Top Rated Plays In Chicago - Theatre In Chicago

The Second City's 114th Mainstage Revue delivers a high-energy night of sketch and improv, led by a fearless ensemble who bring outrageous characters, show-stopping musical numbers, and audience-driven moments to life - making every performance feel alive and ever-changing. Smart, sharp, and ridiculously funny, the show transforms the chaos of everyday life into something shared, cathartic, and unapologetically hilarious.

Chicago Tribune- Highly Recommended
Chicago Reader- Highly Recommended
Third Coast Review- Highly Recommended
Curtain Call Chicago- Highly Recommended
Splash Magazine- Highly Recommended
Allie and the After Party- Highly Recommended

Champions of Magic

The Studebaker Theater

The phenomenal Champions Of Magic bring their acclaimed illusion spectacular to Chicago for a limited engagement this summer. See the production that critics have described as ‘the most spectacular show’, ‘two hours of mind-twisting, logic-defying entertainment’ and 'the summer blockbuster of magic shows'.

Chicago Tribune- Highly Recommended
Chicago Reader- Highly Recommended
Buzz Center Stage- Highly Recommended
The Fourth Walsh- Highly Recommended
Curtain Call Chicago- Highly Recommended

As You Like It

Midsommer Flight at Various Locations

AS YOU LIKE IT is a vibrant Shakespearean comedy that wittily explores love and gender roles. Banished from court by her uncle, Rosalind escapes to the Forest of Arden, where she disguises herself as man in order to win over her lover by trying to convince him he should forget her. The play examines various types of love—from passionate to superficial to mature—offering a nuanced look at romantic relationships and human connection and playfully exploring the fluidity of gender roles. Audiences are encouraged to come early and bring a picnic to enjoy

Chicago Reader- Highly Recommended
Buzz Center Stage- Highly Recommended
Third Coast Review- Highly Recommended
Broadway World- Highly Recommended

Suffs

CIBC Theatre

Direct from Broadway, comes the acclaimed Tony Award-winning musical Suffs about the brilliant, passionate, and funny American women who fought tirelessly for the right to vote. Created by Shaina Taub, the first woman to ever independently win Tony Awards for Best Book and Best Score in the same season, this "thrilling, inspiring and dazzlingly entertaining" (Variety) new musical boldly explores the triumphs and failures of a struggle for equality that's far from over. Winner of the Outer Critics' Circle Award for Best New Musical.

Chicago Tribune- Highly Recommended
Chicago Reader- Highly Recommended
Stage and Cinema- Highly Recommended
Around The Town Chicago- Highly Recommended
Chicago Theatre Review- Highly Recommended
Buzz Center Stage- Recommended
The Fourth Walsh- Highly Recommended
Chicagoland Musical Theatre- Highly Recommended
Third Coast Review- Highly Recommended
Chicago On Stage- Highly Recommended
PicksInSix- Highly Recommended
Curtain Call Chicago- Highly Recommended
Allie and the After Party- Highly Recommended
Werner's Theatre Reviews- Highly Recommended

Crime and Punishment

TUTA Theatre

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.

Chicago Reader- Highly Recommended
EpochTimes- Highly Recommended
Stage and Cinema- Highly Recommended
Chicago Theatre Review- Recommended
Buzz Center Stage- Highly Recommended
Splash Magazine- Highly Recommended
Broadway World- Highly Recommended
NewCity Chicago- Highly Recommended

Men Of Soul

Black Ensemble Theater

Men of Soul is a fascinating musical journey featuring the music made famous by some of the greatest soul singers of all time. This uplifting, powerful celebration helps us understand the struggles of these men, and the strength it took for them to find their -soul. Featuring the music of Ray Charles, Luther Vandross, Lionel Richie, Jeffrey Osborne, Peabo Bryson, Joe Cocker, a tribute to Bill Withers, and more.

Chicago Tribune- Recommended
Chicago Reader- Highly Recommended
Stage and Cinema- Highly Recommended
Let's Play Theatrical Reviews- Highly Recommended
Around The Town Chicago- Highly Recommended
Chicago Theatre Review- Highly Recommended
Splash Magazine- Highly Recommended

Octet

Raven Theatre at Goodman Theatre

In a church basement meeting room, a group of people -always eight-gather to sing. Told via chamber-inspired, a cappella music, OCTET investigates the total impact of internet and technology addiction on modern society, from Dave Malloy, writer of Tony-winning NATASHA, PIERRE AND THE GREAT COMET OF 1812.

Chicago Tribune- Highly Recommended
Chicago Sun Times- Somewhat Recommended
Chicago Reader- Highly Recommended
Stage and Cinema- Highly Recommended
Chicago Stage and Screen- Highly Recommended
Chicago Theatre Review- Highly Recommended
Buzz Center Stage- Highly Recommended
Third Coast Review- Highly Recommended
Curtain Call Chicago- Highly Recommended
Werner's Theatre Reviews- Highly Recommended
Broadway World- Highly Recommended
NewCity Chicago- Highly Recommended

Leopoldstadt

Writers Theatre

As the 20th century begins, Vienna is at the peak of its cultural power. Following multiple generations of a Jewish family through five decades of daily life, until history takes it all away, Leopoldstadt is a beautiful family saga and a haunted elegy for the stage.

Chicago Tribune- Highly Recommended
Chicago Sun Times- Highly Recommended
Daily Herald- Highly Recommended
Chicago Reader- Highly Recommended
Stage and Cinema- Highly Recommended
Around The Town Chicago- Highly Recommended
Chicago Theatre Review- Highly Recommended
Buzz Center Stage- Highly Recommended
Third Coast Review- Highly Recommended
Chicago On Stage- Highly Recommended
PicksInSix- Recommended
MaraTapp.org- Highly Recommended
Chicago Culture Authority- Highly Recommended
Evanston Roundtable- Highly Recommended
Splash Magazine- Highly Recommended
Broadway World- Recommended
NewCity Chicago- Recommended

A Little Night Music

Marriott Theatre

Love makes fools of us all. The Best Musical Tony Award-winning A Little Night Music is a sumptuous, sexy, laugh-out-loud masterpiece that will leave you thoroughly enchanted. Set in 1900 Sweden, A Little Night Music explores the tangled web of affairs centered around actress Desirée Armfeldt, and the men who love her. Amid a flurry of jealousy and suspicion, infinite possibilities of new romances and second chances bring endless surprises. Full of hilariously witty and heartbreakingly moving moments of adoration, regret and desire, this dramatic musical celebration of love features some of Stephen Sondheim's most popular songs, including the haunting "Send in the Clowns."

Chicago Tribune- Highly Recommended
Daily Herald- Highly Recommended
Chicago Reader- Not Recommended
Stage and Cinema- Highly Recommended
Chicago Stage and Screen- Highly Recommended
Around The Town Chicago- Highly Recommended
Chicago Theatre Review- Highly Recommended
Buzz Center Stage- Highly Recommended
Chicago Theater and Arts- Recommended
Chicago Culture Authority- Highly Recommended
Splash Magazine- Highly Recommended
NewCity Chicago- Recommended

St Nicholas

Black Button Eyes at City Lit Theater

This is a play about theater critics. And this is a play about vampires. But we repeat ourselves. In this darkly humorous one-person show by Conor McPherson, a former Dublin scribbler spins the tale of his unfortunate encounter with the supernatural.

Chicago Reader- Recommended
Talkin Broadway- Highly Recommended
Stage and Cinema- Highly Recommended
Chicago Theatre Review- Highly Recommended
Third Coast Review- Recommended
Splash Magazine- Recommended
Broadway World- Highly Recommended

Theater of the Mind

Reid Murdoch Building

Inspired by both historical and current neuroscience research, the show takes you on an intimate and immersive journey inside how we see and create our worlds. Peer behind the curtain of the physical realm as you move through a series of rooms with your guide, where you’ll participate in thought-provoking experiences—and marvel at the wonders of your mind.

Chicago Sun Times- Recommended
Daily Herald- Highly Recommended
Chicago Reader- Recommended
Stage and Cinema- Recommended
Let's Play Theatrical Reviews- Recommended
Around The Town Chicago- Highly Recommended
The Fourth Walsh- Recommended
Third Coast Review- Highly Recommended
Chicago On Stage- Highly Recommended
PicksInSix- Highly Recommended
Curtain Call Chicago- Highly Recommended
Broadway World- Highly Recommended
NewCity Chicago- Recommended

Going Bacharach

Apollo Theater

Rediscover the soundtrack of a lifetime with GOING BACHARACH, a vibrant new revue celebrating the legacy of one of America’s most iconic composers. Straight from its critically acclaimed hit run Off-Broadway, GOING BACHARACH comes to Chicago with three powerhouse vocalists and a five-piece band who take audiences on a melodic journey through the timeless songs spanning Bacharach’s extraordinary career.

Chicago Tribune- Highly Recommended
Chicago Reader- Highly Recommended
Stage and Cinema- Recommended
Around The Town Chicago- Highly Recommended
Chicago Theatre Review- Highly Recommended
Third Coast Review- Not Recommended
Chicago On Stage- Recommended
Curtain Call Chicago- Highly Recommended
Splash Magazine- Highly Recommended
Broadway World- Highly Recommended

Medieval Times Dinner and Tournament

Medieval Times Schaumburg Castle

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.

Chicago Tribune- Highly Recommended
Chicago Sun Times- Highly Recommended
Chicago Stage Review- Recommended
Chicagoland Theater Reviews- Recommended

The Last 5 Years

Oil Lamp Theater

Straight from Broadway, Jason Robert Brown's musical masterpiece The Last Five Years comes to Oil Lamp Theater. This widely beloved show takes audiences on the romantic rollercoaster of Jamie and Cathy as they fall in and out of love over the last five years. Told from each individual's perspective - one chronologically and one backwards - audiences will be swept into the unique storytelling and find an anti-love story full of humor and heart. Hailed as a powerful and intimate production, this Drama Desk Award-winner for Outstanding Music is not to be missed.

Around The Town Chicago- Highly Recommended
Buzz Center Stage- Recommended
Splash Magazine- Highly Recommended
Allie and the After Party- Recommended

Iceboy! or or The Completely Untrue Story of How Eugene O'Neill Came to Write The Iceman Cometh

Goodman Theatre

Broadway's brightest star of 1939, Vera Vimm (Megan Mullally/Will & Grace), is at the top of her game. But when she adopts a 40,000-year-old Neanderthal discovered frozen in the Arctic, the spotlight begins to shift. As Iceboy thaws, he unexpectedly becomes a theatrical sensation, inspiring the "father of the American drama" Eugene O'Neill (Nick Offerman/Parks and Recreation) and challenging his legendary mother for center stage. It's All About Eve...if only Eve was a caveman.

Chicago Tribune- Recommended
Chicago Sun Times- Recommended
Daily Herald- Recommended
Chicago Reader- Somewhat Recommended
Talkin Broadway- Highly Recommended
Stage and Cinema- Highly Recommended
Let's Play Theatrical Reviews- Highly Recommended
Around The Town Chicago- Highly Recommended
Chicago Theatre Review- Recommended
Buzz Center Stage- Highly Recommended
The Fourth Walsh- Highly Recommended
Third Coast Review- Somewhat Recommended
Entertaining Chicago- Highly Recommended
PicksInSix- Highly Recommended
MaraTapp.org- Recommended
Curtain Call Chicago- Recommended
Allie and the After Party- Highly Recommended
NewCity Chicago- Recommended

Your Source For What's on Stage in the Chicago Area

The Highest Rated Shows In Chicago

Explore More

Other Sites