Friday
“Richard III” — through Aug. 12 by First Folio Shakespeare Festival at Mayslake Peabody Estate Forest Preserve, 31st Street and Illinois Highway 83, Oak Brook; $16-$26 at 630-986-8067. Several well-known Chicago actors — including Nick Sandys, Donald Brearley, Patrick Clear and Iris Lieberman — appear in Alison S. Vesley’s Equity production of the great Shakespearean tragedy. Kevin McKillip plays the bitter guy with the hump.
Sunday
“High School Musical” — through Aug. 11 by Emerald City Theatre Company at Victory Gardens Greenhouse, 2257 N. Lincoln Ave.; $18-$22, 773-871-3000 and www.emeraldcitytheatre.com. To the chagrin of Disney — which is opening its own touring production at the LaSalle Bank Theatre in early August — Emerald City has been pushing its local version of the same hugely popular show (a live version of the TV movie) with great zeal. And although Emerald City won’t be able to compete with Disney production values, its tickets are a whole lot cheaper.
Monday
“Overnight Lows” — through Aug. 14 by Walkabout Theater Company at The Hideout, 1354 W. Wabansia; $10, 312-458-0566 and www.walkabouttheater.org. Walkabout Theater is known for producing provocative theater in unusual spots — a bathroom, somebody’s apartment. This latest show, about a couple having a date that never seems to end, is being staged in a Chicago rock club. Walkabout says the venue will be transformed into a dream space, where audiences will share the characters’ innermost desires.
Wednesday
“Side Show” — through July 22 by Bohemian Theatre Ensemble at Theater on the Lake, 2401 N. Lake Shore Drive (at Fullerton); $17.50, 312-742-7994 and www.chicagoparkdistrict.com. Bohemian Theatre Ensemble’s dazzling , not-to-be-missed little production of Bill Russell and Henry Krieger’s cult 1997 Broadway musical “Side Show” gets a welcome reprise engagement under director Stephen M. Genovese. For my money, this was the best non-Equity musical production in Chicago in 2006. If you missed this story of conjoined twins the first time, make amends. Leads Vanessa Panerosa and Andrea Prestinario sing this much-underexposed score beautifully. And they’re entirely credible as vulnerable, desired objects constantly forced to snag their happiness in little snatches, even as the trajectory of their lives swings inexorably toward misery.
CLOSINGS, last chance
Sunday
“I Sailed With Magellan” — Stuart Dybek’s tale was adapted for Victory Gardens with humor and heart by the unpretentious Claudia Allen and has 1950s Chicago down cold. Sentimental, memory-driven odes to boyhoods spent in taverns, ethnic enclaves and the old Maxwell Street market are hardly unfamiliar, but Sandy Shinner’s colorfully acted production is very pleasurable summer fare, nonetheless. By Victory Gardens Theater at the Biograph, 2433 N. Lincoln Ave.; $30-$35, 773-871-3000.
“Othello” — No Shakespearean drama is more suited to a chamber production than “Othello,” essentially a domestic tragedy that revolves around personal insecurity and malfeasance in a marital bedroom. And while other productions certainly have enjoyed greater visual splendor and achieved more tragic grandeur, you’d be pressed to find an “Othello” anywhere that homes in so beautifully and truthfully on personal agony than Michael Halberstam’s simple but sophisticated staging at Writers’ Theatre. Especially fine acting from John Judd and Suzanne Lang. At Writers’ Theatre, 325 Tudor Court, Glencoe; $40-$58, 847-242-6000.
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