Barenaked Lads Take Off Broadway. Image by David Zak_________
Diverse minority communities identified by sexual orientation frequently get crammed into the uncomfortable, if all-inclusive, acronym of LGTBQ. It's the quickest and easiest solution without having to write out lesbian, gay, transgender, bisexual and queer/questioning in its entirety on every reference.
Yet that acronym can minimize the depth and breadth of the stories each of these groups have to tell. Thankfully, there are plenty of LGTBQ-friendly theater and performances out in Chicago this spring to help fill out those details. Here are some 10 great theater choices that embrace and celebrate the lives of those who get lumped together in that all-purpose LGTBQ label:
1. Pulp; About Face Theatre at Victory Gardens Greenhouse, 2257 N. Lincoln, Chicago, May 5-20. Pulp was an instant commercial and critical hit when it premiered in 2004, so About Face had the wisdom to revive this sultry musical that takes its inspiration from the lurid lesbian pulp fiction of the 1950s. Apply your lipstick or don your butch tuxedo to visit the Chicago cabaret dive dreamed up by playwright Patricia Kane, with composers Amy Warren and Andre Pluess.
2. Barenaked Lads Take Off Broadway; Bailiwick Repertory, 1229 W. Belmont , Chicago, open run. The Bailiwick just isn't itself without a musical revue featuring gratuitous male nudity. Barenaked Lads Take Off Broadway is the third edition of its home-grown answer to Naked Boys Singing, following editions in the Great Outdoors and for the Christmas season. It might not be subtle, but the title tells exactly what the audience is in for.
3. Cloud Nine; Ethel M. Barber Theater, Northwestern Unversity, April 20-29. Caryl Churchill's acclaimed and very funny 1979 absurdist drama has it all: homosexuality, lesbianism, cross-dressing, incest, pedophilia and single mothers. No, Churchill isn't out to raise the blood pressure of Christian conservatives. Instead, Churchill offers insights into men and women's confusing relationships by setting Cloud Nine's two acts amid the extremes of the repressive Victorian era and the anything-goes freedoms of the late 1970s.
4. Blues for an Alabama Sky; Eclipse Theatre Company at Victory Gardens Greenhouse, now through April 29. Okay, so the main gay character in Pearl Cleage's 1930 Harlem Renaissance drama is a flamboyant costume designer. Get over it. Those brave enough to live out and open in that era proudly gravitated to the arts. It's also refreshing to see a group of sophisticated Black liberals coping with the struggles of finding love and surviving during the Great Depression.
5. Live Girls; Stage Left Theatre, 3408 N. Sheffield, April 19-June 2. The Chicago premiere of Victoria Stewart's drama about an African-American performance artist who interviews a famous female porn star for her latest screed on injustice. Expect a dialogue on preconceptions about art; sex; and exploitation versus empowerment.
6. Daddy's Home!; Open Door Repertory at Hatch Auditorium, 1000 N. Ridgeland, Oak Park; April 24-May 20. He may look like the perfect father on a 1957 family sitcom, but what happens when an actor is blackmailed for hiding his gay life? Find out in Scott Dunnell's ironic look at the 1950s sitcom and Eisenhower-era morality.
7. Penchants & Fantasies: A Light Look at Lesbian Love; Bailiwick Repertory, 1229 W. Belmont, May 3 through June 17. Bailiwick's Second Sex Series finds humor in lesbian relationships with two comic and romantic one acts: Barbara Lhota's 'Personal Penchants' and Linda Suzuki's 'The List.'
8. Sidetrack V: Sidetrack With a Twist; Chicago Gay Men's Chorus ( CGMC ) at the Athenaeum Theatre, 2936 N. Southport; April 20 and 21. Full disclosure here: I'm in the show ( in drag for one number, no less! ) . CGMC's 25th anniversary season continues with its fifth Sidetrack revue, which not only aims to physically recreate your favorite Broadway showtunes but the North Halsted Street video bar that screens them as well. Expect what CGMC is best at: a huge flock of male voices, big production numbers and plenty of campy drag.
9. PRIDE: In Technicolor; Windy City Gay Chorus and Aria: Windy City Women's Ensemble at Center on Halsted, 3628 N. Halsted; June 9 and 10: More disclosure: I've been known to sing with this choral group as well. Chicago's oldest gay chorus and its sister choral ensemble inaugurate the move to their new home at the Center on Halsted's Hoover-Leppen Theatre. Expect a concert celebrating the many colors and stripes of the Pride rainbow.
10. Transitions NPD: A Staged Reading Series; Hubris Productions at Rubin's Chicago Room Gallery Café, 3318 N. Halsted; April 9-30. Here is a series of staged readings of new plays ( many with gay content ) by multiple playwrights including locals Scott Shallenbarger and Nathan Cann. Also check Hubris Productions as the inaugural theater company to present in the new Center on Halsted's Hoover-Leppen Theatre with a July production of Terrence McNally's Love! Valour! Compassion!
11. A Streetcar Named Desire; Metropolis Performing Arts Centre, 111 W. Campbell, Arlington Heights; now through April 29. The late gay playwright Tennessee Williams' iconic 1947 American drama about the faded southern belle Blanche DuBois should always have a place in our hearts. Along with Blanche's brutalized descent into madness, there's also the promise of a shirtless actor playing Stanley Kowalski.
