Get half-price tickets to Other Desert Cities, recently one of the hottest tickets on Broadway and a 2012 Tony nominee for Best Play, which comes to Chicago to The Goodman Theatre. This latest play from Pulitzer Prize finalist Jon Robin Baitz is a smart drama filled with serious laughter and repartee that both dazzles and decimates. Christmas is always somewhat surreal in Palm Springs. It’s made even more so this year when Brooke returns home after a long absence to present her conservative parents with a tell-all confessional novel that exposes a pivotal event in the family’s history.  Goldstar has ticket availability through February 9th.

First there was post-modern cyberpunk, then came 19th-century-inspired steampunk, and now the Accidental Shakespeare Company’s first-ever production introduces the world to Alchemy Punk, through the magical world of The Tempest.  As conceived by director Angeli Primlani, Shakespeare’s lyrical play moves to the early 17th century, where scholars and alchemists studied the natural world of wind and water, as well as supernatural creatures like fairies and elves. The story follows Prospero, a duke in exile and master of an enchanted isle where fantastical creatures, mystery, music and romance abound. A shipwreck delivers Prospero’s enemies to the island, and the plot thickens when his beloved daughter falls for the enemy’s son and the scientific, spiritual and political worlds of the time begin to collide.  Tickets are available through March.  This show sounds interesting; wish it was closer than Rogers Park.