Destinos, 7th Chicago International Latino Theater Festival
September 30-November 17
As great as Chicago theater is, the chance to see work from abroad is sadly meager most of the time. But the Destinos festival is a remedy for that, bringing in productions from across Latin America—including Brazil, Chile, Argentina and Mexico this year—as well as Chicago and the rest of the United States. This will be the festival’s biggest year yet, with twenty-two productions, including four world premieres, all over the city’s largest and smallest theaters.
Some Like It Hot
Cadillac Palace Theatre
October 22-November 3
If not for the pandemic, Chicago would have been the out-of-town tryout back in 2021 for the then-future multi-Tony Award-winning musical. Better late than never, even if it means we’re unlikely to see J. Harrison Ghee’s history-making turn as one of the leads. (Casting is not yet announced.) But the Broadway show was praised for the way it updated the interpersonal and racial dynamics of its jazz age, men-in-drag-on-the-run-from-Chicago-mobsters story. And the music, from acclaimed tunesmith Marc Shaiman, went on to win a Grammy Award to place beside those Tonys.
Blue
Lyric Opera of Chicago
November 16-December 1
The Chicago premiere of this new opera, co-produced by the Lyric, promises to be poignant, heartbreaking and yet a musical treat, with a score by Tony Award-winner Jeanine Tesori, a powerful libretto by Tazewell Thompson and the Lyric premiere of bass Kenneth Kellogg. And the story, “of a Black middle-class family in Harlem whose hopes and dreams for their teenage son are shattered when he is shot by a white police officer,” sounds like it’s ripped out of today’s newspaper headlines.
