CHICAGO — Angels hovering anew over Chicago’s North Side. The return of Brian Friel. And a “Raisin” we could call our own.

Here’s our annual celebration of the best Chicago shows of the year, in order, with an additional 10 in alphabetical order that almost made our list. As is our longtime practice, we’ve limited our choices to productions that originated in the Chicago area; otherwise you’d find the Lyric Opera’s sumptuous “Medea,” director David Cromer’s Goodman Theatre staging of “The Antiquities” from New York, the knockout touring casts of “Parade” and “The Sound of Music,” and other such worthies on this annual list of shows we won’t quickly forget.

1: “Angels in America” by Invictus Theatre

A phenomenal achievement for a neighborhood, storefront company with a low budget, the Invictus “Angels’ was the best non-Equity production here since before the pandemic and in many ways was a necessary reminder of the historic vitality of Chicago’s non-union theater scene, where young artists first made their mark before going on to oft-formidable careers. It’s our pick for the best show of the year. Aside from the audacity of the programming risk, director Charles Askenaizer’s fast-moving, rotating-repertory stagings of the constituent “Millennium Approaches” and “Perestroika” in the former Windy City Playhouse was visually compelling, richly acted throughout the cast, and allowed for audiences to experience this great play in a contemporary context. Everyone here gave of their hearts and souls to this project and the results were profoundly joyous.

2: “Translations” at Writers Theatre

Chicago has a singular tradition of potent stagings of Irish drama, the plays of Brian Friel in particular, and this Writers Theatre production of one of Friel’s greatest works from 1980 was a welcome return to a tradition that has felt a tad moribund in recent years. Director Braden Abraham began his production in total darkness before revealing the grand work of the designers Andrew Boyce and Maximo Grano De Oro that immersed the audience in the rolling hills and gorgeous sunsets of Ballybeg. This past year, Writers has really amped up its ability to use the assets of its main theater to immerse its audience in the environments of its shows and this one created such a vivid world as to be wholly engulfing. No stereotypes were tolerated; instead, we got Friel’s rich evocation of characters both flawed and vulnerable, and the love of his home that informed so much of his great dramas of regular folks struggling with time and change.

3: “A Raisin in the Sun” at Court Theatre

The first of three excellent Court Theatre shows on this list, director Gabrielle Randle-Bent’s production understood that in Chicago, and Hyde Park especially, “Raisin” is a local play. That’s thanks in no small part to a gorgeously crafted set design from Boyce (what a year he had). Not only did this feel and move like Chicago, but the staging felt wholly reflective of the genius of Lorraine Hansberry, one of the greatest playwrights of the 20th century whose life was cut short when just reaching its creative prime. Randle-Bent’s overtly kinetic approach to classics has sometimes come off as pretentious, but here it worked superbly well, as she crafted the movement of a South Side Chicago family, fighting off racism and internal conflicts as they all lived out their frustrations and pursued their varied dreams even as they went about their everyday business. The director had a superb cast, including Kierra Bunch as Ruth Younger and the riveting Shanésia Davis as Lena Younger. All of the issues of interest to this singularly intellectual author were honored, but never at the expense of the simple reality of a family who just wants to breathe fresh air.

4: “True West” at Paramount’s Copley Theatre

Alas, Paramount Theatre’s Bold Series (I never much liked the name) was the victim of fiscal cutbacks this year. But we still had director Jim Corti’s knockout “True West,” a new staging of Sam Shepard’s famous drama of sibling rivalry, long associated with a signature production at the Steppenwolf Theatre. There was nary a fake note in this intense staging, which honored Shepard’s intentions. In the script, the playwright demands no deviations from simple realism when it comes to the stage design and Lauren M. Nichols’ set both followed those strictures and subtly undermined them, as a great “True West” designer should. I’d gotten off the train in Aurora moments before, only to be catapulted by this show to the outskirts of the Mojave Desert. There, two brothers beat each other to a psychological and metaphysical pulp and the actors Jack Ball and Ben Page were up for rendering every last blow, as fueled by their characters’ crushing insecurities.

5: “Mr. Wolf” at Steppenwolf Theatre

Playwright Rajiv Joseph’s humanistic and deeply felt 2015 drama about a girl abducted at a young age and returned to her parents years later is not an easy one for audiences to grasp. Word was, the show did not sell especially well. But audiences who did come witnessed, to my mind, one of the best Steppenwolf productions in recent memory, a moving drama that fully captured the agony behind the central questions Joseph’s script was asking: How can parents handle a child who has changed immeasurably since they last saw her? How do step-parents deal with a family crisis that preceded their entry into the family? When we have lost someone and she comes back, how do we calibrate the joy of the return versus the pain of the lost years? All of these issues have import beyond the script and director K. Todd Freeman’s staging was replete with a kinetic, restless set from Walt Spangler that matched the roiled humans walking around in a fog on stage.

6: “Big White Fog” at Court Theatre

Director Ron OJ Parson took on one of Chicago’s mostly lost plays, a 1938 drama by Theodore Ward that clearly influenced Hansberry when she wrote “A Raisin in the Sun.” “Big White Fog” is not the poetic equal of that classic, but Parson gave this inter-generational story life, vitality and exuberance as it charted the difficulties and victories of another Black Chicago family, this one living on South Dearborn Street during the Depression. Parson’s cast included 17 actors, and its director clearly realized that the title of the drama referred not only to the racist attitudes against which the family must fight but to how the “big white fog” influenced how early 20th century Black Chicagoans felt about each other. I saw an understudy, Bridget Adams-King, in an important role and the difficulty of her assignment only deepened her work, matching the other members of Parson’s superb ensemble, including the superb twosome of Greta Oglesby and Joshua L. Green.

7: “Lobby Hero” by Shattered Globe Theatre

This hugely entertaining off-Loop production of Kenneth Lonergan’s 2001 play felt like another throwback to the glory days of off-Loop theater, typified as it was by excellent ensemble acting and a willingness to probe the ennui of urban life. Director Nate Santana’s production featured a star turn from Elliot Esquivel, who played the titular security guard, condemned to react to the comings and goings of his residential building, a character whose ordinariness does not stop one crisis after another from arriving at his buzzer. Here, too, a low budget did not stop a set designer, in this case José Manuel Díaz-Soto, from creating a witty, evocative design that fit both the play and the emotional intimacy of this superb production. The show pulsed with life.

8: “Much Ado About Nothing” at Chicago Shakespeare Theater

Chicago Shakespeare’s “Much Ado” was an end-of-year treat on Navy Pier, superbly well-spoken, unpretentious and both generous and welcoming to its audience. The director, Selina Cadell, used older performers in Deborah Hay and Mark Bedard to play the famously belligerent Beatrice and Benedick, and that worked beautifully, raising the stakes for both of them. But the biggest pleasure here came when the actors engaged in direct banter with the folks in the seats. Given the snowy start to the winter season, spending quality time in the Italian sunlight with this group of artists was especially welcome.

9: “Berlin” at Court Theatre

Court Theatre had an extraordinary 2025, with the majority of its productions among the best of the year. Adapted by the Chicago writer Mickle Maher and directed by former Court Theatre artistic director Charles Newell, “Berlin” was based on the graphic novel by Jason Lutes, recounting the story of Berlin from 1928 to 1933, through a variety of characters who occupy its streets and bedrooms. Metaphorically speaking, this Court world premiere was a multifaceted exploration of the fall of a free and liberal city and its authoritarian takeover. Not everything worked; the project was immensely challenging. Yet it somehow managed to contain as much of Lutes’ vision as would be humanly possible. It was quite the experience and indicative of Newell’s decades-long legacy of excellence at this theater and in this city.

10: “Jekyll & Hyde” by Kokandy Productions

This famously campy Frank Wildhorn musical might seem like a strange inclusion on such a list; it’s rarely been a favorite of critics. But audiences have always been another matter when it comes to Wildhorn’s boffo tuners and people have been flocking to see this intimate new staging of a show stocked like Walmart at Christmas with power ballads, sung here with quite astonishing prowess by the likes of Ava Lane Stovall, a musical star in waiting if ever Chicago has one. Director Derek Van Barham’s production was inventive and pulsing with life and we saw 15 musicians crammed into the back of the theater, belting out those killer songs. The year 2025 was Kokandy’s moment, indeed.

Ten more, in alphabetical order: “Blackbird” by the New Theatre Project; “Catch Me If You Can” at Marriott Theatre; “Cygnus” by Gift Theatre; “Gaslight” at Northlight Theatre; “Iraq, But Funny” at Lookingglass Theatre; “Memorabilia” by Teatro Vista, “Paranormal Activity” at Chicago Shakespeare Theater; “Tell Me On a Sunday” by Theo Ubique Theatre; “White Christmas” at Paramount Theatre; “You Will Get Sick” at Steppenwolf Theatre.

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