By Sydney Milligan
“There’s nothing like summer in the city,” said Aaron Burr in Lin-Manuel Miranda’s blockbuster Hamilton. Indeed, there is nothing comparable to summertime and nothing like summer theatre, especially in Chicago.
This area is highly regarded as a performing arts mecca that presents its greatest theatrical offerings once warmer weather has Chicago more bustling and entertainment more sought after. The 2022 summer/fall theatre season will prove no exception to this tradition.
From big budget musicals set for Main Stem (Broadway) debuts directly after their Windy City stints to local gems and more intimate storefront drama for which this area is famous, the middle of this year will see a sensational new season of Chicago theatre.
The Nederlander Organization’s Broadway in Chicago, the crown jewel of Chicago’s theatre district, will contribute to the summer and autumn theatrical lineup with a host of new works and pre-Broadway engagements as well as the finest first national tour productions.
Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss’s pop musical sensation Six about the spouses of England’s famed King Henry VIII, which had its North American debut at Navy Pier’s Chicago Shakespeare Theater, returns home to the City of Broad Shoulders in the “Aragon” touring production—nicknamed after the Tudor monarch’s first bride, Catherine of Aragon—and reigns at the CIBC Theatre through Sunday, July 3.
Cadillac Palace selections
The road show of Lincoln Center Theater’s production of My Fair Lady guarantees a loverly time at the Cadillac Palace Theater through Sunday, July 10. The 50th anniversary tour production of Jesus Christ Superstar, spawned from the spring 2018 Lyric Opera production and starring NBC’s The Voice standout and Chicago area native Sandy Redd back in her “Soul Girl” role, will ride back into town and provide a divine experience when it takes over at the Cadillac Palace from Tuesday through Sunday, July 19 through 31.
Tony Award winner Beth Leavel will star as the malevolent Miranda Priestly alongside Taylor Iman Jones as ingenue Andy Sachs in the long awaited pre-Broadway engagement of the musical adaptation of The Devil Wears Prada, featuring music by Elton John, at the Nederlander Theatre from Tuesday, July 19, through Sunday, Aug. 21, upholding Broadway in Chicago’s longstanding tradition as a New York launching pad with its summer and fall stagings of pre-Broadway tryouts.
Once the heat of deep summer dies down, autumn will see the welcome return of family-friendly national tour favorites Anastasia (running Tuesday through Sunday, Sept. 20 through 25, at CIBC Theatre), Wicked back at the Nederlander where it has a “sit down” (extended) run, beginning Wednesday, Sept. 28, and The Lion King (once again prowling the Cadillac Palace starting Thursday, Nov. 17) to the heart of Chicago’s theatre district. Broadway In Chicago also just recently announced their annual summer concert/upcoming season showcase in Millenium Park at the Jay Pritzker Pavilion will be returning this year on Monday, August 15.
The Goodman Theatre will offer its star-studded Midwest premiere of the new musical Life After (playing in the venue’s Albert Theatre through Sunday, July 17) as well as Where We Belong (depicting an indigenous theatre artist and scholar’s journey to reconcile her Native ancestors’ past with her current reality in a turbulent UK, in performance at Goodman’s Owen Theatre through Sunday, July 24), Lynn Nottage’s recent comedy Clyde’s (at Albert Theatre Saturday, Sept. 10, through Sunday, Oct. 9), and Swing State (a political drama at Goodman’s Owen Theatre Friday Oct. 7, through Sunday, Nov. 13).
Just off of Theatre Row downtown at the Fine Arts Building’s Studebaker Theater, Skates, a new work based on creator Christine Rea’s real-life experience growing up at the Lynwood Roller Rink in the 1970s and starring American Idol alumni Diana Degarmo and Ace Young, will serve up summer fun with a side of big heart and heavy dose of nostalgia until last call on Sunday, Aug. 28. Further up Michigan Avenue on the Magnificent Mile, Lookingglass Theatre brings back its signature Lookingglass Alice—a daring Lewis Carroll meets Cirque Du Soleil wonderland bound to leave audiences curiouser and curiouser—through the end of July.
Navy Pier
Not far from the Mag Mile, Navy Pier’s celebrated Chicago Shakespeare Theatre will debut several shows during this summer and autumn, including the new musical comedy It Came From Outer Space (based on the science fiction picture of the same name, playing through Sunday, July 24), the world premiere of the already Broadway-slated musical adaptation of Nicholas Sparks’s The Notebook (directed by Michael Grief and Schele Williams and featuring music by songstress Ingrid Michaelson, running Tuesday Sept. 6, through Sunday, Oct. 16), and a reimagining of the Bard’s Measure for Measure set in just pre-Castro 1950s Cuba and directed by Chicago theatre icon Henry Godinez (Friday, Oct. 21, through Sunday, Nov. 27).
Over in Old Town, Steppenwolf Theatre will present ensemble member Tarell Alvin McCraney’s Tony nominated drama Choir Boy, playing through Sunday, July 24. Jackie Taylor’s Black Ensemble Theater in the Uptown neighborhood, reputed for its original musicals, is putting forward two new works: My Brother Langston, Saturday, Aug. 13, through Sunday, Sept. 18, and Blue Heaven, Saturday, Oct. 22, through Sunday, Nov. 27.
Toward the west, the Oak Park Theatre Festival will offer some cool refreshment during the dog days of summer with its interpretation of Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale from Wednesday, July 13, through Saturday, Aug. 20. For fall, the festival will mount a frightening, fresh approach to Bram Stoker’s Dracula just in time for Halloween from Wednesday, Oct. 12, through Sunday, Nov. 20.
In Hyde Park, the University of Chicago’s Court Theatre, winner of the 2022 Regional Theatre Tony Award, will remain an anchor of dramatic arts on the South Side, putting up productions of Arsenic and Old Lace from Friday, Sept. 2, through Sunday, Oct. 2, and The Island, a drama about South Africa’s Robben Island jail, starting on Veteran’s Day, Friday, Nov. 11.
With all the impressive performing arts offerings across the Chicago area, there is something for every taste this theatrical season.