OPENING
Friday
“In My Life: A New Musical” — through Nov. 10 at the Jedlicka Performing Arts Center, 3801 S. Central Ave., Cicero; 708-656-1800 and www.jpactheatre.com. The daring Jedlicka Performing Arts Center has the first post-Broadway production of Joe (“You Light Up My Life”) Brooks’ short-lived, much-maligned musical about a romance between a singer-songwriter with Tourette Syndrome and an editor of personals advertisements.
“Chalk” — through Nov. 25 by the Right Brain Project at the DCA Studio Theater, Chicago Cultural Center, 77 E. Randolph St.; 312-742-8497 and www.dcatheater.org. Penned by Brad Lawrence, “Chalk” is a world premiere that bills itself as a Chicago-style take on a familiar film noir story.
Monday
“The Cook” — through Nov. 18 at Goodman Theatre, 170 N. Dearborn St.; 312-443-3800 and www.goodmantheatre.org. This new play by Eduardo Marchado explores some four decades of Cuban history from the perspective of one woman — a young Afro-Cuban cook. Henry Godinez directs a cast that includes Karen Aldridge in the lead role.
39th Annual Joseph Jefferson Awards — Joseph Jefferson Award Committee at the North Shore Center for the Performing Arts, 9501 Skokie Blvd., Skokie; 847-673-6300 and www.northshorecenter.org. The closest thing in Chicago to the Tony Awards, the Joseph Jefferson Awards event returns to Skokie to hand out kudos to the best of Chicago theater. The award show — which features performances along with the speechifying — is open to the public.
“The Phantom of the Opera” — through Jan. 5 at the Cadillac Palace Theatre, 151 W. Randolph St.; 312-902-1400 and www.broadwayinchicago.com. The full-blown version of Hal Prince’s iconic and dazzlingly profitable production of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “The Phantom of the Opera” returns to Chicago for the holiday season in all its spectacular glory. Maybe for the last time. (Lloyd Webber has reportedly been working on a sequel, titled “Phantom in Manhattan,” based on a Frederick Forsyth novel.)
CLOSING, last chance
Saturday
“Suddenly, Last Summer” — If you catch Kevin Hagan’s arresting revival, you’ll see the benefits of having a skilled, sensitive designer run the whole show. Tennessee Williams’ 1958 one-act is a tough assignment for anybody. It’s an intensely symbolic and surreal play about memory, sex and the dangers posed by people who are deeply ashamed of themselves. Poor Catherine (beautifully played by Allison Batty) is confronted in New Orleans by vultures who assault her with sharp words, claws and hypodermic needles. By Shattered Globe Theatre at Victory Gardens Greenhouse, 2257 N. Lincoln Ave.; 773-871-3000.
Sunday
“A Steady Rain” — Keith Huff’s “Steady Rain” is a gritty, rich, poetic and entirely gripping noir tale of two Chicago police officers whose need to serve and protect both consumes them and rips them apart. Sweating under the lights and fighting to tell their side of the story, actors Randy Steinmeyer and Peter DeFaria look, feel and sound exactly like what they claim to be: cops, rather than actors. Flawed human beings, rather than archetypes. Huff creates a pair of frontline workers both intensely sympathetic and, on occasion, repellent. Their inner conflicts are expressed with such articulate humanity, your throat constricts as you watch them. By Chicago Dramatists, 1105 W. Chicago Ave.; 312-633-0630.
