Ain’t Misbehavin’ Porchlight Music Theatre’s superb rendition of this ingenious 1978 Broadway hit celebrates composer Thomas “Fats” Waller and his world, the Harlem jazz scene of the 1920s and ’30s. Conceived by Richard Maltby Jr. and Murray Horwitz, the show strings together more than two dozen classic tunes written and/or recorded by Waller, including “Honeysuckle Rose,” “Keepin’ Out of Mischief Now,” and the title song. Director-choreographer Brenda Didier and musical director Jaret Landon have assembled a top-flight cast and band who capture the score’s ebullient energy and swinging stylishness. The production is sleek but slightly scruffy, as befits the rambunctious, syncopated music. –Albert Williams Through 12/20: Thu 7:30 PM (no show 11/26), Fri 8 PM, Sat 4 and 8 PM, Sun 2 PM; also Fri 11/27, 2:30 PM; Thu 12/10, 1:30 PM, Stage 773, 1225 W. Belmont, porchlightmusictheatre.org, $32-$45.
A Christmas Carol I used to find Dickens sentimental; now I think he’s profound. There’s something subversive even in his creation of capitalist everyman Ebenezer Scrooge (Larry Yando), whose grumpy isolation (the illusion of separateness, the Buddhists would call it) is an adaptive defense. When Scrooge’s nephew, Fred (Anish Jethmalani), reminds him that we humans are, after all, mere “fellow passengers to the grave,” Scrooge won’t hear it. But after a night of spectral visitations—including one from his former partner, Jacob Marley (Joe Foust)—he realizes just that: we are inextricably bound, and our time here is short. Director Henry Wishcamper’s production always brings something newly revelatory to the beloved story, and in his eighth year as Scrooge, Yando remains impishly delightful in his portrayal of a man gifted with the chance to make amends. There are many returning favorites here, and relative newcomers—including the commanding Ghosts of Christmas Past (Travis A. Knight) and Present (Lisa Gaye Dixon). –Suzanne Scanlon Through 12/27: Thu noon and 7:30 PM (no show 11/26), Fri 8 PM, Sat 2 and 8 PM, Sun 2 and 6:30 PM, Wed 7:30 PM; also Wed 12/9, noon; Tue 12/22, 2 and 7:30 PM; Wed 12/23, 2 PM, Goodman Theatre, 170 N. Dearborn, 312-443-3800, goodmantheatre.org, $26-$102.
Private Lives ShawChicago presents Noël Coward’s 1930 comedy in a concert reading, with minimal staging and actors reading from scripts. The classic play concerns Elyot and Amanda, a divorced couple who fall in love all over again when they run into each other while honeymooning with their new spouses. Elyot (Michael Lasswell) and Amanda (Mary Michell) are temperamental, madcap nonconformists whose reignited romance flares in alternating bursts of passionate lovemaking and furious fighting. Under Barbara Zahora’s direction, Lasswell and Michell don’t quite achieve the flippant insouciance required for their characters—roles Coward created for himself and Gertrude Lawrence—but their mastery of the language brings out the delicious musicality of Coward’s fast-flying repartee, a distinctive mix of sophisticated elegance and screwball absurdity. –Albert Williams Through 12/14: Sat-Sun 2 PM, Mon 7 PM, Ruth Page Center for the Arts, 1016 N. Dearborn, 312-337-6543, shawchicago.org, $30, $25 seniors, $15 students.
