There are plenty of world premieres and regional premieres to appease Windy City theater fans who area always on the lookout for something new. All shows in Chicago unless otherwise noted.
Of LGBT interest
Ten Chimneys, Northlight Theatre, Skokie, through April 15. The Chicago-area premiere of Jeffrey Hatcher's comic drama about the famed real-life actors Alfred Lunt and Lynne Fontanne is bound to have some gay appeal since Noel Coward is a featured guest at this couple's fabled Wisconsin home. 847-673-6300 or www.northlight.org
Girl You Know It's True, Pavement Group at Chopin Theatre, April 12-May 13. Bixby Elliott's world-premiere drama takes inspiration from the Milli Vanilli scandal to guess at what might happen when a 40-ish playwright conjures a new identity as an African-American lesbian in a wheelchair in order to get his work produced. 773-789-8093 or www.pavementgroup.org
The Roar of the Butterfly, KMP Artists at Victory Gardens Richard Christiansen Theater, May 2-20. Cabaret singer Spider Saloff takes on numerous personalities in this revue that starts as a memorial service to an Asian drag queen. 773-871-3000 or www.victorygardens.org
2012 Gay Play Weekend, Pride Films and Plays at Center on Halsted's Hoover-Leppen Theater, April 13-15. Five new plays featuring LGBT characters or themes are presented in staged readings. On the bill is Adam Siegel's Lost In History at 7:30 p.m. Friday, April 13, George Smart's Mr. Teddy at 4:30 p.m. Saturday, April 14, Dylan Costello's Hello Norma Jeane at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, April 14, Sean Chandler and David Leeper's At the Flash at 1:30 p.m. Sunday, April 15 and Leo Schwartz's Under a Rainbow Flag at 4:30 p.m. Sunday, April 15. www.pridefilmsandplays.com
[title of show], Northlight Theatre, Skokie, May 4-June 10. Two gay guys try to create a new musical in just three weeks in this critically acclaimed self-reflexive Broadway musical about the process of writing a show. 847-673-6300 or www.northlight.org
World premieres
Rick Bayless in Cascabel, Lookingglass Theatre, March 21-April 22. Tickets are probably impossible to come by for this limited engagement featuring celebrity chef Rick Bayless, but you can still try for this collaboration with Tony Hernandez and Heidi Stillman that combines circus feats with culinary passion. 312-337-0665 or www.lookingglasstheatre.org
Eyes Without a Face, Chicago Tap Theatre at Stage 773, March 23-April 1. Poet Marc Kelly Smith provides a running commentary and Andrew Edwards contributes an original score for this percussive adaptation of a 1959 French horror film about abduction and plastic surgery. 773-327-5252 or www.chicagotaptheatre.com
Trash, Babes With Blades Theatre Company at The Side Project, March 24-May 5. Playwright Arthur M. Jolly was a winner of Babes With Blades' Joining Sword & Pen contest, so now they present a double-cast staging of his drama about two sisters pouring through a dump to find an unopened letter from their late mother. 773-904-0391 or www.babeswithblades.org .
L-Vis Live!, Victory Gardens Theater at Richard Christiansen Theater, March 27-April 14. Kevin Coval performs in his show adapted from his book L-Vis Lives! Racemusic Poems, which is all about how white artists are inspired by (and steal from) African-American artists. 773-871-3000 or www.victorygardens.org
We Are Proud to Present a Presentation About the Heroes of Namibia, Formerly Known as South-West Africa, From the German Sudwestafrika, Between the Years 1884-1915, Victory Gardens Theater, March 30-April 29. Jackie Sibblies Drury's new dark comedy is about a group of high-minded actors who gather together to give a presentation on a distant genocide, only to have their presentation get out way of hand. 773-871-3000 or www.victorygardens.org
Re-Spiced: A Silk Road Cabaret, Silk Road Rising at Chicago Temple, April 4-May 6. Formerly known as Silk Road Theatre Project, the company offers up another cabaret revue featuring Asian and Middle Eastern themes explored in American and British song. 312-857-1234 or www.silkroadrising.org
The March, Steppenwolf Theatre, April 5-June 10. Out artist Frank Galatti (Ragtime) adapts and directs E.L. Doctorow's epic novel about the destructive march of 62,000 Union soldiers through Georgia during the Civil War. 312-335-1650 or www.steppenwolf.org
Rise of the Numberless, Bailiwick Chicago and The New Colony at Flat Iron Arts Building, April 6-May 26. A collaborative sci-fi piece about a country's "One Child, One Nation" policy to curb overpopulation. Thenewcolony.org or bailiwickchicago.com
Fish Men, Goodman Theatre, April 7-May 6. Candido Tirado's world premiere is all about a group of chess wizards who engage in high-stakes games and hustles. 312-443-3800 or www.goodmantheatre.org
The Improv Play, InFusion Theatre Company at DCA Storefront Theater, April 10-May 20. This world premiere by Randall Colburn incorporates sketch comedy and improv sessions to tell the tale of three Chicago improvisers seeking success and validation after one of their troupe members leaves for New York to star in an internationally famous NBC-TV show. 312-742-8497 or www.infusiontheatre.com
Liberal Arts: The Musical!, Underscore Theatre Company at Second Stage Theatre. A new musical revue by Alex Higgin-Houser, David Kornfeld, Laura Stratford and Brendan Siegfried looking at student loans and debt incurred by attending Secular Liberal Arts College. 773-549-1815 or www.liberalartsthemusical.com
White Trash Wedding and a Funeral, Factory Theater at Prop Thtr, April 20-June 2. Mike Beyer and Bill Havle's dark comedy about a guy hoping for an inheritance of a septic take cleaning company. 312-409-3247 or www.thefactorytheater.com
My Kind of Town, TimeLine Theatre, May 1-July 29. John Conroy's world premiere drama is drawn from his decades-long work as a journalist following the Chicago police torture scandal. 773-281-8463 or www.timelinetheatre.com
Chicago-area premieres
Tom Jones, Polarity Ensemble Theatre at Josephinum Academy, March 20-April 29. The Midwest premiere of David Hammond's take on Henry Fielding's bawdy 18th century novel, which was also famously adapted into an Academy Award-winning 1963 film. 800-838-3006 or www.petheatre.com .
Fucking A, Urban Theater Company at Pegasus Players/Beacon Street Hull House, March 20-April 15. The Midwest premiere of Pulitzer Prize-winner Suzan-Lori Parks' drama that focuses on an abortionist in a post-apocalyptic world. This provocatively titled show takes its inspiration from Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter. 312-239-8783 or www.urbantheaterchicago.org
The Giver, Adventure Stage Chicago, March 22-April 26. Eric Coble provides a new stage adaptation of Lois Lowry's Newbery Medal-winning novel exploring conformity and independent thought. 773-342-4141 or www.adventurestage.org
Fela!, Oriental Theatre, March 27-April 15. Out choreographer/director Bill T. Jones helms this exuberant Tony Award-winning musical celebrating the life and controversies of Afrobeat legend and Nigerian activist Fela Kuti. 800-775-2000 or www.broadwayinchicago.com
Chesapeake, Remy Bumppo Theatre at Greenhouse Theater Center, March 28-April 29. Call it a dog-napping gone wrong in Lee Blessing's dark comedy when a performance artist tries to create a media event by stealing the beloved dog of an arch-conservative senator who has cut off his NEA grant. 773-404-7336 or www.remybumppo.org
Breaking Up is Hard to Do, Fox Valley Repertory at Pheasant Run Resort, St. Charles, March 29-May 20. Kevin Bellie directs the Midwest premiere of a jukebox musical featuring the songs of Neil Sedaka set to a new script by Erik Jackson and Ben H. Winters. 630-584-6342 or www.foxvalleyrep.org
Motherhood the Musical, Royal George Theatre, March 30-May 20. Sue Fabish's musical comedy about the joys (and horrors) of motherhood finally makes it to Chicago after some initial scheduling delays. So get ready to rock out to songs along the lines of "Costco Queen," "Baby Weight Blues" and more. 800-982-2787 or www.motherhoodthemusical.com
After the Revolution, Next Theatre, Evanston, April 5-May 13. A Jewish-American family is forced to reevaluate its history regarding a famously blacklisted grandfather in this Midwest premiere of Amy Herzog's drama. 847-475-1875 or www.nexttheatre.org
Tunnel Rat, Genesis Theatrical Productions at Preston Bradley Center, April 5-29. The U.S. premiere of Australian playwright Neil Cole's drama is all about a short 17-year-old who chooses to serve in the Army rather than going to jail, which means he ends up in Vietnam. 773-724-1554 or www.genesistheatricals.com
Route 66, Paramount Theatre at Copley Theatre, Aurora, April 11-June 10. Roger Bean (The Marvelous Wonderettes) pens another musical jukebox revue, this time celebrating that famed U.S. roadway stretching from Chicago to California. 630-896-6666 or www.paramountaurora.com
The Receptionist, Steep Theatre, April 12-May 19. Adam Bock's one-act drama starts out mundanely, but then it turns very sinister as it delves deeper into the notion of institutionalized torture. 866-811-4111 or www.steeptheatre.com
In a Forest, Dark and Deep, Profiles Theatre's The Main Stage, April 13-June 3. The U.S. premiere of Neil LaBute's dark psychological thriller is about a sparring brother and sister who are clearing out a remote cottage in the forest. This show also opens Profiles Theatre's new space near its original home. 773-549-1815 or www.profilestheatre.org
Moscow, Cheryomushki, Chicago Opera Theater at Harris Theater for Music and Dance, April 14-25. Back in 2009, a voting and fundraising public selected Shostakovich's comic operetta about Soviet housing shortages and love games to be part of Chicago Opera Theater's "The People's Opera" initiative. 312-334-7777 or www.chicagooperatheater.org
Sixty Miles to Silver Lake, Collaboraction at Flat Iron Arts Building, April 19-May 27. Dan LeFranc's one-act drama is seemingly about a divorced father pumping his teenaged son for information about his ex-wife, but don't be fooled by all the anger and resentment that keep emanating out of them. 312-226-9633 or www.collaboraction.org
Teseo, Chicago Opera Theater at Harris Theater for Music and Dance, April 21-May 2. Chicago Opera Theater concludes its Medea-inspired three-opera series with this baroque work written by Handel. 312-334-7777 or www.chicagooperatheater.org
Tigers Be Still, Theater Wit, April 24-June 3. Kim Rosenstock's dark comedy is about an unemployed college graduate who hopes her crazy life will turn around when she gets hired as a high school art teacher. 773-976-8150 or www.theaterwit.org
A Brown Bear, A Caterpillar And A Moon: Treasured Stories by Eric Carle, Chicago Children's Theatre presents the Mermaid Theatre of Nova Scotia at Victory Gardens Biograph Theater, May 2-27. A triple bill of magical puppetry shows inspired by Eric Carle's children's books. 773-871-3000 or www.chicagochildrenstheatre.org
Hostage Song, Signal Ensemble Theatre, May 3-June 9. Clay McLeod Chapman and Kyle Jarrow's indie-rock musical shows two hostages who try to keep their sanity by discussing their love of music. 773-347-1350 or www.signalensemble.com
Making God Laugh, Theatre at the Center, Munster, Ind., May 3-June 10. First Folio Theatre is an associate producer on this Chicago-area premiere about empty nest parents adapting to their new stage of life. 219-836-3255 or www.theatreatthecenter.com
A Bend in the Road, National Pastime Theater, May 4-June 9. An adventure of two men heading out to see the Great American West during the gold rush. 773-327-7077 or www.npt2.com
The Blonde, the Brunette and the Vengeful Redhead, Writers' Theatre, Glencoe, May 22-July 29. Australian playwright Robert Hewett's international hit one-woman show is about a thwarted housewife who loses herself in a heated moment of passion. 847-242-6000 or www.writerstheatre.org
