A brand new 12 months has dawned and Chicago’s energetic new theater season will maintain your winter chill away. Right here’s a fast have a look at 10 of probably the most intriguing reveals opening between now and the tip of March, listed in alphabetical order. I’ve not but seen these reveals, after all, so I at all times provide the caveat that some could not dwell as much as expectations — however the odds are good!
It hardly wants stating that there are a lot of greater than 10 productions on provide. Chicago theaters at all times do a poor job of managing their calendars; the overwhelming majority of main new reveals open in a 10-day interval on the finish of January, permitting for rehearsals to start out solely this week. That’s irritating, given the heavy demand in early January, though the primary month of the 12 months does host profit appearances at Chicago Shakespeare Theater by each Suzy Eddie Izzard (Jan. 16-17) and Ian McKellen (Jan. 30).
There actually is way to stay up for all through 2026, together with new theaters for Northlight Theatre in Evanston and for Steep Theatre and TimeLine Theatre in Chicago. “Hamilton” is returning to Loop this winter; the Trump-Kennedy Middle’s loss is our acquire.
However this enterprise at all times is about what’s on the stage, and the subsequent few weeks at all times are a good time to see a Chicago present.
“The Dance of Loss of life”
The nice Irish playwright Conor McPherson (“Shining Metropolis,” “The Seafarer”) adapts August Strindberg’s famously darkish and sardonic drama from 1900 a couple of man and his spouse who despise and attempt to sabotage one another. This model was first seen regionally at Writers Theatre in Glencoe round a dozen years in the past; in reviewing that long-ago manufacturing, I described “Dance of Loss of life” as “an impassioned, fever dream of an apocalyptic play.” Yasen Peyankov directs a notable solid for this new Steppenwolf manufacturing that features Cliff Chamberlain, Kathryn Erbe and Steppenwolf co-founder Jeff Perry.
Jan. 29 to March 22 at Steppenwolf Theatre, 1650 N. Halsted St.; 312-335-1650 and www.steppenwolf.org
“Expensive Evan Hansen”
This musical a couple of struggling however empathetic excessive schooler with a ebook by Steven Levenson and rating by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul really has a cult following. Though the nationwide tour of the unique Broadway manufacturing has performed Chicago greater than as soon as, the Paramount Theatre in Aurora received the rights (over a number of opponents) to the primary regionally staged manufacturing. The rising director Jessica Fisch is on the helm within the historic venue, identified for its high-quality manufacturing values and enormous orchestra. I, for one, am able to see a contemporary manufacturing of this title.
Feb. 4 to March 22 at Paramount Theatre, 23 E. Galena Blvd., Aurora; 630-896-6666 and www.paramountaurora.com
“Eureka Day”
In one other collaboration with the presenter Broadway in Chicago, the nonprofit Chicago firm TimeLine Theatre levels the primary Chicago-area manufacturing of this comedy by Jonathan Spector poking enjoyable at liberal, pseudo-progressive elites principally mismanaging their Montessori college. I beforehand reviewed the Broadway manufacturing directed by Anna D. Shapiro and referred to as the present “amusingly noticed, sharply penned and usually well-performed play with character sorts who will probably be all too acquainted to anybody who has (or had) youngsters in such an exhausting form of personal college.” Lili-Anne Brown directs this new native staging with a Chicago solid.
Jan. 13 to Feb. 22 at Broadway Playhouse at Water Tower Place, 175 E. Chestnut St.; www.broadwayinchicago.com.
“Hamnet”
Given the success of the latest movie adaptation of the novel by Maggie O’Farrell, speculating how the lack of his real-life baby influenced William Shakespeare’s writing of “Hamlet,” I think this is able to have been fairly a scorching ticket at Chicago Shakespeare Theater, even with out the status of a Royal Shakespeare Firm manufacturing. Lolita Chakrabarti (“Hymn,” “Lifetime of Pi”) was the adaptor of the stage model. I don’t envy everybody concerned having to compete with such a unprecedented movie, however then the novel was additionally the rationale for its success and informs the stage model, too.
Feb. 10 to March 8 at Chicago Shakespeare Theater on Navy Pier, 800 E. Grand Ave.; 312-595-5600 and www.chicagoshakes.com
“Vacation”
One of many highest profile reveals of the winter, Philip Barry’s basic romantic comedy “Vacation” will probably be helmed by Robert Falls, marking his return to the Goodman Theatre after his exit as inventive director some two years in the past. This 1928 play (which was twice tailored for movie) has itself been tailored by the late, nice playwright Richard Greenberg, making this an particularly poignant present, on condition that will probably be a twice-posthumous posthumous work. The present already has a soupçon of Broadway buzz, albeit most certainly with the addition of some bold-faced names to the solid.
Jan. 31 to March 1 within the Goodman’s Albert Theatre, 170 N. Dearborn St.; 312-443-3800 and www.goodmantheatre.org
“Morning, Midday and Evening”
Leslie Ann Sheppard, Christina Gorman and Adam Schulmerich are the Shattered Globe Theatre ensemble members within the Chicago premiere of a well-received familial dramedy by the Boston playwright Kirsten Greenidge that explores life within the post-pandemic period in addition to the dystopian facets of the digital takeover that reveals no signal of abating. AmBer Montgomery directs. Comparatively few performs have explored the lingering trauma of the COVID-19 instances; this, apparently, is one which does.
Feb. 13 to March 28 at Theater Wit, 1229 W Belmont Ave.; 773-975-8150 and www.sgtheatre.org
“Salome”
The Scottish director David McVicar was the inventive thoughts behind Lyric Opera’s gorgeous “Medea” this fall; this winter, his manufacturing of this long-controversial (and sometimes banned) one-act opera by Richard Strauss, a mix of Biblical themes with erotic imagery and obsessive characters (to not point out the famed “Dance of the Seven Veils”), arrives in Chicago. The libretto is Hedwig Lachmann’s German translation of the 1891 French play of that title by Oscar Wilde, as edited by the composer. McVicar’s gory staging prompted fairly a stir on the Royal Opera Home in Covent Backyard in 2008. At Lyric, the debuting Jennifer Holloway will sing the title function with Brandon Jovanovich as Herod.
Jan. 25 to Feb. 14 at Lyric Opera of Chicago, 20 N. Wacker Drive; 312-827-5600 and lyricopera.org
“Stereophonic”
The primary nationwide tour of this extraordinary play by David Adjmi, a fictionalized tackle the drama surrounding Fleetwood Mac’s obsessive and sensible habits contained in the recording studio, is without doubt one of the greatest new performs of the previous decade. It makes for a very extraordinary piece of theater when married with a hyper-naturalist manufacturing from the outstanding director Daniel Aukin. David Zinn’s mind-blowing set, which is being re-created for the street, is itself definitely worth the worth of admission. I reviewed the Broadway manufacturing final 12 months and referred to as the present “a three-hour dissection of ego, insecurity and the messy, messed-up gorgeousness of the inventive course of.” Alas, the superb unique solid is just not touring, however one hopes the brand new street crew will no less than come shut.
Jan. 27 to Feb. 8 on the CIBC Theatre, 18 W. Monroe St.; www.broadwayinchicago.com
“Theater of the Thoughts”
With the title of the polymath David Byrne as one thing of an insurance coverage coverage, the Goodman makes its first foray into the fashionable world of high-concept, off-site, immersive theater that makes an attempt to take away the figurative wall between artist and spectator. Devised by the famed veteran musician and Mala Gaonkar, “Theater of the Thoughts” debuted on the Denver Middle in 2022 and was typically described there as one thing of a journey inside Byrne’s head, albeit with the intention of permitting viewers members to use Byrne’s formative experiences to their very own lives. The present has timed entries and affords small teams a journey by means of what primarily is an artwork set up.
March 11 to Might 31 within the Reid Murdoch Constructing, 333 North LaSalle St.; 312-443-3800 and www.goodmantheatre.org
“White Rooster”
Matthew C. Yee, a writer-actor-musician with an curiosity in mythologically primarily based tales, is without doubt one of the Chicago theater’s most attention-grabbing abilities and after a too-quiet fall and winter, Lookingglass Theatre returns to manufacturing with a premiering piece penned by Yee that’s billed as a familial drama, probing life, dying and the rituals that accompany them each. Inside that penumbra, Yee has transposed Chinese language folklore into the Americana setting that compels a lot of Yee’s boundary-crossing work.
March 5 to April 12 at Lookingglass Theatre in Water Tower Water Works, 163 E. Pearson St.; 312-337-0665 and www.lookingglasstheatre.org
Chris Jones is a Tribune critic.
cjones5@chicagotribune.com
