Good afternoon. Chicago Theatre Week begins Friday.

Just one more week to see the national tour of "Stereophonic," which I consider a masterpiece, although not all my readers agree. I can't imagine this show being done quite like this again; the direction here is truly superlative.

Other new reviews either published now or coming soon are "Così fan tutte" at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, "The Sex Lives of Puppets" at the Biograph Theatre, "The Enormous Crocodile" at the Studebaker, "Mary Jane" at Northlight Theatre and "Little Shop of Horrors" at the Marriott Theatre in Lincolnshire. This was a busy week for me.

Now to the news: About Face Theatre has announced it will stage "Modern Gentleman" by Preston Max Allen. Opening March 18 at Raven Theatre, the show will be directed by Landree Fleming. Lookingglass Theatre ensemble member David Schwimmer is working hard around town to market the comeback of the long-lived Chicago theater company. Tickets are on sale for the next show at the Water Tower Water Works, Matthew C. Yee's "White Rooster," coming in March.

Season of Concern says it raised a record $140,000 in its holiday collections for Chicago's artistic folks in need. News of two former Chicago theater types: Eric Schroeder has been appointed general manager of New York's Public Theater. Joanie Schultz, currently associate artistic director of the Cincinnati Playhouse, is the 2026 winner of the Zelda Fichandler Award from the Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation. "This award affirms decades of deepening roots and focusing on the work rather than chasing visibility," Schultz said.

The dinner circus show Teatro ZinZanni closed down operations in Chicago on Sunday. This is not the first time the show has closed, frankly, so we'll have to see what happens next. But this leaves a fabulous downtown performance space in the Cambria Hotel presumably up for grabs. January is the cruelest month for live entertainment in this city.

A Teatro ZinZanni performance in the Spiegeltent theater at the Cambria Hotel in downtown Chicago on July 17, 2019. (Chris Sweda/Chicago Tribune)

Magician (and a favorite of mine) Lucy Darling returns to her old Chicago Magic Lounge tonight for a show. Lili-Anne Brown has a gig at New York City Center's Encores! series of concert-style musicals; she'll stage Michael John LaChiusa's "The Wild Party" in March. Katie Spelman will be the choreographer; I just caught her work in "Wonder" at the American Repertory Theatre in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

The new season at the Paramount Theatre in Aurora is certainly a step back in scale from previous years, with the holiday show being a bespoke version of "A Christmas Carol" written and directed by staffer Trent Stork. The 2026-27 season opens with next summer’s first Chicago-area production of "Mean Girls," directed by Devon Hayakawa. In 2027, the theater, which has lost much of its City of Aurora funding after a change in administrations, will stage "Sunday in the Park With George" (also directed by Stork) and end with a new 1980s-vibe take (!) on "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat," directed by Matthew Silar.

Up next, though, is the rising director Jessica Fisch's new production of "Dear Evan Hansen," which should be both affordable and easily accessible for that show's many teen fans in the city's western suburbs. No shows are being directed in the news season by the artistic director par excellence, Jim Corti, alas. And no more Bold Series, alas.

But lots of bold shows elsewhere, and I will see you at the theater.

— Chris Jones, chief theater critic

Our current list of Chris Jones Recommends: "Birds of North America" through Feb. 22 at A Red Orchid Theatre; "Stereophonic” through Feb. 8 at CIBC Theatre.