T.I.C. TOP LIST - The Highest Rated Shows In Chicago
The "Theatre In Chicago (T.I.C.) Top List" is a list of the top rated plays now running in the Chicago area based on what the current reviews are saying. To see all of the play reviews go to Review Round-Up.
Blanche DuBois, an aging southern belle, arrives unexpectedly on the doorstep of her sister Stella and her explosive brother-in-law Stanley. Over the course of one hot and steamy New Orleans summer, Blanche’s fragile façade slowly crumbles, wreaking havoc on Stella and Stanley’s already turbulent relationship. Embodying the turmoil and drama of a changing nation, A Streetcar Named Desire strips Williams’ tortured characters of their illusions, leaving a wake of destruction in their path.
Dee Gee Theatricals & John Cossette Productions at Apollo Theater
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.
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Blue Man Group is best known for its award-winning theatrical productions which critics have described as "ground-breaking," "hilarious," "visually stunning" and "musically powerful." These performances feature three enigmatic bald and blue characters who take the audience through a multi-sensory experience that combines theatre, percussive music, art, science and vaudeville into a form of entertainment that is like nothing else.
What happens when a man who has spent a lifetime making himself into the perfect machine for catching criminals meets a perfect adversary? What happens when that same man encounters the prospect of love? The game is afoot as Holmes and Watson strike out on one last case!
Chicago’s #1 puppet master presents a trio of solo shows – The Puppet Show of Don Cristobal, a bawdy romance performed with hand puppets and a drum kit; St. James Infirmary, featuring rod marionettes, a paper scroll and a one-man band; and The Blackbird, Wallace Stevens’ poem told with shadow puppets.
Chicago Sun Times-
Highly Recommended
Time Out Chicago-
Recommended
Chicago Reader-
Highly Recommended
Windy City Times-
Recommended
ChicagoCritic-
Highly Recommended
Steadstyle Chicago-
Highly Recommended
The first collaboration between Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice to be performed on the professional stage, Jesus Christ Superstar illuminates the transcendent power of the human spirit with a passion that goes straight to the heart. The production features a stirring score including “Superstar”, “Everything’s Alright” and “I Don’t Know How to Love Him”. In Jesus Christ Superstar, Jesus is portrayed as a prophet / rock star whose appeal stems as much from the crowd’s energy as from his own inspirational message. Jesus' meteor-like rise in renown provides, as the title suggests, a parallel to contemporary celebrity worship. As his radical teachings are evermore embraced, Judas increasingly questions the enlightened motives of this new prophet, resulting in betrayal. In this production, Christ's final days are dramatized with emotional intensity, thought-provoking edge and explosive theatricality.
Chicago Tribune-
Recommended
Centerstage-
Highly Recommended
Chicago Stage Review-
Highly Recommended
ShowBizChicago-
Recommended
ChicagoCritic-
Highly Recommended
Around The Town Chicago-
Highly Recommended
There are bums. There are tramps. There are hobos. And then there’s Tony. Some guys just can’t fit in. Fine artist, poet and storyteller Tony Fitzpatrick delves into the Hobo Alphabet for a musically-entertaining, visually-rich and never dull night of theater. With returning side-kick Stash: aka Stan Klein, mean-guitarist John Rice, and new guest vocalist Kat Eggleston.
Fitzpatrick’s "This Train" was developed with Ann Filmer for 16th Street where all tickets were sold-out before it even opened in its premiere in Berwyn. Now THIS TRAIN returns with some additional material, an intermission (so Tony may take a smoke break), and with Kat Eggleston coming in from Seattle.
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.
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.
All is not well in the state of The Building Stage. Queen Gertrude is dead; King Phycus is blinded; Hamlet’s nauseous sister Juliet is being wed against her will to the cloying, hunchbacked Gloucester whilst her one true love, the Roman Romeo, assists Brutus in plotting the ruination of the English throne. Join us as the flat-footed charlatans of the Lord Chamberlain’s Men combine forces with the visionary roustabouts of The Strange Tree Group to present an Elizabethan tragedy of (ahem) ‘Shakespearean’ proportions. A cast of six Strange Tree
stalwarts take on six blended tragedies, thirty-one parts, forty location changes and one enormous sword-swinging battle of twenty thousand men in this world premiere send up of Shakespeare's first (and possibly worst) tragedy: SHAKESPEARE’S KING PHYCUS!
Time Out Chicago-
Highly Recommended
Chicago Reader-
Highly Recommended
NewCity Chicago-
Recommended
Centerstage-
Recommended
Chicago Stage Review-
Highly Recommended
ChicagoCritic-
Highly Recommended
Chicago Theater Blog-
Recommended
Steadstyle Chicago-
Recommended
Miller's ambitious and personal 1964 masterpiece explores a new sense of non-linear theatricality in its powerful study of one man's search for meaning through his memories and relationships. Images and scenes intertwine, illuminating his humanity and probing into the revealing, often painful events of his past.
Chicago Tribune-
Recommended
Chicago Sun Times-
Highly Recommended
Time Out Chicago-
Somewhat Recommended
Chicago Reader-
Highly Recommended
NewCity Chicago-
Highly Recommended
ChicagoCritic-
Highly Recommended
Steadstyle Chicago-
Recommended
Around The Town Chicago-
Highly Recommended
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.
Chicago Tribune-
Recommended
Time Out Chicago-
Recommended
Chicago Reader-
Highly Recommended
NewCity Chicago-
Highly Recommended
7DAYS-
Highly Recommended
ChicagoCritic-
Recommended
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.
Chicago Tribune-
Highly Recommended
Chicago Sun Times-
Somewhat Recommended
Chicago Reader-
Highly Recommended
NewCity Chicago-
Recommended
Chicago Theater Blog-
Highly Recommended
Steadstyle Chicago-
Highly Recommended
The action is set in Truvy's beauty salon in Chinquapin, Louisiana, where all the ladies who are "anybody" come to have their hair done. Helped by her eager new assistant, Annelle (who is not sure whether or not she is still married), the outspoken, wise-cracking Truvy dispenses shampoos and free advice to the town's rich curmudgeon, Ouiser; an eccentric millionaire, Miss Clairee, who has a raging sweet tooth; and the local social leader, M'Lynn, whose daughter, Shelby (the prettiest girl in town), is about to marry a "good ole boy."
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.
Chicago Tribune-
Recommended
Chicago Sun Times-
Recommended
Daily Herald-
Highly Recommended
Chicago Reader-
Somewhat Recommended
Chicago Stage Review-
Highly Recommended
Chicago Theater Blog-
Highly Recommended
Steadstyle Chicago-
Highly Recommended
