Ariadne auf Naxos, Lyric Opera of Chicago, through Dec. 11. This comic opera by Richard Strauss and Hugo von Hofmannsthal insightfully and theatrically contrasts notions of high art versus low comedy and genuine love against passing infatuations. SCM
Assisted Living, Profiles Theatre at The Second Stage Theatre, through Dec. 18. Profiles Theatre, renowned for bloody spectacle, invokes its softer side in this gentle family drama of filial conflicts, ending in resolution, tolerance and unity—betcha you didn’t see that coming! MSB
The Caretaker, Writers’ Theatre, through March 25. You simply won’t find a better staging of Harold Pinter’s quintessential 1960 Comedy of Menace, set in a tough London ‘hood where an old bum nearly comes between two vastly dissimilar brothers. Beautiful acting and direction. JA
Season’s Greetings, Northlight Theatre, through Dec. 18. Alan Ayckbourn’s classic 1980 Christmas comedy is not only hilarious, but also incisively black in its depiction of British friends and families who reevaluate their relationships over the holiday season. SCM
—By Abarbanel, Barnidge
and Morgan