The Defiant Muse, Victory Gardens Theater, through Oct. 28. The most famous virgin since Elizabeth I, Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz, swaps wordplay and swordplay with priapal superstar Don Juan Tenorio. And you don’t even need cable TV to watch! MSB
Merchant on Venice, Silk Road Theatre Project, through Nov. 4. Shylock is a South Asian Muslim in modern Venice, Calif., hated by ex-pat South Asian Hindus in a brilliant, serio-comic hip-hop retooling of Shakespeare that makes the old tale fresh again. JA
The Sparrow, House Theatre of Chicago at the Apollo, through Dec. 31. So what if this tale hearkens back to Carrie, Sweet Hereafter and superhero-origin stories? Gorgeously and compellingly staged, it’s truly a great piece of homegrown Chicago theater. SCM —By Abarbanel, Barnidge and Morgan