News on your favorite shows, specials & more!

CITY LIT THEATER

1020 W. Bryn Mawr Avenue
Chicago, IL 60660

Glassheart
Glassheart
1/10 - 2/23/2025


A modern-day reimagining of the Beauty and the Beast fairy tale.

JOHNNIE & FRANKIE STAGE PLAY


Johnnie & Frankie - they were lovers. Immerse yourself in a captivating mix of cabaret, Mardi Gras celebrations, and murder mystery

JOHNNIE & FRANKIE STAGE PLAY


Immerse yourself in a captivating mix of cabaret, Mardi Gras celebrations, and murder mystery, all set against the lively backdrop of New Orleans.

JOHNNIE & FRANKIE STAGE PLAY


Johnnie & Frankie - they were lovers.  Immerse yourself in a captivating mix of cabaret, Mardi Gras celebrations, and murder mystery, all set against the ...


RELATED STORIES

Cast Set for Chicago Premiere of Reina Hardy’s GLASSHEART at City Lit


by Chloe Rabinowitz - November 25, 2024

City Lit Theater has revealed its cast and creative team for the Chicago Premiere of GLASSHEART, by Chicago-based playwright Reina Hardy. See who is starring and learn how to purchase tickets....

PrideArts to Stage Adult Holiday Panto THROBBIN WOOD Beginning Next Month


by Blair Ingenthron - October 05, 2024

PrideArts has announced the cast and production team for the adult holiday panto THROBBIN WOOD, running from November 15 to December 15, 2024....

SEVEN GUITARS Comes to City Lit Theater Next Month


by Stephi Wild - September 06, 2024

City Lit Theater will follow its critical and popular hit THE HOUSE OF IDEAS with August Wilson’s SEVEN GUITARS, directed by veteran Chicago director and actor Manny Buckley. ...

League Of Chicago Theatres Announces Fall Highlights


by A.A. Cristi - August 28, 2024

Chicago will continue to produce some of the most exciting work in the country this Fall. Offerings from the city’s more than 250 producing theatres include a wide variety of plays and musicals, as well as comedy, dance, festivals, and more. ...

City Lit to Present Annual BOOKS ON THE CHOPPING BLOCK


by Chloe Rabinowitz - August 28, 2024

City Lit Theater Company, in association with the American Library Association (ALA)’s Office of Intellectual Freedom, will again present BOOKS ON THE CHOPPING BLOCK during BANNED BOOKS WEEK. Learn more about the events!...

PrideArts To Open 2024-25 Season With The Musical [TITLE OF SHOW] Beginning Next Month


by Blair Ingenthron - July 14, 2024

PrideArts has announced it will present the off-Broadway and Broadway hit musical [title of show] to open its fall 2024-25 season from August 23 to September 22, 2024, directed by Jay Españo, with music direction by Robert Ollis....

Cast Announced for City Lit's THE HOUSE OF IDEAS, Beginning In August


by A.A. Cristi - July 01, 2024

City Lit has announced the cast for THE HOUSE OF IDEAS, running from August 23 to October 6. The play explores the rise of Marvel Comics and the challenges its creators faced in sharing credit....

WELLS AND WELLES Comes to City Lit Theater in July


by Stephi Wild - May 10, 2024

The world premiere play WELLS AND WELLES by Chicago playwright Amy Crider imagines what might have been said in a private meeting between these two pioneers of literature and the arts....

City Lit Theater Reveals 2024-25 Season Programming


by Stephi Wild - March 04, 2024

City Lit Theater has announced its programming for the 2024-25 season, the company’s 44th. Learn more about the full season lineup here!...

Cast Set for City Lit Theater's TWO HOURS IN A BAR


by Chloe Rabinowitz - February 14, 2024

City Lit Theater has revealed the full cast and crew for the third production of its 2023-24  season: TWO HOURS IN A BAR. See who is starring and learn how to purchase tickets....

Past Shows

Seven Guitars
Seven Guitars
10/18 - 12/1/2024


The Chicago non-Equity premiere of this searing August Wilson drama about six friends in the Hill District of Pittsburgh in 1948 mourning the death of ...

The House of Ideas
The House of Ideas
8/23 - 10/6/2024


The final installment of the “Four-Color Trilogy” about three key moments in the history of comic books, THE HOUSE OF IDEAS examines the rise of Marvel ...

Wells and Welles
Wells and Welles
7/18 - 8/11/2024


It’s 1940, exactly two years after Orson Welles’ infamous “War of the Worlds” radio broadcast, a show that infuriated author HG Wells. By an amazing ...

Murder in the Cathedral
Murder in the Cathedral
5/3 - 6/16/2024


Murder in the Cathedral  dramatizes the martyrdom of Archbishop Thomas Becket at the hands of knights loyal to Henry II in 1170.  Eliot wrote it ...

Two Hours in a Bar
Two Hours in a Bar
3/8 - 4/21/2024


A double bill of one-acts. WAITING FOR TINA MEYER  concerns a pair of best-friend actors--a man and a woman--sitting in a bar because the man is ...

The Night of the Hunter
The Night of the Hunter
10/20 - 12/3/2023


A world premiere stage adaptation of the thriller novel THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER by Davis Grubb. Inspired by the crimes of West Virginia serial ...

Books on the Chopping Block
Books on the Chopping Block
9/27 - 11/14/2023


City Lit Theater Company, in association with the American Library Association (ALA)’s Office of Intellectual Freedom, will again present BOOKS ON THE CHOPPING BLOCK during ...

The Innocence of Seduction
The Innocence of Seduction
8/25 - 10/8/2023


The second play in Mark Pracht’s projected “Four-Color Trilogy” of plays set during the early years of the comic book industry, The Innocence of Seduction ...

Books on the Chopping Block
Books on the Chopping Block
9/27 - 9/14/2023


City Lit Theater Company, in association with the American Library Association (ALA)’s Office of Intellectual Freedom, will again present BOOKS ON THE CHOPPING BLOCK during ...

Quantum Lovers: The Musical
Quantum Lovers: The Musical
8/11 - 8/13/2023


QUANTUM LOVERS is about the turbulent love affair and tragic break-up between Albert Einstein and his first wife, Mileva Maric, a bittersweet tale that took ...

Aztec Human Sacrifice
Aztec Human Sacrifice
5/5 - 6/18/2023


It’s the night before the beginning of the Aztec empire’s new millennium, and the Chosen One – so named because he is to be sacrificed ...

Happy Days
Happy Days
3/17 - 4/2/2023


A limited engagement of Samuel Beckett’s absurdist masterpiece “Happy Days” will be presented by KB Productions March 17 – April 2 at City Lit Theater. ...

The Birthday Party
The Birthday Party
1/13 - 2/26/2023


Harold Pinter's "comedy of menace." Stanley may or may not play the piano, and today may or may not be his birthday, and he may or ...

The Mark of Kane
The Mark of Kane
10/21 - 12/4/2022


In 1939, two young friends huddled in a Bronx apartment and created a legend the comic book character Batman. One, Bob Kane, goes on to ...

Hay Fever
Hay Fever
8/26 - 10/9/2022


Noel Coward's masterpiece. The four members of the eccentric Bliss family have each, without the other three knowing it, invited a guest to spend the ...

Hay Fever
Hay Fever
8/26 - 10/9/2022


Nol Coward's masterpiece. The four members of the eccentric Bliss family have each, without the other three knowing it, invited a guest to spend the ...

Books on the Chopping Block
Books on the Chopping Block
9/18 - 9/22/2022


City Lit Theater Company, in association with the American Library Associations Office of Intellectual Freedom, will again present BOOKS ON THE CHOPPING BLOCK, a celebration ...

The Playboy of the Western World


Christy Mahon comes into Flaherty's tavern on the west coast of Ireland and claims to have killed his father with a shovel. The locals are ...

The Playboy of the Western World


Christy Mahon comes into Flaherty's tavern on the west coast of Ireland and claims to have killed his father with a loy (shovel). The locals ...

Emma's Child
Emma's Child
4/15 - 5/29/2022


One of the great Chicago plays. By City Lit's resident playwright, author of Voice of Good Hope and The Safe House, it won the Susan ...

Emma's Child
Emma's Child
4/15 - 5/29/2022


One of the great Chicago plays. By City Lit's resident playwright, author of VOICE OF GOOD HOPE and THE SAFE HOUSE, it won the Susan ...

The Virginian
The Virginian
1/7 - 2/20/2022


A world premiere adaptation of the novel that originated the archetype of the American cowboy. Never named, rough-hewn but soft-spoken, living on the frontier between ...

The Virginian: A Horseman of the Plains


A world premiere adaptation of THE VIRGINIAN: A HORSEMAN OF THE PLAINS by Owen Wister, the novel that originated the archetype of the American cowboy. ...

Thirteen Days
Thirteen Days
9/10 - 10/24/2021


A world premiere adaptation of THIRTEEN DAYS by Robert F. Kennedy, his memoir of the Cuban Missile Crisis. On October 16, 1962, long-range Soviet missiles ...

Thirteen Days
Thirteen Days
8/28 - 10/4/2020


World premiere adaptation of THIRTEEN DAYS by Robert F. Kennedy, his memoir of the Cuban Missile Crisis. On October 16, 1962, Soviet missiles carrying nuclear ...

Voice of Good Hope
Voice of Good Hope
9/1 - 9/30/2020


Virtual reading of Kristine Thatcher's play focusing on the life of Barbara Jordan, first Black Congresswoman from the deep south. As a devoted defender of ...

Thirteen Days
Thirteen Days
3/6 - 3/13/2020


A world premiere adaptation of THIRTEEN DAYS by Robert F. Kennedy, his memoir of the Cuban Missile Crisis. On October 16, 1962, long-range Soviet missiles ...

Voice of Good Hope
Voice of Good Hope
1/10 - 2/23/2020


A dramatic portrait of Barbara Jordan, the first African American congresswoman to be elected from the Deep South. The play follows Jordan from her childhood ...

Voice of Good Hope
Voice of Good Hope
1/3 - 2/16/2020


VOICE OF GOOD HOPE by City Lits resident playwright Kristine Thatcher. A dramatic portrait of Barbara Jordan, the first African American congresswoman to be elected ...

The Hound of the Baskervilles
The Hound of the Baskervilles
9/27 - 11/10/2019


The death, quite suddenly, of Sir Charles Baskerville in mysterious circumstances is the trigger for one of the most extraordinary cases ever to challenge the ...

The Hound of the Baskervilles
The Hound of the Baskervilles
9/27 - 11/10/2019


Opening our season will be a new production of our 2007 Jeff-nominated adaptation. We are pleased to be able to say that James Sparling and ...

Two Days in Court
Two Days in Court
4/12 - 5/26/2019


A double-bill of two acts. In THE DEVIL AND DANIEL WEBSTER, adapted for the stage by Stephen Vincent Benet from his 1936 short story, a ...

Two Days in Court: A Double-Header of Classic One Acts


The Devil and Daniel Webster by Stephen Vincent Benet, Trial by Jury by W.S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan Directed by Terry McCabe Music Directed by ...

Fuente Ovejuna
Fuente Ovejuna
1/4 - 2/17/2019


By Lopé de Vega Adapted and directed by Terry McCabe “Fuente Ovejuna is a rousing, sweeping, adventurous tale . . .” Tribune The greatest play ...

Safe House, The
Safe House, The
11/2 - 12/16/2018


By Kristine Thatcher Directed by Terry McCabe “Kristine Thatcher has written an important play, and it has landed in the hands of exactly the right ...

The Safe House
The Safe House
11/2 - 12/16/2018


32-year-old Bridget has come back home for a visit to Lansing, Michigan from New York City, where she has been getting by--but not better than ...

Arms and the Man
Arms and the Man
9/7 - 10/21/2018


Bluntschli, a Swiss soldier fonder of chocolates than of bullets, hides in the bedroom of Bulgarian heiress Raina while escaping from battle—a development that disturbs ...

Prometheus Bound
Prometheus Bound
4/27 - 6/10/2018


The titan Prometheus, friend of humankind, is chained by Zeus —and fastened with a spike through his chest - to a mountain as punishment for ...

Videos


Disney's Frozen the Broadway Musical in Chicago Disney's Frozen the Broadway Musical
Paramount Theatre (10/30 - 1/19) Tracker
The Little Mermaid in Chicago The Little Mermaid
Drury Lane Theatre (11/6 - 1/12) Tracker
Legally Blonde, The Musical in Chicago Legally Blonde, The Musical
Music Theater Works (12/19 - 12/29) Tracker
Million Dollar Quartet in Chicago Million Dollar Quartet
Paramount's Stolp Island Theatre (9/15 - 12/29) Tracker
Elton Rohn
Raue Center For The Arts (12/31 - 12/31) Tracker
Marvel Studios' Black Panther In Concert in Chicago Marvel Studios' Black Panther In Concert
Auditorium Theatre (1/18 - 1/18)
Manual Cinema's Christmas Carol in Chicago Manual Cinema's Christmas Carol
Studebaker Theater (11/21 - 12/29)
New Philharmonic: Butterfly Lovers Violin Concerto and Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 4 in Chicago New Philharmonic: Butterfly Lovers Violin Concerto and Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 4
McAninch Arts Center (4/12 - 4/13)
Fiddler on the Roof in Chicago Fiddler on the Roof
Cutting Hall Performing Arts Center (2/8 - 2/23)
Saturday Night Standup Comedy at Laugh Factory Chicago in Chicago Saturday Night Standup Comedy at Laugh Factory Chicago
Laugh Factory Chicago (10/12 - 12/28)
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