April was a mad rush as all Broadway productions needed to open by April 27 for Tony Award consideration. Still, there’s plenty of theater happening Off-Broadway and beyond New York City. Here’s a peek at three Chicago productions we’ve got our eyes on:
‘At the Wake of a Dead Drag Queen’
Welcome to Courtney Berringers’ wake. But don’t expect an evening of gloom and doom. Terry Guest’s play tackles drag, being queer in the South, and Black identity.
The powerful two-hander premiered in 2019. Guest revisited the script for this new production, saying, “I had a lot to say when I first wrote this play, but I didn’t always know how to say it. Now, I have the craft, tools, life experience, and resources to create the production I always believed was possible. Finally, the community of theatregoers has shifted so dramatically since we first premiered this play in 2019. I am so excited to share this play with a cohort of audiences and artists who have heard rumblings about our past production, but who never got to see it for themselves. I can’t wait for them to laugh, lean in, and mourn with us at the wake.”
At the Wake of a Dead Drag Queen, The Story Theater, Chicago. Through May 18.
‘Bust’
A co-production with Atlanta’s Alliance Theatre, the Goodman presents Zora Howard’s play about a typical quiet evening when Retta and Reggie witness their neighbor being pulled over by the police. The incident, captured on video, goes viral, but the playwright’s afrocurrentist approach is anything but expected.
Bust, Goodman Theatre. Through May 18.
‘You Will Get Sick’
Fantastical realism comes to life in Noah Diaz’s compelling play about a young man facing his mortality, and an unlikely caregiver who offers him a fresh perspective.
When the play opened in New York in 2022, the New York Times wrote, “Neither prosaic nor clinical, it defies all expectations for a story in which the main character receives a fatal diagnosis, telling the tale in the most lively, surreal and surprising ways imaginable.”
You Will Get Sick, Steppenwolf Theater Company, June 5 – July 13.
