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The Highest Rated Shows In Chicago

Here 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.

The Band's Visit

In a small Israeli desert town where every day feels the same, a lost bus arrives carrying an Egyptian Police Band. With no hotel and no buses until morning, the musicians are taken in for the night by the locals. Under the spell of the desert sky, these misplaced musicians bring everyone together in the way that only music can. Winner of ten Tony Awards, including Best Musical, The Band's Visit is a beautifully intimate show, perfectly suited for the Nichols Theatre, about the unifying power of music.

Chicago Tribune- Highly Recommended
Chicago Sun Times- Highly Recommended
Daily Herald- Highly Recommended
Chicago Reader- Highly Recommended
Let's Play Theatrical Reviews- Highly Recommended
Chicago Stage and Screen- Highly Recommended
Around The Town Chicago- Highly Recommended
Chicago Theatre Review- Highly Recommended
Buzznews.net- Highly Recommended
Third Coast Review- Highly Recommended
Chicago Theater and Arts- Highly Recommended
Chicago On Stage- Highly Recommended
Evanston Roundtable- Highly Recommended
Broadway World- Highly Recommended
NewCity Chicago- Highly Recommended
The Band's Visit
Blue Man Group

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.

Chicago Tribune- Highly Recommended
Chicago Sun Times- Recommended
Chicago Reader- Highly Recommended
Windy City Times- Highly Recommended
Centerstage- Highly Recommended
Chicago Stage Review- Highly Recommended
Stage and Cinema- Highly Recommended
ChicagoCritic- Highly Recommended
Chicago Stage and Screen- Highly Recommended
Around The Town Chicago- Highly Recommended
Chicago Theatre Review- Recommended
The Fourth Walsh- Highly Recommended
Chicago Theater Beat- Highly Recommended
Third Coast Review- Recommended
Chicago On Stage- Highly Recommended
Picture This Post- Highly Recommended
Blue Man Group
James and the Giant Peach

A delightfully offbeat adaptation of the classic Roald Dahl adventure! When James is sent by his aunts to chop down their old fruit tree, he discovers a magic potion that results in a tremendous peach and launches a journey of enormous proportions. Suddenly, James finds himself in the center of a gigantic peach, among human-sized insects with equally oversized personalities. After the peach rolls into the ocean, the group faces hunger, sharks and plenty of disagreements. Thanks to James' quick wit and creative thinking, they learn to live and work together as a family. Featuring a wickedly tuneful score by the Tony Award-nominated team of Pasek and Paul and a curiously quirky book by Timothy Allen McDonald.

Around The Town Chicago- Highly Recommended
Chicago Theatre Review- Highly Recommended
Buzznews.net- Highly Recommended
Chicago Theater and Arts- Recommended
Splash Magazine- Highly Recommended
James and the Giant Peach
The Matchbox Magic Flute

Big music in a small space, this "matchbox" presentation of The Magic Flute features a cast of 10 and orchestra of five-following the fantastic adventures of Prince Tamino and Princess Pamina. With dragons, a man who is a bird, trials by fire and water and underground corridors, Day and Night do battle.

Chicago Tribune- Highly Recommended
Chicago Sun Times- Highly Recommended
Daily Herald- Highly Recommended
Chicago Reader- Highly Recommended
Chicago On the Aisle- Highly Recommended
Around The Town Chicago- Highly Recommended
Chicago Theatre Review- Highly Recommended
Buzznews.net- Recommended
Third Coast Review- Highly Recommended
PicksInSix- Recommended
Splash Magazine- Highly Recommended
Broadway World- Highly Recommended
NewCity Chicago- Recommended
The Matchbox Magic Flute
The Reclamation of Madison Hemings

It's 1866, and the Civil War has ended. Madison Hemings, son of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings, and Israel Jefferson, formerly enslaved footman, return to Monticello in search of Israel's long-lost brother. Their search gets sidetracked when Madison decides to claim what's left of his birthright as the son of an American president. Together, the two men must face their conflicting feelings about the man who wrote "All men are created equal." Slavery has been abolished, but what has changed? What do we need to keep with us as we move through this world and what should we leave behind?

Chicago Tribune- Highly Recommended
Chicago Sun Times- Highly Recommended
Chicago Reader- Highly Recommended
Around The Town Chicago- Highly Recommended
Chicago Theatre Review- Recommended
Third Coast Review- Highly Recommended
City Pleasures- Highly Recommended
NewCity Chicago- Recommended
The Reclamation of Madison Hemings
25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee

Winner of the Tony and the Drama Desk Awards for Best Book, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee has won the hearts of theatergoers across the country with its mix of wit, wills, and audience participation. Join this group of unique and dedicated students as they compete for the spelling bee championship that celebrates the pursuit of the ultimate prize while finding the joy of being oneself.

Chicago Reader- Highly Recommended
Around The Town Chicago- Highly Recommended
Chicago Theatre Review- Highly Recommended
The Fourth Walsh- Highly Recommended
Third Coast Review- Recommended
Life and Times- Highly Recommended
Evanston Roundtable- Highly Recommended
Broadway World- Recommended
25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee
Billy Elliot: The Musical

Meet Billy Elliot, an 11-year-old English boy who stumbles upon a ballet class during his weekly boxing lesson. His surprise love for dance must be hidden at all costs, especially from his coal miner father. With help from his sharp-tongued teacher, Mrs. Wilkinson, Billy gets the chance to attend a prestigious ballet school and must decide what is most important: doing what he loves or doing what other people want.

Chicago Tribune- Recommended
Chicago Reader- Recommended
Chicago Stage and Screen- Highly Recommended
Around The Town Chicago- Highly Recommended
Chicago Theatre Review- Highly Recommended
PicksInSix- Highly Recommended
Life and Times- Highly Recommended
Chicago Culture Authority- Recommended
Splash Magazine- Highly Recommended
Broadway World- Highly Recommended
Billy Elliot: The Musical
Topdog/Underdog

A darkly comic fable of brotherly love and family identity and the way we are defined by history. Lincoln and Booth are two brothers whose names were given to them as a joke, foretelling a lifetime of sibling rivalry and resentment. Haunted by the past, the brothers are forced to confront the shattering reality of their future.

Chicago Reader- Highly Recommended
Talkin Broadway- Highly Recommended
Around The Town Chicago- Recommended
Chicago Theatre Review- Highly Recommended
Buzznews.net- Highly Recommended
Third Coast Review- Highly Recommended
Life and Times- Highly Recommended
Spotlight On Lake- Highly Recommended
Broadway World- Somewhat Recommended
NewCity Chicago- Highly Recommended
Topdog/Underdog
Wipeout

WIPEOUT tells the story of three women staring down the mouth of 70, friends for decades, who throw themselves into their first-ever surfing lesson with the help of a young instructor. As the women learn how to paddle and navigate the currents of the Pacific Ocean, they also learn how to navigate their friendships, their fears, and just how hard it can be to let it all go.

Chicago Tribune- Somewhat Recommended
Chicago Sun Times- Highly Recommended
Chicago Reader- Highly Recommended
Around The Town Chicago- Highly Recommended
Chicago Theatre Review- Highly Recommended
Third Coast Review- Highly Recommended
City Pleasures- Highly Recommended
Broadway World- Highly Recommended
NewCity Chicago- Recommended
Wipeout
The Time Machine - A Tribute to the '80s

What would a Senior in High School born in 2006 know about the music of the 80's? Derrick Taylor knows absolutely nothing about that decade of music but he is about to find out when his music teacher challenges him to research the music of the 80's and compare it to the musical culture of today. Derrick is forced to go to his eccentric inventor Uncle Mike to help him discover what he calls 'old folks music.' However, with artists like Prince, Sheila E, Madonna, Keith Sweat and many, many more, He quickly learns that the music of the 80's was and is phenomenal. Join Derrick as he enters the portal to the past and discovers what great music is all about!

Chicago Tribune- Recommended
Chicago Reader- Highly Recommended
Let's Play Theatrical Reviews- Highly Recommended
Around The Town Chicago- Highly Recommended
Chicago Theatre Review- Highly Recommended
Buzznews.net- Recommended
City Pleasures- Highly Recommended
NewCity Chicago- Recommended
The Time Machine - A Tribute to the '80s
Notes From The Field

Witness the powerful stories of 19 individuals fighting to overcome and transform America’s education and criminal justice systems. This strikingly intimate piece presents snapshots from a variety of real people, documenting their intersections with the American dream and the obstacles that work to block them from it. Utilizing verbatim dialogue pulled from more than 250 accounts from students, faculty, prisoners, activists, politicians, and victims’ families, NOTES FROM THE FIELD takes audiences on an emotional journey through the faults and injustices of an American criminal justice system that seems more focused on incarceration over education. Deeply human, profoundly moving, and full of moments of humor, compassion, and resilience, it’s a masterful work that asks you to observe, be present, and join the call for urgent and necessary change.

Chicago Tribune- Recommended
Chicago Reader- Recommended
Let's Play Theatrical Reviews- Highly Recommended
Chicago Stage and Screen- Recommended
Around The Town Chicago- Highly Recommended
Chicago Theatre Review- Recommended
Buzznews.net- Highly Recommended
The Fourth Walsh- Highly Recommended
Third Coast Review- Highly Recommended
Chicago Culture Authority- Highly Recommended
Splash Magazine- Recommended
Broadway World- Highly Recommended
NewCity Chicago- Highly Recommended
Notes From The Field
Oh, The Places You'll Glow!

Step into a dimension of kaleidoscopic hilarity with The Second City e.t.c's 47th Revue Oh, The Places You'll Glow! Our incandescent ensemble leads the journey through a luminous wonderland of wit and satire where they weigh the politics of a one-night stand, explore an unconventional school for troubled youth, and find out who REALLY runs hell. A laugh riot spectacle of sound and fury resplendent with color; Oh, The Places You'll Glow! is sure to illuminate your heart.

Chicago Tribune- Highly Recommended
Chicago Sun Times- Highly Recommended
Chicago Reader- Recommended
Let's Play Theatrical Reviews- Recommended
Around The Town Chicago- Recommended
Chicago Theatre Review- Highly Recommended
Chicago On Stage- Highly Recommended
Life and Times- Highly Recommended
Chicago Culture Authority- Highly Recommended
NewCity Chicago- Recommended
Oh, The Places You'll Glow!
The Diary Of Anne Frank

Young People's Theatre of Chicago at The Greenhouse Theater Center

The Chicago Premiere of a vital new one-act 75-minute adaptation draws on previously unpublished diary entries to create a more complex, authentic, and compelling version of Anne's indelible story. Wendy Kesselman's sensitive and stirring updating is more approachable and relevant for a new generation of older children while proving "richer and more resonant" for adults.

Chicago Reader- Recommended
Around The Town Chicago- Highly Recommended
Chicago Theatre Review- Highly Recommended
Buzznews.net- Recommended
Third Coast Review- Highly Recommended
The Diary Of Anne Frank
Teatro ZinZanni: Love, Chaos and Dinner

Enter a realm where reality and dreams converge; an experience unlike any other! Teatro ZinZanni is a whirlwind of international cirque, comedy and cabaret served with a multi-course feast. Described as the "Kit Kat Klub on acid," the fast-paced action unfolds around, above and alongside you as world-class acrobats, musicians, divas, illusionists, madmen and aerialists fill the intimate Spiegeltent ZaZou, a unique jewel box mirror tent. Teatro ZinZanni's signature blend of Love, Chaos & Dinner has played to sold out audiences in Seattle and San Francisco, and now comes to Chicago's Cambria Hotel with its "feast for the senses." (The New York Times)

Chicago Tribune- Recommended
Chicago Sun Times- Recommended
Chicago Reader- Highly Recommended
Let's Play Theatrical Reviews- Recommended
Around The Town Chicago- Highly Recommended
PicksInSix- Highly Recommended
Splash Magazine- Highly Recommended
Teatro ZinZanni: Love, Chaos and Dinner
Don't Quit Your Daydream

Come see The Second City Mainstage's brand-new 111th Revue, newly titled Don't Quit Your Daydream. This is the most exciting time to see a show on our stages. The cast is fresh, new material is worked into the show every night, and your laughter in the audience helps shape the final show!

Chicago Tribune- Highly Recommended
Chicago Sun Times- Recommended
Chicago Reader- Recommended
Let's Play Theatrical Reviews- Recommended
Around The Town Chicago- Highly Recommended
Buzznews.net- Highly Recommended
The Fourth Walsh- Highly Recommended
Picture This Post- Recommended
NewCity Chicago- Highly Recommended
Don't Quit Your Daydream

To see the reviews of all plays go to Review Round-Up.