The LGBT community strives to be as accepting and inclusive as possible. So this season, check several of the shows below as they touch upon issues of sexuality, gender and more. There are readings, Chicago and world premieres and classic musicals that should be checked off on any gay person's cultural punch card. All shows in Chicago unless otherwise noted.
New ( in general and to Chicago ):
when last we flew, About Face Theatre at Stage 773, Jan. 25-26. About Face Theatre's Out Front series of new play readings continues with Harrison David Rivers' new drama about a Kansas teenager whose life is changed after he steals his small town library's copy of Tony Kushner's Angels in America plays. www.aboutfacetheatre.com .
Aimee and Jaguar, Northwestern University Josephine Louis Theater, Evanston, Jan. 31 through Feb. 9. Lillian Groag provides a stage adaptation of Erica Fisher's book of interviews about the love between a Jewish woman and a German soldier's wife during the dying days of World War II. www.communication.northwestern.edu .
Fifty Shades of Shakespeare, ( re )discover theatre at Mary's Attic, Jan. 31 through Feb. 17. The audience gets to decide which roles the company of four actors play in what promises to be a comic gender-bending take on the Bard. www.rediscovertheatre.com .
Sons of the Prophet, American Theater Company, Jan. 31 through March 9. Two gay brothers try to keep their Lebanese-American family together after suffering some devastating personal losses in this critically acclaimed and award-winning 2011 off-Broadway drama by Stephen Karam ( Speech & Debate, columbinus ). www.atcweb.org .
From White Plains, Broken Nose Theatre at Greenhouse Theater, Feb. 2 through March 3. This 2012 off-off-Broadway drama by Michael Perlman imagines what might happen when a grown man suddenly becomes the target of a world-wide anti-bullying campaign when he's accused of being the primary person responsible for driving a gay classmate to commit suicide years ago. www.brokennosetheatre.com
Cock, Profiles Theatre, The Main Stage, Feb. 14 through April 6. A woman sexually lures away a man who was previously part of a troubled gay couple, causing the jilted partner to retaliate in Mike Bartlett's hit London and off-Broadway comedy. www.profilestheatre.org .
Road Show, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, March 13 through May 4. This 2009 off-Broadway musical by out composer Stephen Sondheim and playwright John Weidman is actually the final version of their show Bounce that played the Goodman Theatre in a critically dismissed 2003 production. Like Bounce, Road Show is based upon on the talented and conniving real-life Mizner brothers, one of whom briefly had a happy gay relationship in Florida. www.chicagoshakes.com .
Brahman/i: A One-Hijra Stand Up Comedy Show, About Face Theatre and Silk Road Rising at Historic Chicago Temple, March 27 through April 27. Fawzia Mirza stars in the title role of the Chicago premiere of Aditi Brennan Kapil's play that explores the history, mythology and high school existance behind an Indian intersex person, or "hijra." www.aboutfacetheatre.com or www.silkroadrising.org .
Songs from an Unmade Bed, Pride Films and Plays at Apollo Theater Studio, March 29 through April 27. Lyricist Mark Campbell collaborated with 18 different composers for this 18-number song cycle about the experiences of gay men living in a major metropolitan city. Though the original 2005 off-Broadway production only featured one performer, Pride Films and Plays has engaged three ensemble members for this Chicago premiere. www.pridefilmsandplays.com .
Classics:
The Tennessee Williams Project, The Hypocrites at Chopin Theatre, now through March 2. Three rarely produced one-acts, The Big Game, And Tell Sad Stories of the Death of Queens and The Remarkable Rooming House of Mme Le Monde, feature this famed out playwright touching upon the aching need for love and the isolation that comes from rejection. www.the-hypocrites.com
The Children's Hour, Pride Films and Plays at Collaboraction in Flat Iron Arts Building, now through Feb. 9. Lillian Hellman's daring 1934 drama about two teachers accused of being lesbians at an all-girl school is back in a freshly minted Jeff-Recommended production. www.pridefilmsandplays.com .
Cabaret, Marriott Theatre, Lincolnshire, now through March 16. Before New York's Roundabout Theatre Company revives is Tony Award-winning 1998 revival of Kander and Ebb's classic 1966 musical at Studio 54 in late March, you can catch Cabaret locally in the round in Lincolnshire. Meet with the second-rate British singer Sally Bowles and her bisexual boyfriend, Cliff Bradshaw, in this entertaining and disturbing show depicting the decadence of inter-war Berlin just as the Nazis were coming to power. www.marriotttheatre.com .
Gypsy, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Feb. 6 through March 23. Out director Gary Griffin takes on this classic 1959 Broadway musical by out playwright Arthur Laurents, composer Jule Styne and out lyricist Stephen Sondheim. See why the role of Madame Rose is often considered on par with King Lear when Tony Award-nominee Louise Pitre ( Mamma Mia ) plays the ultimate "stage mother from hell" in this highly mythologized story about the childhood and rise to fame of burlesque star Gypsy Rose Lee. www.chicagoshakes.com .
Rent, Paramount Theatre, March 12 through April 6. This Aurora-based theater that has been producing Broadway-caliber work closes out its season with a new production of the late Jonathan Larson's 1996 Pulitzer Prize-winning musical Rent. Jeff Award-winning out director Jim Corti stages this La Boheme-inspired story of love, friendship and loss among of group of bohemian New Yorkers in the age of HIV and AIDS. www.paramountaurora.com .
