But wait, there's more…
THE COMEDY OF ERRORS September 16–October 17
Director Sean Graney gives Shakespeare’s farciest farce the quick-change treatment, employing just six actors to play 23 characters. Erik Hellman and Alex Goodrich each play a set of twins in the mistaken-identity comedy. Court Theatre (5535 S Ellis Ave, 773-753-4472, courttheatre.org). $30–$60.
COMPANY September 25–November 14
Amid a September glut of enticing musical offerings from theaters that aren’t the usual musical suspects (Candide at the Goodman, She Loves Me at Writers’, Daddy Long Legs at Northlight), Griffin Theatre Company revives Stephen Sondheim and George Furth’s 1970 study of contemporary relationships, groundbreaking in its day for its nonlinear structure. Some of the cultural references in the vignettes about perpetual bachelor Bobby and his married friends can feel dated now, but we’re looking forward to sensitive, inventive director Jonathan Berry’s take on the material. Stage 773 (1225 W Belmont Ave, 773-327-5252, stage773.com). $TBA.
GHOSTBOX September 30–October 31
HALFSHUT November 4–December 4
We don’t yet have many details about these new works—playwright Randall Colburn is still writing them. But what we’ve seen so far from the prolific young writer (six plays produced by three companies in 2010 alone) shows such an aversion to cliché that we’re eager to see what shape Ghostbox, a Halloween spooker, and Halfshut, a meditation on “the anticlimax that is your twenties,” end up taking. Ghostbox: InFusion Theatre Company at Apollo Theater Studio (2540 N Lincoln Ave, infusiontheatre.com). $20, students and seniors $12. Halfshut: Right Brain Project (4001 N Ravenswood Ave, 773-750-2033, therbp.org). $15.
THE SEAGULL October 16–November 14
Bob Falls’s production of Chekhov’s classic comic tragedy sports a cast rich with homegrown talent. Headed by old hands Mary Beth Fisher and Francis Guinan (making his Goodman debut, believe it or not), the ensemble also includes some of the most accomplished Chicago-bred actors of the next generation: Cliff Chamberlain, Stephen Louis Grush, Kelly O’Sullivan and Dieterich Gray. Goodman Theatre (170 N Dearborn St, 312-443-3800, goodmantheatre.org). $10–$45.
BOOJUM! NONSENSE, TRUTH AND LEWIS CARROLL November 16–December 19
See if this doesn’t pique your curiosity: Caffeine Theatre (the poetry-centered troupe responsible for two of our favorite recent productions, Under Milk Wood and Wild Nights with Emily) and Chicago Opera Vanguard (the forward-thinking company that’s brought youthful, DIY energy to contemporary works like Mark-Anthony Turnage’s Greek) collaborate on the U.S. premiere of a cult-hit 1986 Australian musical that profiles the Rev. Charles Dodgson and his alter ego, Carroll, via his epic poem The Hunting of the Snark. We don’t know what the hell this thing will look like, but we certainly don’t want to miss it. DCA Storefront Theater (66 E Randolph St, 312-742-8497, dcatheater.org). $25, students and seniors $15.
