Location: North Side
Top Things to do in North Side
The 10 Best Concerts & Shows in North Side, Illinois (IL)
The windy city is a cornucopia of modern art, fine dining, cutting edge comedy, and die-hard sports fans. Snap a photo of your reflection in the silver Cloud Gate sculpture at Millennium Park before heading to Grant Park to get hit with the refreshing spray of Buckingham Fountain. There are dozens of museums and theater companies in Chicago, so a cultural experience is never hard to find. You’re sure to laugh your head off at the Second City Theater, the professional launch pad of many famous comedians.
Restaurants in Chicago
1. Victory Gardens Theater
Overall Ratings
5.0 based on 28 reviews
Under the leadership of Artistic Director Chay Yew, Victory Gardens is dedicated to artistic excellence while creating a vital, contemporary American Theater that is accessible and relevant to all people through quality productions of challenging new plays and musicals. Victory Gardens Theater is a leader in developing and producing new theatre work and cultivating an inclusive theater community. Victory Gardens’ core strengths are nurturing and producing dynamic and inspiring new plays, reflecting the diversity of our city’s and nation’s culture through engaging diverse communities, and in partnership with Chicago Public Schools, bringing art and culture to our city’s active student population.
Reviewed By 567katherineq - Summit, United States
What masterful story telling! Victory Gardens never shies away from the gut wrenching, to the taboo, to the scary, to the intense. If you want to be challenged by theatre yous should give their seaons a look over. Their lobby events for certain shows allow for fantastic theatre networking and their post show talk backs are always lively and interesting.
2. Holtschneider Performance Center
Overall Ratings
5.0 based on 1 reviews
3. TimeLine Theatre
Overall Ratings
5.0 based on 28 reviews
TimeLine Theatre Company presents stories inspired by history that connect with today's social and political issues. Founded in 1997 and located in Chicago's Lakeview East neighborhood, TimeLine is the recipient of 52 Jeff Awards, which signify excellence in Chicago theatre, including 11 awards for Outstanding Production in 15 seasons of eligibility.
4. Remy Bumppo Theatre Company
Overall Ratings
5.0 based on 3 reviews
Now in our 20th Season, Remy Bumppo Theatre Company is an ensemble based theatre company that believes in the power and beauty of language, and we know that conversation is an agent of change. As our motto "think theatre" suggests, the plays we produce will make you think - actively - about the complex issues we face as people, as a community, and as humankind. Remy Bumppo Theatre Company produces theatre that thrills the ear, stirs the heart, feeds the mind, and sparks a conversation. As an ensemble-based producer of intellectually and emotionally inspiring plays that reveal the power and pleasure of language, we explore timeless ideas in timely productions that celebrate our common humanity; and we invite audiences to converse directly with the art and the artists.
5. The Public House Theatre
6. Strawdog Theatre Company
Overall Ratings
5.0 based on 5 reviews
Chicago's premiere strorefront theatre experience for the past 30 years. Specializing in musicals, new takes on old classics and late night shows. There is a theatre bar featuring local breweries at affordable prices.
7. Kingston Mines
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 833 reviews
Kingston Mines is a blues music nightclub with 2 rooms, 2 stages and 2 bands & live music all night, 365 nights/year. We're the home of Doc's Rib Joint with ribs, wings & more right in the heart of beautiful Lincoln Park, on Chicago's North Side. Looking for a venue to host your next party or get together? Kingston Mines is the perfect venue for large or small groups alike! Ask about our party plans.
Reviewed By 866TaylorB - Chicago, United States
Truth be told, I can't tell jazz from blues from rock 'n roll from Mozart from Sousa. It's all music to me, all of it, anytime, anywhere. For blues, the place to be is Kingston Mines, the oldest and largest continuously operating blues nightclub in Chicago. Located at 2548 North Halsted Street, in the Lincoln Park neighborhood, it has been showcasing the most celebrated blues musicians since 1982...nonstop blues action seven nights a week, 365 days a year, two separate bands every night on two stages, from Delta blues to Memphis blues to Chicago blues. Over the years, it has hosted such blues legends as Koko Taylor, Otis Rush, Carl Weathersby, Magic Slim, Junior Wells, Sugar Blue, Billy Branch, Ronnie Hicks, Mike Wheeler, Peaches Staten, Eddie Shaw, Linsey Alexander and Joanna Connor. If you have a taste for some Southern-style food, you can indulge in some ribs, buffalo wings, Caribbean-style jerk wings, catfish, red beans and rice, home-made nachos, Po'boy sandwiches, shrimp, chicken, bread pudding or pecan pie at Doc's Rib Joint, located in the back of the room and open right up to the last call at 3 a.m. Sunday through Friday and 4:30 a.m. on Saturday.
8. Second City
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 1,631 reviews
The Second City is the world's premiere comedy theatre offering the best in Chicago-style sketch and improv comedy every night of the week and has launched the careers of Tina Fey, Bill Murray, Stephen Colbert, Steve Carell and many, many others. First, let’s define a few terms so we’re all on the same page. Sketch comedy is scripted, well-rehearsed scenes that we never, ever call “skits.” (And most of us are mighty touchy about that one. Improv is the unscripted, spontaneous, collaborative art form Second City is famous for. Stand-Up is the classic one-comic-on-stage-with-a-mic-telling-jokes routine. Think Jerry Seinfeld against a brick wall. Typically, any stand-up performances at Second City happen in the UP Comedy Club. A classic Second City revue is made up of original sketches and songs sprinkled with a healthy dose of our world-famous improv. Second City productions are fully written and rehearsed, but no two shows are ever the same.
Reviewed By nina0118 - Boston, United States
I love to laugh, and yet, I was not a big fan of improv comedy... until I visited Second City! I laughed so hard throughout the whole performance! It was hysterical, and probably one of the best nights that I had in Chicago! If you love to laugh, and you love improv, then this is the place for you! Don’t miss it!
9. Theatre on the Lake
10. American Theater Company
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 17 reviews
American Theater Company is an ensemble of artists committed to producing new and classic American stories that ask the question, "What does it mean to be an American?" We provide a truly intimate home for the community to experience meaningful stories. We foster a nurturing environment for artists to take risks and create essential work. ATC produces Chicago's most innovative work by nationally renowned, Pulitzer and Tony-winning playwrights within an intimate 100-seat space that is truly Chicago's public theater, a home for diverse audiences. Our education program reaches 800 students of Chicago's most under-served schools.
