Wherein I attempt to rank every show I’ve seen this year, a running list as the year unfolds, regardless of genre (theater, music, dance, art). Note, the company I keep is not a factor, though it often redeems the lesser of such evenings. If I’ve written about them, links are provided.
The Brother/Sister Plays/Steppenwolf (January 30)
August: Osage County/Broadway In Chicago (February 2)
Marina Abramovic: The Artist is Present/Museum of Modern Art-NYC (March 6)
Hughie/Krapp’s Last Tape/Goodman (January 24)
1001/Collaboraction (September 16)
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?/Steppenwolf (December 11)
This Progress: Tino Seghal/Guggenheim-NYC (March 4)
A Streetcar Named Desire/Writers’ Theatre (May 13)
Festa Muti/Millennium Park (September 19)
Billy Elliot/Broadway In Chicago (April 11)
Eclectica/Joffrey Ballet (April 28)
The Seagull/Goodman Theatre (October 21)
The North Plan/First Look Repertory of New Work at Steppenwolf (November 6)
Jazz Trilogy: Elemental Brubeck, Nature Boy: Kurt Elling, Coltrane’s Favorite Things/Lar Lubovitch Dance Company at Joyce Theatre NYC (March 5)
The Illusion/Court Theatre (March 20)
Uncle Vanya/Malya Drama Theatre at CST (March 17)
Fuerza Bruta: Look Up/Broadway In Chicago (May 28)
The Other Cinderella/Black Ensemble Theater (October 24)
Killer Joe/Profiles (April 16)
Awake and Sing!/Northlight (January 31)
This Train/16th Street Theater (January 21) & Steppenwolf Garage (August 1)
Romeo & Juliet/Chicago Shakespeare Theater (September 23)
Candide/Goodman Theatre (September 26)
The Year of Magical Thinking/Court Theatre (January 23)
To Master the Art/TimeLine Theatre (October 30)
Reginald Robinson/Jazz Showcase (February 17)
Private Lives/Chicago Shakespeare Theater (January 13)
A Life/Northlight Theatre (March 27)
Noche Mexicana: Doc Severinsen and El Ritmo de la Vida with Sones de Mexico Ensemble/Music Without Borders/Millennium Park (June 24)
Endgame/Steppenwolf (April 10)
Harper Regan/Steep Theatre (January 29)
Las Américas/Chicago Sinfonietta (March 28)
Covering the New Yorker/Francois Mouly at Columbia College (February 18)
A True History of the Jonestown Flood/Goodman Theatre (March 21)
Rock of Ages/Broadway In Chicago (September 22)
A Parallelogram/Steppenwolf (August 26)
Roger Waters/The Wall Live (September 24)
Foreigner, Styx, Kansas/Charter One Pavilion (June 5)
Aftermath/Signal Ensemble Theatre (November 7)
La Visita de la Vieja Dama/Latino Theatre Festival/Teatro Buendía (July 9)
Dmitri Shostakovich “String Quartet Cycle,” Concert Program I/Pacifica Quartet (October 17)
Susanna and the Magical Orchestra/Schubas (June 20)
The Sins of Sor Juana/Latino Theatre Festival/Goodman Theatre (June 27)
Printers Ball (July 30)
Toumani Diabate and the Chicago Transilience Ensemble/Made in Chicago at Millennium Park (August 12)
Moses In Egypt/Chicago Opera Theater/April 17
Beethoven: Mass in C Major/Haydn: Te Deum/Hindemith: Nobilissima Visione/Grant Park Orchestra and Chorus (June 19)
Production Site: The Artist’s Studio Inside-Out/MCA (February 5)
Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan/Dance Center of Columbia College at the Harris Theater (January 22)
The (edward) Hopper Project/WNEP Theater (January 15)
Detroit/Steppenwolf (September 18)
12×12: Aspen Mays/MCA (February 5)
The Etiquette of Vengeance/First Look Repertory of New Work at Steppenwolf (November 6)
Comedy of Errors/Court Theatre (September 25)
The Astronaut’s Birthday/Redmoon-MCA (September 9)
Jade Heart/Chicago Dramatists/May 1
The DNA Trail/Silk Road Theatre Project/March 7
Double-Bill: Where Jazz and Contemporary Music Meet/Harris Theater and Contempo (January 16)
Summer Series/Hubbard Street Dance Chicago (June 4)
Alfred Hitchcock’s The 39 Steps/Broadway In Chicago (May 20)
The Old Masters/First Look Repertory of New Work at Steppenwolf (November 6)
Breathing is Free/The School of the Art Institute (January 29)
Irving Berlin’s White Christmas/Broadway In Chicago (December 16)
The Seldoms/Museum of Contemporary Art (March 13)
Sarruga: Insects/Latino Theatre Festival/Millennium Park (July 16)
Blue Door/Victory Gardens (February 1)
Bernhardt on Broadway/Maxim’s (October 28)