The nomadic experiential theater troupe Nothing Without a Company opens its 10th-anniversary season with the world premiere of Rachel Staelens and Tate A. Geborkoff's Down the Moonlit Path. This immersive and interactive production dramatizes nine traditional folktales from cultures around the world. Down the Moonlit Path plays in previews before its official opening night on Friday, April 17, at the Preston Bradley Center in Mason Hall, 941 W. Lawrence Ave. Tickets are $25 and $15 for students; visit nothingwithoutacompany.org . Photo by Laura Catherine Suprenant
Critics' Picks
The Apple Family Plays, TimeLine Theatre, through April 19. The affluent, middle-aged Apple siblings discuss each other, life and politics on Election Day 2010 and 2012 in two works playing in repertory. Reality has bruised their liberal idealism and life expectations in Richard Nelson's warm-hearted, witty and political plays, which are brilliantly acted. JA
The Book of Merman, Pride Films and Plays at Apollo Studio, open run. The premise couldn't be sillier, but Leo Schwarz's songs are always a pleasure to hear and, anyway, a show that continues to draw audiences after two extensions must be doing something right. MSB
Love, Loss and What I Wore, First Folio Theatre, Oak Brook, through April 26. A variety of women reflect on clothes and key moments in their lives in this enjoyable take on sisters Nora and Delia Ephron's revue of amusing and touching monologues. SCM
Thunderballs: a James Bond BOYlesque, Gorilla Tango Theatre, opens April 18. The Bucktown storefront theater renowned for its scantily clad spoofs of classic films goes equal op with an all-male burlesque of Ian Fleming's sexy action series. MSB
By Abarbanel, Barnidge and Morgan