The best of what’s on stage now in the city and suburbs.
* New this week.
BETWEEN BARACK AND A HARD PLACE: Barack Obama as malleable slate for liberal hopes and dreams is the uber-text of “Between Barack and a Hard Place,” the funniest mainstage show on Wells Street in several years. Far more than in recent years, Second City is suffused with political themes — including a hilariously mournful love ballad performed by Molly Erdman and titled “Where Was This Al Gore Before?” Open run at The Second City, 1616 N. Wells St.; $19-24, 312-337-3992.
BLUE MAN GROUP: If you’d told me in 1997 that I’d be back 10 years later at a packed-to-the-gills Briar Street Theatre watching a weirdly expressive trio of cobalt dudes drumming and splattering, I’d have said you’d ingested too much blue paint. I saw the appeal, but didn’t think “Blue Man Group” would age well. Wrong. The Blue Men may no longer be on the technological knife edge, but they got a lot of things right, marrying spectacle with emotional engagement, making it fun (if a bit loud) for families, and most of all staying smart, spewing sociological theory along with their Twinkies. “Blue Man” now also plays in larger venues in Vegas, but the slightly claustrophobic Briar Street remains an ideal place to see the show. Open run at Briar Street Theatre, 3133 N. Halsted St.; $49.50 to $59.50, 312-902-1500.
THE COLOR PURPLE: The Broadway musical version of Alice Walker’s great novel arrives in sweet home Chicago in the most confident of hues. And surety of creative purpose — heck, spiritual purpose — is the theater’s most powerful secret weapon. Does this musical evoke all the poetry and complexity of the source? No. But nobody cares much. Broader in style than in New York, the show is filled with well-timed laugh lines and comic takes, and with characters very much aware they’re playing and living in front of an intensely involved audience. The Chicago cast includes the charismatic Felicia P. Fields, who has blossomed into a major star. Primarily an optimistic show about an impoverished black woman who learns the potency of believing in yourself. Through Sept. 30 at the Cadillac Palace Theatre, 151 W. Randolph St.; $28-$85 at 312-902-1400.
FORBIDDEN BROADWAY:
SPECIAL VICTIMS UNIT: The show continues its run with a new, mostly Chicago-based cast, including Kevin McGlynn, Michael Mahler, McKinley Carter and Holly Stauder. The funniest 90 minutes this side of the Great White Way — for musical lovers at least. Show aficionados will split their sides at the ritual skewering of Broadway pretension. Through Dec. 2 at the Royal George Cabaret, 1641 N. Halsted St.; $49.50, 312-988-9000 or 312-902-1500.
HIZZONER: Mayor Richard J. Daley as a tragic figure? Neil Giuntoli’s gripping “Hizzoner” is a persuasive case, and his performance as Daley is a sight to behold. Not only has Giuntoli achieved an astonishing level of physical veracity, but he clearly understands that the key to Daley is not about power but insecurity, not about control but terror at the lack of it, not about egocentrism but about a peculiarly selfless love of a city. Open run at Prop Thtr, 3504 N. Elston Ave.; $35, 773-539-7838. Also Sept. 14-23 at the Beverly Arts Center at 2407 W. 111th Street.
LOOKINGGLASS ALICE: The confident and widely acclaimed “Alice” has been traveling. She locks heads with a different Mad Hatter. And her Tweedle has a fresh Dum. But Lauren Hirte’s warmhearted, trapeze-loving Alice is back in Chicago and as curious as ever. ‘Tween girls love her, in part because director David Catlin has fashioned a thoroughly modern girl from Lewis Carroll’s Victorian creation, while retaining just the right sense of period whimsy. Alice strives, Alice believes in herself, and Alice succeeds. Not to be missed by young people and their parents, though adults on a Michigan Avenue date will need a well-developed sense of play to get into the show to the same degree. Through Sept. 9 by Lookingglass Theatre in Water Tower, 921 N. Michigan Ave.; $20-$58 at 312-337-0665.
WICKED: Blond girl. Green girl. Tragically beautiful sister. Love interests. Goat. Wizard. All are in fine Midwestern fettle. All have received a brand-new coat of emerald paint. The recent minor improvements in Chicago’s most prominent theatrical attraction won’t suddenly seduce those who have always resisted the charms of this grrrl-friendly pop musical. But when you add the pleasures of Barbara Robertson — the fifth, and the best, Madam Morrible I’ve seen — this surely becomes a very good time to see “Wicked.” And with Glinda now played by the remarkable, 20-year-old Erin Mackey, Chicago audiences get the chance to see a future Broadway star early in her career. Open run at Oriental Theatre, 24 W. Randolph St.; $32-$90 at 312-902-1400.
