Billy Elliot The Musical, Ford Center for the Performing Arts Oriental Theatre, through Jan. 15. Tony Award-nominee Emily Skinner will soon be leaving the Chicago company to play Mrs. Wilkinson in Billy Elliot on Broadway. So see her now while she’s still in the Windy City providing the tough love and training to help make young Billy a ballet star. SCM
Nothin’ But The Blues, Black Ensemble Theater at the Beacon Street Arts Center, through Aug. 29. If, as its founder Jackie Taylor is fond of saying, the Black Ensemble experience is “just like going to church,” then this is the heavenly choir wrapping its chops around some 12-bar progressions to shake the pearly gates. MSB
Fucking Men, Bailiwick Chicago at Stage 773, through Aug. 29. Director Tom Mullen extracts strong, nuanced performances from his all-male cast in this contemporary daisy-chain mating dance based upon Arthur Schnitzler’s sexually frank 1897 hetero original. JA
The Philadelphia Story, Circle Theatre in Forest Park, through Sept. 5. The gender inequities may be cringeworthy, but this handsome production of Phillip Barry’s classic screwball comedy enjoyably explores class differences in old Philadelphia. And this is the last show Circle is performing in its long-time Forest Park home, so make that trip just one more time for old time’s sake. SCM
—By Abarbanel, Barnidge
and Morgan