Chagrin Falls The premise of Mia McCullough’s tragicomedy would fit snuggly in the Coen brothers universe: the residents of a depressed Oklahoma town where the only employers are a prison and a cattle slaughterhouse—have their lives uprooted by a visiting Boston journalist on the eve of a death-row execution. Alcoholics experience war flashbacks, young dreamers fantasize Chekhov style about escape, and everyone engages in the futile task of trying to keep secrets under wraps in a rural community. Sommer Austin’s production for the Agency Theatre Collective creates an engaging chosen-family dynamic in a motel and public house run by a compassionate but iron-strong matriarch of a manager (Denise Hoeflich). As the visitor, though, Jennifer Cheung delivers a curiously straight, nonreactive performance at total odds with the emotionally volatile circumstances around her. —Dan Jakes
Octagon Chicago poet, playwright, and activist Kristiana Rae Colón’s fantastical epic, in which a team of unceasingly lyrical spoken-word artists vie for a national slam poetry title as though it were Olympic gold, features several thrilling passages—namely, anytime the slammers perform Colon’s intricate, incendiary poems. (A crafty bundling of Miley Cyrus and Malala Yousafzai, recited by the troupe’s lone Muslim member, is particularly arresting.) Everything else in the two-and-a-half-hour escapade from Jackalope Theatre pales in comparison: its plot borrows excessively from Hollywood underdog films, and its main subplot, about sexually free-spirited Prism’s doomed devotion to taboo sex, reinforces the misogynist notion that too much sexual liberation inevitably leads to a woman’s downfall. Director Tara Branham’s cast is universally compelling and persuasive, however, despite occasional stretches of forced, unvaried exuberance. —Justin Hayford
Tony n’ Tina’s Wedding Back in Chicago for the first time since its 16-year run at Piper’s Alley closed in 2009, Tony n’ Tina’s Wedding is fresher and funnier than ever. In partnership with Chicago Theater Works, the show’s original New York producers have reinvigorated the classic with an all-star cast of Chicago improvisers and two perfect venues—Resurrection Lutheran Church for the ceremony, followed by a short walk to a celebratory reception at Chicago Theater Works’ home on Belmont, reimagined as Vinnie Black’s Coliseum. From Micah Spayer as singing sensation Donny Dulce to Billy Minshall as a sauced Father Mark, the cast fires on all cylinders throughout the evening, playing out larger-than-life Italian family drama with as much audience participation as guests can handle. For a guaranteed good time, bring your dancing shoes and 80s nostalgia. —Marissa Oberlander
