Theater spotlight
Chicago Children's Theatre is simultaneously celebrating its future and its past this month. The recent opening of Chicago Children's Theatre's new headquarters for classes and small-scale shows in the former 12th District police station in the West Loop conincides with the revival of one of the company's biggest hits. Back in 2009, Ralph Covert ( Ralph's World ) and G. Riley Mills received much acclaim for their anti-bullying musical The Hundred Dresses, which was based upon Eleanor Estes' still-relevant 1944 children's book. The Hundred Dresses continues through Sunday, Feb. 12, at the Ruth Page Center for the Arts, 1016 N. Dearborn St. Tickets are $10 to $39; call 872-222-9555 or visit ChicagoChildrensTheatre.org . Photo by Michael Brosilow
Critics' Picks
The Christians, Steppenwolf Theatre, through Jan. 29. Religious beliefs and business basics uncomfortably collide in Lucas Hnath's thought-provoking drama about faith and followers. SCM
The Rosenkranz Mysteries, Opus Magna Musica at the Royal George, extended through Feb. 12. This isn't your everyday razzle-dazzle look-ma-no-hands legerdemain, but a gentle blend of the historical and the imaginative. MSB
The Weir, Irish Theatre of Chicago at Den Theatre, extended through Feb. 4. Like children at bedtime, audiences demanded another story and so you have three more weekends to hear the ghostly yarns that propel Conor McPherson's heartwarming tales of loneliness in the hinterlands. MSB
Women, The Cuckoo's Theater Project at Collaboraction in Flat Iron Arts Building, through Feb. 4. By plonking down self-absorbed 21st-century teenage girls into the plot of Louisa May Alcott's beloved 19th-century novel Little Women, playwright Chiara Atik and her cast find plenty of laughs in this sharp and inclusive stage spoof. SCM
By Barnidge and Morgan