Artistic Director Susan V. Booth’s production runs through March 31, 2024

Retellings of ancient Greek mythology and texts have been the subject of many theater productions — and now Goodman Theatre Artistic Director Susan V. Booth puts her own spin on Margaret Atwood’s decidedly feminist tale THE PENELOPIAD. THE PENELOPIAD is a reimagining of the story of Odysseus’s’ wife Penelope, who waits 20 years for his return from the Trojan War. Notably, Atwood’s play focuses on Penelope and 12 of her maids, who are hanged upon Odysseus’s return for supposed treason and conspiracy with Penelope’s slimy suitors. As with her famous novel THE HANDMAID’S TALE, Atwood uses THE PENELOPIAD as a device to convey the horrors and abuse committed against women. While Penelope feels confined to her role as dutiful wife, her maids likewise long for the freedom she has as a woman who’s not enslaved like they are. Atwood’s points are valid and mirror the gender inequalities and abuse women still experience now (the original novella was penned in 2005). But THE PENELOPIAD’s feminist argument isn’t revelatory. Instead of providing truly new insight or perspective, the play rather reinforces existing (though rightfully undeniable) points. 

The Chicago engagement of the musical based on the 1993 film that starred Robin Williams plays through March 10, 2024

MRS. DOUBTFIRE is escapist musical theater fun with tremendous character actor Rob McClure (reprising the role from Broadway) carrying on Robin Williams’s immense legacy from the 1993 film in the lead role. 

Director Mary Zimmerman’s whimsical, fun-sized MAGIC FLUTE with 10 actors and 5 musicians runs through March 24, 2024

Director Mary Zimmerman returns to the Goodman with the whimsical and inventive THE MATCHBOX MAGIC FLUTE. Zimmerman’s adaptation of Mozart’s iconic opera is lively and accessible; this would be a great introduction for those new to the opera. I formally studied THE MAGIC FLUTE in a musical theater history course in college, and I still thoroughly enjoyed it (though I think the run-time could still be trimmed some, even at its current two hours and fifteen minutes). This is an utterly fun, visually delightful MAGIC FLUTE — and Zimmerman’s choice to stage the show in English (with some modern-day quips in the material) makes it easy to digest. Zimmerman’s design collaborators ensure it’s a visual marvel, too: Todd Rosenthal’s set is full of clever tricks that evoke the ethereal fairy-tale landscape, Ana Kuzmanic’s costumes are colorful and showcase an array of luxurious fabrics, and T.J. Gerckens’s lighting mirrors the light and shade in Mozart’s score. Amanda Dehnert and Andre Pluess’s music arrangements for the 10-member ensemble and five musicians capture the beauty and joy in Mozart’s music, as well. While it’s not the same as listening to THE MAGIC FLUTE in a large opera house with a full orchestra, the creative team captures the majesty and magic.

“Like a Rolling Stone,” the Bob Dylan jukebox musical GIRL FROM THE NORTH COUNTRY rolls along at an erratic pace with haphazard direction. Book writer and director Conor McPherson’s musical loosely wrapped around many of Dylan’s classic songs concerns a cast of characters at a guesthouse in 1934 Duluth, Minnesota. The musical introduces the owner of the guesthouse Nick Laine (John Schiappa, convincingly both weary and scrappy) and his troubled family: His wife Elizabeth (Jennifer Blood, convincingly losing her rational mind) seems to suffer from dementia, his son Gene (Ben Biggers) is an aspiring writer and alcoholic, and his adopted 19-year-old Black daughter Marianne (Sharaé Moultrie) is pregnant…and the would-be father is nowhere to be found. McPherson brings in a number of other residents at the Laine guesthouse, who flit in and out of the property. Some of them, like the newly released and wrongfully imprisoned Joe Scott (Matt Manuel), have good intentions; others, like the slimy Bible salesman Reverend Marlowe (Jeremy Webb, and, not, shockingly, an actual reverend) do not. The town’s Dr. Walker narrates the proceedings; he bookends the musical’s beginning and end with expositional monologues about this motley crew. 

Chicago Shakespeare Theater Artistic Director Edward Hall’s RICHARD III is a macabre — and messy — production with a commanding lead performance from Katy Sullivan. 

With NOTES FROM THE FIELD, playwright Anna Deavere Smith once again proves she’s a master of her genre of theatrical storytelling. Known for her documentary (or verbatim) plays, Smith presents monologues from 19 different interviews in this exploration of the school-to-prison pipeline in America. By allowing her interview subjects to literally speak for themselves, Smith has mastered the art of showing and not telling. NOTES FROM THE FIELD has a clear agenda; it’s a searing condemnation of the systemic failings of the American judicial, police, educational, and penitentiary institutions — and most notably a condemnation of the ways in which those systems have failed Black and Brown Americans. But Smith conveys her points with a blistering humanity (even if, at two hours and 40 minutes, I think she could have arrived at those points with a shorter run-time).

Chicago premiere of contemporary dance show based on Sufjan Stevens’s ILLINOIS album runs through February 18, 2024

ILLINOISE is a journey through our great state of Illinois using movement. Directed and choreographed by Justin Peck and featuring music and lyrics from Sufjan Stevens’s ILLINOIS album, the show uses dance as its primary narrative language. Peck collaborated with playwright Jacke Sibblies Drury on a loose storyline for ILLINOISE, but that story is communicated entirely through dance. Stevens’s lyrics underscore the situations in the show and mirror the emotional shades of the choreography. 

HIGHWAY PATROL is a real-life play for the internet age. Based on the digital archives of actor Dana Delaney with text curation from playwright Jen Silverman, it’s a personal, vulnerable, and also universal exploration of the longing for connection. Though the action takes place primarily in 2012, before the phrase “extremely online” was even coined, HIGHWAY PATROL is a live theater piece about what it means to be “extremely online.”