A Scottish a capella two-hander visiting through Chicago Shakes’s World Stage series, the seaborne Islander crackles with electricity.

Whether earnest or tongue-in-cheek, these two productions seemed apt fits for the Valentine's Day season.

The book that launched a thousand ugly-cries is now a warm and bracing new musical.

This Beatles-infused As You Like It is a post-pandemic breath of fresh air.

The miracle of it all is that none of his work feels mercenary. Quite the contrary; he's a genuinely inventive chap whose deft touch for melody or turn-of-phrase can set these delicate classics spinning like a glass marble.

She's perfect for the part, dulcetly crooning its signature "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" in a rendition worthy of any cabaret in any major city around the world.

Besides the visuals, the big draw here is TV star T.R. Knight as the overinflated Bottom. He mines every opportunity for funny business — in and out of the donkey’s head — and his acting troupe’s performance of the lovers’ tragedy Pyramus & Thisbe brings down the house with overwrought bathos and underprepared stagecraft, as well any Midsummer should.

Come out and see the tale of Nelly Gwynn;
A pleasing night, ‘twill surely make you grin