We finally elected our first black president and passed our first national health care bill. It should be the best time of our lives. What happened? The cast of The Second City e.t.c.'s new show, The Absolute Best Friggin' Time of Your Life takes you back to a time when we had a budget surplus and unemployment rates were at an all-time low. Grab your daisy dukes, enjoy those nachos and attend the prom of your 1990s dream - it's The Absolute Best Friggin' Time of Your Life.
A trio of Ruckus newcomers—Chicago actors Elizabeth Babgy, Kevin Crispin and Matthew Humphrey—star in this new play recounting a series of Halloween encounters.
Billy Elliot the Musical is the funny, heartwarming tale of a young boy with a dream, and a celebration of his triumph against the odds. Set against the historic British miners' strike of the 1980s, the story follows Billy's journey as a boy in a small mining town who, after stumbling across a ballet class while on his way to a boxing lesson, realizes that his future lay not in the boxing ring but on stage as a dancer.
Blues for an Alabama Sky, written by Pearl Cleage and directed by Greenetree artistic director J. Israel Greene, is a drama set in the Harlem Renaissance and brings together a rich cast of characters who reflect the conflicting current events of the times, including Guy Jacobs a popular gay costume designer and his friend Angel, a recently fired Cotton Club jazz singer. Rich with culture, music and dreams Blues for an Alabama Sky takes a dramatic turn when religion, lies, and sexual preferences are crossed.
Celebrating a 35th Anniversary of its own, A Chorus Line debuted on Broadway on July 25th, 1975. The production became an instant classic, becoming the longest running American musical in Broadway history. Set at a chorus audition for a Broadway musical, A Chorus Line is the poignant tale of a group of actors hoping to win the role of a lifetime. A powerful metaphor for all human aspiration, A Chorus Line is a brilliantly complex fusion of dance, song and compellingly authentic drama. Winner of nine Tony Awards, including Best Musical and the Pulitzer Prize for drama, the show features an electrifying score and stunning choreography.
Embraced by Chicagoans and visitors alike as “Chicago’s Summer Circus,” Cirque Shanghai will perform once again this summer at the 1,500-seat, canopied, open-air theater at Navy Pier. This daring spectacle, breathtaking artistry, and the sheer joy of its dazzling young cast make Cirque Shanghai: Cloud 9 a brand new theatrical experience for audiences of all ages, with acrobats careening from sway poles suspending high above the stage, gravity-defying ladder balances, a unicyclist riding atop a spinning umbrella , the fun and skill of "hat juggling," and featuring "Imperial Thunder," China's finest daredevil motorcycle troupe riding precariously in steel globe center stage at Pepsi Skyline Stage.
Channeling the 2005 hit Daredevils, the men in jumpsuits take competition to a new level in this meta-destruction of Shakespeare's Hamlet. Director Halena Kays returns to direct this thematic adaptation of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, by challenging feats of revenge, passion, and failure. The Daredevils prove there's no better way to feel alive than by exploring a show that deals with copious amounts of death.
When the first male birth control pill was introduced to the public, it was later discovered the pill caused shrinkage of the penis. As a result it was quickly removed from the market. When one of the? first female birth control pill contraceptive was introduced, it was later discovered the pill’s most common side effect was death. As a result the dosage was lowered and thus inspires the comedy musical, "Dude, Where's My CoPay?"
Based on a true story, Peter Shaffer's unique psychological thriller explores the boundary between passion versus normalcy. Despite the play's provincial British origins, Redtwist's production of Equus will utilize standard American stage speech, with the actors present throughout the play, serving as tribunal and confessors, as well as the horses that are at the heart of this bizarre and riveting mystery. The play, rooted in both modern psychology and ancient ritual, dissects the everlasting human need of worship and passion.
Frost/Nixon takes audiences inside the real-life 1977 television interviews between journalist David Frost and former president Richard Nixon. It has been three years since Nixon resigned from office in disgrace. The Watergate scandal is still on the minds of many, but the former commander-in-chief has yet to break his silence about his role in those events. Now Nixon has agreed to be interviewed by the up-and-coming British broadcaster David Frost. Behind-the-scenes it’s a battle of egos for the upper hand in controlling history, but as the cameras roll, the world is riveted by a remarkably honest exchange between one man who has lost everything and another with everything to gain.
It was a dark and stormy night in a house by the lake, when Mary Shelley
famously took up her host Lord Byron’s challenge to write a terrifying
story and created /Frankenstein/, one of the most famous novels in the
Western canon. Witty, salacious, and often melodramatic, Emily
Dendinger’s world premiere play directed by Jess Hutchinson depicts the
larger than life Romantic figures as the normal teenagers they were –
overeducated, egotistical, and ready to change the world.
Nanki-Poo, the son of the Mikado, disguises himself and seeks out the lovely Yum-Yum, only to discover that she is to marry Koko, the Lord High executioner. Koko is required by the Mikado to execute one person within the month, and Nanki-Poo offers himself up as long as he can spend one month married to Yum-Yum. What ensues is a highly amusing web of discoveries and circumstances that make the comedic performance one for the whole family to enjoy.
It's 1978 and neo-Nazis are about to march on Skokie, Illinois. What better time for a nice gentile boy to go to Skokie to ask a Jewish family for their daughter’s hand in marriage - or maybe not. Steven Peterson is a current Network Playwright and past Resident Playwright at Chicago Dramatists.
Through the course of one dizzying night at a club, Jailbait follows the parallel stories of two fifteen-year-old girls, desperate to grow up, and two thirty-something men who are looking to be twenty-one again. High-school sophomores Claire and Emmy make a game of posing as college students in order to meet older men. Brash bachelor Mark thinks a night out with attractive girls will be just what his friend Robert needs to recover from his recent breakup. When this unlikely foursome collides, they discover some surprising and dangerous compatibilities. Smart, funny, and disturbing, Jailbait asks the question: When do you really become an adult?
Follow Ismene, sole surviving child of Oedipus and Jocasta, as she fights to break the curse that devastated her family and now threatens to destroy Thebes. Inspired by the Oedipus plays of Sophocles, BWB’s first Greek adventure features sword and shield, staff, and unarmed combat as well as movement and voice work.
Adapted by Ensemble Member and Artistic Director David Catlin from Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, Lookingglass Alice is a muscular, acrobatic, and dizzyingly playful show for all ages. This Alice falls, floats, flies, defies gravity and the rules of logic during her wonderland journey through the looking glass to become a queen. With a juggling Mad Hatter, a precariously balancing Humpty Dumpty, and a bumbling Knight who invents his way into Alice’s heart, Lookingglass Alice revisits the stories that inspired the founding of Lookingglass Theatre Company twenty years ago.
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.
Set in a 1930s Brooklyn automobile parts warehouse with a strong cast of richly detailed characters, Miller draws on his own personal experience to explore the monotonous struggle to make a living and the dreams of a young man yearning for a college education in the midst of people stumbling through life in a haze of hopelessness and despondency.
On December 4, 1956, an auspicious twist of fate brought together Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins and Elvis Presley. The place was Sun Records’ storefront studio in Memphis. The man who made it happen was the “Father of Rock-n-Roll,” Sam Phillips, who discovered them all. The four legends-to-be united for the only time in their careers for an impromptu recording session that embodied the birth of rock ‘n’ roll and has come to be known as one of the greatest rock jam sessions of all time.
Listen to "Talk Theatre In Chicago" for an interview with Gigi Pritzker who co-produced Million Dollar Quartet.
Listen
This Fall, the Bard's classic tale gets a dose of Chicago dell'Arte. Using the high energy, larger than life characters, and slapstick style of their previous shows, as well as a dash of humanity...Chicago dell'Arte has created a memorable show with something for everyone.
Theatre critics Moon and Birdboot attend the premiere of a new murder mystery and are swept into the whodunit they are viewing. As Moon laments his status as a second-string reviewer, and Birdboot considers adultery with one of the shows actresses, they soon find themselves inside the play-within-a-play, implicated in the lethal activities of an escaped madman. In a hilarious send-up of Agatha Christie-style melodrama, Stoppard’s 1968 work is just as rooted in absurdism as it is in satire. Kicking off Signal’s “Season of Comedy,” this play set in the theater will appropriately open Signal’s new performance space.
Three love stories, a murder mystery, and a nuclear espionage...oh my! It's 1952: America's on the verge of the H-bomb, Dwight Eisenhower's on the campaign trail, and I Love Lucy's on Monday nights. Meanwhile, Senator Joe McCarthy's daughter just got engaged to a Soviet spy, and Boston detective Maggie Pelletier has to find out who dumped the dead guy in the Harbor-or else lose out on a honeymoon in Havana. A blunt-nosed, sharp-eyed look at love and tying (and untying, and retying) the knot. Rating: PG-13 due to mature situations and language
The Legendary Second City comes to Metropolis for a limited engagement run of their mega-hit musical comedy revue, Rod Blagojevich Superstar. It’s a monumentally hilarious comedy about the rise and fall of former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, hair and all. The now famous show was featured on NPR, Good Morning America and ABC and NBC Nightly News and was nearly sold out in Chicago for seven months. Laugh out loud at this comedic gem as they sharply skewer Illinois’ cast of political characters, especially the most well-coiffed Illinois Governor ever. Don’t miss this wickedly funny comedy, playing only at Metropolis.
Shrek The Musical tells the story of a swamp-dwelling ogre who goes on a life-changing adventure to reclaim the deed to his land. Joined by a wise-cracking donkey, this unlikely hero fights a fearsome dragon, rescues a feisty princess and learns that real friendship and true love aren't only found in fairy tales.
In the blockbuster of human life, we all know the outcome – no spoiler alert needed. In spite of this inevitable ending, we continue to live our lives, find joy and understand the world around us. Sometimes our path leads us to save the world and sometimes our path is to simply remind our husband where they left their keys – it's what you make of it and how you deal with it that matters. From cold feet on your wedding day to the comfort of viewing the comic misadventures of others on Reality TV, Spoiler Alert: Everybody Dies reminds us that in the end, we are all in this together.
The Weir, a tale of lonely characters, reveals how the human need to be heard connects souls through storytelling. An enigmatic young woman from Dublin finds herself the center of attention at a local pub. Pints in hand, the local barflies recount ghostly yarns of the supernatural to impress and entertain her, but it is the visitor herself who relates the most unsettling story of all.
