Theater Spotlight
The Lyric Opera of Chicago teams again with The Second City for the new comedy show Longer! Louder! Wagner! The Second City Wagner Companion. See how collaborators Jesse Case and Tim Sniffen work with a cast of Second City comedians and two opera singers to find humor from the controversial life of Richard Wagner, the megalomaniac mastermind behind the epic Ring Cycle and other lengthy 19th-century operas. Longer! Louder! Wagner! The Second City Wagner Companion plays from Thursday, Oct. 27, through Sunday, Oct. 30, at the Civic Opera House's William Mason Rehearsal Hall, 20 N. Wacker Dr. Tickets are $35-$45; call 312-827-5600 or visit LyricOpera.org .
Caption: Travis Turner in rehearsal for Longer! Louder! Wagner! The Second City Wagner Companion for the Lyric Opera of Chicago. Photo by Andrew Cioffi/Lyric Opera of Chicago
Critics' Picks
Life Sucks, Lookingglass Theatre, through Nov. 6. The spirit is warm, autumnal and hilariously sad in this Americanized, modernized take on Chekhov's Uncle Vanya. It's Chekhov lite, but lovingly written and brilliantly played in rich comic style. 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 back-stabbing creative and corporate tale filled with lots of sound and fury. SCM
Naperville, Theater Wit, through Nov. 6. Roman comedy divided its populace between City and Country, but Mat Smart gives the suburbs their say in this stereotype-free glimpse of pioneers gathering themselves for their next journey. MSB
You on the Moors Now, The Hypocrites at Den Theatre, through Oct. 30. The great Victorian heroines of literature fight for personal fulfillment over lucrative marriage in a literal Battle of the Sexes that leaves its surviving veterans scarred, but wiser. MSB
By Abarbanel, Barnidge and Morgan