Chicago Theaters Centering Women's Stories This Women's History Month

Choices abound for audiences looking to celebrate the stories of women this Women’s History Month on stages all throughout Chicagoland.

This March, many Chicago theatres are presenting productions that encourage and celebrate the vital role of women in American history, including comedy, drama, and family-friendly productions.

League of Chicago Theatres Executive Director Marissa Lynn Ford, “Women have consistently expanded the boundaries of what theater can represent and how it can address the most pressing issues of our time. Their work remains crucial to understanding both the past and the evolving present of society.  This month, as we celebrate Women’s History Month, we invite the public to celebrate and honor the stories, work and influence of the women on our stages by attending a production.”

Additional details about each of the Women’s History Month offerings are available at ChicagoPlays.com and HotTix.org, Chicago’s local, discounted ticketing service.

The following is a selection of work in Chicago available in March in celebration of Women’s History:

Beautiful: The Carole King Musical

Through March 23, 2025 at Drury Lane Theatre

Witness the captivating story of Carole King’s meteoric rise to stardom, from humble beginnings to her undeniable status as one of the most celebrated voices in popular music. With melodies such as “I Feel the Earth Move” and “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman,” this production weaves an emotional tapestry rich with nostalgia. Beautiful isn’t just a musical, it’s an immersive celebration of resilience, creativity, and the authentic spirit of a music legend.

The Magic School Bus: Lost in the Solar System

Through March 29, 2025 at Marriott Theatre Lincolnshire

When the class gets lost on the way to the planetarium, Ms. Frizzle saves the day by blasting into outer space for an epic interplanetary field trip! But when rivalries both old and new threaten to tear the students apart, our young heroes must learn to pull together or risk getting forever lost in the solar system. Hop on the Magic School Bus for a ride in this new musical adaptation based on the original book series published by Scholastic.

Waitress

Through March 30, 2025 at Paramount Theatre

Full of romance and the joy of an uninhibited fling, Waitress challenges the story of a pregnant woman trapped in a small town between the life she’s living and the life she wants. Her customers, co-workers, and the town’s handsome new doctor may all offer her conflicting recipes for happiness, but only Jenna can do the 
soul-searching to decide for herself what the right ingredients are for her own 
happiness. Want to know her secret recipe?

Based on the 2007 film by the same name, with lyrics and music by Grammy Award winner and Tony Award nominee, Sara Bareilles. Nominated for four Tony Awards including Best Musical and Best Original Score!

A Raisin in the Sun

Through March 23, 2025 at Court Theatre

As the Youngers await their recently deceased patriarch’s life insurance check, they allow themselves to imagine a bigger life – a life with room to breathe – until those plans are thrown into jeopardy. Hansberry’s language rings as wise and prescient as ever in her moving answer to Langston Hughes’s question, What happens to a dream deferred?

Staged sixty years after Lorraine Hansberry’s passing, Senior Artistic Producer Gabrielle Randle-Bent brings Hansberry’s masterpiece home to Chicago’s vibrant South Side and Court’s stage for the very first time.

Cygnus

Through March 16, 2025 at The Gift Theatre

Cydney believes an angel rescued her from an ineffable trauma, and the truth may prove stranger than she imagines. In this mythic, hilarious, and poetic new play, a burnt feather may illuminate the possibility of a divine intervention.

Hedda Gabler

Through March 23, 2025 at The Artistic Home

Hedda returns from her honeymoon to the brutal banality of domestic life. Both tormented and merciless, she is caught between her own appetite for sensation and a society built with predefined roles. Mark O’Rowe’s stunning contemporary adaptation is a mesmerizing study of power and control, and a nuanced portrait of one of the most fascinating figures in modern drama.

Kitty James and Destiny’s Trail to Oregon

Through March 29, 2025 at The Factory Theater

Kitty James, the Coffee Queen of Independence, MO, is heading West to find her fortune, but a mysterious medallion and an ancient prophecy may lead her down a different path in this hilarious homage to classic adventure films and text-based historical games.

Antigone

Through April 6, 2025 at Athenaeum Center for Thought & Culture

Antigone. Her uncle, Creon, decrees that her brother, Polynices, who died attacking Thebes, must remain unburied outside the city gates as punishment for his betrayal. Faced with this unjust law, she stands in a moral dilemma: does she defy the edict and bury him—honoring her conscience and the law of the gods—or does she submit to the will of the State?

Mother Courage and her Children

March 20 – 29, 2025 at Trap Door Theatre

Mother Courage becomes a parasite of war as she, hell bent on her own survival, celebrates the Thirty Years War as the source of her prosperity. Considered one of the greatest plays of the 20th century, wartime virtues become fatal to their possessors in this stark, anti-capitalist, and music filled play.

Center Stage at Ruth Page

March 22, 2025 at Ruth Page Center for the Arts

March 22 marks the 119th birthday of international dance icon and Ruth Page Center founder, Ruth Page (1899-1991). In honor of her birthday and to celebrate the recent extensive exterior and interior building renovations, “Center Stage at Ruth Page” will feature performances by the artists who call the Ruth Page Center for the Arts home – CDI/Concert Dance Inc, DanceWorks Chicago, Hedwig Dances, Porchlight Music Theatre, Ruth Page Civic Ballet, and ShawChicago Theater Company.

Carrie the Musical

March 21 – 30, 2025 at The Theatre Conservatory at Roosevelt University’s Chicago College of Performing Arts

Carrie White is a teenage outcast who longs to fit in. At school, she’s bullied by the popular crowd, and virtually invisible to everyone else. At home, she’s dominated by her loving but cruelly controlling mother. What none of them know is that Carrie has just discovered she’s got a special power, and if pushed too far she’s not afraid to use it.

it’s been ten years since everyone died. a play about final girls

March 21 – April 6, 2025 at Open Space Arts

Ten years ago, four girls were hunted down by cold blooded killers and miraculously survived. today, three people are forcibly reunited at a therapeutical retreat for women to cope with their collective trauma, but does all trauma make equal?

No Such Thing

March 22 – April 27, 2025 at Rivendell Theatre Ensemble

Once a sought-after screenwriter, Ren finds herself "a woman of a certain age" at a crossroads of social and professional invisibility. 

The newest play from the writer of Rivendell’s hit productions of The Walls and American Wee-Pie, No Such Thing examines what makes a life story and charts the unpredictable changes in a society that downsizes women out of their most productive years. 

Legally Blonde

March 27 – April 6, 2025 at Loyola Department of Fine and Performing Arts

Elle Woods has it all figured out- great friends, great car, great dog. When it all starts falling apart, Elle leaves behind her sunny sorority for the stuffy Harvard Law School, tackling this exclusive environment with optimism and ambition. The verdict? An inspiring and wildly entertaining take on identity and power. Based on the hit movie and filled with show-stopping songs, Legally Blonde celebrates the trials and victories of being yourself. 

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