Theater spotlight
Same-sex crushes and inappropriate touching figure prominently into gay British playwright Alan Bennett's worldwide hit drama The History Boys. See how two teachers spar over teaching philosphies as they try to school a group of students to pass rigorous exams to get into Oxford or Cambridge in Eclectic Full Contact Theatre's intimate revival. The History Boys runs from Saturday, Feb. 4, through Saturday, March 4, in Studio Two of the Athenaeum Theatre, 2936 N. Southport Ave. Admission is $20-$30; call 773-935-6860 or visit Eclectic-Theatre.com .
Pictured is the cast of Eclectic Full Contact Theatre's The History Boys. Photo by Katie Hunter
Critics' Picks
The Temperamentals, About Face @ Theater Wit, through Feb. 18. Jim Marans' intelligent play illuminates perhaps the most important pre-Stonewall event in U.S. LGBTQ history: the 1952 founding of the Mattachine Society by unlikely lovers Harry Hay and future fashion great Rudi Gernreich. JA
Saturday Night Fever, Drury Lane Theatre, Oakbrook Terrace, through March 19. A new script and director/choreographer Dan Knechtges all help to make a strong and dazzing case for the latest screen-to-stage adaptation of the iconic 1977 disco film. SCM
The Tall Girls, Shattered Globe Theatre at Theater Wit, through Feb. 25. Meg Miroshnik's wistful Depression Era drama shows how basketball enlivens the dreams of young women who are brave enough to push against regimented societal expectations of them. SCM
The Weir, Irish Theatre of Chicago at Den Theatre, 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
By Abarbanel, Barnidge and Morgan