Berlin’s infamous Kit Kat Club is back in business, opening Wednesday in Summit at Candlelight Dinner Playhouse. David Perkovich revives “CABARET,” winner of eight Tony Awards, including best musical. Perennially popular, Kander and Ebb’s salacious musical “dramedy” depicts a brassy nightclub where a leering Master of Ceremonies (Ted Greenwood) presides over androgynous chorines. Meanwhile, the love-loving Sally Bowles (Leisa Mather) falls hard for a young, sexually uncertain writer (Christopher DeAngelis) who inspires her to clean up her act. Rudy Hogenmiller provides the slinky choreography and Jeff Bauer the costumes and decadent setting.
“Cabaret” runs through July 20 at 5620 S. Harlem Ave., Summit; 708-496-3000.
Other theater openings through Thursday:
“Body House — a jazz tricycle,” TeenStreet Theater at Free Street Studio Theater, 1419 W. Blackhawk St., 3rd floor; 773-772-7248: From the theater that brought you “Mad Joy” (praised as one of the riskier productions of 1996) comes Friday’s debut of TeenStreet Theater’s latest work. It’s billed as an emotional whirlwind that pays tribute to the power of a first passion. Ron Bieganski directs a young cast of 11.
“My Sister in this House,” Circle Theatre, 7300 W. Madison St., Forest Park; 708-771-0700: Based on a crime that also inspired Jean Genet’s “The Maids,” Wendy Kesselman’s harrowing drama opens Friday to chronicle four lives in Le Mans, France, between 1930 and 1934. Two sisters work as servants in the Danzard household under the strict surveillance of Madame Danzard and her spoiled daughter Isabelle. Conflict builds as the women, repressed by economic and social circumstances, turn to each other for companionship and protection — and turn on the world around them. When loyalties are tested, the house explodes in violence. Alena Murguia (who staged Circle’s “Les Liaisons Dangereuses”) directs Jennifer Fisk, Meredith Templeton, Franette Liebow and Michelle Mueller.
“This Blessed Knot,” Stage Two Theatre, 410 Sheridan Rd., Highwood; 847-432-7469: A persecution, it seems, can have its lighter side. Opening Thursday in a Chicago premiere directed by Timothy Mooney, Christopher Kyle’s black comedy is not to be confused with “The Crucible.” Kyle’s subversive work is a sardonic takeoff on the Puritan witch hunts of the late 17th Century. According to Mooney, what results comes closer to Christopher Durang than to Arthur Miller (and contains very un-puritanical nudity and strong language). Set in a superstitious New England, the action shows what happens to Catherine when her pig-farmer husband, Hogg, chokes to death on a tough piece of meat. Catherine gets a suitor as the town’s mayor takes an interest in the young widow. After he marries her and then dies choking on a piece of meat, Catherine becomes the target of a witchcraft investigation. Her daughter, hoping to run off with her young boyfriend, finds herself blackmailed into testifying against her mother. As Mooney puts it, “The bumbling superstitions of the townspeople make for hilarious plot developments.”
“TETRAGRAMMANON IS,” JBG Productions at St. Paul Church of the Redeemer, 4945 S. Dorchester Ave.; 773-324-8509: A new play serves a good cause. Fresh from an award-winning production in L.A., Francois Dimanche’s surrealistic play depicts youth lost to drugs, violence and the degradation of the street. Led by a woman who is recognized as the true Messiah, four characters discover hope amid the ruins. Opening Friday, Ira Rogers’ staging is slated to raise funds for the Illinois Anti-Hunger Coalition; 80 percent of the proceeds will go to support the Greater Chicago Food Depository and the Chicago Anti-Hunger Federation.
“The Flying Hypocrites,” Voltaire, 3231 N. Clark St.; 773-388-2268: Opening Wednesday, Ryan Anglin’s one-man comedy provides a short look into the lives of “men who represent a lost generation of hypocritical Americans.”
“The English Only Restaurant,” North Avenue Productions at Voltaire, 3231 N. Clark St.; 773-761-8621: Frank Farrell directs a topical comedy by Silvio Martinez Palau. First shown at the Puerto Rican Traveling Theater in New York and at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., in 1990, the comedy, which opens Friday, depicts an evening in a Hispanic restaurant where no one is allowed to speak Spanish. The setting is Chicago in the near future, the occasion the one-year anniversary of the hypothetical “English Only Law.” As the local Hispanic immigrants try to speak only English, Palau’s farce ends up a dark depiction of a culture clash.
“The Subject Was Roses,” D.R.A.M.M.A. at the Recplex, 420 W. Dempster St., Mt. Prospect; 847-640-1000: Opening Friday, Aimee-Lynn Simpson’s staging revives this family play by Pulitzer Prize-winner Frank Gilroy. It depicts a barbed family squabble that erupts when a son returns from World War II. The parents love the son more than they do each other and compete for his affections. But the boy wants to be his own man, and therein lies an impasse.
