One of Chicago’s greatest treasures for its LGBTQ+ community and its allies is the city’s queer theater scene. As the 2023–24 season kicks in, there will be no shortage of queer stories playing out on Chicago’s stages.
Uptown-based LGBTQ+ theater stalwart PrideArts got an early start, kicking off its fall season back in August with Ryan Korell and Jonathan Keebler’s musical Gay Card, which runs through September 24. Directed by Jay Españo, Gay Card centers on a college freshman looking for an “in” among the gay crowd at his new school.
In November, PrideArts presents the adult pantomime Sleeping With Beauty, written by Tom Whalley and directed by Bryan McCaffrey, the same team behind last year’s delightfully vulgar Jack Off the Beanstalk, one of my favorites from 2022. Sleeping With Beauty centers on Princess A’whora (it’ll be that kind of show) trying to stave off a curse from the evil fairy Carabitch.
Edgewater-based Redtwist Theatre kicks off the season with a reimagining of their own—a “gory, gay” retelling of the Little Red Riding Hood fable, Wolves, which runs October 1-November 5. Written by Steve Yockey and directed by Redtwist artistic director Dusty Brown, Wolves is the story of roommates and former lovers Ben (Joshua Servantes) and Jack (Gardy Gilbert) struggling with their isolation in a new city. Ben and Jack’s tenuous relationship unravels even further when Jack brings back a new lover. Redtwist’s “season of pride” continues after Wolves with Larry Kramer’s classic The Normal Heart.
Open Space Arts has been presenting the drama Massage Therapy, which was written by Joe Godfrey and directed by David Zak. Running through October 1, Massage Therapy centers on the friendship between a woman (Mary Anne Bowman) and her longtime massage therapist (Raymond Nicholas).
The relatively young Mosaic Players (founded in 2020) are presenting performances of the comedy 5 Lesbians Eating a Quiche by Evan Linder and Andrew Hobgood at a number of venues, both suburban and in the city, throughout the fall. According to artistic director Allison Fradkin, the show is “a scintillating satire of women’s roles in the 1950s—not to mention an unapologetic declaration of lesbi-independence!”
Skokie’s MadKap Productions offers two shows that should be of interest to queer audiences, with the first being the classic musical A Chorus Line by James Kirkwood, Nicholas Dante, Edward Kleban, and Marvin Hamlisch. Featuring beloved songs like “What I Did for Love,” “One,” and “I Can Do That,” this production, directed by Wayne Mell, is running now through October 8 at Skokie Theatre.
MadKap follows up A Chorus Line with gay writer/performer Charles Busch’s acclaimed The Tale of the Allergist’s Wife. Centering on an Upper West Side housewife in the midst of an existential crisis, this production, directed by Steve Scott, runs October 27-November 19, also at the Skokie Theatre.
The Seven Thirty Theatre Company offers up a new production of the musical The Color Purple September 30-October 1 at the Studebaker Theater. This stage version of Alice Walker’s 1982 novel—about a Black woman in the south who finds her self-worth in part thanks to a loving relationship with her husband’s longtime mistress—first appeared on Broadway in 2005 and received even more acclaim with a 2015 revival. A new film adaptation of the musical appears in cinemas this Christmas.
Members of City Lit Theater Company will appear at various locations in and around Chicago October 2-7, which is Banned Books Week, for Books on the Chopping Block, a one-hour program of readings from the top ten books banned in 2022. Among the books excerpted are Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe; All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson; Flamer by Mike Curato; and The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky. Additional readings are scheduled for September 27 and November 14. The program is presented in conjunction with the American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom.
Evanston’s Fleetwood-Jourdain Theatre presents This Bitter Earth by Harrison David Rivers October 28-November 12 at Noyes Cultural Arts Center in Evanston. The drama addresses issues of race, class, and courage as it centers on an introspective Black playwright whose political apathy is called out by his boyfriend, a white Black Lives Matter activist.
Northwestern University stages Bob Martin, Chad Beguelin, and Matthew Sklar’s musical The Prom November 10-19 at the Ethel M. Barber Theater in Evanston. Directed and choreographed by Tor Campbell, The Prom, winner of a Drama Desk Award for best musical, focuses on four eccentric Broadway divas who enlist in a small-town girl’s efforts to bring her girlfriend to her high school prom.
It’s not the most LGBTQ+-positive portrayal of same-sex love in the world, but I’d be remiss to leave out Court Theatre’s upcoming production of James Goldman’s The Lion in Winter, which addresses the man-on-man bed-hopping of Philip II of France (and shows off the most dysfunctional family Christmas ever). The Court production runs November 3-December 3 and is directed by Ron OJ Parson.
Porchlight Music Theatre will have a season-long tribute to Cole Porter, culminating in its production of Anything Goes this winter. Programming for the tribute will include a free virtual roundtable discussion centering on Porter’s contributions as a gay artist, scheduled for January 8 at noon.
Theo (formerly Theo Ubique Cabaret Theatre) in Evanston kicks off a number of Stephen Sondheim productions this season with Assassins, running October 27-December 17.
About Face Theatre this fall will focus its energies on Re/Generation Studio, a public workshop series aimed at creating “a collective dreaming space for connecting with each other, learning about new plays, world-building, and exploring new production models. Each workshop will be grounded by staged readings of sections of new plays designed to invite conversation, collaboration, and creation in a shared space,” according to the company.
The workshop dates and times are still to be determined but About Face is aiming for sessions between November 30 and December 16 at the Den Theatre in Wicker Park. The workshops are free and open to the public (recommended for ages 12 and over).
The company, which held similar sessions this past winter, hopes the workshops will help them to more meaningfully engage the public after the pandemic shutdown. Cocurator Pen Wilder says: “Re/Generation Studio is all about taking the risk of coming together and sharing experiences. The perspective I gained through the [previous] workshops as an artist, a playwright, and a person were invaluable. Every great play was once a new play, and being there for so many different beginnings, middles, and ends is something really special.” And on Saturday September 23, 5:30 PM, About Face presents Loud and Proud, a concert of Broadway hits by queer composers at Navy Pier as part of the free Chicago Live! festival.
