Theater events: Goodman Theatre concludes 'Elliot Trilogy'
Trilogy concludes
Goodman Theatre premieres “The Happiest Song Plays Last,” the latest from 2012 Pulitzer Prize winner Quiara AlegrÃa Hudes, whose Goodman commission completes her “Elliot Trilogy” examining war through the eyes of the members of an extended Puerto Rican family. In this final chapter, Iraq War veteran Elliott (Armando Riesco) turns action film star while his cousin Yaz (Sandra Marquez) tries to save her crumbling neighborhood. Edward Torres directs. Previews begin at 8 p.m. Saturday, April 13, and 2 and 7:30 p.m. Sunday, April 14, at 170 N. Dearborn St., Chicago. Opens April 22. $14-$45. (312) 443-3800 or goodmantheatre.org.
'Anne Frank'
Grace Melon, of Oak Park, stars in Metropolis Performing Arts Centre's “The Diary of Anne Frank,” the next production in the theater's Stories in Action Series for young people. Brian Rabinowitz directs the play about a young Jewish girl, her family and their friends who spent more than two years hiding from the Nazis in an Amsterdam attic during World War II. Opens 9:30 a.m. Monday, April 15, at 222 W. Campbell St., Arlington Heights. $12, $14. (847) 577-2121 or metropolisarts.com.
Lovers on the lam
Disaffected teens Lee and Leila fall in love and find themselves in trouble in “Yellow Moon,” Scottish playwright David Greig's 2006 drama in a revival at Writers' Theatre under associate artistic director Stuart Carden. Josh Salt plays the troubled Lee and Ashleigh LaThrop stars as overachiever Leila, whose unwitting involvement in a murder sends them on a journey through Scotland's highlands a la Bonnie and Clyde. Previews begin 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 16, at Books on Vernon, 664 Vernon Ave., Glencoe. The show opens April 24. $35-$60. (847) 242-6000 or writerstheatre.org.
What's new
Ÿ True stories from the residents of Chicago's West Town neighborhood inspired Adventure Stage Chicago's latest production “Augusta and Noble,” by Carlos Murillo. The play — performed in English but peppered with Spanish — centers on a girl named Gabi from the Latino community West Town, who discovers a new world of possibilities when she attends high school at Northside College Prep. Performances begin Saturday, April 13, at Vittum Theater, 1012 N. Noble St., Chicago. (773) 342-4141 or adventurestage.org.
Ÿ Performances begin Saturday, April 13, for Lil Buds Theatre Company's “Peter Rabbit and Me,” inspired by Beatrix Potter's “The Tale of Peter Rabbit,” in which an imaginative girl in Victorian England brings to life the titular rabbit and his fellow leporids. Performances run through May 5, at Rivendell Theatre, 5779 N. Ridge Ave., Chicago. Visit brownpapertickets.com or lilbudstheatre.org.
Ÿ Theatre Seven of Chicago hosts its annual benefit Neighborhood Ball 2013 from 7 p.m. to midnight Saturday, April 13, at the Swedish American Museum, 5211 N. Clark St., Chicago. The event features beer from local breweries, dinner from local restaurants including RL, music, a silent auction and a sneak peek at the company's summer production “Unwilling and Hostile Instruments: 100 Years of Extraordinary Chicago Women.” Tickets are $50 in advance, $60 at the door. See theatreseven.org.
Ÿ The Black Ensemble Theater hosts its 8th Annual Black Playwright's Festival, from Monday, April 15, to Sunday, April 21, at BET's cultural center, 4450 N. Clark St., Chicago. The festival features readings of new works beginning at 7:30 p.m. each night. The featured works are by BET Black Playwright's Initiative members Jil Ross (“The Last Word,” a one-act comedy-drama); Jarrin Davis (“Light,” a dramedy); Loy Webb (“For Alice and August”); Leonard M. Ferris (“Savage”) and Katrina Miller (“The Holidays,” a musical). The festival begins at 7:30 p.m. Monday, April 15, with a salute to Paul Oakley Stovall (“Immediate Family”) and concludes at 7:30 p.m. April 21, with five 10-minute plays directed by Lyle Miller. Tickets are $15 each night or $50 for the full festival. (773) 769-4451 or blackensemble.org.
Ÿ Set in 1957, Kenneth H. Brown's 1963 play “The Brig,” which examines what happens to servicemen incarcerated in a marine prison. Jennifer Markowitz directs Mary Arrchie Theatre's production, which opens Thursday, April 18, at Angel Island, 735 W. Sheridan Road, Chicago. See maryarrchie.com for more information.
Ÿ The Green Day musical “American Idiot,” based on the 2004 CD of the same name, returns to Chicago in a non-equity tour on Tuesday, April 16. Performances run through Sunday, April 21, at the Cadillac Palace Theatre, 151 W. Randolph St., Chicago. (800) 775-2000 or broadwayinchicago.com or americanidiotthemusical.com.
Ÿ While pajama factory managers butt heads with workers over a 7½-cent pay increase, the new factory manager and the labor leader fall in love in the Richard Adler-Jerry Ross musical “The Pajama Game,” with a book by George Abbott and Richard Bissell. Highland Park's The Music Theatre Company presents a revival helmed by Jess McLeod and choreographed by Jessica Redish (Writers' Theatre's “Sweet Charity”) beginning previews on Thursday, April 18, at 1850 Green Bay Road. The show opens April 25. (847) 579-4900 or themusictheatrecompany.org.
Ÿ The 10th edition of the Waltzing Mechanics' “El Stories” continues through June 22, at the Greenhouse Theater Center, 2257 N. Lincoln Ave., Chicago. The show which runs at 11 p.m. Saturdays, consists of cast members recreating real experiences people have had on CTA trains and platforms. (773) 404-7336 or waltzingmechanics.org.
Ÿ Theo Ubique has extended its acclaimed production of the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical “Aspects of Love,” about the various romantic entanglements involving a painter, his nephew, a French actress, the painter's Italian mistress and their daughter. Performances continue through May 19, at No Exit Cafe, 6970 N. Glenwood Ave., Chicago. (800) 595-4849 or theo-u.com.
Ÿ Wayward Productions has extended its version of Shakespeare's “Richard III,” set in the world of motorcycle gangs and starring John Byrnes as the infamous Duke of Gloucester. Performances continue through May 3 at the Underground Wonder Bar, 710 N. Clark St., Chicago. See tktwb.tw/cft or facebook.com/waywardproductions.
Ÿ The deadline is 5 p.m. Friday, April 12, for applications for Filament Theatre Ensemble's third annual Allie's Gift to help Chicago theater professionals subsidize the cost of career-related expenses. The award is named for Filament's late business manager Allison Powell. Applicants must live in Chicago. The application should include a personal letter and a resume in pdf format. Audio, video or other work samples are permitted. Email applications to gift@filamenttheatre.org.
Ÿ Frank Abagnale Jr., the former teenage con artist who inspired the hit film and the subsequent musical “Catch Me If You Can,” will be on hand to answer audience questions following the show's evening performance on Saturday, April 13, at the Cadillac Palace Theatre, 151 W. Randolph St., Chicago. (800) 775-2000 or broadwayinchicago.com.
Ÿ Light Opera Works has announced its 2013 season, which begins June 8, with Gilbert and Sullivan's “H.M.S. Pinafore” starring LOW's Don Quixote, James Harms. Performances take place at Cahn Auditorium, 600 Emerson St., Evanston. Artistic director Rudy Hogenmiller returns to the stage for the first time in eight years to play the Master of Ceremonies in Fred Ebb and John Kander's “Cabaret” (Aug. 10-25, at Cahn Auditorium). Next up is a review titled “Gershwin's Greatest Hits,” running Oct. 4-13, at Nichols Concert Hall, Music Institute of Chicago, 1490 Chicago Ave., Evanston. The season concludes with Irving Berlin's “Annie Get Your Gun” (Dec. 21-31, Cahn Auditorium). Single tickets and subscriptions are available at the box office at 516 4th St., Wilmette. (847) 920-5360 or lightoperaworks.com.
Ÿ During its 2013-2014 season, Raven Theatre examines the desperation-driven longing many people have for a life other than the one they're living, beginning with Horton Foote's “The Trip to Bountiful” (Sept. 17-Nov. 17), about an elderly woman's desire to return one last time to her childhood home. Next up is John M. Synge's “The Playboy of the Western World” (Feb. 4-April 5, 2014), in which a handsome stranger swaggers into a pub in rural Ireland telling tales and boasting of dark deeds. Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa's “Good Boys and True,” an examination of class and privilege at an elite boys boarding school where a sex video is making the rounds and making students and their parents uncomfortable, runs March 4 through May 3, 2014. The season concludes with Tennessee Williams' autobiographical “Vieux Carre” (May 6 through June 28, 2014) about a writer struggling with his career, poverty and homosexuality in 1930s New Orleans. Performances are at 6157 N. Clark St., Chicago. Subscriptions are available at the box office, by phone at (773) 338-2177 or online at raventheatre.com.
Ÿ Court Theatre's 2013-2014 season begins Sept. 5 with the Chicago premiere of Katori Hall's “The Mountaintop,” a meditation on mortality centered on Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. which takes place on the eve of his assassination. Court follows that production with a remount of Lisa Peterson and Denis O'Hare's solo piece “An Iliad” (Nov. 13-Dec. 8) with Timothy Edward Kane reprising his Jeff Award winning role. Next up is August Wilson's “Seven Guitars” (Jan. 9-Feb. 9, 2014), the 1940s installment of Wilson's 10-play Century Cycle. That's followed by the 2012 Pulitzer Prize winning “Water by the Spoonful” (March 6-April 6, 2014), the second in Quiara Alegria Hudes' Elliot Trilogy, about an Iraq War veteran haunted by war, whose estranged mother struggles with drug addiction. The season concludes with David Henry Hwang's “M. Butterfly” (May 8-June 8, 2014), which recounts the true story of a French diplomat who meets and falls in love with someone he believes is a Chinese opera diva, but who is someone else altogether. Subscriptions are available at the theater at 5535 S. Ellis Ave., Chicago, by phone at (773) 753-4472 or courttheatre.org.
Subscriptions are available for Emerald City Theatre's four-play, 2013-2014 season which begins in October with “Llama Llama ... ,” which offers a glimpse at the fun and foibles of llama life. Also opening in October is “Rapunzel,” a musical penned by the creators of the TV sitcom “Friends.” Up next is the U.S. premiere of a musical version of “The 3 Little Pigs,” which opens in January 2014. The season concludes in February 2014 with Beverly Cleary's classic “Ramona Quimby,” in which older sister Beezus serves as guide for a year in the life of the Quimby family. Performances take place at the Apollo Theater, 2540 N. Lincoln Ave., Chicago. Subscriptions are available online at emeraldcitytheatre.com.