Thomas Middleton’s 1621 psychosexual revenge tragedy tells the story of the devastating effects of the patriarchy on an entire society. A captivating and clever widow, Livia, orchestrates the futures of two young women and sets in motion a wicked game of subversion and deceit. But when the mastermind breaks with social convention herself, she finds out how far the men around her will go to constrict her autonomy. In this new queer feminist take, the lacerating personal narration of two surreal transfemme drag queens frames Middleton’s timeless tale, rushing it into the here and now. Smith and Bhandari’s original adaptation dives deep, excavating the social frameworks of gender violence and the gender of violence, as the story hurtles towards a devastating and outrageous new ending for our modern times.
List Of Shows Coming Soon
A desperate woman seeks help from an upper-middle class family residing in a remote area. They reluctantly allow her to enter. Once inside, obscure motives are revealed in this suspenseful comedic-thriller, where doing the right thing can go horribly wrong.
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.
Since its sell out in London's West End, 'The Simon & Garfunkel Story' is now the World's leading theatre show concerning Simon & Garfunkel featuring a full live band and state of the art video projection and lighting. The show includes all of their hits, including 'Mrs. Robinson', 'Cecilia', 'Bridge Over Troubled Water', 'Homeward Bound' and many more. With more than 100 million album sales since 1965, Simon & Garfunkel's perfect harmonies and songs that poignantly captured the times made them one of the most successful folk-rock duos of all time. Over the years, they won 10 Grammy Awards and were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990. In 1977, their Bridge Over Troubled Water album was nominated at the 1977 Brit Awards for Best International Album. In 2003, Simon and Garfunkel were awarded a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award and the following year saw their "The Sound of Silence" awarded a Grammy Hall of Fame Award.
Madeline Ashton is the most beautiful actress (just ask her) ever to grace the stage and screen. Helen Sharp is the long-suffering author (just ask her) who lives in her shadow. They have always been the best of frenemies... until Madeline steals Helen's fiance away. As Helen plots revenge and Madeline clings to her rapidly fading star, their world is suddenly turned upside down by Viola Van Horn, a mysterious woman with a secret that's to die for. After one sip of Viola's magical potion, Madeline and Helen begin a new era of life (and death) with their youth and beauty restored... and a grudge to last eternity.
Panther in the Sky is a new play about four mothers who lost their teenage sons to gun violence on the streets of Chicago and the sons who watch over them, guiding them to take action.
Two men survive in a facility deep underground somewhere in the wild woods of the Pacific Northwest, hiding away from something terrible looming just outside. Ensnared in a relentless loop of endless tomorrows, they discover the wolf isn't at the door, he's already inside, waiting in the creeping darkness all around them. Turret is an excavation of masculinity, love, loss and isolation. A claustrophobic carnival of carnage, carrier pigeons, cribbage, whiskey, music, mischief and mayhem.
Pushed to the boiling point, three female coworkers concoct a plan to get even with the sexist, egotistical, lying, hypocritical bigot they call their boss. In a hilarious turn of events, Violet, Judy, and Doralee live out their wildest fantasy - giving their boss the boot! While Hart remains "otherwise engaged," the women give their workplace a dream makeover, taking control of the company that had always kept them down. Hey, a girl can scheme, can't she?
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?
It's 1979 in dangerous, smoky, glorious New York City. Our story's red-headed protagonist Li'l Orphan Arnie (Dakota Hughes) is fleeing from the guardianship of a sex-starved, meth-cooking madwoman (Sydney Genco*). Out on the streets, they befriend a slinky dancing cat (Matty Bettencourt), who leads them to a magical manhole, transporting them back in time to Paris, France in 1815. Trading in one poverty-plagued lifestyle for another, Arnie gives up the desire to find their parents and joins forces with a gang of pick-pocketing prostitutes, led by the mysterious Fagin (David Cerda*).
Annual festival of new of new one act plays, this year celebrating the theme “Face to Face.” These seven one-acts plays are each built around an intense interaction between two people and will highlight moment-to-moment acting in an intimate theater space. The show runs as one program, with the seven plays back-to-back, running approximately 90 minutes. Five are world premieres and two are Chicago premieres.
Grab the sticky geckos, break out the duck cakes, and alert the grannies! It's time to meet the much-loved Heeler family, who will be coming to the Auditorium Theater with the Bluey live show, Bluey's Big Play The Stage Show! The Emmy Award-winning animated preschool series, which airs on Disney Junior, Disney Channel, and Disney+, will be "taking the show on the road" to the Auditorium Theater with 5 performances:
Cabaret entertainer, Jefferey Cooke returns to the Venus Cabaret Theater with his new offering: "Objects in the Mirror...", a thoughtful and mostly hilarious look at how our past life experiences create our present-day reality. "Objects in the Mirror..." is not a walk down 'memory lane', but rather a nod and a wink to how we became who we are in the first place. Our past isn't gone, it's always right behind us... closer, and sometimes more hilarious, embarrassing and heartbreaking than we think.
At Peter and Rita’s wedding, a mysterious old man insists on kissing the bride. While honeymooning, Peter gradually realizes that the woman by his side is not his wife. The wedding kiss caused Rita’s soul and the Old Man’s to change places. Peter must track down the old man and free his young love’s spirit trapped in an aging and diseased body before it’s too late.
It's been a few years since the September 11 attacks on New York City, but the wounds are still raw. We find Alba Guerrero, a rising star at the federal immigration office in Manhattan, on the day she realizes an immigrant she admitted into the United States has committed a heinous act of mass murder. As her life begins to unravel, we meet characters from all over the world– helping Alba come to grips with guilt, forgiveness, and the inherent fallibility of our government systems.
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.
The beloved play centers on Lord Fancourt Babberley, an Oxford undergraduate whose university friends, Jack and Charley, persuade him to pose as Charley’s wealthy widowed aunt and act as chaperone when they invite their intendeds over for a romantic afternoon. Plot complications include the late arrival of the real aunt and the attempts of two elderly “gentleman callers” to woo the bogus aunt. Eventually, the various (and hilarious) mistakes are set right.