Chicago

A PERFECT EIGHT Dave Malloy’s singular a cappella musical proves just as spellbinding in its Goodman transfer Theatrical sensations happen when audiences find themselves captivated by something utterly unique. Stories resonate not only because they’re piercingly relatable, but because they’re presented in a way unlike anything else onstage. That, in essence, is Octet. Dave Malloy’s…

COYOTES, KILLERS, AND SECOND CHANCES Tim Kough’s unconventional thriller finds surprising humanity beneath its violence Theater comes wrapped in all manner of trappings, and it’s often the works that stray furthest from convention that linger longest in the memory. Safe Landing: Coyote Embrace, now playing at Theater Wit, is one of those productions. Written by…

THE HAIRY APE COMETH This gleefully unhinged musical comedy is a strong play’s journey into wisecracks The Goodman closes out its centennial season in spectacular fashion with a big, brash new musical composed by Mark Hollmann (Urinetown), lyrics by Hollmann and Jay Reiss (Spelling Bee), and book by Reiss and Erin Quinn Purcell. Directed by…

CRITIC’S BITE A gripping solo performance anchors this haunting tale I had not encountered arithmomania in any form of entertainment media in well over two decades. Now it’s popped up twice in a few weeks on two different Chicago stages: in Kevin Douglas’ hilarious Untitled Vampire Play at Lookingglass, and now in Black Button Eyes‘ sharp…

BAD FENCES MAKE GOOD COMEDY Big laughs bloom from a tiny patch of disputed ground. In a tony suburb of Washington, D.C., a young upwardly mobile Hispanic couple move into their first house, a charming fixer-upper with a small backyard. Pablo Del Valle (Rio Soliz Ragazzone) is an attorney—the only one of color—in a prestigious…

THE WEIGHT OF HERITAGE A thoughtful work that doesn’t always come together An unusual and ambitious production, L.M. Feldman’s A People is a sort of theatrical mosaic. Mounted by Arts Judaica and YI Love Jewish and currently playing at Theater Wit in Lakeview, the show attempts to condense five thousand years of Jewish culture and…

THE STUFF OF LEGENDS A musical revue that honors both talent and tenacity Nine days after the euphoric high of Juneteenth and the jubilant opening-day celebrations of the Obama Center, Black Ensemble Theater (BE) opened its revival of Men of Soul. Written and directed by Daryl D. Brooks, longtime BE stalwart and now the company’s…

A VERISMO MIXED BAG Opera Festival of Chicago tackles a neglected verismo work with admirable ambition but uneven results Opera Festival of Chicago’s sixth season features the company’s characteristic blend of classic and lesser-known verismo operas. Francesco Cilea’s Adriana Lecouvreur, which falls into the latter category, hasn’t been performed in Chicago since Renata Tebaldi sang the…

A SONDHEIM SUMMER NIGHT Marriott Theatre’s superb ensemble untangles Sondheim’s deliciously complicated comedy of manners There aren’t many shows that can convince large numbers of city dwellers to make the journey out to Lincolnshire, but for Stephen Sondheim, I think many will be willing to spend “A Weekend in the Country,” as the characters in…

OUT OF TUNE WITH CHEKHOV Chekhov’s quiet desperation is drowned out by one very loud performance What would a season of theater be without a Chekhov play? Or five? Following Red Theater’s excellent The Seagull in February, we now have a new iteration of Uncle Vanya from AstonRep Productions, currently on stage at The Edge Off-Broadway…

STEP RIGHT UP A criminally underrated musical proves there’s more under the big top than spectacle Water for Elephants, based on the novel by Sara Gruen, premiered on Broadway in March 2024 and closed that December after just 300 performances. With a book by Rick Elice, music and lyrics by PigPen Theatre Co., and original…

SUCKING FACE Chemistry, comedy, and a little bloodlust make for an irresistible evening. Is there a quality more indefinable and unpredictable than the chemistry between two people, whether in real life or on stage or screen? It cannot be predicted by mien, talent, or secondary sexual characteristics. It’s either there or it isn’t. And in…

GETTING CAUGHT UP WHEN THERE’S A CATCH A baffling experiment eventually reveals a powerful emotional core Why? That one-word refrain was what repeatedly popped up in my head through most of the first hour of Mia Chung‘s Catch as Catch Can, the final production of Steppenwolf’s mostly excellent 50th season. The show features three actors—two…

[Editor’s Note (June 2026): Raven Theatre’s astounding production of Octet, originally reviewed by Stage and Cinema in May, transfers intact to the Goodman Theatre for a limited engagement beginning July 15, 2026.] LOG OFF AND SING Dave Malloy’s brilliant chamber musical turns doomscrolling, loneliness, and internet addiction into something unexpectedly humane I don’t know what…

THE GHOSTS IN THE FAMILY TREE Tom Stoppard’s final play is as intellectually dazzling as it is emotionally devastating “Barbarism will not be eradicated by culture.” That line, spoken midway through Leopoldstadt, the final masterpiece by Tom Stoppard—one of the greatest playwrights of his, or any, generation—made my stomach do a flip. Merely one of…

LOVE ON THE RANGE, PAIN ON THE HORIZON A beautiful musical framework strengthens a stage adaptation that never quite resolves its competing impulses In 1997, a short story from Pulitzer winner Annie Proulx appeared in the pages of The New Yorker. Beginning in the 1960s in Wyoming, it was a restrained yet heartbreaking tale of…