Theater Spotlight
Beckie Menzie, Will Buck, Mike O'Mara and Jonathan Wagner are just some of the composers providing music for Lauren Taslitz and Leigh Anna Richenbach's new musical Join the Club! It's all about a rising lawyer named Sara who must do community service at the local women's club as she angles to make partner at her firm. The songs touch upon marriage, children, flying coach and Brazilian waxes. Join the Club! plays through July 25 at the Skokie Theatre, 7924 Lincoln Ave., Skokie. Preview tickets are $30, and regular-run tickets are $35 and $29 for students and seniors. Call 847-677-7761 or visit www.skokietheatre.com . Photo of Menzie courtesy of BeckieMenzie.com .
Critics' Picks
City of Angels, Marriott Theatre in Lincolnshire; through Aug. 2. Film-noir buffs won't want to miss this smart jazzy musical comedy that pays homage to hardboiled gumshoes while also spoofing the 1940s Hollywood studio system. Director Nick Bowling does a masterful job of juggling the musicals two worlds. SCM
The Diary of Anne Frank, Writers Theatre, through Aug. 16. The revised script of this familiar drama incorporates long-expurgated diary passages which make Anne more human and less saintly. This production also looks afresh at the charactersAnne's parents, Mr. Dussel, etc.to make them less archetypal and more nuanced. JA
Stick Fly, Windy City Playhouse, extended through July 19. Don't be fooled by the onstage and offstage swankeven nearly 10 years after its premiere, Lydia R. Diamond's observations on privileged African-American families has lost none of their satirical insight. MSB
The Who and The What, Victory Gardens Theater, through July 12. Rom Barkhorder delivers a Jeff-worthy performance as a tradition-bound Muslim patriarch who we just can't bring ourselves to hate in Ayad Akhtar's latest cultural-exchange seminar. MSB
By Abarbanel, Barnidge and Morgan