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Theaters in Chicago

Apollo Theater

Theater

Info Despite being housed in a nondescript cement building in Chicago’s Lincoln Park, the Apollo Theater opens up into a polished and lush performance space. With a capacity of 450 people, the intimate theater has been presenting musicals, plays, and comedy acts since 1978. It has no relation to New York’s Apollo Theater. Some ... more

2540 North Lincoln Avenue
Chicago, IL 60614

Akoo Theatre at Rosemont

Concert Venue / Theater

Info Akoo Theatre at Rosemont, formerly Rosemont Theatre, is a 4,400-seat concert hall in Rosemont, IL. Performances at Akoo Theatre range from Broadway musicals to theater productions to world-class musical acts. Opened in 1995, Akoo Theatre is one of the Chicago area’s largest theaters. The venue offers a multi-level VIP room ... more

5400 North River Road
Rosemont, IL 60018

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

Greenhouse Theater Center

Theater

Info Located in the Lincoln Park neighborhood, the Greenhouse Theater Center hosts a rotating roster of theater companies. The center is devoted to nurturing small and mid-sized theater companies, letting them rent stage space with all the miscellaneous necessities such as a box office, lighting equipment, and ushers. Up to ... more

2257 N. Lincoln Ave.
Chicago, IL 60614

Civic Opera House

Concert Venue / Theater

Info Home to the world-renowned Lyric Opera of Chicago, the Civic Opera House is a flashback to 1920s glamour and was in fact used as inspiration for the opera house in Citizen Kane. Built in 1929, the Art Deco building sits like a giant’s throne on the outskirts of the Loop. The Civic Opera House’s 3,563-seat theater makes ... more

20 North Wacker Drive
Chicago, IL 60606

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

iO Theatre

Comedy Club / Theater

Info Improv comedy has a big history in Chicago, and multiple venues, like the iO Theater, are devoted to the art form. Across the street from Wrigley Field and sharing a block with some of Wrigleyville’s most popular bars, the iO Theater is a smaller cousin to famous Second City farther south. The “iO” stands for Improv Olympic ... more

3541 North Clark Street
Chicago, IL 60657

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

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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

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

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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.