Chicago’s award-winning Pegasus Players have put together a chilling and thrilling production featuring a vampire tragicomedy — complete with a funky musical soundtrack. Reginald Edmund’s Blacula: Young Black & Undead takes its cues from the blaxploitation films of the ’70s and ancient vampire legends. Franklin Park’s life is in shambles after losing his girl to an African Prince of Darkness. In an attempt to win her back — and possibly save the world — Park recruits a pair of bizarre vampire-slayers. This stage adaptation comes out just in time for the 40th anniversary of the cult film Blacula.  Comp tickets are for performance dates into December.

Goldstar has comp tickets ($7.50 service fee) through December for Haunting Julia.  Athenaeum Theatre’s Alan Ayckbourn season concludes with the Chicago premiere of the renowned British playwright’s supernatural drama Haunting Julia. Twelve years after his daughter Julia’s suicide, grief-stricken father Joe meets with a psychic and Julia’s former boyfriend — the last person to see her alive — in an attempt to discover what really happened. Joe reveals that he believes Julia’s trying to contact him from beyond the grave, and among these three men the true story of Julia’s life and death is gradually revealed. Former Shattered Globe artistic director and Jeff Award-winning artist Kevin Hagan directs this thrilling conclusion to the Ayckbourn season.

Goldstar has pages of comp and low-cost tickets for shows and exhibits for the whole family (varying service fees). Click on any offer and explore them all.
A working-class American — who leans towards the Tea Party and libertarianism — finds himself not only questioning those beliefs but feeling forced to taking drastic action when his cancer-stricken wife loses her health insurance. Actor-playwright Michael Milligan based this new play on stories from people who’re having to deal with devastating financial issues on top of serious illnesses. Mercy Killers takes a hot-button political issue and turns it personal, putting an all-too-human face on this emotionally-charged debate.

Appropriate deals with the hassles of inheritance as one family descends upon a crumbling Arkansas plantation to liquidate their dead patriarch’s estate. The three adult children think they have problems as they argue over clutter, debt and their troubled family history.  But after a disturbing discovery among their father’s possessions, a series of surprises and confrontations turns up the intensity at the already-uncomfortable reunion.

When the government gets into legislating romance, one man has to decide whether true love is worth breaking the law, in the comedy Dating Incorporated by Ricky W. Glore. As the story unspools in a dystopian future, love is really a game you have to win at all costs, since those who reach age 30 and are still single apparently face “a fate worse than death.”

And if you’re flush with cash ($7.50):

Laugh, gasp and revel in all the scandalous intrigue of an old-fashioned murder mystery farce in OJ Didn’t Do It: What Really Happened. In 1994, Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman were found brutally murdered in Los Angeles. A few days later, most Americans were tuned to their television sets, watching as O.J. Simpson, the prime suspect, was pursued in an infamous white Bronco by a bevy of police cars. Ultimately found not guilty by a jury of his peers, many people still consider Simpson guilty as sin. But now, OJ Didn’t Do It: What Really Happened presents the “true” account of what really happened that fateful night in 1994. Don’t be too shocked if the glove does not fit …

Goldstar has comp tickets ($4.75 service fee) to several preview performances of The House Theatre of Chicago’s The Nutcracker; other performances start at $6 ($3.75 service fee).  The Nutcracker is a fantastical deconstruction of E.T.A. Hoffmann’s time-honored holiday story, with lots of humor and heart — and no ballet. This fresh theatrical interpretation centers on young Clara’s journey to save Christmas. With the help of a magical nutcracker given to her by her beloved Uncle Drosselmeyer, she’ll bravely fight the Rat King to save her family. This modern holiday production weaves together riveting dialogue, astonishing puppetry, original song and spellbinding imagery to tell a heartwarming story of love, loss and hope.

Goldstar has discount tickets for performance dates through mid-December.

Hear the Best of “The Boss” With Bruce in the USA Tribute Band when it plays House of Blues on December 27th. This high-energy show is an amazing recreation of one of Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band’s legendary concerts. Matt Ryan played Springsteen for eight years in the famous Legends In Concert Las Vegas tribute show before giving “The Boss” his own dedicated show.  Bruce in the USA debuted in Vegas in 2004, and has been a hit ever since across America, including successful shows in Springsteen’s home town of Asbury Park, New Jersey, and in New York, where they were joined on stage by the late Clarence Clemons himself. You’ll hear a full complement of classics, including “Thunder Road,” “Hungry Heart,” “Born to Run,” and many, many more.

Chicago’s award-winning Pegasus Players have put together a chilling and thrilling production featuring a vampire tragicomedy — complete with a funky musical soundtrack. Reginald Edmund’s Blacula: Young Black & Undead takes its cues from the blaxploitation films of the ’70s and ancient vampire legends. Franklin Park’s life is in shambles after losing his girl to an African Prince of Darkness. In an attempt to win her back — and possibly save the world — Park recruits a pair of bizarre vampire-slayers. This stage adaptation comes out just in time for the 40th anniversary of the cult film Blacula. Please see the description for details on the Halloween performance and after-party.  Comp tickets are for late-October performance dates, although the production runs into November.

In its 11th year in London, We Will Rock You has been seen by 15 million people worldwide, and now you can experience this award-winning musical by British comedian Ben Elton (The Young Ones) featuring the greatest hits of the legendary rock group Queen. Sing along to “Another One Bites The Dust,” “Crazy Little Thing Called Love,” “We Are The Champions,” “Bohemian Rhapsody” and “We Will Rock You.” The story takes you on a trip to the future as a group of rebel Bohemians struggle to bring the power of rock back to the people.  Get discounted tickets to We Will Rock You October performances at the Cadillac Palace Theatre on Goldstar.

We saw this a few years ago at the Jedlicka Performing Arts Center.  Queen rocks!

Discount tickets through Goldstar for ten performance of Joffrey Ballet’s premiere of La Bayadere (The Temple Dancer).  An exotic story of love and betrayal set in India — and featuring live onstage snakes — La Bayadere follows the heart-breaking tale of a temple dancer and a young warrior caught in an impossible love triangle. A 19th-century Petipa classic set to music by composer Ludwig Minkus, this opulent updated staging by Houston Ballet’s artistic director Stanton Welch is highlighted by the classic Kingdom of Shades set piece, in which 32 ballerinas make a dramatic stage entrance as descending spirits. The Joffrey premiere production boasts lavish sets, colorful costumes and the company’s world-famous, world-class dancers.

Goldstar has comp tickets available for nine performances of Lydie Breeze; other tickets are $10 – still half off!  For more than 30 years, playwright John Guare has been obsessed with Lydie Breeze, one of his finest works in a career full of standouts (Six Degrees of Separation, Atlantic City, The House of Blue Leaves).  Audiences, too, have been drawn into this melodrama charged with mystery, misery and uncanny power. Lydie Breeze transports you back to 1895, to a weather-beaten beach house that was once the center of a failed utopian community. Inside, characters deal with the fall-out from the commune’s tragic history of adultery, murder and suicide. The persistence of American optimism — and the prevalence of American corruption — are gorgeously illustrated in Guare’s enduring play, now brought to haunting life by Ka-Tet Theatre Company.