Most emailed Theater items

1. Bye Bye Liver: The Chicago Drinking Play 1

Features booze-themed sketch comedy and interactive drinking games.

2. Kama Sutra the Musical: Vegas Bound ... and Gagged 49

Local gender-bending actor John B. Boss stars in the remount of Grammy Award-winner Terry Abrahamson's X-rated musical comedy about a repressed couple's introduction to better sex. Admission includes a raffle entry for a free Sybaris getaway.

3. Beethoven, As I Knew Him

Actor-pianist Hershey Felder ("George Gershwin Alone") celebrates the life and work of Ludwig von Beethoven in a dramatization based on a true story as seen through the eyes of the composer's frequent companion during the last two years of his life.

4. Cirque du Soleil's Banana Shpeel 4

A new production written and directed by David Shiner ("Kooza") is heavy on comedy and choreography, blending slapstick with such dance forms as tap and hip-hop.

5. Girlie-Q Productions Presents: (even yet still more) Guilty Pleasures

Local burlesque performance artist Ms. Bea Haven hosts a queer revue featuring music you secretly love--or love to hate.

6. G.I.F.T.

Journey through four different environments spanning a 7,000 square foot space, where characters explore the nature of gifts, community and culture. The world premiere spectacle, conceived by creative director Sam Porretta, takes place both indoors and out.

7. 2009 Winter Pageant

Redmoon Theater remounts its annual spectacle featuring seven masked characters who journey through changing landscapes that represent the four seasons. Expect large scale sets, puppets and songs.

8. BLACKOUT presents: White People

An improv set features five male, African-American performers from iO Chicago, Annoyance Theatre, Comedy Sportz Chicago and Second City Chicago.

9. Holy $#!% It's Christmas! Where Did Jesus Go?

The fourth annual fast-paced Christmas sketch revue features songs and dance.

10. My Fair Lady

In Lerner and Loewe's classic musical (adapted from George Bernard Shaw's "Pygmalion"), a phonetics professor makes a wager that he can transform an unrefined, Cockney flower girl into a lady.

11. The Santaland Diaries

An adaptation of David Sedaris' humorous and irreverent essay that details his bizarre experiences and struggle to maintain dignity as a Macy's Christmas elf.

12. The David Bowie Hepzikat Velvet Flarney Solstice Spectacular…Live From Space! (David Bowie's Christmas Special 1977 Network Edit)

Characters portraying Mick Jagger, Annie Lennox, Iggy Pop, Marianne Faithfull, Charo, the ghost of Freddie Mercury and yes, David Bowie appear in a fictional '70s TV-style Christmas special.

13. A Christmas Carol

Chicago actor Larry Yando recreates his role as Scrooge in Tom Creamer's stage adaptation of Charles Dickens' classic tale of Ebenezer Scrooge and the true meaning of Christmas.

14. The Addams Family 3

Tony Award-winners Nathan Lane and Bebe Neuwirth star as Gomez and Morticia in the pre-Broadway world premiere of the musical based on the bizarre family of characters created by cartoonist Charles Addams.

15. Broadway 's 'Young Frankenstein' is a monster mishmash

By Chris Jones - November 14, 2007

With the Broadway musical version of 'Young Frankenstein,' Mel Brooks has created a colossal dud

16. Delight Before Christmas

When a lonely TV anchorwoman posts a personals ad on Craigslist, the Craigster Fairy leads her on a quest--through GLBT-themed classical burlesque, boylesque, drag, butoh dance, juggling, drag and other performances--to find the meaning of the holiday season.

17. The Nutcracker by the Joffrey Ballet

The Joffrey Ballet of Chicago and the Chicago Sinfonietta Orchestra perform Tchaikovsky's classic Christmas ballet.

18. Stand and deliver

By Glenn Jeffers - March 7, 2008

In a town full of improv and temptations to move elsewhere, the stand-up scene still has its stars

19. pHrenzy PG

A fast-paced, family-friendly show in which eight improv artists compete for audience votes and suffer arbitrary eliminations.

20. Blue Man Group 3

This long-running and constantly evolving hit show combines performance art and slapstick comedy into a unique theatrical event.

21. The Best of The Second City

Humorous highlights from their most popular revues.

22. 'Lofty' goals

By Rebecca Palmore - November 10, 2009

A local playwright brings Jon Langford’s music and paintings to life

23. Theater review: 'The History Boys'

By Chris Jones - May 12, 2009

Alan Bennett's powerful and sophisticated play one of the best ever written about education

24. I Learned it from Watching You!

A sketch comedy revue explores the relationship between adolescent TV-watching and adult social disorders and disappointments.

25. Snow White and the Drag Queen Who Stole Christmas

A campy mash-up of the classic fairytale and Dr. Seuss story, "How the Grinch Stole Christmas," in which an evil madame attempts to ruin Christmas for a family of drag queens. The show concludes with a drag revue.