You’re planning on coming downtown this festive week for shopping, dinner or gift returning. But what’s that? You’ve not made any plans yet to see a show? You’re thinking all must be lost?
Contrary to popular belief, it’s not that hard to line up decent live entertainment at the last minute.
So to help with that last-minute planning, here’s a look at the holiday offerings with information about ticket availability and the suitability of these shows for your group. Please note that we did this guide a few days in advance, so call first. But we think you’ll still find plenty of choice.
CHICAGO SHAKESPEARE THEATRE
The Navy Pier location makes Chicago Shakes easily combinable with other holiday family attractions, but the fare this year makes this a good destination if your party is loaded with adults. Gary Griffin’s much lauded and splendidly revisionist revival of Stephen Sondheim’s “Pacific Overtures” continues through early January and has four performances this weekend. This is a delightfully minimalist show ideal for those who like their theater on the thoughtful side — but it’s also full of some gorgeous music and intriguing dance. At press time, there were seats available for all shows. $35-$45.
On the mainstage, meanwhile, English actor Simon Callow is presenting his one-man version of “The Mystery of Charles Dickens,” a piece celebrating the life and works of the great Victorian author. There are bits taken from “A Christmas Carol,” but note that the piece has nothing directly to do with Christmas (and is as dramatic as comedic). Still, it’s a terrific chance to introduce older kids to Dickens and it may even inspire some post-show reading. $40-$52.
Audiences have been large to date, but there should still be a few seats left for this weekend by the time you read this. Callow’s Chicago run closes on Sunday.
Chicago Shakespeare Theatre on Navy Pier, 800 E. Grand Ave.; 312-595-5600.
NOBLE FOOL THEATER
“Flanagan’s Wake,” in which audience members participate in a humorously improvised Irish funeral going on around them, has been doing boffo business in a small theater on the North Side for more than seven years. But you might not know that this popular show can now be found in the Loop — just steps from the big department stores. Although still waiting for its new theater to be completed, the Noble Fool Theater has taken up temporary residence at 8 E. Randolph St.
Tickets are a hefty $28, but there are numerous wakes this weekend — including three at various times on Saturday, allowing one to build a flexible evening around dinner and shopping. Appropriate libations, which some would consider essential to the enjoyment of this adult-oriented and defiantly low-brow show, are available at the theater.
There’s another choice there, too. They don’t directly use the name of HBO’s popular mobster family, but it’s pretty clear what “The Baritones” is spoofing and thus to whom it would appeal. There’s one show this weekend at 10 p.m. Friday. $20.
The people at Noble Fool say that tickets are likely to be available for all performances, especially if you call Friday.
Noble Fool Theater, 8 E. Randolph St.; 312-630-2631.
BROADWAY IN CHICAGO
“Beauty and the Beast” has taken up residence at the Cadillac Palace Theatre. This is the long-touring Broadway show produced by Walt Disney Theatricals. As compared, say, with “Lion King,” “Beast” offers a more traditional experience slanted heavily toward the young. Still, there are some splendid musical numbers to enjoy, along with a splashy production that aptly demonstrates how and where they spent your money. For youngsters newly ready for the full Broadway Monty, this is a safe, G-rated bet (and it’s tolerable for light-hearted adults). Tickets ($22-$67), says a spokesman, are still available for all performances this weekend. On Sunday, “The Sweet Smell of Success” begins performances at the Shubert Theatre. This pre-Broadway attraction is already very heavily sold. If our experience with “The Producers” proves prophetic, your best chance of getting in is right now, before too much hyperbola does away with all the remaining tickets. At press time, availability for the early performances this week was spotty, but not impossible. If you want good seats, a spokesman said, you may have to be flexible with the dates. And if you want to go at all, get moving. Tickets: $35-77.50.
Cadillac Palace Theatre, 151 W. Randolph St.; Shubert Theatre, 22 W. Monroe St.; 312-902-1400.
`LES MISERABLES’
It doesn’t start until Wednesday, but the miserable urchin is back in town — perhaps for the last time. Not too many years ago, you would not have had a prayer of being able to see Prisoner 24601 play out his traumatic life so close to opening, but the show is now pushing 20 years old and has seen some fall-off in business. Still, this is a seminal production in theater history and is often unfairly maligned as an empty spectacle. Especially for young folks who have never seen the show, “Les Miz” is an evening of substance and emotional heft. There are still seats available. $17-$72.
Auditorium Theatre, 50 E. Congress Pkwy. 312-902-1500.
GOODMAN THEATRE
If you have waited this long to get your tickets to the perennially popular Goodman Theatre production of “A Christmas Carol,” then Bah! Humbug! to you. Sadly, tickets are gone for this weekend (you might try the box-office for returns, but make no promises to small persons). There are, though, a few tickets left to see “The Christmas That Almost Wasn’t,” a production by Child’s Play Theatre that the Goodman is hosting for the holidays. According to a Goodman spokesman, your best shot will be the show at 10 a.m. Saturday — better call Friday. $6-$14.
Goodman Theatre, 170 N. Dearborn St. 312-443-3800.
BEYOND THE LOOP
If you’re willing to stray a little farther afield, you’ll find an intimate professional production of “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” at the Royal George Theatre and a well-received production of “A Miracle on 34th Street” at the new Chicago Center for the Performing Arts (which is a very short cab or bus ride from the Michigan Avenue shopping district). Both of those shows are reporting plenty of tickets for this weekend.
Whatever your choices, you might also try the Hot Tix booth at 78 W. Randolph St. (if you’ve not been downtown for a while, note the new location). It’s open for business Friday and Saturday and usually has a wide range of shows on sale, featuring both the Loop and well beyond. If you go to www.hottix.com, you’ll see the whole big list, suitable for checking twice.
