Illinoise

About This Event

This dance musical, set entirely to Sufjan Stevens' music, forgoes spoken dialogue completely for its full 90 minutes — Justin Peck's choreography carries the entire story. It's playing Chicago Shakespeare Theater as part of the venue's 40th-anniversary season.

The show is built from Stevens' 2005 concept album 'Illinois,' and it had a real multi-stop journey before it ever reached New York: it premiered at Bard College's Fisher Center in June 2023, then played the Park Avenue Armory, then Chicago Shakespeare Theater, before transferring to Broadway's St. James Theatre in April 2024 — timed specifically to beat that year's Tony eligibility cutoff. It worked: the show landed four Tony nominations, including Best Musical.

Worth knowing: no single showtime is listed since it runs a normal multi-performance theater schedule across five weeks — check chicagoshakes.com for the exact date and time you want.