Former Hollywood film director best known for Frankenstein, The Bride of Frankenstein, and Show Boat, James Whale is now retired and slowly facing dementia. His caring housekeeper, quietly disapproves of Whale's faceless, nameless parade of young gay lovers, but when the director takes an interest in new gardener and former Marine, it seems to be for something more than his usual casual conquest.

Step into the dazzling lights of 1950s New York City with Guys and Dolls. This enduring tale of romance, risk, and unforgettable rhythm follows the improbable love story of high-rolling gambler Sky Masterson and mission doll Sarah Brown, along with the comedic relationship of the ever-patient Miss Adelaide and craps game organizer Nathan Detroit. Guys and Dolls takes you into the golden age of Broadway with wit, charm, and plenty of heart with vibrant characters and unforgettable songs like “Luck Be a Lady” and “Sit Down, You’re Rockin’ the Boat.”

In 1911, Marie Curie won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for her discovery of the elements radium and polonium. By 1912, she was the object of ruthless gossip over an alleged affair with the married Frenchman Paul Langevin, all but erasing her achievements from public memory. Weakened and demoralized by the press lambasting her as a “foreign” Jewish temptress and a homewrecking traitor, Marie agrees to join her friend and colleague Hertha Ayrton, an electromechanical engineer and suffragette, at her summer home in England. The play revels in the power of female friendship as it explores the relationship between these two brilliant women, both of whom are mothers, widows, and fearless champions of scientific inquiry.

Shakespeare’s classic tragedy in an intimate, in-the-round setting. Ashley Fox leads a knockout cast in a production that invites audiences to get up close and personal with their ghosts.

By the creator and executive producer of the Amazon series Outer Range, Brian Watkins, BTE's production is the world premiere! Directed by Kurt Naebig. Granddad is gone. No elegies. No dirges. No dowries. It all goes in the grave. But three sisters can't forget what's buried when an impossible discovery upends their notions of loss, and gets the women asking: who among us has been digging?

Jersey Boys follows the fascinating evolution of four blue-collar kids who became one of the greatest successes in pop music history. Winner of Best Musical at both the Tony Awards and Olivier Awards, Jersey Boys takes you behind the music of Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons to discover the secret of a 40-year friendship as the foursome work their way from the streets of New Jersey to the heights of stardom. Audiences will be thrilled with electrifying performances of chart-topping hits including "Sherry," "Big Girls Don't Cry," "Can't Take My Eyes Off You," "Dawn," and "My Eyes Adored You," which brought The Four Seasons the highest honor: induction into the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame.

On the heels of Gem of the Ocean (2022), expert August Wilson interpreter Chuck Smith revives the second work in the Pulitzer Prize winner's famed cycle-one of his best-loved, most compelling plays. Herald Loomis searches the country with his young daughter to find his estranged wife. But first, he must regain a sense of his own heritage and identity in this story of spiritual and emotional resurrection.

Judgment Day tells the story of Sammy Campo, a staggeringly corrupt, morally bankrupt lawyer who's threatened with eternal damnation by a terrifying angel after a near-death experience. In a desperate attempt to redeem himself, Sammy forms an unlikely bond with a Catholic priest who is having his own crisis of faith. Filled with razor-sharp wit, this deliciously devious comedy rollicks through the timeless questions of Western philosophy-"morality," "faith," and "Are people any damn good?"

Meet Fay and Hopkins. Fay gives Hopkins hope. Hopkins helps Fay grieve her mother and the loss of her childhood home. Flickering lights, vapes that fall from the sky, and love that recycles leap into a play fueled by magical realism, for a touching story about hope and the promise of human connection.

Taffeta is a fat, multi-racial femme with a unique form of queer magic: she can conjure dead historical figures. In this energetic and surreal play, Taffeta invites audiences along as she summons none other than President Abraham Lincoln and his handsome young law clerk Elmer Ellsworth to her stage. Playing every other character in Abe and Elmer's gay narrative, Taffeta uses this fantasia to confront issues of visibility, race, and LGBTQ+ inclusion. But is any of this historically accurate? Sit down, honey, that's not what we're here for. Lavender Men is an embrace to every queer, fat person of color who has been ignored, neglected, or erased for unapologetically being themselves.

Award-winning, third-generation magician Dennis Watkins delivers an evening of sophisticated tom-foolery in one of the Windy City's most unique entertainment experiences presented by The House Theatre of Chicago. The Magic Parlour is an elegant night out in the heart of downtown. This intimate magic show is replete with mind-blowing magic and mind reading in a small suite at the historic Palmer House Hilton Hotel.

An independent, single mother who owns a small hotel on an idyllic Greek island, Donna is about to let go of Sophie, the spirited daughter she's raised alone. For Sophie's wedding, Donna has invited her two lifelong best girlfriends-practical and no-nonsense Rosie and wealthy, multi-divorcee Tanya - from her one-time backing band, Donna and the Dynamos. But Sophie has secretly invited three guests of her own. On a quest to find the identity of her father to walk her down the aisle, she brings back three men from Donna's past to the Mediterranean paradise they visited 20 years earlier. Over 24 chaotic, magical hours, new love will bloom and old romances will be rekindled on this lush island full of possibilities. Inspired by the storytelling magic of ABBA's songs from "Dancing Queen" and "S.O.S." to "Money, Money, Money" and "Take a Chance on Me," MAMMA MIA! is a celebration of mothers and daughters, old friends and new family found.

Medieval Times is an exciting, family-friendly dinner attraction inspired by an 11th century feast and tournament. Guests are served a four-course banquet and cheer for one of six knights as they compete in the joust and other tests of skill. Expect lots of jousting, swordsmanship, thrilling hand-to-hand combat, and displays of extraordinary horsemanship as part of an exciting story set in Medieval Spain.

Days after the February 1848 revolution, Fryderyk Chopin is teaching a piano lesson in Paris. Set in the Polish pianist-composer's intimate salon, Chopin shares with his students secrets about the piano and secrets about himself-as well as playing some of his most beautiful and enduring compositions. In a tour de force performance, the beloved virtuoso actor/pianist, Hershey Felder brings to life the romantic story and music of the man once called the "Poet of the Piano."

Murder in the Cathedral dramatizes the martyrdom of Archbishop Thomas Becket at the hands of knights loyal to Henry II in 1170. Eliot wrote it on commission to be performed in the sanctuary at Canterbury Cathedral, the room where Becket was murdered; his depiction of the killing draws from the eye-witness account of Edward Grim, a monk who was wounded trying to protect the Archbishop. City Lit’s production will be staged in the sanctuary of Edgewater Presbyterian Church.

Meredith Willson's six-time, Tony Award-winning musical comedy is a family-friendly story to be shared with every generation. Follow fast-talking traveling salesman, Harold Hill, as he cons the people of River City, Iowa, into buying instruments and uniforms for a band that he vows to organize - despite the fact that he doesn't know a trombone from a treble clef. His plans to skip town with the cash are foiled when he falls for Marian, the librarian. By turns wicked, funny, warm, romantic and touching, THE MUSIC MAN is family entertainment at its best.

Olwen Wymark's splendid dramatization of Zola's Nana is a story of sexual and financial greed in nineteenth-century Parisian society, depicting the rise and tragic downfall of a young courtesan.