America: All Better! ***1/2
The frightening, funny revue on the Second City mainstage is a darkly comic show about these yin-and-yang times in Chicago. Open run at Second City, 1616 N. Wells St.; $20-$25 at 312-337-3992.
Blue Surge ***
The Eclipse Theatre revival of Rebecca Gilman’s 2001 drama is a down-and-dirty, Chicago-style affair — the set is a vague, rough-and-ready collection of walls and shadows. This is a gritty, prescient play about working-class young people trapped in a small Midwestern city, haunted by dysfunctional parents and unable to get their acts together. Through May 3 at Greenhouse Theater Center, 2257 N. Lincoln Ave.; $20-$25 at 773-404-7336.
Brother, Can You Spare Some Change? ***
The presidency of Barack Obama is still young, but his comedic muses are raising expectations. “Can he really turn Guantanamo into the next Six Flags?” Open run at Second City e.t.c., 1608 N. Wells St.; $20-$25 at 312-337-3992.
Curtains ***
One of the last of the John Kander and Fred Ebb musicals, “Curtains” premiered on Broadway in 2007. But its backstage soul really is more at home among the retro chandeliers of Drury Lane. Through May 17 at Drury Lane Oakbrook; $29-$35 at 630-530-0111.
Diversey Harbor ***
Marisa Wegrzyn knows the North Side stomping grounds of Chicago’s college-educated immigrants. She speaks the language of the bartending twentysomethings who head to town with their Big Ten BAs and find themselves chatting at Clark and Deming, wavering on Wellington. It is a world of roommates skipping out on leases, unreliable boyfriends, high-rise one-bedrooms and temporary jobs in danger of becoming permanent. Wegrzyn, one of Chicago’s most observant young playwrights, has it down cold. Although staged by Theatre Seven on the Greenhouse mainstage with a droll set made up of models of Lake Shore Drive high-rises with twinkling lights, this is a modest piece. The interconnected monologues last no more than an hour. But it is a warm, funny, emotional and smart show, performed with veracity by a young cast. Through May 10 at the Greenhouse Theater Center, 2257 N. Lincoln Ave.; $12-$18, 773-404-7336.
Evita ***
This gritty, tactile “Evita” works very nicely at the No Exit Cafe, where Magaldi tangos about 6 inches from the front row and Che Guevara dispenses his ironic commentary from a real bar in the corner. Director Fred Anzevino knows how to exploit intimacy. Through May 31 by Theo Ubique, 6970 N. Glenwood Ave.; $30 at 773-347-1109.
Hedwig and the Angry Inch *** (the title as published has been corrected in this text)
For this emotional and experimental John Cameron Mitchell rock show, the American Theater Company re-creates the ambience of a sleazy rock club where a gender-confused Euro pop star is trying to make her tragic way in America. And director PJ Paparelli demonstrates that while he may not be able — or want — to hold an acting ensemble together, he surely knows how to use theatrical spaces in imaginative, even thrilling, ways. Nick Garrison, who stars as Hedwig, played this role to deserved acclaim in the commercial production at Lakeshore Theatre in 2001. He was good then, and he’s better now. Garrison has his girl down — needy, flashy, voyeuristic, disastrous. Through May 31 by American Theater Company, 1909 W. Byron St.; $35-$40 at 773-409-4125.
God’s Ear ***
This intensely poetic 2008 drama by Jenny Schwartz, in honest and earnest production from director Krissy Vanderwarker for Dog & Pony Theatre Company, is perhaps the best script I’ve seen about the disintegration of a marriage in the face of a disaster. A couple, played in determinedly unglamorous fashion
by Luke Hatton and Faith Noelle Hurley, must deal with the death of a young child. Schwartz ennobles the human act of parenting by expressing its travails with such eloquence. Through May 3 at Viaduct Theater, 3111 N. Western Ave.; $20 at 773-296-6024.
I Gotcha **1/2
Early in Act 2 of “Gotcha,” the predictable and entertaining Black Ensemble Theater show in tribute to the late Joe Tex and the Soul Clan, the cast invites the audience onstage for “Ain’t Gonna Bump No More (With No Big Fat Woman).” And there is a smile on every face in the joint. Through Sunday by Black Ensemble Theater, 4520 N. Beacon St.; $40-$45 at 773-769-4451.
Jersey Boys ****
Featuring the music of the Four Seasons and their rise to the top of the charts, this production delivers a smash-hit night out. Open run at Bank of America Theatre, 18 W. Monroe St.; $30-$150 at 312-902-1400.
Mary Poppins ***
Smart children know parents have to be trained to behave. Savvy, pint-sized domestic reformers will be thrilled with “Mary Poppins,” a rare family musical that spends most of its ample running time exhorting parents to stop working and go fly a kite with the kids. This mostly successful new touring production is here in Chicago with the original Broadway stars: Ashley Brown’s unflappable flying nanny and Gavin Lee’s Bert. Through July 12 at the Cadillac Palace Theatre, 151 W. Randolph St.; $23-$90 at 312-902-1400.
Million Dollar Quartet ***1/2
Great balls of fire! Here’s a hit. This musical has the kind of jaw-dropping performances that lift your feet from the floor. Open run at Apollo Theater, 2540 N. Lincoln Ave.; $49.50-$69.50 at 773-935-6100.
The Overwhelming ****
The title describes it precisely. J.T. Rogers’ drama about a hapless Illinois academic who gets trapped with his family in Rwanda is a politically charged indictment of American culpability and a powerful thriller that kicks you right in the gut. This is Kimberly Senior’s tour-de-force Next Theatre production, and these local African-American actors just rip up the stage, including Christoph Horton Abiel as a Rwandan kid enveloped by tribal hatred. A must-see. Through May 17 at the Noyes Cultural Arts Center, 927 Noyes St.; $28-$38 at 847-475-1875.
Pangs of the Messiah ***
It is 2012. An Israeli prime minister is about to sign a treaty with the Palestinians. Where does that leave the Jewish settlers of the West Bank? A fascinating play by Motti Lerner, one of Israel’s leading playwrights. Through May 10 at Chicago Temple Building, 77 W. Washington St.; $30-$34 at 312-857-1234.
Rod Blagojevich Superstar ***
“Rod Blagojevich Superstar, Are you as nuts as we think you are?” goes a lyric in the unsubtle show by Second City e.t.c. Through May 3 Upstairs at Chicago Shakespeare Theater; $25 at 312-595-5600.
Twelfth Night *** 1/2
This enjoyable show is an homage both to Shakespearean comedy and those warm-weather pleasures of the water. Through June 7 at Chicago Shakespeare Theater on Navy Pier; $44-$70 at 312-595-5600.
Tempest ***
In Tina Landau’s endlessly fascinating, spectacularly staged and yet relentlessly chilly “Tempest,” Frank Galati’s Prospero wanders perpetually at the side of the action. This is Steppenwolf, it would be disappointing if they didn’t shake Shakespeare up. Through May 31 at Steppenwolf Theatre, 1650 N. Halsted St.; $20-$70 at 312-335-1650.
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HOTTEST TICKET
High kicks with heart
A Chorus Line ***1/2
This is no revisionist “Chorus Line.” Nobody messed with the music or the mirrors or the mortality of the dancers. This revival was directed by Bob Avian, Michael Bennett’s original co-choreographer, and Bennett’s choreography is restaged, very closely, by Baayork Lee, an original cast member who has made a career out of restaging this homage to the gypsies of the Broadway chorus. The result is likely exactly the way you remember this show, as seen in New York between 1975 and 1990 and at Chicago’s Shubert Theatre in 1978. And this mostly young cast of dancers has a crucial quality that seemed missing when I saw the original 2006 Broadway revival — something to prove. Through May 3 at Oriental Theatre, 24 W. Randolph St.; $18-$85 at 312-902-1400.
