5 fabulous touring shows that made Chicago stops

The Drowsy Chaperone (Broadway in Chicago)
The Man in the Chair, the fussy musical-theaterphile who narrates this delightful tribute to his favorite (fictional) 1920s Broadway champagne comedy, is the kind of implacable playgoer who would turn his nose up at the idea of watching a “road company.” So the fact that the touring production of the Tony-winning wink-fest Chaperone (one of the only truly great metamusicals) was so muscular and alert, filling even the impossibly large Cadillac Palace, made it all the more satisfying.

Gatz (Elevator Repair Service at the MCA)
When the executors of the F. Scott Fitzgerald estate forbade Elevator Repair Service from performing their eight-hour adaptation of The Great Gatsby in their native New York City (so as not to compete with a possible, more lucrative Broadway production), they probably screwed themselves out of a new generation of Gatsby devotees. ERS’s achingly beautiful word-for-word staging of the novel could make a fan out of anyone. But at least the New York ban forces the show out of town, and into places like the MCA.

If You See Something, Say Something (Mike Daisey at the MCA)
Solo artist Mike Daisey has spent years performing his monologue plays at theaters around the country, but he’d never set foot in Chicago until he brought the pre-New York engagement of his screed against Homeland Security to the MCA. Improvising from notes on yellow legal pages, the bombastic performer ripped ferociously into the phony, federal-generated fear that has permeated the national psyche since the Second World War. With his exhausting research, winning fusion of history and personal anecdotes, and trademark sweat-drenched no- shit humor, Daisey revealed at long last to Chicagoans that he’s the American theater’s Lewis Black.

Midsummer Night’s Dream (Chicago Shakespeare)
The Indian and Sri Lankan cast of Tim Supple’s Midsummer performed this exhilaratingly physical staging in no fewer than seven languages: Hindi, Bengali, Marathi, Malayalam, Tamil, Sinhalese and English. The fact that we scarcely noticed when they slipped out of English proved that the play is, indeed, the thing, regardless of the tongue in which it’s spoken.

Sandra Bernhard’s Halloween Show (Steppenwolf)
When times are good, invaluably caustic cabaret artist Sandra Bernhard is very, very good. But when Sarah Palin is running for the Vice Presidency, she’s better.

For more of the best of 2008, visit timeoutchicago.com/2008lists.