Beethoven As I Knew Him, Drury Lane Theatre Water Tower Place, through Dec. 20. Hershey Felder’s gifts as a pianist mean that the show’s weak book almost doesn’t matter. Beethoven’s music is the point here, and with impeccable technique and extraordinary passion, Felder does it exquisite justice. CS
A Christmas Carol, Goodman Theatre, through Dec. 31. It’s not just a Euro-Christian parable—no society survives long without compassion for its fellow denizens. Every country, the world over, has its fable of a malcontent who learns his duty to others. MSB
Katya Kabanova, Lyric Opera of Chicago, through Dec. 12. There’s just one last chance to catch Janacek’s bleak masterpiece of a passionate married woman whose unhappiness drives her to commit adultery (with a tragic consequences, of course). Everything about this Lyric presentation is top-notch. SCM
Souvenir, Northlight Theatre, through Dec. 20. In a more genteel age, legendary amateur soprano Florence Foster Jenkins made her own costumes for her yearly high society recitals for charity. That she could not sing a note never stopped her. This is her story. JA
—By Abarbanel, Barnidge,
Morgan and Sullivan