Performing Arts
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Spotlight: ‘Drunk Dracula’ monster mashup and Elgin’s Fringe Fest continuesSep 23, 2025 10:46 am - The monster mashup “Drunk Dracula” opens, Elgin’s Fringe Festival continues, Oil Lamp Theater revives the 1938 suspense drama “Gaslight,” and Iambe Theatre stages an all-female production of Shakespeare’s comedy “Love’s Labour’s Lost.”
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Geneva High theater season begins with comedy on test anxietySep 22, 2025 9:48 am - Students at Geneva High School will perform a humorous 1980s-themed play about taking an exam, surrounded by personifications of worst-case scenarios.
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American Airlines pilot whose grounded flight on 9/11 inspired musical plans to attend Paramount’s productionSep 19, 2025 6:39 pm - Beverley Bass, the retired American Airlines pilot who inspired one of the characters in the Tony Award-winning “Come From Away” will be a special guest of the Paramount Theatre at Saturday’s performance of the heartwarming tuner about the residents of a small town in Canada who welcomed some 7,000 stranded airline passengers following the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
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Elgin Fringe Festival returns for 12th year with 80 performancesSep 18, 2025 3:24 pm - Elgin Fringe Festival returns for 12th year with four days of performances, events, and celebrations across downtown Elgin.
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Almost golden: Goodman Theatre’s ‘Ashland Avenue’ needs a little polishSep 17, 2025 4:45 pm - Goodman Theatre marks the beginning of its centennial with the premiere of the Chicago-set “Ashland Avenue,” starring Francis Guinan as a TV shop owner struggling to keep his business afloat.
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Comedy show at Zanies to raise funds for Colorectal Cancer AllianceSep 17, 2025 10:26 am - “Laugh Your (expletive) Off,” a one-night comedy fundraiser at Zanies in Rosemont, will feature entertainers who have had or who are undergoing treatment for colorectal cancer.
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The MAC opens season with comedian Steve Solomon
Sep 17, 2025 10:23 am - Comedian Steve Solomon brings his show "My Mother's Italian, My Father's Jewish & I'm In Therapy" to the McAninch Arts Center in Glen Ellyn.
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Best Bets: Cantigny’s First Division Museum salutes Bob HopeSep 17, 2025 9:38 am - Cantigny’s First Division Museum examines the legacy of comedian Bob Hope, Buddy Guy plays a free concert during Chicago Live! at Navy Pier, comedians host a fundraiser at Zanies Rosemont, and it’s the last weekend for Cleve Carney Museum of Art’s “Hokusai and Ukiyo-e: The Floating World.”
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Things to do Sept. 19-25: Oktoberfests, Naperville Irish Fest, Elgin Fringe Festival, Cary Main Street Fest and moreSep 16, 2025 1:46 pm - Mark your calendar for Oktoberfests in Libertyville, Arlington Heights, Elk Grove Village, Palatine and Highland Park; Tacos and Tequila Festival in Geneva; Naperville Irish Fest; Cantigny Car Show and more happening this week.
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Spotlight: Evanston native Elizabeth McGovern channels Ava GardnerSep 16, 2025 9:51 am - Actress Elizabeth McGovern channels Ava Gardner in “Ava: The Secret Conversations” at Chicago’s Studebaker Theater, plus world premieres open at Chicago Shakespeare and A Red Orchid theaters.