Choose your location

usa

Europe

Venice

Mon / May 20

Chicago
Events
Theaters

Theaters in Chicago

The Congress Theater

Concert Venue / Theater

Party Earth Review No matter what anyone thinks of the evening’s band, few would argue that The Congress Theater isn’t a beautiful place to see a concert – not even the city council, which designated this former 1920s movie palace a Chicago landmark in 2002. The ornate exterior – seemingly cloned from some Italian palace – gives way to a ... more

2135 North Milwaukee Avenue
Chicago, IL 60647

Liked By:

Rialto Square Theatre (Joliet, IL)

Concert Venue / Theater

Info As a former Roaring 20s music palace, the Rialto Square Theatre in Joliet has the ornate décor and jazz-age vibe of the era. Founders of the theater commissioned the same sculptor who worked on downtown Chicago masterpieces like Soldier Field and the Board of Trade, so the building has the look of a work of art. With a ... more

15 East Van Buren Street
Joliet, IL 60432

Gorilla Tango Theatre

Theater

Info Bucktown performance space Gorilla Tango Theatre has a schedule packed with quirky performances, but it is best known for its outrageous burlesque shows. With names like Fellowship of the Boobs (a Lord of the Rings burlesque), A Nude Hope (Star Wars), and Boobs and Goombas (Mario Brothers), Gorilla Tango combines the retro ... more

1919 N. Milwaukee Avenue
Chicago, IL 60647

Bank of America Theater

Theater

Info The corporate name is new; the theater is not. Dating from 1906 (then called the Majestic Theater), the Bank of America Theatre is home to large-scale Broadway shows. With 2,016 seats, the gilded theater was at one time the tallest building in the city. Today, it is clustered with several other large theaters in the Loop ... more

18 West Monroe Street
Chicago, IL 60603

Wentz Concert Hall & Fine Arts Center (Naperville, IL)

Concert Venue

Info As one of the few higher-ed institutions in the western suburbs, Naperville’s North Central College plays a big role in bringing cultural events to the area. Among its facilities is the Wentz Concert Hall and Fine Arts Center. Built in 2008, Wentz Hall is a modern triumph of acoustic design. The glassy venue’s acoustic ... more

171 E. Chicago Avenue
Naperville, IL 60540

Music Box Theatre

Theater

Party Earth Review When the 800-seat Music Box Theatre opened in 1929, it was considered the little sister to the much larger movie palaces of the day, but its intimate size belies a calendar packed with more than three hundred different movie showings a year. Restored in the 80s, this is not a place to catch the latest Zac Efron vehicle ... more

3733 North Southport Avenue
Chicago, IL 60613

Liked By:

Drury Lane Theater (Oakbrook Terrace, IL)

Theater

Info Unlike London’s centuries-old Drury Lane Theatre from which it borrows its name, Oakbrook Terrace’s Drury Lane Theatre is a product of 1984. Located half an hour west of the city, Drury Lane Theatre is the last one standing of a chain of Chicagoland dinner theater venues. Though the building also serves as a convention ... more

100 Drury Lane
Oakbrook Terrace, IL 60181

Star Plaza Theatre (Merrillville, IN)

Concert Venue / Theater

Info Attached to the Radisson Star Plaza in Merrillville, Indiana, the Star Plaza Theatre attracts big musical acts to the Northwest Indiana portion of the “Chicagoland and Northwest Indiana” region. The theater, which dates to 1979, can seat 3,400 people on a main floor and balcony and is about a 45-minute drive from Chicago ... more

8001 Delaware Place
Merrillville, IN 46410

Riviera Theatre

Concert Venue / Theater

Info Located in the historic Uptown theater district, the Riviera Theatre is one of Chicago’s premier concert venues. The theater was built in 1917 by the Rapp Brothers, a famous architectural duo known for designing magnificent theaters and performance venues. The building was originally designed as a movie theater for the ... more

4746 North Racine Avenue
Chicago, IL 60640

The Vic Theatre

Concert Venue / Theater

Info The Vic Theatre regularly wears two faces: a grungy rock venue and a raucous movie-and-booze theater. Located in Lakeview, the Vic Theatre started out as a vaudeville house in 1912 when it was known as The Victoria Theatre. These days, the Vic Theatre packs in up to 1,400 people for energetic, intimate performances by big ... more

3145 North Sheffield Avenue
Chicago, IL 60657

Athenaeum Theatre

Music Venue / Theater

Info The Athenaeum Theatre is a small-venue theater space in Lincoln Park, Chicago. The building opened in 1911 as part of the St. Alphonsus Catholic Church and was intended as a neighborhood playhouse and recreational center. Throughout the years, the Athenaeum Theatre served as a girls’ high school, temporarily housed the ... more

2936 North Southport Avenue
Chicago, IL 60657

The Comedy Sportz Theatre

Comedy Club / Theater

Info Structured as sporting matches, with teams trying to out-funny each other, Comedy Sportz improv shows have locations in many cities. As the home of improv comedy, Chicago counts a Comedy Sportz troupe among its many performers. The Comedy Sportz troupe shares its theater with other comedians. The Lakeview theater features ... more

929 W. Belmont
Chicago, IL 60657

All theaters in Chicago →

Chicago Theaters Overview

There are a bunch of localized theater areas in Chicago, which makes sense considering the hundreds of theaters spread throughout the city. But if you’re looking for the biggest stages, the newest performances, and the hottest talent, you don’t need to look any further than The Loop.

Smack dab in the middle of the city, Chicago’s Loop is home to touring Broadway shows playing on the most illustrious stages. Just to name a few, there’s the Harris Theater, the Storefront Theater, the famous Chicago Theatre, the Ford Oriental Theatre, the Goodman Theatre, the Cadillac Palace Theatre, and the Bank of America Theatre.

Getting outside The Loop, the Gold Coast has a mini theater district of its own with both the Broadway Playhouse and the Lookingglass Theatre. More theaters abound in Old Town – home of Second City – while River West hosts theaters big and small.

If you’re looking for great Chicago theaters, you only have to search your neighborhood to stumble across a live show, a great play, an incredible aria, or a booming symphony. So get out of the clubs for a night and discover the cultural wonders that the theaters in Chicago bring out on a nightly basis.