The Goodman’s production of Eboni Booth’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play runs through November 3

Eboni Booth’s PRIMARY TRUST is a slight and intimate play, made more heartfelt by Namir Smallwood’s beautifully realized central performance as Kenneth. Set in a time vaguely before smart phones, the 2024 Pulitzer Prize winner finds 38-year-old Kenneth, who’s extremely attached to his routine, in a moment of profound change. For the past 15 years, Kenneth has worked at a local rare bookstore in the small town of Cranberry, New York. And every evening after work, Kenneth goes to Wally’s for Mai Tais with his best and only friend Bert (even if Bert can’t always be there for Kenneth in the way he wants him to be.) When Kenneth’s boss announces he’s closing up shop, Kenneth takes a new position as a bank teller at Primary Trust — incidentally, the source of the play’s title. Kenneth’s new role forces him to become more social than ever before, and he soon finds that this transition piques his curiosity for becoming more social  outside of work, as well. 

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Tieber’s limited engagement at THE MAGIC PARLOUR runs through Sunday, October 20

Magician Siegfried Tieber’s sparkling, genuine charm is every bit as magical as his tricks in his special engagement at THE MAGIC PARLOUR. As part of the Destinos Chicago International Latino Theater Festival, THE MAGIC PARLOUR hosts Tieber for a limited engagement including performances in both English and Spanish. The fact that Tieber, who was born in Ecuador and now lives in Los Angeles, can perform his mentalist tricks in two languages makes his feats all the more dazzling.

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The Chicago engagement of this theatrical adventure through the Wizarding World — the national tour debut — runs through February 1, 2025

HARRY POTTER AND THE CURSED CHILD is three hours of nostalgia-fueled, utterly captivating theater…with heaps of stage magic. The Chicago engagement marks the national tour debut of the eighth installment in J.K. Rowling’s HARRY POTTER series. For the tour, director John Tiffany cut down the material from the show’s original two-part, five-hour theatrical epic (with story devised by Tiffany and Rowling and script written by Jack Thorne). This shortened tour version still offers ample time to deliver CURSED CHILD’S storyline, and most importantly, bring to life many of the series’ iconic characters and magic spells. 

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The season-opening production at Chicago’s Goodman Theatre runs through October 20

Goodman Theatre’s season-opening production of INHERIT THE WIND centers on a fictionalized version of the 1925 “Scopes Monkey” trial — at its heart, a debate on creationism vs. evolutionism. Though playwrights Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee make it clear they’re on the side of evolution, it’s still a treat to watch this production’s Matthew Harrison Brady (Alexander Gemignani) and Henry Drummond (Harry Lennix) go head-to-head in a verbal spar. I think it’s a risk to stage a classic play, like this piece from 1955, and claim it points to the current moment. But in the case of Artistic Associate Henry Godinez’s production, that holds up fairly well for INHERIT THE WIND. It’s not really a stretch to stage a classic that advocates for the ability to have original thoughts and challenge ideas in 2024. 

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Michael Frayn’s farce-within-a-farce runs through November 3, 2024

Michael Frayn’s NOISES OFF is a genuinely funny homage to classic British farce, replete with more doors and sardines than seems humanly possible. Former Steppenwolf Artistic Director Anna D. Shapiro has returned to direct this increasingly chaotic 1982 farce-within-a-farce. NOISES OFF follows a fictional company of actors and crew members staging another farce called NOTHING ON. Over the course of two hours and 40 minutes (with two intermissions) it includes three Act Ones — showing us various, ever messier moments in the production journey. The first Act One finds the company in a hurried dress rehearsal, the second backstage about a month or so into the show’s tour, and the third near the tour’s end as everything descends into madness.

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The Chicago area premiere of Dave Molloy’s Best Musical Tony-nominated show runs through November 3

Writers Theatre’s production of NATASHA, PIERRE AND THE GREAT COMET OF 1812 is inventive, glamorous, and tightly executed — no small feat for Dave Molloy’s complex and unique musical. Director Katie Spelman’s 13-member ensemble is likewise chock full of powerhouse performers. Particularly when it comes to the vocals, this cast is reaching — and finding — their way to the stars. 

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The Broadway In Chicago engagement of the musical based on the classic 1985 film runs through September 1, 2024

BACK TO THE FUTURE: THE MUSICAL is a fun and faithful adaptation of the 1985 film — but it’s overly long and generically scored. With music and lyrics by Alan Silvestri and Glen Ballard (Silvestri composed the film’s original score) and book by Bob Gale, the musical has a typical pop Broadway score — with some 1950s flare when protagonist Marty McFly travels back in time to 1955. 

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The Midwest premiere of Duncan Sheik, Steven Sater, and Jessie Nelson’s ALICE IN WONDERLAND-themed musical runs through September 29, 2024

While Kokandy Productions’ ALICE BY HEART has some lovely performances, the musical itself is far less imaginative than its ALICE IN WONDERLAND-inspired title suggests. 

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The U.S. premiere of the stage adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s classic literary epic runs through September 1, 2024

Now in its North American premiere at Chicago Shakespeare Theater, THE LORD OF THE RINGS is sprawling, messy theater that’s in serious need of editing. With direction from Paul Hart, book and lyrics by Shaun McKenna and Matthew Warchus, and music by A.R. Rahman, Värttinâ, and Christopher Nightingale, this stage adaption represents many iconic scenes, characters, and creatures from J.R.R. Tolkien’s books. 

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Jason Robert Brown and Taylor Mac’s world premiere musical adaptation of John Berendt’s best-selling non-fiction book runs through August 11, 2024

MIDNIGHT IN THE GARDEN OF GOOD AND EVIL is a sprawling, messy musical that weaves together the threads of several characters in 1980s Savannah, Georgia. Composer/lyricist Jason Robert Brown draws on a variety of different musical styles, while Taylor Mac’s book scenes present a series of vignettes for the Savannah residents. Brown uses a hodgepodge of musical styles to develop the characters, but the result is a score that lacks cohesion and is occasionally redundant. Along with director Rob Ashford, Mac and Brown took a “go big or go home” approach to MIDNIGHT. I admire the musical risk-taking, but the adaptation of John Berendt’s 1994 best-selling book is full of character threads but relatively light on plot. 

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