Theater Spotlight
GayCo does its part for suburban LGBTQ outreach with a one-night-only performance of the revue Love Is Love Is Love Handles. Expect to see a mix of sketches and songs involving lesbian breakups, oddball gay hookup scenarios and more drawn from the 20-year history of Chicago's longest-running LGBTQ comedy troupe. Love Is Love Is Love Handles plays 7:30 p.m. Friday, March 31, at the Metropolis Performing Arts Centre, 111 W. Campbell St., Arlington Heights. Tickets are $25. Call 847-577-2121 or visit MetropolisArts.com or GayCo.com for more information.
Critics' Picks
Bootycandy, Windy City Playhouse, through April 15. Author/director Robert O'Hara effectively disguises a serious, satirical playabout sex, Black culture and race relations among other thingswith lots of laughs, exaggerated acting and comic strip style. It works, but it ain't for prudes or the faint-of-heart. Sissies, yes! JA
Phantom Pain, Organic Theater Company at Greenhouse Theater Center, through April 2. Nobody does peel-the-onion procedurals like Barbara Lhota, with her latest mystery revolving around childhood friends recalling racially tense time in Detroit. MSB
Spamilton, Royal George Theatre, through May 28. Gerard Alessandrini, the mastermind behind all the hilarious editions of the revue Forbidden Broadway, takes an unflinchingly funny aim at the pop cultural phenomenon of Hamilton. Hold onto your sides for laughing so hard. SCM
The Wiz, Kokandy Productions at Theater Wit, through April 16. The level of excitement generated by this urban adaptation of Frank Baum's classic American fantasy makes you wonder why ALL musicals aren't staged as close-up and intimate as this. MSB
By Abarbanel, Barnidge and Morgan