The Doctor’s Dilemma, ShawChicago, through May 10. Spotlighting medical and personal ethics, Bernard Shaw’s 1906 “dramedy” is as pertinent today as 104 years ago, especially in this lucid, well-acted concert staging in the cozy Chicago Cultural Center Studio Theater. JA
A Gulag Mouse, Babes With Blades at Trap Door Theatre, through May 1. The Soviet women’s prison as recreated in the already funereal Trap Door space is as bleak and squalid as we expect, but the athletic Babes With Blades troupe never allows the play’s action to descend into self-conscious camp. MSB
Our Lady of the Underpass, 16th Street Theater, Berwyn, through May 1. Chris Cantelmi’s pitch-perfect performance is but one reason to see Tanya Saracho’s docudrama about the Fullerton Avenue shrine. In turns poignant, funny, sacred and profane, the piece is also holy, er, wholly fascinating. CS.
Ragtime, Drury Lane Oak Brook, through May 23. This leading candidate for the mantle of “The Great American Musical” receives a grand and glorious staging filled with strong performances and great stagecraft courtesy of director/choreographer Rachel Rockwell. SCM
—By Abarbanel, Barnidge,
Morgan and Sullivan