Top 5 Shows “A Steady Rain,” Chicago Dramatists “Another Day in the Empire,” Black Sheep “Diversey Harbor,” Theatre Seven “Impress These Apes,” Blewt “Machos,” Teatro Luna —Nina Metz
Top 5 Theatrical Experiences “Massacre (Sing to Your Children),” Teatro Luna/Goodman “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf,” Broadway in Chicago “What the Butler Saw,” Court “Passion,” Chicago Shakespeare “Lunatic(a)s,” Teatro Luna —Fabrizio O. Almeida
Top 5 Plays “Doubt,” Broadway in Chicago “Othello,” Writers Theatre “The Crucible,” Steppenwolf “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” Broadway in Chicago “Golden Child,” Silk Road Theatre Project —Dennis Polkow
Top 5 Musical Theater Productions “The Color Purple,” Broadway in Chicago “Passion,” Chicago Shakespeare “Kiss Me Kate,” Light Opera Works “Camelot,” Broadway in Chicago “Ragtime,” Porchlight —Dennis Polkow
Top 5 Opera Productions “Die Frau ohne Schatten,” Lyric Opera “Madama Butterfly,” Ravinia “Return of Ulysses,” Chicago Opera “Bitter Sweet,” Light Opera Works “Julius Caesar,” Lyric Opera —Dennis Polkow
Top 5 Solo Shows Margot Bordelon, “Love, Valor, and Technology,” Live Bait Brooke Bagnall, “Idiot: A Love Story in Pieces,” Annoyance Arlene Malinowski, “Till Deaf Do Us Part,” Live Bait Bob Kulhan, “Bing Faithful’s Very Merry Nondenominational Holiday Special,” i.O. Hans Holsen, “Dennis Tar, High School Tennis Star,” Annoyance —Nina Metz
Top 5 New Plays “Passion Play,” Goodman “Massacre (Sing to Your Children),” Teatro Vista/Goodman “Lady,” Northlight “The Busy World is Hushed,” Next “Feast,” Chicago Dramatists —Fabrizio O. Almeida
Top 5 Revivals “What the Butler Saw,” Court “Arcadia,” Court “Othello,” Writers Theater “The Diary of Anne Frank,” Steppenwolf “Mrs. Warren’s Profession,” Remy Bumppo —Fabrizio O. Almeida
Top 5 Memorable Productions by a Smaller Theater Troupe “Katzelmacher,” The Side Project “The Trestle at Pope Lick Creek,” Thunder and Lighting Ensemble “Mr. Marmalade,” Dog & Pony “Red Light Winter,” Thunder and Lightning Ensemble “Sueño,” Greasy Joan & Co —Fabrizio O. Almeida
Top 5 Female Performances Amy Morton, “August: Osage County,” Steppenwolf Danica Ivancevic, “Faith Healer,” Uma Mechelle Moe, “The Bald Soprano,” The Hypocrites Heather Tyler, “Dirty Diamonds,” Factory Simone Roos, “Fool For Love,” Signal Ensemble —Nina Metz
Top 5 Male Performances Colm O’Reilly, “The Strangerer,” Theater Oobleck Andy Hager, “It’s Only the End of the World,” TUTA Randy Steinmeyer and Peter DeFaria, “A Steady Rain,” Chicago Dramatists Sean Sinitski, “Another Day in the Empire,” Black Sheep Dominic Green, “The Permanent Way,” New Leaf —Nina Metz
Top 5 Guilty Pleasures “Machos,” Teatro Luna “The Hourglass in The Stop Time Chronicles,” Chicago Tap Theatre “Tiger Prawn: The Mountain Mover,” Chicago Dance Crash “The Baby Killers,” Dream Theatre “Eva Peron,” Trap Door —Fabrizio O. Almeida
Top 5 Set Designs Melania Lancy’s ratty motel room for “Fool For Love,” Signal Ensemble John Wilson’s honky-tonk bar for “Coronado,” Steep Peter O’Keefe’s garbage-strewn flat for “Mercury Fur,” Broken Compass Tom Burch’s police precinct for “A Steady Rain,” Chicago Dramatists Brian Sydney Bembridge’s church meeting hall for “Faith Healer,” Uma Productions —Nina Metz
Top 5 Productions I’d Rather Forget “Dr. Atomic,” Lyric Opera “The Fool (returns to his chair),” Neo Futurists “Mirror of the Invisible World,” Goodman Theatre “Lookinglass Alice,” Lookinglass “Some Girl(s),” Profiles —Fabrizio O. Almeida
Top 5 Theatrical Disappointments “Thyestes,” Court “The Sparrow,” House/Broadway in Chicago “Three Sisters,” Gift “Mercury Fur,” Broken Compass “Scotland Road,” Oracle Productions —Fabrizio O. Almeida
Related Stories
Stage Top 5: May 2021 May brings flowers and the first buds of live performance in over a year.
Stage Top 5: February 2019 The hits keep coming: August Wilson's blues-tinged vision of Chicago in the twenties, a locally-set sequel-of-sorts from the playwright of "The Madres," and a rock musical from the company that brought you "We're Gonna Die" are just a selection of the many openings scheduled for this most-truncated of months.
Stage Top 5: October 2020 October proves Chicago performers will find powerful ways to speak to the moment, with or without traditional stages.
