Yesterday, Chicago Tribune theater critic Chris Jones published his choices for the ten best shows in the Chicago area during the past year, including seven musical offerings. Two productions still running are Cinderella, a revival of the Rodgers & Hammerstein classic with “a superb lead turn from the pitch-perfect Mikayla Renfrow,” at Aurora’s Paramount Theatre until January 9, and Holiday Inn, a revival of the Irving Berlin musical with “exceptional chemistry between” Adrian Aguilar and Erica Stephan, at Oakbrook Terrace’s Drury Lane Theatre until January 9.
Musical premieres on Jones’s list include the Broadway-bound Paradise Square, which closed at Chicago’s Nederlander Theatre on December 5 and begins performances at New York’s Ethel Barrymore Theatre on February 22, and the regional premiere of the Tony-winning Kinky Boots, which played at Aurora’s Paramount Theatre from August 18 through October 17.
Two plays that prominently featured music are Chicago Shakespeare Theater’s production of As You Like It, in which director Daryl Cloran and music supervisor Ben Elliott interpolated more than 20 Beatles songs, and Fannie: The Music and Life of Fannie Lou Hamer, Cheryl L. West’s tribute to civil rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer at the Goodman Theatre, starring E. Faye Butler.
The final musical on the list is Northlight Theatre’s production of Songs for Nobodies, Joanna Murray-Smith’s revue of iconic songs from the catalogs of Judy Garland, Patsy Cline, Billie Holiday, Edith Piaf, and Maria Callas, starring Bethany Thomas.