Some of the hottest spring LGBTQ shows actually opened in the winter. But thanks to long runs, you can still catch Terell Alvin McCraney's acclaimed trilogy of The Brother/Sister Plays upstairs at Steppenwolf Theatre through May 23. Then over at Steppenwolf's Garage Theatre, the drama Adore and comedy punkplay continue on until April 25.
But be sure to also check out these shows with LGBTQ connections that also play into the spring:
—Billy Elliot The Musical, Ford Center for the Performing Arts, Oriental Theatre, now in an open run. This 10-time Tony Award-winning musical is the biggest Broadway show to hit Chicago since Wicked. It features a score by out pop icon Elton John and has been re-imagined for the stage by many of the creators of the original hit 2000 film about a North English lad who discovers a love for dance during a violent coal miners strike in the 1980s. It's now in previews in advance of an official opening night on April 11.
—The Illusion, Court Theatre, through April 11. Acclaimed Angels in America playwright Tony Kushner freely adapts Pierre Corneille's French Baroque play called "L'Illusion comique." Ostensibly, it's about a father attempting to find his estranged son, but Kushner makes it into a larger statement about the power of art.
—A Chorus Line, Village Players Theatre, Oak Park, now through April 18. This classic 1975 musical about dancers bearing their souls at an unconventional Broadway audition still packs an emotional wallop. Catch it here in an intimate setting before Marriott Theatre in Lincolnshire tackles A Chorus Line later this year.
—Right as Rain, InnateVolution Theater Productions at North Lakeside Cultural Center, now through April 24. April Smallwood's world-premiere drama concerns two teenage boys who befriend each other. One is openly gay, while the other is a son of a right-wing, anti-gay preacher.
—Swear Jar, Annoyance Theatre, now through May 1: Openly bisexual Annoyance Theater founder and artistic director Mick Napier directs his first sketch show for the company. Expect plenty of adults-only comedy as only the Annoyance can do.
—The Bloody Fabulous Curse of Count Dragula, Mary's Attic, March 25-April 23. Expect plenty of camp comedy in Duane Scott Cerny's cross-dressing romp that spoofs the Dracula horror story. Ed Jones and Michael Miller star and Mark Contorno directs.
—The Flaming Dames in Nerdlesque, New Millennium Theatre Company at The Spot, March 26-May 7. Appease your inner geek boy or geek girl with this brand new burlesque revue featuring famous ladies from cartoons, comics and the silver screen.
—The Madness of Oscar Wilde, First Congregational United Church of Christ, Des Plaines, 5 p.m. March 28 only. Sebastian Melmoth's play exploring the famed Irish poet and playwright after his imprisonment for "gross indecency" could be a plea for tolerance or a condemnation of the gay icon. See just how actor Glen Allen Pruett plays Wilde in this one-man drama.
—Hello Again, Bohemian Theatre Ensemble at Heartland Studio Theatre, April 2-May 1. Michael John LaChuisa's 1994 off-Broadway musical based upon the controversial bed-hopping play La Ronde changes things around by focusing on a different decade of the 20th century for each couple. He also explicitly features some male same-sex coupling where there was none in the original.
—Days of Late, SiNNERMAN Ensemble at the Viaduct Theater, April 14-May 22. The world premiere of Braden LuBelle's comical and dramatic look at eight young professionals and aspiring artists, each of whom deal with career issues and love tied to different sexualities.
—Six Dead Queens and an Inflatable Henry! Piccolo Theatre at Evanston Arts Depot, April 9-June 5. A 1999 feminist comedy that looks back at King Henry VIII's six wives, but told from the imagined perspectives of Catherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour, Anne of Cleves, Kathryn Howard and Catherine Parr. Find out more beyond than the memorization device of "Divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived."
—Cabaret, The Hypocrites at Storefront Theater, April 15-May 23. The celebrated 1966 Broadway musical by John Kander, Fred Ebb and Joe Masterhoff about a bisexual American writer and his time in Weimar Republic Berlin during the rise of the Nazis. It will be interesting to compare and contrast this intimate approach with Drury Lane Oakbrook's big spectacle production from earlier this season.
—Spring Awakening, Promethean Theatre Ensemble at The Artistic Home, April 16-May 9. Long before it became a Tony Award-winning hit musical, Spring Awakening was Frank Wedekind's oft-banned turn-of-the-century drama that explicitly showed young adults struggling with their budding sexuality ( including a very then-controversial admission of homosexuality ) .
—Body Awareness, Profiles Theatre, April 23-June 13. Chicago premiere of Annie Baker's drama about a lesbian couple who are at odds over hosting a male photographer as part of a college "Body Awareness" week, especially since he is infamous for his subject matter of female nudes.
—Sweet Tea: Black Gay Men of the South, About Face Theatre at Viaduct Theater, April 29-May 29. The world premiere of E. Patrick Johnson's one-man show based upon his book of the same title about the oral history about gay Black men in America's South.
—Liza Minnelli, Chicago Theatre, 7:30 p.m. June 6 only. Yes, it's a stereotype that gay men love their singing iconic divas like Liza Minnelli. But stereotypes derive from some truth, so you can expect plenty of "family members" to be in attendance for this legendary Academy Award-winning and multiple Tony Award-winning entertainer.
