Winter might have come and gone with hardly a snowflake, but spring is right around the corner and, with it, some entertainment worth a look-see ( listed here in chronological order ) :
1. Book of Days, Raven Theatre, April 7-May 28. The company with the Midas touch takes on Lanford Wilson's indictment of dirty doings in a repressed rural town.
2. Glengarry Glen Ross, Keyhole Theatre, April 7-May 14. Here is the Pulitzer-winning Mamet masterpiece they didn't perform at the Goodman festival, rendered in Frank Merle's characteristic boat-in-the-bottle fashion.
3. An Affair Of Honor, Babes With Blades, April 7-May 14. The winning scripts in a playwrighting contest inspired by a 19th-century painting of two stripped-to-the-waist female duelists. How far will the fighting Babes go in replicating the pivotal scene?
4. The Tooth Of Crime ( Second Dance ) , Strawdog Theatre, April 9-May 27. Sam Shepard's epic tale of two futuristic rock-and-roll gladiators, revised in 1996 to include a score by T-Bone Burnett. If you want to cipher why these Markers play this course, let them razor-patter on your clean screen awhile.
5. Sherlock Holmes: A Scandal In Bohemia and The Final Problem, City Lit Theatre, April 24-June 11. The genius detective returns to confront his twin nemeses, the wicked Professor Moriarity and the alluring Irene Adler. Which presents the greater danger to our Victorian hero?
6. Three Tall Women, Apple Tree Theatre, April 30-May 21. Look for the three divas cast in the title roles—Ann Whitney, Barbara Robertson and Jenny McKnight—to enliven even Edward Albee's gloomy memorial to his ailing Mum.
7. Bang The Drum Slowly, Steep Theatre, May 11-June 17. Manly-man-to-man het love in the locker room hits a home run every time in Mark Harris's tears-and-testosterone classic.
8. Gaudy Night, Lifeline Theatre, May 20-July 30. Harriet Vane, the light of Lord Peter Wimsey's life, returns to her blue-stocking roots in this adaptation of the Dorothy Sayers thriller.
9. The Beauty Queen of Leenane, Actors Workshop, May 21-June 18. Martin McDonagh's gothic tale of a mother and daughter behaving badly in rural Ireland is a chilling argument in favor of subsidized care for the elderly.
10. Monsieur Proust, About Face Theatre at Steppenwolf, June 3-July 16. Mary Zimmerman marched us through 11 rooms of Marcel in 2000, but Eric Rosen sits us down in only one for this tell-all chat with the famous rechercheur's housekeeper.