This lively romantic comedy with a stellar cast runs through March 8

Goodman Theatre continues its centennial season with the endearing and lively romantic comedy HOLIDAY. This adapted play by Richard Greenberg (taken from Philip Barry’s 1928 play HOLIDAY) has classic conventions of the romance genre. While the original play — made famous by a 1938 film starring Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant — was billed as a screwball comedy, Greenberg’s version isn’t farcical so much as it’s pure rom com. 

David Adjmi’s STEREOPHONIC pulls back the curtain on making a rock album — with all of the minute details, inane band member conversations, and painstaking, spirited artistic conversations that come with it. It centers on an unnamed Fleetwood Mac-esque band in the late 1970s as they record (and deliberate over) their newest album at a studio in California. If diving deep into the minutiae of the recording process excites you, STEREOPHONIC is your ticket. Fans of DAISY JONES AND THE SIX — both the Taylor Jenkins Reid novel and the Amazon miniseries based on it — will love this. 

The musical adaptation of the beloved New Line Cinema Christmas film runs through December 14, 2025

Thanks to Buddy the Elf, ELF THE MUSICAL has plenty of holiday cheer. Jack Ducat has large shoes to fill as the beloved film character Buddy, a now adult man raised on the North Pole by Santa (Andrew Hendrick) and his elves— who must then venture into the wilds of New York City to meet his human father. Will Ferrell’s performance in the original 2003 film is embedded in the holiday movie zeitgeist — so it’s a big ask. Luckily, Ducat is magnificent in the role. He captures Buddy’s sprightliness and endless optimism and cheer. Ducat also eschews making his Buddy into Will Ferrell 2.0 — his acting choices make the character immediately recognizable, without feeling like a copycat.

AMADEUS at Steppenwolf Theatre Company is a lively and sprawling production of Peter Shaffer’s play. Director Robert Falls, the recently retired former Goodman Theatre Artistic Director, makes his Steppenwolf directorial debut with one of the best uses of Steppenwolf’s Ensemble Theater I’ve seen. The open play space can pose a challenge because it doesn’t allow for a traditional proscenium staging, but it’s a great fit for AMADEUS. In Falls’s production, ensemble members flit in and out of the theater’s many entrances and exits, mirroring the cacophony of Habsburg high society. Todd Rosenthal’s sparse set design, replete with glimmering chandeliers that recall PHANTOM OF THE OPERA, allows Amanda Gladu’s opulent and colorful costumes to take center stage.

HELL’S KITCHEN, the Alicia Keys jukebox musical now making its Chicago premiere as part of the first national tour, has a messy storyline wrapped in slick packaging. While the show is loosely based on Keys’s childhood in Manhattan, the storytelling is generic, and the songs are often awkwardly incorporated into the book. Admittedly, Kristoffer Diaz’s book is weak. It’s a flimsy vehicle for Keys’s song catalog. Huge Alicia Keys fans might enjoy hearing her biggest hits performed by musical theater actors, but the plot around them doesn’t hang together.

Kokandy Productions’ expertly sung JEKYLL & HYDE arrives just in time for spooky season — or cold winter nights. This is exactly how I like my Halloween-adjacent fare: Leslie Bricusse and Frank Wildhorn’s eerie and contemplative musical has a sense of creepiness, but there’s no blood or gore. Even the body horror here is imagined — yes, David Moreland transforms from the kind Dr. Henry Jekyll to his evil inner counterpart Mr. Edward Hyde, but his physical appearance remains unchanged. That’s precisely the question the musical explores though: If you suppress your true self and inner darkness for too long, what untold horrors unfold when it finally comes out? 

This new PARANORMAL ACTIVITY stage play (based on Paramount Pictures’ PARANORMAL ACTIVITY horror films) has terrific stage effects and absolutely creeped me out. While I’m decidedly not a horror fan (in fact, I actively avoid the genre), this production captures that “edge of your seat, what terrifying thing will emerge from the dark next” energy. Levi Holloway’s script itself is extremely light on plot and character development. Based on the merits of the script alone, there’s not much to recommend in the material. But it leaves plenty of room for creepy effects and terrifying stage surprises — and the inventive and frightful production is definitely the selling point! 

Sandra Delgado’s new play HUNDREDS AND HUNDREDS OF STARS hits the stage at an eerily relevant time. Set in 2015, it follows Clara, a Green Card holder who’s been in the United States since she was two. Now facing the possibility of deportation on two counts of cannabis possession, Clara may have to leave behind the only home she’s ever known — and her 12-year-old daughter Stella, her ex-husband David, and her father. Delgado’s story is an important one, especially right now with the forcible ICE presence on the streets of Chicago. That said, Delgado’s storytelling methods are straightforward and overtly didactic.