Director Nick Bowling’s superbly sung revival of William Finn and James Lapine’s musical runs through December 15, 2024

FALSETTOS, originally written as two-one act musicals set in 1979 and 1981, respectively, feels simultaneously dated and prescient. In this co-production from Court Theatre and TimeLine Theatre Company, director Nick Bowling leads a first-rate ensemble that preserves the musical as a period piece but also makes it feel utterly alive. Lauren Nichols’s set design evokes a 1970s retro roller rink and Theresa Ham’s costume designs also use extremely ‘70s colors (and each character wears a signature color). But many of the show’s central themes hit now as ahead of their time and eerily relevant. In particular, the musical’s reverence for Jewish culture and tradition and its unabashed embrace of queer love are especially moving at a time when anti-Semitism and homophobia seem tragically on the rise in America. 

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The world premiere runs through December 15, 2024 in Steppenwolf’s in-the-round Ensemble Theater

In Ngozi Anyanwu’s LEROY AND LUCY, two strangers meet at a crossroads in Mississippi…and not much happens. Based upon the myth of Robert Johnson, who supposedly sold his soul to the devil to make it as a blues musician, the play finds Leroy (Jon Michael Hill) and Lucy (Brittany Bradford) in a liminal space. And that’s precisely the challenge of this play: Anyanwu’s characters don’t know each other and literally exist on Andrew Boyce’s empty (but pretty) set. It’s a tall order to create high stakes when characters are unknown to each other, and unfortunately, Anyanwu’s play isn’t dynamic enough to sustain its 90-minute run time. 

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The Second City’s 48th e.t.c. revue plays an open run

The Second City’s latest e.t.c. revue BEST KEPT SECRET: TELL EVERYONE wants to remind audiences that life is a cabaret, old chum. While some Second City revue themes hang together better than others, BEST KEPT SECRET slyly pays homage to the classic Kander and Ebb musical CABARET and the general idea of cabaret shows. For this musical theater nerd, that’s a win. Ensemble members Meghan Babbe, Claudia Martinez, Tim Metzler, Terrence Carey, Jenelle Cheyne, and Javid Iqbal consistently carry that theme through the show’s various sketches and improvised moments. 

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The Broadway In Chicago engagement of the SOME LIKE IT HOT national tour runs through November 3, 2024

SOME LIKE IT HOT brings old-fashioned musical comedy, hijinks, and a ton of superbly executed tap dancing to the stage. 

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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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