Theater events: 'Highway' remembers the great Hank Williams

Tribute to Hank

Filament Theatre Ensemble concludes the 2011-2012 season with “Hank Williams: Lost Highway,” a musical tribute to performer and Grand Ole Opry legend Hank Williams (“Move It On Over,” “Hey Good Lookin,'” “Your Cheatin' Heart”), who exerted considerable influence over country music over the course of his brief career cut short by alcohol and drug addiction. Joseph Jefferson Award winner Peter Oyloe plays Hank, and Mary Spearen plays Williams' wife Audrey. The preview is Friday, June 8, at the Athenaeum Theatre, 2926 N. Southport Ave., Chicago. The show opens Saturday, June 9. $19, $24. See filamenttheatre.org/tickets or athenaeumtheatre.com.

Miscreant mirth

Director/writer/puppeteer Brian Henson (son of Jim Henson) and actor/improvisor Patrick Bristow bring their adults-only, Henson alternative show “Stuffed and Unstrung” to the Bank of America Theatre for a brief run. The improvised comedy features the “Miskreants,” the more irreverent second cousins to Jim Henson's well-loved Muppets. Tuesday, June 12, through Sunday, June 17, at 18 W. Monroe St., Chicago. $25-$60. (800) 775-2000 or broadwayinchicago.com.

Get tix for high kicks

Tickets are on sale for the all-new “Radio City Christmas Spectacular,” scheduled to run in December at Rosemont's Akoo Theatre. This marks the 11th season the Rockettes will perform in Rosemont and the first time in four years the ensemble has brought its family-friendly holiday celebration to the suburbs. Dec. 14-30, at 5400 N. River Road, Rosemont. $30-$89. Tickets available at the box office, by phone at (800) 745-3000 or online at ticketmaster.com.

What's new

• Downers Grove resident Greg Kolack directs staged readings of “Mahal,” a new play by Danny Bernardo, at Chicago's Silk Road Rising. Performance times are 8 p.m. Friday, June 8, and Saturday, June 9, and 2 p.m. Sunday, June 10, at the Historic Chicago Temple Building, 77 W. Washington St., Chicago. The play centers on a Filipino-American family dealing with the loss of its matriarch and a long-hidden secret that threatens to tear the family apart. See silkroadrising.org for tickets.

• Broken Nose Theatre presents the Chicago area premiere of the partly improvised, late-night, adults-only show “My First Time,” inspired by the eponymous website where individuals shared their first sexual experiences. The preview is at 11 p.m. Friday, June 8, at the Greenhouse Theater Center, 2257 N. Lincoln Ave., Chicago. The show, which incorporates responses from a nightly audience survey, opens Saturday, June 9. (773) 404-7336 or greenhousetheater.org.

• Gorilla Tango Theatre, 1919 N. Milwaukee Ave., Chicago, presents the adults-only “Go Go Power Rangers: A Mighty Morphin Burlesque,” at 11:59 p.m. Fridays, June 8, through July 27. The show incorporates music and dance from the original children's series with comedy and burlesque. (773) 598-4549 or gorillatango.com.

• A naive young gay man comes to Chicago looking for love and stumbles upon a popular bathhouse in the Annoyance Theatre's new adults-only show “Steamwerkz The Musical,” previewing Friday, June 8, and 15, at 4830 N. Broadway, Chicago. The show opens June 22, and runs at 10 p.m. Fridays through Aug. 31. (773) 561-4665 or theannoyance.com.

• Deerfield native and Broadway veteran Kate Loprest performs at 7:30 p.m. Friday, June 8, at The Music Theatre Company, 1850 Green Bay Road, Highland Park. (847) 579-4900 or themusictheatrecompany.org.

• Citadel Theatre Company celebrates its 10th anniversary from 7 p.m. to midnight Friday, June 8, at the Greenbelt Cultural Center, 1215 Green Bay Road, North Chicago. Dubbed the Copacabana Gala, the benefit features dinner, dancing and door prizes. Tickets are $125. (847) 735-8554 or citadeltheatre.org.

• A ragtag group of barflies awaits the annual visit from the mysterious Balloon Boy in “The Tragedy of Balloon Boy (formerly Your Butt),” the Annoyance Theatre remount of its original musical directed by Charley Carroll. Previews are Saturday, June 9, and 16. The adults-only show opens June 23 at 4830 N. Broadway, Chicago, and runs through Aug. 25. (773) 561-4665 or theannoyance.com.

• The Metropolis Performing Arts Centre, 111 W. Campbell St., Arlington Heights, hosts a Tony Award viewing party beginning at 6 p.m. Sunday, June 10. Tickets are $15 and include the broadcast, a live version of “Name That Tune” with dueling pianos and a performance by Lisa Rock. (847) 577-2121 or metropolisarts.com.

• Rob Warden of Northwestern University's Center on Wrongful Convictions leads a panel discussion featuring men wrongfully convicted based on confessions resulting from torture from 4 to 5:30 p.m. Sunday, June 10, following TimeLine Theatre Company's performance of “My Kind of Town,” by John Conroy. The play is inspired by Conroy's extensive reporting on the police torture scandal centered on disgraced commander Jon Burge, convicted in 2010 of perjury and obstruction of justice and sentenced to 4½ years in federal prison. The discussion follows the 2 p.m. performance at 615 W. Wellington Ave, Chicago. (773) 281-8463 or timelinetheatre.com.

• Chicago Shakespeare Theater, hosts its Gala 2012, beginning at 5:30 p.m., Monday, June 11, at Navy Pier, 600 E. Grand Ave., Chicago. Proceeds from the gala will benefit CST's education initiatives. The event includes the presentation of the second annual Spirit of Shakespeare Award to acclaimed actor and Tony Award winner Brian Bedford and Frederick H. Waddell, chairman and CEO of Northern Trust. Among those entertaining at the gala are Brent Barrett, Susan Moniz, Hollis Resnik and Felicia P. Jones. (312) 553-2000 or pjhchicago.com/cst.

• In honor of its 16th season, Rivendell Theatre Ensemble hosts Rooted on Ridge, a salon and benefit to be held from 6:30 to 9 p.m. Wednesday, June 13, at A New Leaf, 1818 N. Wells St., Chicago. The event includes performances from ensemble members, silent auction and raffle. (773) 334-7728 or rivendelltheatre.org.

• Previews begin Wednesday, June 13, for Strange Tree Group's Midwest premiere of “Goodbye Cruel World,” adapted by Robert Ross Parker from the 1928 play by Russian writer Nicolai Erdman titled “The Suicide,” which was banned in the Soviet Union for 50 years. The farce centers around a poor man who lives in a worker's republic yet has no job and whose most recent plan to become a world class tuba player has ended in disappointment causing him to consider suicide and leaving him at the mercy of others who want to exploit his death for their own gain. The show opens June 15, at Theater Wit, 1229 W. Belmont Ave., Chicago. Ensemble member Bob Kruse directs. (773) 975-8150 or strangetree.org.

• Theater on the Lake begins its 60th season on Wednesday June 13, at the theater at Fullerton Avenue and Lake Shore Drive in Chicago, with a remount of the SiNNERMAN Ensemble's “Sweet Confinement,” by Anna Carini. The play, which centers around five longtime friends who reunite to deal with a crisis, runs through June 17. The 2012 season marks the debut of co-artistic directors Michael Patrick Thornton (ABC's “Private Practice”), co-founder of The Gift Theatre, and Meghan Beals McCarthy, associate artistic director of Chicago Dramatists. (312) 742-7994 or chicagoparkdistrict.com.

• LiveWire Chicago Theatre's hosts its annual short play festival VisionFest 4: Where the Image Meets the Stage, beginning Thursday, June 14, at the Envision Gallery at Flourish Studios, 3020 N. Lincoln Ave., Chicago. Featured playwrights include Philip Dawkins, of Victory Gardens; Ike Holter, who wrote “Hit the Wall” for The Inconvenience; Bilal Dardai, of the Neo-Futurists; Bekah Brunstetter, who wrote LiveWire's “Oohrah!” and Mat Smart who wrote LiveWire's “The 13th of Paris” and Steppenwolf Theatre's “Samuel J. & K.” Ten plays run in two programs which play on alternate Thursdays and Fridays, with a marathon of all 10 plays on Saturdays through June 30. See livewirechicago.com for tickets and performance times.

• A group of women known as the “Dowager Daughters of Transcendence (DDTs)” deal with crime, community apathy and strife in Cheryl Hall's play by the same name. Anthony P. Brooks directs the Eta Creative Arts Foundation production which begins Thursday, June 14, at 7558 S. South Chicago Ave., Chicago. (773) 752-3955 or etacreativearts.org.

• Hell in a Handbag Productions will donate half the proceeds from its 7:30 p.m. Thursday, June 14, performance of “Sexy Baby” to the Paul Sullenger Healthcare Fund to help with medical costs sustained by the former actor/dancer who suffered a brain aneurysm recently. The performance is at Mary's Attic, 5400 N. Clark St., Chicago. (800) 838-3006 or handbagproductions.org.

• “Motherhood the Musical,” which runs through June 16 at the Royal George Theatre, 1641 N. Halsted St., Chicago, celebrates Queen Elizabeth's birthday with special events for mothers on Wednesday, June 13. The first 100 mothers who attend the 7:30 p.m. performance will receive a complimentary red velvet cupcake from the organic online bakery — (cacao) sweets & treats. Also, two mothers will receive a haircut and makeup session courtesy of Aveda salon. (800) 982-2787 or motherhoodthemusical.com or theroyalgeorgetheatre.com.

• American Theater Company has extended its production of the musical “Rent,” directed by David Comer. Performances continue through July 1 at 1909 W. Byron St., Chicago. (773) 409-4125 or atcweb.org.

• Pride Films and Plays is accepting applications for its third Great Gay Screenplay Contest. Plays and applications are due June 30, accompanied by a $45 entry fee. The reading committee will select 15 semifinalists who will be announced Aug. 15. The committee narrows that to five finalists on Sept. 15, and those five scripts will be performed as staged readings at the Hoover-Leppen Theater Oct. 18 to 21. Each finalists receives $400. Call (773) 250-3117 or see pridefilmsandplays.com for more information.

• Paramount Theatre, 23 E. Galena Blvd., Aurora, recently announced its 2013 Broadway subscription series. It begins Sept 12 with “Grease,” a celebration of high school during the 1950s, followed by Rachel Rockwell's revival of “Annie” (Nov. 21-Dec. 30), about an orphaned girl who's adopted by one of the country's wealthiest men. Next up is Rockwell's revival of “The Music Man” (Jan. 16, 2013-Feb. 3, 2013), about traveling salesman Harold Hill, whose attempts to dupe a town are thwarted by a comely librarian and her young brother. The season concludes with “Fiddler on the Roof,” which runs from March 6 to 24, 2013. Subscriptions and single tickets are available by phone (630) 896-6666, at the box office or online at paramountaurora.com.

• The Museum of Contemporary Art, 220 E. Chicago Ave., Chicago, recently announced its 2012-2013 season. Among the theatrical offerings is “Woyzeck on the Highveld” (Sept. 27-30), South Africa's Handspring Puppet Company's adaptation of German writer Georg Burchner's unfinished play; “Stew and the Negro Problem” (Oct. 20-21), a new song-cycle about Chicago based on a collaboration between Stew (“Passing Strange”) and Heidi Rodewald; storyteller Mike Daisey's “American Utopias” (Nov. 1-11); the Cuban theater company Teatro Buendia's “Pedro Paramo” (March 22-31, 2013) based on Mexican author Juan Rolfo's 1955 novel and codirected by Buendia artistic director Flora Lauten and Henry Godinez, Goodman Theatre artistic associate. Six nude women perform in “Untitled Feminist Show,” an examination of female identity incorporating music, dance and video, running April 18 to 21, 2013. Lastly, there's a performance from Australia's Back to Back Theatre “Ganesh Versus the Third Reich,” about the elephant-headed god Ganesh traveling through Nazi Germany to reclaim the swastika, a Hindu symbol. Tickets go on sale in July at the MCA box office or by phone at (312) 397-4010.

• The Joseph Jefferson Awards for non-equity Chicago productions were announced earlier this week. Theo Ubique Cabaret Theatre's “The Light in the Piazza” received six awards, earning top honors for musical production; direction by Fred Anzevino and Lincolnshire native Brenda Didier; actors Kelli Harrington and Justin Adair; music director Jeremy Ramey and dialect coach Eva Breneman. The Hypocrites' “Sophocles: Seven Sicknesses” earned awards for best production of a play; for director/adapter Sean Graney and lighting designer Jared Moore. Kevin Bellie, artistic director of Oak Park's Circle Theatre, earned a Jeff Award for his choreography for that company's production of “Urinetown the Musical.” Costume designer Jesus Perez received a costume design award for that same production. Actor Chuck Sisson received a principal actor award for his performance in Circle's “The Baker's Wife.” First Folio Theatre artistic associate Melanie Keller shared the award for principal actress in a play for Signal Ensemble Theatre's “East of Berlin & The Russian Play” with redtwist theatre's “Jacqueline Grandt, who earned the award for her performance in “Bug.” Retwist also earned nods for sound designer Christopher Kriz for “Opus” and for “Opus” music coach Zhanna Bullock. Jonathan Berry shared the directing award with Graney for his work on Griffin Theatre's “Punk Rock.” Griffin's production also earned the coveted ensemble award for “Punk Rock,” which also earned Joe DeBettencourt the award for principal actor in a play.