Spotlight: Edge of the Wood Theatre opens with Theresa Rebeck’s ‘Bernhardt/Hamlet’
Actress tackles iconic role
Edge of the Wood Theater opens its season with Theresa Rebeck’s “Bernhardt/Hamlet,” a comedy about how the actress Sarah Bernhardt in 1899 Paris set out to tackle one of William Shakespeare’s greatest roles, Hamlet, to challenge herself and rescue her debt-ridden theater. Janus Theatre artistic director Sean Hargadon directs and Courtney Abbot plays the titular role.
7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, March 28-29; 2:30 p.m. Sunday, March 30, and through April 13 at the Edgebrook Community Church, 6736 N. Loleta Ave., Chicago. $14-$28 edgeofthewood.com.
Answering a call
Annoyed with a café patron’s constantly ringing cellphone, Jean goes to confront him and finds him dead. Answering his cellphone, she inserts herself into the lives of his grieving family in “Dead Man’s Cell Phone,” Wilmette native Sarah Ruhl’s quirky meditation on communication and human connection. Madcap Productions’ revival stars Heidi Hansfield as Jean and Peter Goldsmith as the late Gordon.
7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, March 28-29; 2 p.m. Sunday, March 30, and through April 19 at Skokie Theatre, 7924 Lincoln Ave., Skokie. $38, $42. (847) 677-7761 or skokietheatre.org.
Family-friendly premiere
Filament Theatre premieres “Hannah and Halmoni Save the World,” Juliet Kang Huneke’s family-friendly play about superheroes who spend most of their time masquerading as granddaughter and grandmother in order to battle evil flute teachers and save dehydrated plants. The play runs in repertory with “Heart Strings” by Hawaiian playwright Lee Cataluna.
11 a.m. and 2 p.m. Sunday, March 30, and through April 27 at 4041 N. Milwaukee Ave., Chicago. $18 adults, $15 kids. filamenttheatre.org.
‘Moulin Rouge’ returns
The jukebox tuner “Moulin Rouge! The Musical!” adapted from Baz Luhrmann’s film about a young composer who falls in love with a cabaret star in turn-of-the-20th-century Paris, returns to Chicago for a brief run.
7 p.m. Wednesday, April 2; 1 and 7 p.m. Thursday, April 3; 7:30 p.m. April 4; 2 and 7:30 p.m. April 5; 1 and 6:30 p.m. April 6, and through April 20, at the Cadillac Palace Theatre, 151 W. Randolph St., Chicago. $36.50-$196.50. broadwayinchicago.com.
Irish tale revived
Writers Theatre’s artistic director Braden Abraham helms the company’s revival of Brian Friel’s “Translations.” An examination of colonialism and communication, the play is set in a fictional 19th-century Irish village where tensions rise after British soldiers arrive to draw new borders and “standardize” the names of local places into the King’s English.
Previews at 7:30 p.m. Thursday and Friday, April 3-4; 2 p.m. April 6; and 7:30 p.m. April 5, 9 and 10, at 325 Tudor Court, Glencoe. The show opens April 11. Tickets start at $35. (847) 242-6000 or writerstheatre.org.
Musical theater fest returns
The Chicago Musical Theatre Festival, which resumed last year under the stewardship of Kokandy Productions following a four-year absence, returns for its eighth incarnation. The mini-fest consists of concert-style productions of five new tuners. “Bend Toward the Light” by Sarah Slipp Book and Bryce Palmer is a two-hander about a pair of twins; “Man of the People: The Trials of Huey Long” by Wyatt Andrew Brownell is about the famous Louisiana politician; “Queen Bee” by Scott Evan Davis and Jason Marks is about a bee reluctant to become the hive’s queen; “The Muses” by Liam P. Mulligan is about a struggling composer in love with best friend and muse who marries someone else; and “Big Wig” by Jonathan Keebler, Ryan Korell and Bryan McCaffrey is based on the children’s book about a boy who dons a wig to participate in a costume contest.
7:30 p.m. Thursday and Friday, April 3-4; 2:30 and 7:30 p.m. April 5; and 2:30 p.m. April 6 at The Chopin Theatre, 1543 W. Division St., Chicago. $20 per performance. kokandyproductions.com.