2,260 stories from Chicago Theater Beat
At times funny, at others disturbing and increasingly intriguing the deeper you get into the two-hour production, Windy City Playhouse's Bootycandy sneaks up on you, drawing you into the cha…
Richard Greenberg's The Assembled Parties thoroughly captures family life in all its funny tragedy, and has a stunning lead performance by Loretta Rezos in her Raven Theatre debut. Like the…
The History Boys by Alan Bennett is epic, funny, tragic and more than a little dark. Bennett's script is specific in themes and casting, and very, very difficult to present effectively. Ecl…
Playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins makes his points clearly and viciously in this sharply-observed satire of contemporary life, his primary target being millennials in the workplace. His dial…
Director and Chicago favorite Marti Lyons has assembled a beautiful, low-key yet epic, production of Margaret Edson's Pulitzer Prize winner about an academic with cancer and the last two hou…
Pearle Cleage's Blues for an Alabama Sky offers pretty much everything you could want in a drama - thrilling story, unforgettable character and mesmerizing dialogue. The emotional spectrum i…
The Comrades' Prelude to a Kiss is acted with resonance and skill, along with lots of laughs, and clever use of popular music along the way. Aptly directed by artistic director Derek Bertel…
There's a lot to like about Psychonaut Librarians. Though inconsistent at times, the story of a mother, a daughter and drug trip-induced time travel is both entertaining and compelling. Than…
If you look hard enough, there are glimmers of potential buried in Meg Miroshnik's Depression-era drama of teenage girls trying to escape an oppressive world by teaming up to play basketball…
A tragedy handled with fantasy and comedy, Brown Paper Box Co.'s The Baltimore Waltz is mournful, vulnerable and memorable. Short but effective, Playwright Paula Vogel's play is both univer…
Priscilla, Queen of the Desert is an unapologetic campfest of fabulous drag-queen proportions, and an homage to 70's disco music. Though Honey West does a star turn in this produciton, Pris…
Writers Theatre's world premiere The Hunter and the Bear, created by PigPen Theatre, may be a tad long for what it has to say, but with just a little judicious trimming it can have legs for …
Winter is coming - we all reach the point where there is far more behind us than ahead. Rivendell Theatre's Winter, by Julie Jensen, exploring one woman's personal winter as she comes to gri…
In Saturday Night Live's parody of Chicago the Musical's "Roxie", Kellyanne Conway (played by Kate McKinnon) reveals the real reason she joined Donald Trump's campaign. Hilarious!
The sad irony regarding The Temperamentals is how achingly relevant it feels today. Though Playwright Jon Marans' acclaimed off-Broadway play takes place in the early 1950s, many themes ring…
Lookingglass Theatre's Doug Hara has fashioned a charming and touching fable, presented with the help of some highly inventive multi-media stagecraft in this charming and touching world prem…
Playwright Conor McPherson's writing captures the quintessential nature of the Irish, though I wish The Weir's sole female character was more broadly defined and less of a stereotype. Overal…
Lucas Hnath's latest drama, The Christians, is packed with the sort of provocative questions that fuel all-night philosophical discussions. As a debate, Steppenwolf's production has merit. A…
This La Gringa is worth the trip west, with an energetic cast and a lovely message about home and family. A solid production from beginning to end, La Gringa is heartwarming but not sappy, p…
Part of Greenhouse Theater's Solo Celebration! series, Her America, by Brett Neveu, has a troubling premise regarding women's choices. That being said, Kate Buddeke is an actor of fierce ab…
Nominated for a Pulitzer Prize when it first premiered in 1990, Cuban-American playwright MarÃa Irene Fornés's What of the Night? is an important, but rarely produced, work of unconventi…
Despite a winning roster of country favorites and powerful, talented voices to serve them up, Honky Tonk Angels is all but done in by the barrage of clichés that creator Ted Swindley has mu…
Despite a few strong performances, City Lit Theater's The Sundial fails to fully deliver. Though based on the novel by influential author Shirley Jackson, it's clear here that not every lite…
There's power in the image of women working together to ensure each other's survival, all the while refusing to be categorized in terms of traditional gender norms. Unfortunately, that power…
See our picks below the fold Chicago's best theater of 2016 (in alphabe…
