Chicago is the longest running American musical in Broadway history—and for good reason. Full of great music, a clever story and Bob Fosse’s

Heart-wrenching with a sprinkling of hope and a healthy serving of laughter, Burning Bluebeard intertwines two stories in one spine-chilling show. Actors portraying actors from the infamous 1903 Iroquois Theater fire attempt to finish their performance of the holiday pantomime, Mr. Bluebeard. Only this time, they hope it won’t end in another tragedy. The show is a deep narrative dive into the 1903 matinee fire, with the performers returning to finish the show amid the ruins t

You may not think that a musical can start out with six deaths and still be uplifting and funny without negating the tragedy of loss. But Ride the Cyclone manages that emotional feat. This vaudevillian musical from Chicago Shakespeare Theater keeps you guessing until the very end. A broken roller coaster track frames the stage in a black-box theater on the top floor of Chicago Shakespeare Theater on Navy Pier. The sharp chemical smell of atomized mineral oil saturates the air

Set sail with the Lookingglass Theater for the best stage production of Treasure Island you may ever see. The swashbuckling adventure and shocking betrayals sizzling through Robert Louis Stevenson’s best-known novel, come to life on the stage at the Water Tower. Classic characters like Long John Silver and Jim Hawkins leap off the stage and into the parts of your brain that still hold onto childhood fantasies. This impeccably staged and performed show ushers you into a good,

You Can’t Take It With You takes us back to a depression-era classic that feels all too relevant today. The show centers around the Sycamore family who live their lives on the premise of compulsively pursuing happiness. This eccentric bunch does everything from practicing ballet while baking to making fireworks in the basement. Matriarch Penelope Vanderhof Sycamore, played by Penny Slusher, writes plays because a typewriter was delivered to the house by mistake. The play’s dr

The trees are bare and shopping malls are crazy. Snow is brewing in the clouds and sugarplum fairies are pirouetting in store windows. So take a break and go to the theater. Find that perfect holiday show that the whole family can enjoy – a show that won’t make the kids fall asleep and won’t get your uncle started on his Santa conspiracy theory. Show tickets make great gifts, too. And, luckily, Chicago is jam-packed with great performances this season for everyone on your Chr

For those who just want a break from all the Christmas cheer, The Santaland Diaries is the show for you. This one-man show is based on David Sedaris’ hilarious stint as one of Santa’s elves in a Macy’s department store. For the eighth consecutive year, Mitchell Fain alone holds the stage and keeps the audience laughing for an hour and a half in Theater Wit’s 12th annual staging of this play. Fain drolly recounts misadventures involving bratty children, over-zealous parents, w

If you only see one show this holiday season, consider It’s a Wonderful Life: Live In Chicago! Presented as a 1940s Radio Drama, eight actors perform Frank Capra’s holiday classic about finding hope and love in even the darkest of times. This show bundles up all the best things of the season and delivers them in one heart-warming 90-minute package. The cast welcomes the audience by leading you in singing Christmas carols like Jingle Bells and Frosty the Snowman before the “On