The Abduction from the Seraglio, Lyric Opera of Chicago, through March 28. This frilly new production of Mozart's operatic comedy features the great directing and design team behind the Lyric's wonderful 2004 production of Janacek's Cunning Little Vixen. SCM
Dying City, Next Theatre, through March 8. A man betrays his wife before dying in Iraq. A year later, his widow and gay brother dance around the truth. But is this two-actor play a metaphor for America's betrayal of the world? This features exquisite acting and intelligent direction. JA
Misamerica, Raven Theatre, through March 28. It may be past its sell-by date, but Tom Patrick's scathing satire on corporate America trying to expand into a war-torn Middle Eastern country ( think Iraq ) proved to be amazingly prophetic ( especially since the play was largely completed back in 2004 ) . SCM
Modigliani, Artistic Home at Live Bait Theatre, through March 22. Bio-dramatist Dennis McIntyre sees only an ugly vie de bohčme populated by drunken pigs, but the Artistic Home ensemble finds the excitement and vibrancy simmering beneath the squalor in post-Impressionist Montmartre. MSB
—By Abarbanel, Barnidge, Morgan and Sullivan