With this summer’s Democratic National Convention — a formidable live extravaganza staged on our doorstep — now in the history books, it’s time for trained performers to replace star-struck politicians, and for complex dramatic works to replace performative partisanship. Even as the presidential election heats up this fall, Chicago’s city and suburban theaters are offering you a variety of appealing shows to coax you into a theater seat. I’d say this is the best fall lineup since before the pandemic. Chicago theater is back and there is a lot to see.
Here’s our list, in alphabetical order, of what looks like the most interesting fall projects, picked with an eye for variety. My reviews are yet to come and, if past years are any guide, they likely will reveal some sleepers we missed.
The Washington National Opera’s production of “Blue” at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. (Scott Suchman)
“Blue” at Lyric Opera: The formidable composer Jeanine Tesori (“Fun Home,” “Kimberly Akimbo,” “Caroline, or Change”) moves effortlessly between Broadway musicals and opera. New York’s Metropolitan Opera will start its 2024-25 season with Tesori’s “Grounded,” an opera about an F-16 fighter pilot and her mother. And, this fall, Chicago’s Lyric Opera will stage “Blue,” the 2019 Tesori opera with a libretto by the long-established theater director Tazewell Thompson. This Chicago premiere is a co-production of the Lyric, Washington National Opera and Glimmerglass Festival, where “Blue” first was seen. “Blue” is about how a police shooting rips apart a Black family wherein the father is a law enforcement officer himself. Kenneth Kellogg is the show’s star performer. Nov. 16 to Dec. 1 at Lyric Opera House, 20 N. Wacker Drive; 312-827-5600 and lyricopera.org
“Caesar’s Circus”: The Teatro ZinZanni show in downtown Chicago has survived through several casts, numerous producers and many different iterations. But its best versions featured the redoubtable Frank Ferrante as the show’s MC, modestly known as Caesar. This fall, Ferrante, a genial figure who cannot get enough of Chicago, has joined with one of the original ZinZanni producers to craft an all-new, circus-themed entertainment for Thanksgiving week, this time located in Skokie with its free parking and all. Aerialist Dreya Weber also is part of the fun. Ferrante is so old-school they closed down his classroom after he left, but over numerous viewings, I’ve never seen him give anything less than his all to his audience. Ferrante is a master of crowd work, wherein a performer has fun with an audience. A declining art, it’s reason enough to spend time with one of its great practitioners. Nov. 27 to Dec. 1 at the North Shore Center for the Performing Arts, 9501 Skokie Blvd., Skokie; 847-673-6300 and northshorecenter.org.
“East Texas Hot Links” at Court Theatre: The veteran Chicago director Ron OJ Parson tells me he loves to return to shows he has directed before and this drama by Eugene Lee, set in a backwoods “colored only” bar during in 1955, is right in Parson’s wheelhouse. His first production was for the late, great Onyx Theatre Ensemble more than 30 years ago. And when Parson helmed the work at Writers Theatre in 2016, he found himself a remarkable company of veteran Chicago actors, many of whom also had worked with both Parson and other directors on the plays of August Wilson. Interestingly enough, that also is true of the writer, Lee, who happens to be a 71-year-old actor and Wilson veteran himself. “East Texas Hot Links” is now coming to Chicago’s South Side with a director who knows every beat of the play. The cast includes the Chicago stars Kelvin Roston Jr., A.C. Smith, AnJi White (“The Chi”) and Alfred H. Wilson. Sept. 6-29 at Court Theatre, 5535 S. Ellis Ave.; www.courttheatre.org
“Every Brilliant Thing” at Writers Theatre: Both the actress Jessie Fisher (“Beautiful Noise” and “Harry Potter” on Broadway) and the edgy director Kimberly Senior (“Disgraced” on Broadway and elsewhere) are examples of Chicago’s best: creative professionals who rose to prominence here and have excelled since. So the combination of the two of them in “Every Brilliant Thing” is a beguiling one. I fell for this deeply emotional solo piece back in 2019, when it was first performed in Chicago’s Motor Row area by the superb Rebecca Spence for the Windy City Playhouse, a company that has not yet returned from the pandemic. “Every Brilliant Thing” was written by Duncan Macmillan and co-penned and first performed by the British comedian Jonny Donahoe, who played a man talking to the audience about growing up with a suicidal mother whose first attempt to take her own life was when he was 7 years old. The narrator, now played by Fisher, thus creates a list of all of the reasons for his or her mother to live and I think you might find them useful, too. Oct. 31 to Jan. 5, 2025, at Writers Theatre, 325 Tudor Court, Glencoe; 847-242-6000 and writerstheatre.org
Theater director Kimberly Senior in 2013 at her Evanston home. (Chris Walker/Chicago Tribune)
“Frozen” at Paramount Theatre: Anyone who has seen the spectacular past productions at the Paramount Theatre in Aurora won’t doubt the ability of this theater to meet the challenge of Disney’s “Frozen,” an imperfect theatrical translation of the movie musical that a generation of parents stuck in Honda DVD players to assuage demands coming from the back seat. And then drove themselves half-crazy as that song lodged in their brains. But the cool thing about Disney’s decision to release the rights for a long Paramount run is that this large-capacity producing venue has always been competitive on pricing. That means some families who couldn’t meet the Broadway costs will get to dress up their kids as Elsa and Anna and let it goooooooooo! Oct. 30 to Jan. 19, 2025, at Paramount Theatre, 23 E. Galena Blvd., Aurora; 630-896-6666 and paramountaurora.com
“Harry Potter and the Cursed Child”: It took more than eight years to arrive in Chicago after its blockbuster London bow. And what was once a fantastic six-hour, two-part extravaganza is now a shortened single show, as is true on Broadway. But the arrival of the first national touring company of “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child” for an extended run this fall will still be a boon to the economic fortunes of downtown Chicago. This will be the first time this special effects-filled sequel to the famed series of J.K. Rowling books, as written by Jack Thorne and based on an original story by Rowling, director John Tiffany and Thorne, has been seen in the Midwest. The cast includes such Chicago actors as Larry Yando. In case you’ve not paid attention, the play is set some 19 years after the conclusion of the books and movies and follows one Albus Severus Potter, son of Harry Potter, as he charts his own life journey at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, where it’s no fun to have a famous dad, and unsolved conflicts persist. Sept. 10 to Feb. 1, 2025, at Nederlander Theatre, 24 W. Randolph St.; www.broadwayinchicago.com
“Inherit the Wind” at Goodman Theatre: The late Jerry Lawrence and Robert E. Lee were both earnest liberals and of a playwriting generation that refused to take an audience’s money without delivering what it came to the theater to see. First produced in 1955, “Inherit the Wind” nominally is about the famous Scopes “Monkey” Trial of 1925, but Lawrence and Lee were really lamenting the McCarthyism of their day and probing the eternal American battle between fundamentalism of one kind or another and free thought. This play rarely is seen these days and the new Goodman Theatre production, coming as it does in an election season, likely will probe the play’s relevance in contemporary America. The cast includes Alexander Gemignani, a multi-hyphenate talent, and Harry Lennix, likely on his way to Broadway with the Steppenwolf Theatre production of “Purpose.” Sept. 14 to Oct. 13 at Goodman Theatre, 170 N. Dearborn St.; 312-443-3800 and www.goodmantheatre.org
“Misery” at American Blues Theater: The title of “Misery,” the story of a novelist held by a deranged fan, hardly needs any introduction for Stephen King fans. But you might not know that William Goldman created a theatrical version of his 1990 screenplay from King’s 1987 novel or even that “Misery” lived up to its title on Broadway. But Chicago’s American Blues Theater is staging a new production of this popular thriller this fall, starring the veteran Chicago actors Steve Key and Wandachristine. Halena Kays, once the artistic director of The Hypocrites, will direct a piece slated for American Blues’ still new fresh and space on Chicago’s Northwest Side. Sept. 20 to Oct. 26 at American Blues Theater, 5627 N. Lincoln Ave.; 773-654-3103 and americanbluestheater.com
“Noises Off” by Steppenwolf Theatre Company: Few programming decisions are as counterintuitive as Steppenwolf Theatre Company, the home of in-yer-face drama, doing the 1982 Michael Frayn farce “Noises Off.” Once ubiquitous in dramatics both professional and amateur, this caper-filled farce-within-a-farce is about the on- and off-stage antics of a weary theater group doing a lousy sex comedy called “Nothing On.” Not the usual fare at the home of “August: Osage County.” And if that weren’t bizarre enough, Anna Shapiro, the director of that signature hit, is at the helm of this one, too. Weird, but who would not want to see what happens when Steppenwolf and ’80s British farce collide? Sept. 12 to Oct. 27 by Steppenwolf Theatre Company, 1650 N. Halsted St.; 312-335-1650 and www.steppenwolf.org
“Pericles” at Chicago Shakespeare Theater: Edward Hall, the new artistic director of Chicago Shakespeare Theater and the son of the legendary Sir Peter Hall, comes with a healthy Rolodex among his assets. Ergo the arrival for the first time in decades of Britain’s Royal Shakespeare Company with its production of “Pericles,” penned when the Bard was late in life and had come to understand that happiness invariably is tempered with sorrow, wins with losses, and desperation sometimes with a hope for redemption. First seen in the Swan Theatre in Stratford, this new staging of the late romance is the acclaimed work of co-artistic director Tamara Harvey. Chicago is the show’s only U.S. stop, for a very substantial autumnal run on Navy Pier. Oct. 20 to Dec. 7 at Chicago Shakespeare Theater on Navy Pier; 312-595-5600 and www.chicagoshakes.com
Chris Jones is a Tribune critic.
cjones5@chicagotribune.com
