Top Rated Plays In Chicago - Theatre In Chicago

John and his daughter Caitlyn are birders. As they scan the skies over their backyard in suburban Maryland looking for elusive birds, years go by. Relationships begin and end. Children grow up and parents age. The climate and the world change in small and vast ways. BIRDS OF NORTH AMERICA takes a close look at the relationship of a father and daughter over the course of a decade as they struggle to understand the parts of one another that defy understanding.

Chicago Tribune- Highly Recommended
Chicago Sun Times- Highly Recommended
Chicago Reader- Highly Recommended
Stage and Cinema- Highly Recommended
Chicago Theatre Review- Highly Recommended
PicksInSix- Highly Recommended
MaraTapp.org- Highly Recommended
Splash Magazine- Highly Recommended
Allie and the After Party- Highly Recommended
Werner's Theatre Reviews- Highly Recommended
NewCity Chicago- Highly Recommended

Admissions

Citadel Theatre Company

At an elite prep school, Sherri Rosen-Mason is leading the charge for change—until her own son’s Ivy League dreams put her ideals to the test. This sharp, compelling drama digs into the lengths we’ll go to protect our children, and the complicated truths that surface when personal stakes get too close to home.

Around The Town Chicago- Highly Recommended
Chicago Theatre Review- Highly Recommended
Buzz Center Stage- Highly Recommended
Chicago Theater and Arts- Highly Recommended
Chicago On Stage- Highly Recommended
Spotlight On Lake- Highly Recommended
Splash Magazine- Highly Recommended

Black and Highly Flavored

UP Comedy Club

The Black Excellence Revue brings the heat with a high-energy celebration of Black joy, featuring new songs, bold sketches, and The Second City’s iconic improv. With a hilarious, brilliant cast leading the charge, it’s a can’t-miss night of laughter – and a perfect break from the Chicago cold.

Chicago Theatre Review- Highly Recommended
Buzz Center Stage- Highly Recommended
The Fourth Walsh- Highly Recommended
Third Coast Review- Highly Recommended
Splash Magazine- Highly Recommended

Little Shop of Horrors

Marriott Theatre

The deviously delicious smash hit musical Little Shop of Horrors has devoured audience’s hearts for decades. The charming, quirky, tongue-in-cheek comedy from Howard Ashman and Alan Menken (Disney’s Aladdin, The Little Mermaid, and Beauty and the Beast) follows meek plant store attendant Seymour, his co-worker crush Audrey, her sadistic dentist of a boyfriend and the man-eating plant that threatens them and the world as we know it.

Chicago Tribune- Recommended
Daily Herald- Highly Recommended
Chicago Reader- Highly Recommended
Chicago Stage and Screen- Highly Recommended
Around The Town Chicago- Highly Recommended
Chicago Theatre Review- Highly Recommended
Buzz Center Stage- Highly Recommended
Entertaining Chicago- Highly Recommended
Chicago On Stage- Highly Recommended
Splash Magazine- Highly Recommended
Broadway World- Recommended
NewCity Chicago- Highly Recommended

Dear Evan Hansen

Paramount Theatre

"Dear Evan Hansen: Today is going to be a good day and here's why..." That's how Evan starts every day, writing himself a letter about why it's going to be a good day. It's a coping mechanism for this lonely, anxious high schooler looking to fit in. It's because of these letters that Evan finds himself telling a well-meaning, little white lie that snowballs into a blizzard of untruths. In the end, his unforgettable journey demonstrates there is a place for everyone to feel love, acceptance and to be seen-even when you make mistakes.

Chicago Tribune- Highly Recommended
Daily Herald- Highly Recommended
Around The Town Chicago- Highly Recommended
Chicago Theatre Review- Highly Recommended
Buzz Center Stage- Highly Recommended
Chicago On Stage- Highly Recommended
PicksInSix- Recommended
Splash Magazine- Highly Recommended
Broadway World- Highly Recommended
NewCity Chicago- Recommended

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Marriott Theatre

Based on the beloved novel by Roald Dahl, enjoy this delightfully scrumptious musical adaptation that brings to life all of your favourite characters, songs, and confections. A gobstoppingly good time for the whole family! Grab your golden ticket and join Charlie Bucket on this delectable adventure into Willy Wonka’s world famous chocolate factory!

Around The Town Chicago- Highly Recommended
Chicago Theatre Review- Highly Recommended
Buzz Center Stage- Highly Recommended
Chicago On Stage- Recommended
Splash Magazine- Highly Recommended

On Your Feet! The Story of Emilio & Gloria Estefan

Drury Lane- Oakbrook

Filled with the exhilarating music of the Miami Sound Machine, this celebration of Gloria Estefan's greatest hits will have you dancing in the aisles.

Chicago Tribune- Highly Recommended
Daily Herald- Recommended
Let's Play Theatrical Reviews- Highly Recommended
Around The Town Chicago- Highly Recommended
Chicago Theatre Review- Highly Recommended
Buzz Center Stage- Highly Recommended
Splash Magazine- Highly Recommended
Broadway World- Highly Recommended
NewCity Chicago- Recommended

The Seagull

Red Theater at The Edge Off-Broadway

Chekhov’s classic story of love, ambition, family, and art gets a brand new adaption featuring a cast of Chicago’s sharpest storefront actors.

Chicago Reader- Highly Recommended
Stage and Cinema- Highly Recommended
Around The Town Chicago- Highly Recommended
Chicago Theatre Review- Recommended
Buzz Center Stage- Highly Recommended
Third Coast Review- Highly Recommended
Splash Magazine- Highly Recommended
Werner's Theatre Reviews- Recommended

Trial In The Delta: The Murder Of Emmett Till

Collaboraction at Kimball Arts Center

Trial in the Delta: The Murder of Emmett Till, the company’s award-winning live docudrama, will return in its most fully realized form yet. Featuring a powerhouse ensemble of returning artists and new voices, this urgent, unforgettable theatrical event invites audiences to confront the truth, honor a legacy, and experience history as if it were happening today.

Chicago Tribune- Highly Recommended
Chicago Reader- Recommended
Buzz Center Stage- Highly Recommended
Allie and the After Party- Highly Recommended

Holiday

Goodman Theatre

From Tony Award winner Richard Greenberg comes a sparkling contemporary adaptation of Philip Barry's classic play that inspired the beloved 1930s film starring Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn. In the wealthy world of the Upper East Side Setons, matters of the heart are a family affair. Enter a romantic prospect from a decidedly different background-and privilege, class and personal fulfillment are thrown into sharp relief. Robert Falls directs this fresh new take on the eternal question: work to live or live to work?

Chicago Tribune- Highly Recommended
Chicago Sun Times- Highly Recommended
Windy City Times- Highly Recommended
Talkin Broadway- 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- Recommended
Third Coast Review- Somewhat Recommended
Entertaining Chicago- Highly Recommended
Chicago Theater and Arts- Highly Recommended
Chicago On Stage- Highly Recommended
PicksInSix- Highly Recommended
Allie and the After Party- Highly Recommended
Broadway World- Highly Recommended
NewCity Chicago- Recommended

Black Cypress Bayou

Definition Theatre

On a sweltering Texas night, Vernita Manifold summons her daughters back to the family bayou after the richest man in East Texas turns up dead—his severed head delivered to her back porch. As buried truths rise from the swamp and ancestors hover in the mist, the Manifold women must decide whether this moment is finally theirs. Wickedly funny and razor-sharp, Black Cypress Bayou is a haunting reckoning where justice, legacy, and survival collide.

Chicago Sun Times- Highly Recommended
Chicago Reader- Highly Recommended
Let's Play Theatrical Reviews- Highly Recommended
Buzz Center Stage- Highly Recommended
Chicago On Stage- Recommended
Allie and the After Party- Recommended

Confederates

Redtwist Theatre

Sandra is an accomplished professor, comfortable in her position until a racist cartoon is nailed to her office door; Sara is a slave in the Deep South, fighting for her freedom and spying for the union as the nation is pulled into Civil War. Despite the century between them, both women raise their voice against the institutions of racism and misogyny that hold them back. Dominique Morriseau’s (author of Detroit ’67 and Skeleton Crew) Confederates leaps through time to trace the identities of these two Black American women and the truths that bond them.

Chicago Tribune- Recommended
Chicago Reader- Highly Recommended
Stage and Cinema- Highly Recommended
Around The Town Chicago- Highly Recommended
Chicago Theatre Review- Highly Recommended
The Fourth Walsh- Highly Recommended
Third Coast Review- Recommended
Chicago Theater and Arts- Highly Recommended
MaraTapp.org- Highly Recommended
NewCity Chicago- Somewhat Recommended

Come Back, Little Sheba

American Blues Theater

Midwest town. Forced into marriage due to an unexpected pregnancy, former beauty queen Lola and recovering alcoholic Doc live a quiet life of heartbreak and regret until Marie, a young college student, becomes their boarder. Must see intimate and explosive immersive experience.

Chicago Tribune- Highly Recommended
Chicago Reader- Highly Recommended
Stage and Cinema- Highly Recommended
Around The Town Chicago- Highly Recommended
Chicago Theatre Review- Recommended
Third Coast Review- Highly Recommended
PicksInSix- Recommended
Allie and the After Party- Recommended
NewCity Chicago- Recommended

Hamnet

Chicago Shakespeare Theater

Warwickshire, 1582. Agnes Hathaway, a natural healer, meets the Latin tutor, William Shakespeare. Drawn together by powerful but hidden impulses, they create a life together and make a family. When the plague steals 11-year-old Hamnet from his loving parents, they must each confront their loss alone. And yet, out of the greatest suffering, something of extraordinary wonder is born. Experience the US premiere of the Royal Shakespeare Company's stage adaptation of Maggie O'Farrell's best-selling novel, adapted by award-winning playwright Lolita Chakrabarti (Hymn, Life of Pi, Red Velvet), and directed by Erica Whyman. Pulling back a curtain on the story of the greatest writer in the English language and the woman who was the constant presence and purpose of his life, Hamnet is a love letter to passion, birth, grief, and the magic of nature.

Chicago Tribune- Recommended
Chicago Sun Times- Highly Recommended
Chicago Reader- Highly Recommended
Talkin Broadway- Somewhat Recommended
Let's Play Theatrical Reviews- Recommended
Chicago Stage and Screen- Highly Recommended
Around The Town Chicago- Highly Recommended
Chicago Theatre Review- Highly Recommended
Buzz Center Stage- Somewhat Recommended
The Fourth Walsh- Recommended
Third Coast Review- Highly Recommended
Chicago On Stage- Highly Recommended
PicksInSix- Highly Recommended
MaraTapp.org- Highly Recommended
Chicago Culture Authority- Highly Recommended
Splash Magazine- Recommended
Allie and the After Party- Recommended
Werner's Theatre Reviews- Highly Recommended
Broadway World- Recommended
NewCity Chicago- Highly Recommended

The Irish... and How They Got That Way

Porchlight Music Theatre at Ruth Page Center For Arts

The Irish... and How They Got That Way is an irreverent musical history of Ireland through the tumultuous 20th and 21st centuries seen through the eyes of Pulitzer Prize winning author, Frank McCourt (Angela's Ashes, 'Tis, Teacher Man) whose razor sharp wit, coupled with his trademark satirical irony and boundless love for the Irish People are all underscored by humor, heartache and a glorious score that spans 100+ years from "Danny Boy," "Galway Bay" and "The Rare Old Times" to "Too-Ra-Loo-Ra-Loo-Ra" and U2's "I Still Haven't Found What I Am Looking For."

Chicago Tribune- Recommended
Chicago Reader- Highly Recommended
Stage and Cinema- Recommended
Chicago Stage and Screen- Highly Recommended
Around The Town Chicago- Highly Recommended
The Fourth Walsh- Recommended
Chicago Theater and Arts- Recommended
Chicago On Stage- Highly Recommended
PicksInSix- Highly Recommended
Allie and the After Party- Recommended

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