25 shows found.
Company: Sandra Bernhard & The Rebellious Jezebels
Venue: Steppenwolf Downstairs Theatre
Performances: Monday 7 p.m. & 9:30 p.m.
Tickets: $60 (7 p.m.)/$50 (9:30 p.m.)
Closes: Runs Through Oct 27
Company: Second City
Venue: Second City
Performances: Monday 8 p.m., Saturday 4 p.m.
Tickets: < $20 ($19)
Closes: N/A.
Company: Second City
Venue: Second City
Performances: Tuesday 8 p.m., Wednesday 8 p.m., Thursday 8 p.m., Friday 8 p.m., Saturday 8 p.m., Sunday 7 p.m.
Tickets: $19–$25
Closes: N/A.
Company: N/A.
Venue: Briar Street Theatre
Performances: Tuesday 8 p.m., Wednesday 8 p.m., Thursday 8 p.m., Friday 7 & 10 p.m., Saturday 4, 7 & 10 p.m., Sunday 1, 4 & 7 p.m.
Tickets: $50+
Closes: N/A.
Company: Annoyance Theatre
Venue: Annoyance Theatre
Performances: Friday 10:01 p.m.
Tickets: $15 ($25 opening night)
Closes: Runs Through Aug 29
Company: BLEWT! Productions
Venue: Playground Theater
Performances: Saturday midnight (first Saturday every month)
Tickets: < $20 ($10; $5 students)
Closes: N/A.
Company: Redmoon Theater
Venue: Redmoon Central
Performances: Thursday 8 p.m. (preview 9/4), Friday 8 p.m. (preview 9/5), Saturday 3 p.m. & 8 p.m. (preview 9/6), Sunday 3 p.m. & 8 p.m. (preview 9/7)
Tickets: $15-$35 ($15 children under 13)
Closes: Runs Through Oct 19
Company: About Face Youth Theatre
Venue: Center on Halsted
Performances: Wednesday 7:30 p.m. (7/16 only), Thursday 7:30 p.m. (6:30 p.m. on 7/17 only), Friday 7:30 p.m., Saturday 7:30 p.m., Sunday 7:30 p.m. (3 p.m. on 7/20 only)
Tickets: $15-$20
Closes: Runs Through Aug 2
Theater has been a haven for queer youth since the sixth century BC, when it was invented by the Greeks. But About Face's youth ensemble is more than a safe place, it's a training ground for an army of change. The shows, which are created in collaboration with the teenage actors, are consistently touching and fresh explorations of perennial adolescent themes. This year's production, "Fast Forward," gets blazingly political, linking skimpy, abstinence-only sex ed with its inevitable consequences. Listen to the kids, people, they'll tell you what they need. Get more details...Rap-based Shakespeare adaptations sound like a bad idea, in that "stop trying to be hip, you might dislocate something" way. But the Q Brothers, who scored big with previous beat-boxing Bard show "The Bomb-itty of Errors," know how to combine high-brow lit-nerdery with vintage hip-hop's sense of fun. Their version of "Much Ado" is a shameless, intensely enjoyable goof that zips in at just over an hour, making much hay out of the confluence of Shakespeare's insult-trading lovers and the tradition of battling MCs. The show is both fleet and funny enough for newcomers to the story, and extra-rewarding to those who know it well: the biggest pleasures lie in recognizing how adroitly the Brothers have funkified Shakespeare's classic putdowns. Get more details...
Company: Annoyance Productions
Venue: Annoyance Theatre
Performances: Friday midnight
Tickets: < $20 ($8)
Closes: N/A.
Company: Neo-Futurists
Venue: Neo-Futurarium
Performances: Thursday 8 p.m.
Tickets: $10 ($2 off for students with ID)
Closes: Runs Through Jul 31
It's baaack. The Neofuturists' genius melange of bad film and great theater returns for summer 2008. Every week, this well-curated festival features a different B-movie script, presented in staged-reading format by Chicago's best storefront artistes. From obscurities to flops to downright stinkers, the films will be immeasurably improved by having their stars (if they had any) and their budgets (if there were any) stripped away and replaced with local heroes and shoestring ingenuity. Get more details...
Company: N/A.
Venue: United Center
Performances: Tuesday 8 p.m. (no show 7/22), Wednesday 8 p.m., Thursday 8 p.m. (4 p.m. on 7/24), Friday 8 p.m. (4 p.m. 7/4–8/10), Saturday 8 p.m. (4 p.m. 6/26–8/10), Sunday 1 p.m. & 5 p.m. (6/26–8/10)
Tickets: $49.50-$125 adults; $38.50-$87.50 kids
Closes: Runs Through Aug 10
Mock Cirque de Soleil's arty vagueness and pseudo-Frenchness if you must. But if watching a Cirque show doesn't reduce you to a state of child-like wonder in under five minutes, you must have your eyes closed. This venerable reinvented circus creates bizarre, immersive worlds where goony clowns gibber and gawk at the divine acrobats who float above them. "Kooza," the Cirque's latest touring show, amazes with its own brand of the basics, following a Charlie Brown type (down to the useless kite) who is spirited away to a magical land that's ruled by a clown-king and inhabited by the best circus acts in the world. Look out for the three tiny jewel-like contortionists, the comically macho rope-walkers, and the juggler, who, like something out of a Borges story, seems to be waiting for the invention of new objects to challenge his skill. Get more details...
Company: Late Nite Tit-Bits
Venue: Annoyance Theatre
Performances: Saturday 10 p.m.
Tickets: $15
Closes: N/A.
Company: N/A.
Venue: Goodman Theatre
Performances: Monday see website, Tuesday see website, Wednesday see website, Thursday see website, Friday see website, Saturday see website, Sunday see website
Tickets: $5–$35
Closes: Runs Through Aug 24
Company: Split Britches
Venue: Bailiwick Arts Center
Performances: Monday 7 p.m. on 6/30 only, Wednesday 8 p.m. on 7/23 only, Thursday 8 p.m. on 7/3, 7/10, 7/17, 7/24, Friday 8 p.m., Saturday 7 p.m., Sunday 3 p.m. (6 p.m. on 6/29)
Tickets: $20-$25 (previews $15)
Closes: Runs Through Jul 27
Company: Annoyance Theatre
Venue: Annoyance Theatre
Performances: Friday 8 p.m. (preview 6/6; opening night 6/13)
Tickets: $10 ($15 opening night)
Closes: Runs Through Aug 29
Company: Sandbox Theatre Project
Venue: Menomonee Club
Performances: Friday 9 p.m., Saturday 9 p.m.
Tickets:
Closes: Runs Through Aug 23
Remember that one summer when everyone was doing site-specific theatre? Sandbox Theatre Project does! This company has taken the fun, faddish idea of producing plays where they're set, and made it into a compelling mission. In Sandbox's uniformly excellent history, the company has performed in a bar (Matilda), a gym (Webster Fitness) and an apartment (somewhere). Next up, the multi-purpose room of the Menomonee Club. This outing promises to be a lot less naturalistic than previous efforts (there are zombies), but Sandbox's stellar, three-headed writing team should pull it off. Watch out for cast member Brennan Buhl, Centerstage's favorite bodhavista of comedy. Get more details...
Company: Factory Theater
Venue: Prop Thtr
Performances: Friday 8 p.m. (preview 6/27), Saturday 8 p.m. (benefit 6/28), Sunday 7 p.m. (press opening 6/29)
Tickets: $20 ($10 preview)
Closes: Runs Through Aug 2
In the hands of anyone other than the Factory, a show about dueling themed summer fairs would be, in all likelihood, just dumb. But this is the Factory, so "Ren Faire!" is blissfully, hilariously, so dumb-it's-brilliant dumb. In Matt Engle's new script, the fake knights and ladies of a Renaissance Faire do battle with the fake cowboys and saloon girls of the Wild West show across the interstate. Early reviews say that "Ren Faire!" combines the usual factory virtues (party-sized cast, ceaseless gags) with unusually taut plotting and superb stage violence. If you ever wanted to see a Sir Lancelot throw down with a Wyatt Earp, get thee to it! Get more details...
Company: Hell in a Handbag Productions
Venue: Mary's Attic
Performances: Tuesday 8 p.m., Wednesday 8 p.m., Thursday 8 p.m.
Tickets: $12
Closes: Runs Through Aug 14
Company: Steppenwolf
Venue: Steppenwolf Theatre
Performances: Tuesday 7:30 p.m. (preview 6/24), Wednesday 7:30 p.m. (2 p.m. on 7/30, 8/6 & 8/13; prev 6/25), Thursday 7:30 p.m. (previews 6/19 & 6/26), Friday 7:30 p.m. (no show 7/4, previews 6/20 & 6/27), Saturday 3 p.m. & 7:30 p.m. (previews 6/21 & 6/28), Sunday 3 p.m. & 7:30 p.m. (no perf after 7/27; prev 6/22)
Tickets: $20-$68 ($20-$45 previews)
Closes: Runs Through Aug 24
Tracy Letts follows up "August: Osage County," which portrayed family like an inescapable doom, with "Superior Donuts," a show that finds, in friendship, a glimmer of hope. It's hard to peddle the great American emotion without seeming glib, but "Donuts," while not as devastatingly successful as "August," pulls it off. Michael McKean perfectly underplays shop owner Arthur Pryzbyszewski, a graying hippie who has slipped through life while doing no harm, until Franco Wicks (Jon Michael Hill), a voluble black kid with USA-sized dreams, talks his way into a job at the shop. The show is set in Uptown, and nails the area's shabby, heterogeneous warmth: the Lawrence bus, the inevitable Starbucks and That One Bag Lady. It's a can't-miss for anyone in town, but particularly Far Northsiders. Get more details...
Company: Oracle Theatre
Venue: Oracle Theatre
Performances: Thursday 8 p.m., Friday 8 p.m., Saturday 8 p.m., Sunday 8 p.m.
Tickets: $18
Closes: Runs Through Aug 3
Company: The Plagiarists
Venue: Black Rock Pub
Performances: Monday 8 p.m. , Saturday 8 p.m. on 7/12 only
Tickets: $15
Closes: Runs Through Jul 28
Company: Tim Miller
Venue: Links Hall
Performances: Friday 8 p.m., Saturday 8 p.m.
Tickets: $15
Closes: Runs Through Jul 26
Company: Walkabout Theatre
Venue: Various community gardens
Performances:
Tickets: $10
Closes: Runs Through Jul 27
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