15 shows for fall: Classic tuners, new commissions, ever-resonant dramas among this season's theater highlights

Musicals showcasing determined women; an operatic take on a beloved Broadway tuner; the stage adaptation of a popular film romance; dramas examining racism and the legacy of slavery, including a groundbreaking 1955 work; the premiere of several local commissions; and a couple of buddy comedies are among the fall theater season's highlights.

And, as Chicago-area theaters continue their pandemic rebound, several have opted to revisit successful productions from the past. In Oak Brook, for the sixth time First Folio Theatre reunites the dynamic duo of Christian Gray and Jim McCance to star in the P.G. Wodehouse-inspired "Jeeves Intervenes," which inaugurates the theater's final season. And in Chicago, Windy City Playhouse restages its immersive domestic dramedy "Southern Gothic."

Here, in order of opening, are 15 shows theater lovers won't want to miss.

'Hello, Dolly!'

Runs through Oct. 16 at Marriott Theatre, 10 Marriott Drive, Lincolnshire, (847) 634-0200, marriotttheatre.com

Marriott Theatre's revival of the beloved Jerry Herman tuner about the professional matchmaker and the curmudgeon she intends to make her intended would be notable even without Chicago-area favorite Heidi Kettenring and her husband, David C. Girolmo, playing the leads. That they are adds an interesting dynamic to the relationship between the free-spirited Dolly Levi and the irascible Horace Vandergelder. Look for an inspired "Waiters' Gallop" from director/choreographer Denis Jones.

'Dreamgirls'

Runs through Oct. 16 at Paramount Theatre, 23 E. Galena Blvd., Aurora, (630) 896-6666, paramountaurora.com

Designers Jeffrey D. Kmiec (set), Samantha C. Jones (costume), José Santiago (lighting), Adam Rosenthal (sound), Mike Tutaj (projections) and Reuben Echoles (wig, hair and makeup) likely worked overtime to create the glitz and glamour against which "Dreamgirls" unfolds. A Supremes-inspired pop music parable chronicling the personal and artistic compromises young singers make on the road to stardom, "Dreamgirls" has an operatic first-act finale that rivals just about any ever composed. Chicago native Christopher D. Betts makes his hometown directorial debut.

'Southern Gothic'

Runs through Nov. 30 at Petterino's, 150 N. Dearborn St., Chicago, (773) 891-8985, windycityplayhouse.com/

In 2018, Windy City Playhouse premiered its Joseph Jefferson Award-winning "Southern Gothic," an intimate, immersive show set during the 1960s, wherein audiences observe up close and personal several couples' domestic dramas. Now, the theater is remounting the show in association with Goodman Theatre and Petterino's, which will supply refreshments for this cocktail party drama that promises to be a hot ticket this fall.

'The Garbologists'

Runs through Oct. 2 at Northlight Theatre, North Shore Center for the Performing Arts, 9501 Skokie Blvd., Skokie, (847) 673-6300, northlight.org/

Northlight Theatre opens its season with Lindsay Joelle's buddy comedy about a blue-collar white guy and an Ivy League-educated Black woman who work as New York City garbage collectors. Chicago native Tiffany Renee Johnson makes her Northlight debut as Marlowe and Luigi Sottile returns to the Skokie theater to play Danny.

'The Most Spectacularly Lamentable Trial of Miz Martha Washington'

Runs through Oct. 9 at Steppenwolf Theatre, 1650 N. Halsted St., Chicago, (312) 335-1650, steppenwolf.org/

Delayed but not derailed by the COVID-19 pandemic, Steppenwolf Theatre's Chicago premiere of "The Most Spectacularly Lamentable Trial of Miz Martha Washington," by Pulitzer Prize-winner James Ijames, opens the company's 47th season. Whitney White directs this darkly comedic reckoning of racism in America, which unfolds as a series of hallucinations by a terminally ill Martha Washington who's being tended to by the very slaves who will be freed the moment she expires.

'The Notebook'

Runs through Oct. 16 at Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Navy Pier, 800 E. Grand Ave., Chicago, (312) 595-5600, chicagoshakes.com

Chicago Shakespeare Theater presents another pandemic-delayed production, a musical adaptation of "The Notebook" by Ingrid Michaelson and Bekah Brunstetter (NBC's "This Is Us") based on Nicholas Sparks' best-selling novel. Tony-nominated director Michael Greif ("Dear Evan Hansen," "Next to Normal") and Broadway veteran Schele Williams helm CST's premiere.

'Clybourne Park'

Runs through Oct. 9 at Buffalo Theatre Ensemble, McAninch Arts Center, College of DuPage, 425 Fawell Blvd., Glen Ellyn, (630) 942-4000, atthemac.org/

Buffalo Theatre Ensemble opens its season with "Clybourne Park," Bruce Norris' unflinching companion piece to Lorraine Hansberry's seminal play "A Raisin in the Sun." BTE ensemble member and Lombard resident Kurt Naebig directs the Pulitzer Prize-winning drama about ethnicity, integration and bigotry.

'Clyde's'

Runs through Oct. 9 at Goodman Theatre, 170 N. Dearborn St., Chicago, (312) 443-3800, goodmantheatre.org/

Longtime collaborators Lynn Nottage and Kate Whoriskey reunite to launch Goodman Theatre's season with "Clyde's," Nottage's 2022 Tony Award-nominated comedy about ex-convicts working at a truck stop and attempting to restart their lives. Whoriskey, who directed the Broadway production, helms Goodman's Chicago premiere as well.

'Fiddler on the Roof'

Runs through Oct. 7 at Lyric Opera House, 20 N. Wacker Drive, Chicago, (312) 827-5600, lyricopera.org/

The North American premiere of a new production of the Jerry Bock-Sheldon Harnick classic "Fiddler on the Roof" takes place at Lyric Opera of Chicago this fall under the baton of conductor Kimberly Grigsby in her Lyric debut. Hearing Bock's score played by a full orchestra alone is worth the price of admission to this production featuring more than 100 instrumental and dramatics artists.

'Tiger Style!'

Sept. 29-Oct. 30 at Writers Theatre, 325 Tudor Court, Glencoe, (847) 242-6000, writerstheatre.org

The search for connection is the theme that unifies Writers Theatre's upcoming season, which commences with "Tiger Style," Mike Lew's comedy skewering Asian American cultural stereotypes. The action centers on siblings Albert and Jennifer Chen who overachieved as children but failed to find professional or personal fulfillment as adults.

'BULL: A Love Story'

Oct. 5-Nov. 20 at Copley Theatre, 8 E. Galena Blvd., Aurora, (630) 896-6666, paramountaurora.com/

Introduced earlier this year, Paramount Theatre's Bold Series, consisting of intimate dramas and chamber musicals staged at the 165-seat Copley Theatre, got off to a great start. Now, after three stellar productions, the inaugural season concludes with the premiere of "BULL: A Love Story," a drama about an ex-con who returns from prison to his Lakeview home to find his friends and family have moved on. Nancy García Loza's play, which will be featured this fall during the fifth Destinos Chicago International Latino Theater Festival, is the second work developed through Paramount's Inception Project initiative to support BIPOC playwrights.

'The Locusts'

Oct. 20-Nov. 19 at The Gift Theatre at Theater Wit, 1229 W. Belmont Ave., Chicago, (773) 975-8150, thegifttheatre.org/

On the subject of premieres, Chicago's Gift Theatre presents its first commissioned work, "The Locusts," a thriller by Jennifer Rumberger about a big-city detective tracking a serial killer in her hometown. Wheaton native John Gawlik directs Rumberger's ever-timely meditation on male violence and how women confront it.

'Jeeves Intervenes'

Nov. 2-Dec. 4 at First Folio Theatre, Mayslake Peabody Estate, 1717 31st St., Oak Brook, (630) 986-8067, firstfolio.org/

First Folio Theatre begins its final season with a remount of "Jeeves Intervenes," Margaret Raether's adaptation of "Jeeves and the Hard-boiled Egg," one of P.G. Wodehouse's wry comedy of manners involving unflappable butler Jeeves helping extricate his affably idle aristocratic employer Bertie Wooster out of his latest scrape. Jim McCance and Christian Gray reprise the roles of Jeeves and Wooster, which they brilliantly played in First Folio's initial 2008 production in four subsequent adaptations. Experience this duo one last time before First Folio ceases operations next year.

'Trouble in Mind'

Nov. 2-Dec. 18 at TimeLine Theatre, 615 W. Wellington Ave., Chicago, (773) 281-8463, ext. 6, timelinetheatre.com/

TimeLine Theatre revives "Trouble in Mind," Alice Childress' 1955 backstage drama about power and racial discrimination in the world of theater that made its long-delayed Broadway debut last year. Set in the mid-1950s, it unfolds during a rehearsal for an anti-lynching play in which the lead actress, a Black woman, challenges the white director's interpretation of the play. Ensemble member Ron OJ Parson directs the play.

'The Island'

Nov. 11-Dec. 4 at Court Theatre, 5535 S. Ellis Ave., Chicago, (773) 753-4472, courttheatre.org/

Court Theatre, the Chicago area's newest regional Tony Award-winner, opens its season with a revival of "The Island" by South African playwright Athol Fugard, John Kani and Winston Ntshona. An examination of the brutality of Apartheid, the play about two political prisoners who toil daily in South Africa's infamous Robben Island and at night rehearse a two-man version of "Antigone," "The Island" is also about the restorative, transformative power of theater. Court's recently appointed associate artistic director Gabrielle Randle-Bent directs.