The cicadas are dying off, but the summer performing arts season is still going full steam ahead. Here are some of the buzziest options to savor in the next couple of months.
COMEDY/VARIETY (Kerry Reid)
Delirium: The Pansy Craze
To close out Pride month, Willy LaQueue (aka Chicago’s Demon Dandy) hosts an evening of “dancing disrobing divas, sirens of song, and feats from freakish fiends!” Inspired by 1920s underground performers, Delirium explores how queer performance aesthetics have been “shaping and shifting culture” before and after the roaring twenties. Featured acts include Faggedy Randy and P. No Black. 6/28-6/29: Fri-Sat 9:30 PM, Newport Theater, 956 W. Newport, 773-270-3440, newporttheater.com$35-$45
Windy City Comedy Fest Preview
In 2025, Den Theatre plans to unveil an ambitious new festival of stand-up standouts. You can get an early taste at this one-night-only benefit, featuring sets by Kristen ToomeyJunior Stopka (an alum of the Reader People issue), Dwayne Kennedyand Ariel Julie. The Den has become a go-to for comediansboth local and national, and a festival celebrating Chicago’s central role in fostering a healthy comedy scene makes perfect sense for the venue. Thu 8/8 7:15 PM, Den Theatre, 1331 N. Milwaukee, 773-697-3830, thedentheatre.com$16-$36 (two-drink minimum)
DANCE (Irene Hsiao)
Tend
Make an appointment with dancers Enid Smith, Chih-Hsien Lin, Gina Hoch-Stall, Helen Lee, and Tina Diaz for an intimate and personal experience of touch, conversation, and movement in Khecari’s Tend in the Yates Gallery of the Chicago Cultural Center. The hour-long performances begin every 30 minutes within an installation of photography, projection, and fabric. Director Julia Rae Antonick says, “I first started thinking about this work because of a curiosity on what might be the other needs being met behind the prevalent practices of grooming services (hair, nails, etc.) and did a deep dive into same-species social grooming (allogrooming). At the same time, I was also interested in thinking about a world in which a weekly or monthly dance appointment was deemed as necessary or important as one’s therapy appointment or hair appointment. Sometimes there is a feeling of dance being an extravagance that one can’t figure out how to make time for or pay for.” 6/27 and 6/29 and 7/6, 7/8, 7/11, 7/13, and 7/18 (appointments scheduled between noon and 5 PM); Chicago Cultural Center, 78 E. Washington, khecari.org/tendfree
Carmen.maquia
With a title that plays on tauromaquia, or “bullfighting,” and imagery inspired by Picasso, Gustavo Ramírez Sansano’s evening-length work, inspired by Prosper Mérimée’s novella Carmen and including music from Bizet’s opera, returns to Chicago in a production by Visceral Dance Chicago in their debut on the MCA stage. Choreographed during Sansano’s tenure as director of Chicago’s Luna Negra Dance Theater and performed just once at the Harris Theater in 2012 before the company folded in 2013, the work combines contemporary dance with flamenco and pasodoble on a minimalist, monochrome set by Luis Crespo. Performed by Ballet Hispánico and BalletMet in the U.S., as well as Titoyaya Dansa (Sansano’s company in Valencia, Spain), this will be the work’s first time back on a Chicago stage in 12 years. 6/28-6/30, Fri 8 PM, Sat 2 and 8 PM, Sun 2 PM, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, 220 E. Chicago, $25-$175, visceraldance.com/performances
Cycles
Four choreographers—Carrie Hanson and Gabriela Chavez of the Seldoms, Rigo Saura of Hedwig, and Ginger Farley—present together in this mixed bill. Hanson and Farley revisit and revise works from 2005 originally commissioned by Same Planet Performance Project. Hanson’s All at Onceinspired by Picasso’s painting The Ladies of Avignon and the principles of cubism, danced in its premiere 19 years ago by SPPP’s Joanna Rosenthal Read, is reconceived for Seldoms dancer Haley Marcin. In Farley’s betweenJeff Hancock, who danced solo in 2005, will return, joined by Adeline Else and Rigo Saura. Saura performs solo in his work BECAUSEan exploration of his cultural roots that includes footage from 1950s Cuban cinema, created as part of his 2023 Links Hall Co-Mission fellowship. And Chavez presents cyclesa duet examining numbness and anger in grief, for fellow Seldoms dancers Marcin and Damon D. Green. This program celebrates relationships and generations in Chicago dance. 7/12-7/13, Fri-Sat 7:30 PM, Ruth Page Center for the Arts, 1016 N. Dearborn, eventbrite.com/e/cycles-tickets-911075911577$15-$50
OPERA (Deanna Isaacs)
African Queens
Soprano Karen Slack and pianist Kevin Miller lead a program that features new works for voice and piano by seven contemporary composers, connected by narrative text and set among some traditional repertoire. Ravinia Festival was the lead commissioner for this project, which honors seven African queens who were celebrated rulers and warriors. Slack, an alum of Ravinia’s Steans Music Institute, is also Lyric Opera’s 2024–2025 artist in residence. The new work is by Jasmine Barnes, Damien Geter, Jessie Montgomery, Shawn Okpebholo, Dave Ragland, Carlos Simon, and Joel Thompson. The Martin Theatre is Ravinia’s vintage indoor venue; unlike the Pavilion, it is entirely enclosed. Thu 8/1 7:30 PM (gates open 5 PM); Martin Theatre, Ravinia Festival, 201 Ravinia Park Road (West Parking Lot), Highland Park; ravinia.org847-266-5100, Martin Theatre $40-$60, lawn $15
Sunday in the Park With Lyric
Members of the Patrick G. and Shirley W. Ryan Opera Center (Lyric Opera’s training program for the stars of tomorrow) and the Lyric Opera Orchestra present a free preview of the upcoming Lyric season. This year that could mean glorious music from Verdi’s RigolettoBeethoven’s FidelioPuccini’s Bohemianand Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaroalong with pieces from two contemporary operas making their Lyric premieres: Blue (by composer Jeanine Tesori and librettist Tazewell Thompson), and The Listeners (by composer Missy Mazzoli and librettist Royce Vavrek). If the weather cooperates, it’s a can’t-miss combination of great talent, wonderful music, and a fabulous, only-in-Chicago venue. Sun 8/25 7 PM; Jay Pritzker Pavilion, Millennium Park, 201 E. Randolph, lyricopera.org312-827-5600, free
THEATER (Kerry Reid)
Spank Bank Time Machine
After a short run at the Neo-Futurists last fall, solo performer John Michael brings his funny and aching piece about friendship, drugs, and mankinis to Steppenwolf’s LookOut series this weekend. The self-described “trauma clown” talks about sex, the pain of losing friends to overdose, and Narcan as a tool for “time travel” in saving lives. Information about Narcan will be available at each performance through the Community Outreach Intervention Projects of the University of Illinois Chicago School of Public Health. 6/28-6/29: Fri-Sat 8 PM, Sun 3 PM; ASL interpretation at 6/30 performance; Steppenwolf 1700 Theater, 1700 N. Halsted, steppenwolf.org$25
Magical Thinking
David Parr—cocreator of the long-running Magic Cabaret back in 2007 and the Chicago Magic Lounge’s first artist in residence when it opened in 2018—returns to the Magic Lounge with his latest show. As the title implies, the show dives into the “power of magical thinking.” Through folklore, history, games, and storytelling, Parr illustrates how magic provides a respite from the humdrum restrictions of daily life. 7/3-9/25, Wed 7 PM, Chicago Magic Lounge, 5050 N. Clark, 312-366-4500, chicagomagiclounge.com$42.50-$47.50
Hedwig and the Angry Inch
Haven Chicago goes out the way they came in—with a big, raucous dose of queer musical theater. The company’s first production back in 2013, John Cameron Mitchell and Stephen Trask’s portrait of trans East Berlin refugee Hedwig (and her doomed obsession with musical protege Tommy Gnosis) now serves as their swan song. Over the past 11 years, Haven has delivered some of my favorite shows, including 2019’s The Total Bent by Stew and Heidi Rodewald, and Young Jean Lee’s We’re Gonna Die in 2017. The company also made its mark with the innovative Director’s Haven program, which helped emerging artists go through the process of putting a fully staged short play on its feet. For HedwigJD Caudill directs a genderqueer cast, including Hell in a Handbag regular Tyler Anthony Smith in the title role and Ismael García as bandmate Yitzhak. 7/5-8/4: Thu-Fri 7:30 PM, Sat 3 and 7:30 PM, Sun 3 PM; industry night Mon 7/22 7:30 PM, understudy performance Wed 7/31 7:30 PM; Den Theatre, 1331 N. Milwaukee, 773-697-3830, havenchi.orgpay-what-you-can previews 7/5-7/9, regular run 7/10-8/4 $36 (reserved $46, students and industry $21)
Wells and Welles
The story behind (and after) Orson Welles’s career-making 1938 radio adaptation of H.G. Wells’s The War of the Worlds forms the basis for Chicago writer Amy Crider’s world premiere, presented by Lucid Theater. The Mercury Theatre on the Air Halloween broadcast famously scared the bejesus out of listeners who tuned in late and thought the “breaking news” updates were reporting on an actual alien invasion. Welles never got permission from Wells to do the radio version, which angered the older writer. Crider’s play takes place in a San Antonio hotel in 1940, where both men happen to be staying during separate lecture tours, and creates a fictional conversation between them. Amber Mandley directs, with Pete Blatchford as Wells and Gerrit Wilford as Welles. 7/18-8/11: Thu-Sat 7:30 PM, Sun 3 PM; City Lit Theater, 1020 W. Bryn Mawr, lucidtheater.com$25
The Lord of the Rings—A Musical Tale
It’s not Shakespeare, but it’s undeniably epic. This musical version of J.R.R. Tolkien’s classic trilogy of elves, hobbits, dwarves, and all the other denizens of Middle-earth (which celebrates its 70th anniversary in July) gets its U.S. premiere with Chicago Shakespeare in the company’s Yard space. The all-star creative collaboration features book and lyrics by Shaun McKenna and Matthew Warchus and original music by Academy Award–winner A.R. Rahman (Bombay Dreams, Slumdog Millionaire), Finnish folk band Värttinä, and Tony Award–winner Christopher Nightingale (Matilda the Musical). Paul Hart directs an expansive cast featuring former Chicago actor Tom Amandes as Gandalf, Spencer Davis Milford as Frodo, Rick Hall as Bilbo, and Tony Bozzuto as Gollum. At two and a half hours, it’s a lot less of a timesuck than sitting through the Peter Jackson films again. 7/19-9/1: Tue 7 PM, Wed 1 and 7 PM, Thu-Fri 7 PM, Sat 2 and 7 PM, Sun 2 PM; Chicago Shakespeare Theater, 800 E. Grand, 312-595-5600, chicagoshakes.com$41-$125
Little Carl
Theatre Y’s puppet play has had a few different iterations in recent years, and it returns this summer in two different settings. Based on an original script by Michael Montenegro, with a prologue and epilogue by Marvin Tate, Little Carl addresses the epidemic of gun violence by reminding the audience that they can bring a “sense of purpose, wonder and vigor to the traumas of an all too common violent world.” It goes up for two performances at the Physical Theater Festival before returning to Theatre Y’s home venue in North Lawndale. Physical Theater Festival, Tue-Wed 7/16-7/16, 7 PM, Theater Wit, 1229 W. Belmont, 773-975-8150, physicalfestival.com$22.75 (artists/veterans/seniors/students $17.75); 7/20-8/4, Sat 3 and 7 PM, Sun 3 PM, Theatre Y, 3611 W. Cermak, theatre-y.comfree, but reservations recommended