RECOMMENDED Where: Goodman Theatre Owen Theatre, 170 N. Dearborn St. When: through June 24 Tickets: $10-$40 Phone: 312-443-3800 By ANNE SPISELMAN Theater Critic “Father Comes Home From the Wars (Parts 1, 2 & 3)” is unlike any play you’ve seen before. Suzan-Lori Parks, the first black woman to win a Pulitzer Prize for Drama (in […]
RECOMMENDED Where: The Yard at Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Navy Pier When: through June 24 Tickets: $48-$88 Phone: 312-595-5600 By ANNE SPISELMAN Theater Critic “Macbeth” and magic go hand-in-hand, so when Chicago Shakespeare Theater tapped Aaron Posner and Teller (of Penn & Teller) to adapt and direct the Scottish Play, expectations ran high that they would […]
RECOMMENDED Where: Writers Theatre, Nichols Theatre, 325 Tudor Court, Glencoe When: through June 17 Tickets: $35-$80 Phone: 847-242-6000 By ANNE SPISELMAN Theater Critic No matter how many times I see the late Sam Shepard’s 1979 Pulitzer Prize-winning “Buried Child,” I still can’t really make heads or tails of it. The rural Illinois family the playwright […]
RECOMMENDED Where: Northlight Theatre, North Shore Center for the Performing Arts, 9501 Skokie Blvd., Skokie When: through June 17 Tickets: $30-$81 Phone: 847-673-6300 By ANNE SPISELMAN Theater Critic Northlight Theatre is closing the season with “Cry It Out,” Molly Smith Metzler’s insightful semi-autobiographical play about the delights and demands of new motherhood. Commissioned by the […]
RECOMMENDED Where: Porchlight Music Theatre, Ruth Page Center for the Arts, 1016 N. Dearborn St. When: through June 16 Tickets: $33-$60 Phone: 773-777-9884 By ANNE SPISELMAN Theater Critic One way to look at “Memphis,” Joe Dipietro (book and lyrics) and David Bryan’s (music and lyrics) 2003 musical loosely based on 1950s radio personality, Dewey Phillips, […]
RECOMMENDED Where: Court Theatre, 5535 S. Ellis Ave. When: through June 10 Tickets: $44-$74 Phone: 773-753-4472 By ANNE SPISELMAN Theater Critic The late Justice Antonin Scalia (1936-2016) was still alive and an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States when John Strand’s “The Originalist” premiered at the Arena Stage in Washington, DC […]
RECOMMENDED Where: Goodman Theatre Albert Theatre, 170 N. Dearborn St. When: through June 10 Tickets: $10-$73 Phone: 312-443-3800 By ANNE SPISELMAN Theater Critic Emily Mann’s “Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters’ First 100 Years” offers a window onto a century’s worth of history from the perspective of two remarkable women plus an entertaining and edifying […]
RECOMMENDED Where: American Blues Theater at Stage 773, 1225 W. Belmont Ave. When: through May 26 Tickets: $19-$49 Phone: 773-327-5252 By ANNE SPISELMAN Theater Critic Every time I see Alan Janes’ 1989 “Buddy—The Buddy Holly Story,” I’m struck by the fact that, except for the music, this early jukebox musical is not really a very […]
RECOMMENDED Where: Writers Theatre, Gillian Theatre, 325 Tudor Court, Glencoe When: through June 10 Tickets: $35-$80 Phone: 847-242-6000 By ANNE SPISELMAN Theater Critic Set between 2007 and 2009, Lydia R. Diamond’s “Smart People” arguably resonates in even more ways today than it did when it was first produced in 1914 during the hopeful Obama era. […]
RECOMMENDED Where: Goodman Owen Theatre, 170 N. Dearborn St. When: through May 12 Tickets: $10-$29 Phone: 312-443-3800 By ANNE SPISELMAN Theater Critic Commissioned in 2016 by The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, Dael Orlandersmith’s “Until the Flood” looks at the aftermath of the fatal shooting of Michael Brown, an unarmed 18-year old African American, by […]