Mercury Theater’s WOMEN OF SOUL is a love letter to some of the most iconic female vocalists of the 20th and 21st centuries, both old-school and new-school. Writer and director Daryl D. Brooks’s musical revue incorporates a wide range of icons featuring an ensemble of nine (eight women and one man). Brooks’s book honors the true nature of the revue — WOMEN OF SOUL does not have a plot. Rather, ensemble members take turns introducing the show’s powerhouses with a few biographical facts before one of their counterparts tears into a solo number or medley of greatest hits. 

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While BACHELOR: THE UNAUTHORIZED PARODY MUSICAL has no qualms about poking endless fun at all the tired tropes and well-trod dramatic arcs in ABC’s THE BACHELOR, director Tim Drucker’s cast makes the material fresh and milks the parody for all its worth. 

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A Red Orchid Theatre returns with Jen Silverman’s THE MOORS, which overturns the conventions of a Victorian era-style drama by infusing commentary on gender roles and elements of absurdism. The play’s 100 minutes have a slow build, in which the earlier scenes feel like a traditional drama the likes of which the Brontës might have written. It becomes more absurd as the play moves on, and the material’s subversiveness recalls Jane Austen’s social satire. Silverman makes some bold, surreal, and bizarre choices in the play’s text. It’s an intriguing concept, but the play itself ends up messy. 

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Queen Elsa has arrived in Chicago to “Let It Go” — and that famous song from the original FROZEN film now serves as the act one finale for Disney’s latest musical theater magic. Elsa (Caroline Bowman, belting within an inch of her life) sings the powerhouse number as an ice castle swirls around her in Christopher Oram’s set with lighting awash in Natasha Katz’s cool-tone color scheme and projections from Finn Ross. While the moment is a delight, the most spectacular moment comes from Elsa’s quick costume change — Oram also designed the costumes, and that’s the real moment of magic here. 

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PARADISE SQUARE takes the theme of the proverbial American melting pot deeply to heart. The musical centers on the lower Manhattan neighborhood of Five Points  in the 1860s, where many white Irish immigrants and free Black Americans lived together. Though the show’s narrator, Paradise Square saloon owner Nelly O’Brien, tells audiences that Five Points was notorious for being a slum, she also makes clear that the neighborhood’s inhabitants enjoyed deep friendships and romantic relationships. 

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Mercury Theater Chicago returns with SISTER ACT — and it’s pure musical theater elation. This “Joyful, Joyful” (SISTER ACT II reference intended) production, with direction from Reneisha Jenkins and choreography by Mercury’s new Artistic Director Christopher Chase Carter, meets the goal of delighting audiences. This is musical theater that’s designed to entertain and not make audiences think too deeply, and Mercury’s production capitalizes on the show’s capacity for fun. While the material is not at all serious, the talent in this company is stacked, and the actors take their responsibility to deliver this fun seriously. 

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After the long pandemic hiatus, Porchlight Music Theatre returns to in-person productions with a feel-good staging of PUMP BOYS & DINETTES. It’s clear that Artistic Director Michael Weber knew that audiences would be craving some classic, lighthearted musical theater sentiment after such a long time away. He was wise to program director Daryl Brooks’s production of this 1983 show as a welcome back. 

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E. Faye Butler is one of those performers who makes acting and singing look as natural as breathing. As strong-willed civil rights and voting rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer, Butler knows she has audiences in the palm of her hand. And rightfully so! Butler easily glides between impassioned, sincere monologues and using her powerful belt and riffs to sing such notable songs as “This Little Light of Mine.” 

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Chicago Shakespeare Theater returns following its pandemic hiatus with director Daryl Cloran’s rad production of AS YOU LIKE IT. Cloran’s vision for this classic pastoral comedy combines the renowned lyricism of Shakespeare’s text with the songs of some more modern iconic British wordsmiths —  the Beatles. This take seamlessly interweaves the play’s text with the Beatles songs, and Cloran chose a play that fits naturally with the famous band’s music. Given that Shakespeare’s language is innately lyrical, it lends itself well to a pairing with other notable lyrics. At the same time, that can be a tricky balance. Not so with this production. Cloran balances text and song beautifully, and thus this is a show that’s sure to please fans of both Shakespeare and the Beatles. 

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Directed by Henry Godinez, Goodman Theatre’s production of AMERICAN MARIACHI, co-produced with Dallas Theater Center, exudes charm and makes impeccable use of its titular music; the five women who form the all-female American mariachi band in question are all outstanding vocalists. 

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