30 songs from the Rodgers & Hammerstein songbook. They sail past schmaltz to achieve grandeur and sincerity. The whole affair is made even better by being acoustically perfect. --Dan Jakes $25-$59
The Sound, the Soul, the Syncopation
Through 3/15:Galleries
Sam Worley writes, "With photos and text, 'The Sound, the Soul, the Syncopation' looks at how close-knit subsidized communities in Brooklyn, Houston, Detroit, and other cities have helped produce talents like Barbra Streisand, Kenny Rogers, and Diana Ross." Check out the rest of his review right here.
The Book of Mormon
Through 9/18: Tue-Fri 7:30 PM, Sat 2 and 8 PM, Sun 2 and 7:30 PMTheater & Performance
I know it'll seem incomprehensible to you fans of talking turds, but I've never paid Comedy Central's South Park much mind one way or another. And when New York fell all over itself last year appreciating The Book of Mormon, I wondered if there wasn't just a smidge of hyperbole in calling the musical by South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone (along with Robert Lopez) the best of the "century." Now that I've seen the Chicago production, however, I've been—well—converted. A wise mix of nasty satire and compassionate truth telling, Parker, Stone, and Lopez's tale of Mormon missionaries in Uganda is as entertaining—and, strangely, uplifting—a piece of work as anything in recent American theater. Although the book draws whole quivers full of big red arrows to everything that's ludicrous about the Mormon way, it also ends up making a case for the hope we all derive from silly myths. Meanwhile, playful as it is, it ranks up there with Lynn Nottage's Ruined in exposing the danger, dignity, and distortions of African life. The cast is uniformly and perfectly seductive. And is that Steppenwolf's famously earnest James Vincent Meredith, showing a new side of himself as the Ugandan village chief? Incredible. —Tony Adler
$65-$125
