This musical play, complete with down home country humor and big-hearted emotion, includes hits "Crazy", "I Fall to Pieces", "Sweet Dreams", "Walkin' After Midnight" and more!

In this raucous and bittersweet comedy, a woman named Carlo guides the audience through her ex-girlfriend’s wedding to a man, and talks to several friends and family about love, life, and how to cope with both.

This tender, touching story follows Ernestine Ashworth as she celebrates her birthday from age 17 to 101-all while baking her birthday cake. Through a seamless montage of moments, Ernestine grapples with love, loss, family and the passage of time, continually asking the timeless question: "What's it all about?" The Chicago Sun-Times calls it "emotionally rich;" and the Chicago Tribune says, "'Birthday Candles' is precisely why people go to the theater...It's a personal piece but you'd swear it was about you." BTE Managing Artistic Director Emeriti and Ensemble Member Connie Canaday Howard, who starred in Steve Scott's staging of BTE's 2020 production "The Cake," reteams with Scott as she takes on the lead role of Ernestine.

Candlelight Concerts in Chicago are intimate live performances where the music and the candlelit atmosphere do equal work—creating a night out that’s elegant, relaxed, and genuinely different. Presented by Fever, the series features local musicians (often a string ensemble) performing programs that range from classical to pop and themed tributes. Browse this guide for candlelight concerts Chicago audiences can attend now and in the coming months.

Expect one devilish twist after another in Covenant, a mythic and suspenseful new play hailed as "blackout-and-blood-curdling-scream deliciousness" (New York Magazine),"undeniably spooky (and) absolutely enjoyable" (TheaterMania). He left the small Georgia town a struggling guitarist-and returned a blues star. As rumors of a darker deal abound, it becomes clear that he's not the only one with a secret...or seeking salvation. This "striking Southern gothic work" (New York Times) explores the power of belief and the thin line between rumor and truth.

Dostoyevsky’s epic novel distilled into a 90-minute play for three-actors and performed in TUTA’s hyper-intimate 24-seat theater. CRIME AND PUNISHMENT focuses on the plight of an intellectual young man whose moral struggle with his belief system compels him to commit a horrendous crime. A psychological game of cat and mouse ensues with the investigator who hunts him down. Dreams, waking visions, even ghosts paint this psychological portrait of crime, guilt, and retribution.

What would you give to see your team finally win it all? In this high-energy, Tony Award-winning classic, die-hard fan Joe Boyd makes a devilish deal to transform into a star player and lead the Washington Senators to victory over the dreaded Yankees. But as the stakes rise, Joe must decide if fame and glory are worth the cost.

On a hot August night in a small Massachusetts town the last few weeks before school starts. Three teens try to navigate their way through the murky path to adulthood. Phoebe wants to grow up. Jason wants Evie. And Evie just wants to get as far away from everyone as she possibly can.

The stage is set in a hidden library with over fifteen thousand books. Five classically trained actors meet as members of "The Drunk Shakespeare Society." One of them has at least 5 shots of whiskey and then they overconfidently attempt to perform a major role in a Shakespearean play. Hilarity and mayhem ensues while the four sober actors try and keep the script on track. Every show is different depending on who is drinking ... and what they're drinking!

Sven Svensen and Ole Olsen have been best buds since kindergarten, but all that changes on the morning of Ole's ice-fishing bachelor party. Could they be something more than friends, or is Sven destined for something even more wild and strange. This fantasia on Midwestern masculinity invites us to consider the limits of Queerness. Dream ballet included.

When a respected doctor in small-town Norway makes a deadly discovery that threatens the health of the entire village, he raises the alarm. But as local leaders—including his own brother, the mayor—scramble to protect their own interests, the truth becomes inconvenient, and the doctor finds himself the target of the very community he’s trying to protect. Winner of the 2024 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Adaptation, this vibrant new version of Ibsen’s thunderous masterwork asks: what happens when doing the right thing means losing everything?

Father of the Bride is the classic comedy that has touched our hearts for decades. Based on the novel that inspired the Elizabeth Taylor and Steve Martin films, this hilarious yet bittersweet play reminds us that sometimes the greatest love a father can give to his daughter is to let her go.

For Gustave explores the legacy of a creative life, the status of women in nineteenth-century society, and the nature of love. For Gustave is playwright Mike Brayndick’s intimate interpretation of the relationship between the multifaceted Caillebotte and two deeply perceptive and devoted women. The play also explores Caillebotte’s contentious yet close friendship with fellow artist Pierre-Auguste Renoir. For Gustave takes place in Caillebotte’s studio on the Seine River and Paris.

GEE'S BEND is the story of the Pettway women, quilters from the isolated community of Gee's Bend, Alabama. Beginning in 1939, the play follows Alice, her daughters Sadie and Nella, and Sadie's husband, Macon, through segregation, family strife, and the Civil Rights movement. Throughout their lives, the women's extraordinary quilts provide a respite from the turmoil around them. In the last act of the play, it is the year 2000; the quilts have been discovered as folk art and have become very valuable. Sadie is pleased with the recognition, but despite the lure of the big city, she returns to Gee's Bend and continues to quilt. Wilder's play explores the resilience of the human spirit, especially as it is expressed in art.

We're all haunted by the past in some way. Perhaps we're all haunted by the future as well. A Ghost Story explores them both, past and future, side by side. Two stories, two times, one place

In this hilarious new adventure, Rose (Ed Jones) finds herself in need of extra income and stumbles upon a unique business opportunity - the first multi-level marketing company in St. Olaf, introducing local households to the cheeses of her hometown. What could be more perfect?

This musical is JUST RIGHT! This show is based on the classic story of a young girl who ventures into the woods and stumbles on a cute house with 3 bowls of porridge, 3 chairs, and 3 beds. All CKC shows feature plenty of audience participation and run for one hour with no intermission.