Every show for The Boystown Pregame will be different. The new comedy show features a rotating guest from the LGBTQ community and then comedians who transform the guest's topics into sketch and improvised comedy. There's also an activist spot on the bill, so get your social and politically minded friends to participate. The Boystown Pregame plays in an open run at 8 p.m. Saturdays at The Playground Theater, 3209 N. Halsted St. Tickets are $10. For more information, visit www.theplaygroundtheater.com . Photo courtesy of The Playground Theater
Critics' Picks
The Apple Family Plays, TimeLine Theatre, through April 19. The affluent, middle-aged Apple siblings discuss each other, life and politics on Election Day 2010 and 2012 in two works playing in repertory. Reality has bruised their liberal idealism and life expectations in Richard Nelson's warm-hearted, witty and political plays, brilliantly acted. JA
Cupid Has a Heart On at Stage 773, and Bye, Bye, Liver at the Public House, both open run. These long-running revues of love-in-the-trenches sketch comedy ( the former comes with music, and the latter, with drinking games ) make for perfect Valentine's Day revels. MSB
Rapture, Blister, Burn, Goodman Theatre, through Feb. 22. Career or family? Two disgruntled women facing mid-life crisis orchestrate a Nancy Friday-style switcheroo to test their feminist mettle in Gina Gionfriddo's slyly satirical comedy. MSB
The Who's Tommy, Paramount Theatre, Aurora, through Feb. 15. The 1969 rock opera album by The Who receives a visually stunning production full of stimulating pop art projections and a truly rocking pit band. SCM
By Abarbanel, Barnidge
and Morgan