Play On!

About This Event

A Duke Ellington musical built on the bones of Twelfth Night — swapping Shakespeare's Illyria for 1940s swing-era Harlem, a gender-bending backstage romance set to one of the great American songbooks.

'Play On!' was conceived by Sheldon Epps with a book by Cheryl L. West, and it keeps Twelfth Night's gender-bending backbone while moving the setting to Harlem's jazz scene: Vy, a young songwriter, disguises herself as a man to get her songs in front of the real-life bandleader Duke Ellington. It premiered at San Diego's Old Globe before transferring to Broadway's Brooks Atkinson Theatre in 1997, where it picked up three Tony nominations, including for stars Tonya Pinkins and André De Shields and for Luther Henderson's orchestrations.

Worth knowing: this runs Sept 11 – Oct 18, 2026 at Chicago Shakespeare on Navy Pier. No single showtime to add to a calendar since performances vary; check chicagoshakes.com for the schedule and ticket prices.