Dante Dies!! ( and then things get weird ) , Side Show at Chicago Dramatists; through July 13. Thoughtful and entertaining one-man show based on Dante's Inferno impresses with Walt McGough's soberly silly script and Matthew Fletcher's elastic performance. SCM
Dead Man's Cell Phone, Steppenwolf Theatre, through July 27. Amidst all the Tony roar at Steppenwolf let's not forget Sarah Ruhl's romantic play, where the references range from Greek myths to Lewis Carroll, and even the dead live happily ever after. MSB
Funk it Up About Nothin', Chicago Shakespeare Theater, through Aug. 3. The clever young creators of The Bombitty of Errors do a rap take on Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing, a 90-minute whir of rhymes and sexual innuendo, some of it gay. JA
The Last Days of Judas Iscariot, Gift Theatre at Victory Gardens, through July 20. If God forgives all, why was Judas damned to an eternity of unbearable grief? This other-worldly wickedly sardonic, wildly funny courtroom drama tackles that thorny question. CS
—By Abarbanel, Barnidge, Morgan
and Sullivan