The Front Page, TimeLine Theatre, through July 17. Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur’s classic 1920s Chicago journalism comedy gets a crackling good production that is so intimate that the audience practically gets to be on top the action. SCM
The Outgoing Tide, Northlight Theatre, through June 26. The seventysomething Gunnar has a degenerative disease and would sooner die than vegetate. What do his wife and son think? Thorny subject, intelligent writing, wonderful acting with John Mahoney at his acerbic best. JA
A Twist of Water, Route 66 Theatre at the Mercury, through June 26. Chicago’s historical legacy comes to the aid of lovers and families in what may prove to be Chicago’s next breakout hit, following in the wake of Osage County and Chad Deity. MSB
Watership Down, Lifeline Theatre, through June 19. Rabbits have always numbered among the most empathetic of folk-tale creatures, and never more so than in this classical myth transposed to lapin culture with all the heroic violence and glory intact. MSB
—By Abarbanel, Barnidge
and Morgan