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Happy Thanksgiving week. Holiday shows are rolling in; you'll find my reviews of "White Christmas" at the Paramount Theatre in Aurora and "Sister Act" at the Drury Lane. Also, a reminder that you can see holiday cabarets by Anthony Rapp at Lookingglass and Megan Hilty at Steppenwolf. "Manual Cinema's Christmas Carol" is readying for a Dec. 12 opening at the Studebaker Theater in the Fine Arts Building downtown. This year, lobby decorations will include some larger-than-life figures
from the production. Also at the Studebaker beginning Dec. 3: Chicago Opera Theater is opening a production of "Falstaff, ossia Le tre burle" an opera by Antonio Salieri (of
"Amadeus" fame). If you plan on seeing a Broadway in Chicago show (such as the fabulous
"Stereophonic"), note the return of the Costco offer that gets you two seats for $129.99, a very good deal for members of the paper towel and toilet paper emporium. And if you are planning on heading to Broadway in New York, read my new review of a sweet little musical, "Two Strangers Carry a Cake Across New York." Christiani Pitts and Sam Tutty in “Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York)” on Broadway at the Longacre Theatre in New York. (Matthew Murphy) The Auditorium Theatre has a Black Friday deal offering 25% off select tickets to upcoming shows. The promo code is THEAUD25. Brava to the small Chicago theater known as The Artistic
Home, which has just wrapped up a successful off-Broadway run of Siah Berlatsky's Jeff Award-winning play, "Malapert Love," at The Tank Theatre in New York. Chicago's Goodman Theatre says tickets are selling well for the upcoming immersive production of
"Theater in the Mind" by David Byrne and Mala Gaonkar, with 200 performance time slots within the first two weeks already sold out. Note that Neil Patel is the scenic designer of the show, as directed by Andrew Scoville, with Heidi Boisvert in charge of the very ample technology. “Theater of the Mind” is slated for a March opening in the Reid
Murdoch Building, 333 N. LaSalle St. I'm getting reports of the new theater buildings for both Timeline (on Chicago's North Side) and Northlight Theatre (in Evanston) proceeding apace toward completion. Good news there. Finally, a special shout-out to all the performers, musicians and tech crew working this Thanksgiving weekend for your seasonal enjoyment. Let's hope everyone enjoys the much-deserved day off on Thursday. See you at the theater. — Chris Jones, chief theater critic Kennedy Caughell as Jersey and Maya Drake as Ali in the North American tour
of the musical “Hell’s Kitchen.” (Marc J. Franklin) Our current list of Chris Jones Recommends: “Jekyll & Hyde” through Dec. 21 by Kokandy Productions at Chopin Theatre; “Diary of a Black Illusionist” in an open run on Wednesdays at Chicago Magic Lounge; “Hell’s Kitchen” through Nov. 30 at Nederlander Theatre; “White Christmas” through Dec. 29 at Paramount Theatre in Aurora; “Sister Act” through Jan. 11, 2026, at Drury Lane Theatre in Oakbrook Terrace. | 
