World premieres
From Chicago's major stages to tiny storefront theaters, the Windy City is awash with original works that have never been seen before. See them first here:
—Hey! Dancin'! Factory Theater at PROP Thtr, now through April 24. Mike Beyer's comedy about two friends who scheme to get on a popular Chicago cable-access TV dance show, circa 1986.
—The Good Harvest, Polarity Ensemble Theatre at Josephinum Academy Keyhole Theatre, now through May 2. Lisa Rosenthal's drama explores one family's drive an ultimate obsession to conceive through in-vitro fertilization.
—A Gulag Mouse, Babes With Blades at Trap Door Theatre, now through May 1. Expect plenty of woman-on-woman stage combat in Arthur M. Joly's drama focusing on prisoners in a Soviet gulag in the late 1940s.
—Ozma & Harriet, Tympanic Theatre Company at The Side Project Theatre, March 25-April 18. Daniel Caffrey offers up a comic sci-fi play about a scientist who creates an android who bonds with his wife over television.
—After, Life, Three Legged Race at Apollo Studio Theatre, through May 1. How awkward! See how a couple try to figure out their new roles in the afterlife following a deadly car accident when both are, in part, responsible in Tim Fyalkowski and Doug Albers' dark comedy.
—Will Rogers: An American Original, First Folio Theatre at Mayslake Peabody Estate, Oak Brook, through May 2. Oklahoma's most famous 20th-century celebrity comes to life in Kevin McKillip's own play about the acclaimed humorist who entertained the American public with his jokes and cowboy rope tricks.
—The Literati, Chicago dell'Arte at Zoo Studio, April 8-May 2. This comic mash-up mixes modern-day humor with classical literature, all in a 90-minute show.
—The Hiding Place, Provision Theater Company, through May 23. Tim Gregory adapts Corrie Ten Boon's novel about a Dutch family who joins an underground resistance to save Jewish families during the Nazi occupation of World War II.
—Girls vs. Boys, The House Theatre of Chicago at Chopin Theatre, through May 28. After a developmental run at Northwestern University, this new musical by Chris Mathews, Jake Minton, Nathan Allen and composer Kevin O'Donnell brings a hard-rock edge to this story of young love turning violent and deadly.
—Welcome to Arroy's, American Theater Company, through May 16. See what happens when two siblings try to transform their family bar into a New York cultural and media sensation in Kristoffer Diaz's new play.
—Jade Heart, Chicago Dramatists, April 22-May 30. How does a Chinese orphan piece together her identity in America? Find out in Will Cooper's new drama that explores notions of race and cultural heritage.
—Neverwhere, Lifeline Theatre, April 30-June 20. Neil Gaiman's bestselling 1996 urban fantasy novel about a shadow world beneath the city of London gets adapted to the stage by Robert Kauzlaric.
—Aftermath, Signal Ensemble Theatre at Raven Studio Theatre, May 8-June 6. Ronan Marra's world drama explores the influential and tragically short life of Brian Jones, the founder and original leader of The Rolling Stones.
—People We Know, The Side Project Theatre, May 4-June 6. Robert Tenges' drama zeroes in on a group of friends dealing with a myriad of uncomfortable issues after they graduate from college.
—The Meatlocker, The Mammals Theatre Company at Zoo Studio, April 16-May 14. This is Bob Fisher's drama of a boxer haunted by demons as he gets pressured by a bookie into a fixed fight that will likely end in death.
—Chaste, Trap Door Theatre, May 13-June 19. It's philosophers versus religious zealots in Ken Prestininzi dark comedy about Nietzsche's bet to triumph over a virginal young woman.
Chicago premieres
You may have caught these shows elsewhere. But see how Chicago theater artists approach the material from their own distinctive perspectives ( or in the case national tours and transfers, see how Chicago audiences react to shows that have been hits elsewhere ) .
—Medea with Child, Sideshow Theatre Company at La Costa Theatre, now through April 25. Playwright Janet Burroway serves a madcap and magical retelling of the classical Greek myth about a woman who enacts the worst possible revenge when her husband leaves her for another woman.
—Point Break Live! New Rock Theater Productions at La Costa Theatre, now in an open run. This West Coast transfer is an immersive and absurdist stage adaptation of the 1991 Keanu Reeves/Patrick Swayze extreme-sport blockbuster about an FBI agent pursuing a stunt-loving bank robber. Watch out for those homoerotic undertones!
—The Lost Boys of Sudan, Victory Gardens Biograph Theater, through April 25. Broadway veteran Jim Corti directs Lonnie Carter's based-upon-a-true-story play about three teens from Sudan's Dinka tribe and their journey from their war-torn country to the suburbs of Fargo, N.D.
—Resurrection Blues, Eclipse Theatre Company at Greenhouse Theater Center, through May 9. Expect plenty of critical jibes at reality TV in Arthur Miller's penultimate play about a U.S. TV-production company that bids to televise the death by crucifixion of a rebel leader in an unnamed dictatorship.
—The Farnsworth Invention, TimeLine Theatre, through June 13. After collecting a boatload of Emmy Awards for The West Wing, playwright Aaron Sorkin returned to Broadway with this epic drama about the battle over the rights to television at its inception in the United States.
—The Good Negro, Goodman Theatre, May 1-June 6. Chuck Smith directs Tracey Scott Wilson's critically acclaimed drama about three civil-rights leaders in the 1960s facing death threats from the Ku Klux Klan.
—Sizwe Banzi is Dead, Court Theatre, May 13-June 13. The mini-festival of Athol Fugard plays in Chicago wraps up this spring with director Ron OJ Parson helming this co-written drama by Fugard, John Kani and Winston Ntshona about a South African man who pretends to be dead in order to ultimately survive.
—Alfred Hitchcock's The 39 Steps, Bank of America Theatre, May 19-30. Hitchcock's thrilling spy-thriller film comes comically to life in an internationally acclaimed stage adaptation performed by just four actors.
—Fuerza Bruta: Look Up, Auditorium Theatre of Roosevelt University, Performances begin May 21 for a summer run. After scoring an off-Broadway hit with De La Guarda, its creators created an overhead spectacle involving aerialists, dancers, pop musicians and more, but this time with a suspended swimming pool over the heads of the audience. See it to believe it.
