Theater Spotlight
Crystal meth is a serious problem, but gay performer/playwright Steven Strafford actually found humor in his own three-year addiction ordeal in METHTACULAR! Strafford's critically acclaimed one-man show previously played in 2014 for About Face Theatre before going to be staged in Cincinnati, Sacramento, Portland and colleges across the country. If you missed METHTACULAR! before, it's back again for a very limited time. METHTACULAR! plays two shows only at 8 p.m. Friday-Saturday, Nov. 11-12, at Steppenwolf's 1700 Theatre, 1700 N. Halsted St. Tickets are $20; call 312-335-1650 or visit Steppenwolf.org .
Steven Strafford in his one-man show METHTACULAR!, directed by Adam Fitzgerald. Photo by Kevin Thomas Garcia
Critics' Picks
In the Heights, Porchlight Music Theatre, through Dec. 3. There are two shows authored by Lin-Manuel Miranda currently running, both brimming over with ebullience and optimism, but this is the one you can see without waiting until next year. How can you pass that up? MSB
The Last Wife, TimeLine Theatre, through Dec. 18. Big, meaty-but-intelligent performances drive playwright Kate Henning's tale of a woman's survival and power in a man's world, ostensibly about King Henry VIII and Catherine Parr, the only one of Henry's wives to survive him, but very much a modern work. JA
Merge, The New Colony at Den Theatre, through Nov. 13. Spenser Davis' theatrical take on the rise and fall of Atari is a frenetic nostalgia trip for audiences in their 40s. It's a back-stabbing creative and corporate tale filled with lots of sound and fury. SCM
Resolution, Pride Films and Plays at Rivendell Theatre, through Nov. 20. Nancy Nyman and Heather McNama channel the conventions of Victorian drama with museum-grade accuracy to recount this "vintage" tale of pioneering same-sex spouses. MSB
By Abarbanel, Barnidge and Morgan