Chicago theater justly is famed for the quality of its actors. But which performances were the best of 2025?
Here is our annual celebration of the top 10 performances of the year. Unlike our Top 10 Theater list, which is confined to productions that originated in Chicago, this separate yearly list also draws from tours, remounts and restagings. Here, in order, are one critic’s views of the best theatrical performances of the Chicago year.
1. Sondra Radvanovsky in “Medea” at Lyric Opera of Chicago
In the most magnificent performance of the year, Radvanovsky stunned Lyric Opera fans with her Medea, as staged by David McVicar. Drawing from the intersection of pain, pleading and panic — all part of Medea’s lot — the American-Canadian soprano seemed both in control of her emotions and their consequences and incapable of transcending them. Some Medeas seem to belong to another universe, not this one. Radvanovsky switched back and forth into conversational reality with all the force and fragility of a scorned lover. It was unforgettable.
Grant Carriker as Louis Ironson and Ryan Hake as Prior Walter in “Part One: Millennium Approaches” from “Angels in America” by Invictus Theatre Company at the Windy City Playhouse. (Aaron Reese Boseman)
2. Ryan Hake in “Angels in America” by Invictus Theatre
Prior Walter, the central figure in “Angels in America,” around whom all other characters revolve, can come off as sanctimonious in some productions — or so morally demanding as to seem like a scold. But that is not what playwright Tony Kushner intended, and Hake made that very clear in his rich and empathetic portrait of a man visited by both a plague and an angel and determined to survive the challenges of both. Hake’s beautifully realized work was enough to make those of us of a certain age remember those who died during the AIDS crisis, and also those who survived.
3. Danny Horn in “Sunny Afternoon” at Chicago Shakespeare
Playing the iconoclastic Ray Davies of the Kinks is no easy assignment but this lyrical British performer, the brooding star of the new musical “Sunny Afternoon,” not only nailed live the likes of “Waterloo Sunset,” “Lola,” and “This Time Tomorrow,” he caught the pleading paradoxes of the man, a bonafide working-class hero, a musical genius, an avant-garde artist and an incorrigible intellectual. All of that craft was there and so was the sense that you were watching a star performance making sense one of the most unlikely members of the musical galaxy.
Danny Horn as Ray Davies of the Kinks during a rehearsal of “Sunny Afternoon,” a new musical which opens soon at Chicago Shakespeare Theater at Navy Pier on March 18, 2025. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)
4. Bri Sudia in “Always… Patsy Cline” at Drury Lane Theatre
You’d think that to make this list for “Always… Patsy Cline,” you’d have to be playing, well, Patsy Cline. Nope. The incomparable Sudia, back in Chicago after a long stint on Broadway, actually played the Cline foil, superfan Louise, in director Scott Weinstein’s lively production of the very familiar Ted Swindley revue. Sudia filled the stage with her exuberant excitement and enthusiasm, an every-fan for sure, but she made sure we all knew that her Louise didn’t just love Patsy Cline, but could perform her entire repertoire. There was a touch of melancholy, too. This was a deep dive into just what it like to truly love a celebrity who may or may not love you back.
Bri Sudia in “Always … Patsy Cline” at Drury Lane Theatre. (Justin Barbin Photography)
5. Anne Trodden in “Angels in America” by Invictus Theatre
Trodden was magnificent in the role of Harper in the fine Invictus production of Kushner’s masterpiece, the young Mormon wanderer caught between a dogmatic religion and a husband who had betrayed her faith. This was a multi-faceted deep dive, right up there with the very best Harpers in the various in stage and film versions of this show, but also recognizably Chicago-style in its frankness, intimacy and gutsy determination. It was one of the central anchors in this superb revival; ironic, really, since Harper is so much at sea for much of the time.
Caroline Neff and Kate Arrington in “Mr. Wolf” at Steppenwolf Theatre. (Michael Brosilow)
6. Caroline Neff in “Mr. Wolf” at Steppenwolf Theatre
Playwright Rajiv Joseph’s play is centered on two now-divorced parents whose child was first abducted and then, years later, returned to them. But Neff, a longtime Chicago star, played the stepmother of the kid, meaning that her character not only had to navigate the grief of the situation with the husband but the question of what she actually had the right to feel. Neff showed us a cascade of emotions, from love to jealousy and back again, and took us inside the woman’s head, temporally speaking, as she worked away through a horrifying situation that did not have hers at the center. Fans of Neff saw her work in a more minimalist and controlled style — but, as ever, every moment felt authentic.
Kevin Earley (Captain von Trapp) and Cayleigh Capaldi (Maria Rainer) with the von Trapp children Ariana Ferch (Liesl, from left), Eli Vander Griend (Friedrich), Ava Davis (Louisa), Benjamin Stasiek (Kurt), Haddie Mac (Brigitta), Ruby Caramore (Marta) and Luciana VanDette (Gretl) in “The Sound of Music” at the Nederlander Theatre. (Jeremy Daniel)
7. Ariana Ferch in “The Sound of Music”
Liesl is usually a bland ingenue role in this famous sentimental musical, where Maria gets all the big songs and Gretel gets all the points for being cute. But Ferch threw away all of the usual preconceptions attached to “Sixteen Going on Seventeen” and forged a far more complicated Austrian teenager, using subtext to compensate for the relative lack of material her character has at her disposal. In the national tour, she drew attention all night at the Nederlander Theatre with her sad-eyed implication that life in the Von Trapp family had a layer of complexity far greater than most realize. Liesl a worrier? That’s what animated Ferch’s work; even during the signature dance around the gazebo, she clearly signaled that she knew this Rolf guy was going to break her heart.
Ava Lane Stovall, David Moreland and cast in “Jekyll & Hyde” by Kokandy Productions at the Chopin Theatre. (Evan Hanover)
8. Ava Lane Stovall in “Jekyll & Hyde” by Kokandy Productions
Stovall is young and not yet well-known in Chicago’s musical theater world. But she is a star in the making if ever there was one: her performance in the campy Frank Wildhorn tuner tore through the show’s signature power ballads, adding rich vulnerability to her thrilling collection of emotional songs, all sung in the middle of every note and belted out with a zest that you sure could hear on the other side of Ashland Avenue. More like Adele than Linda Eder, this bluesy balladeer was simply spectacular.
Evan C. Dolan, Jessie J. Potter, Alex Syiek, Sophie Grimm and cast in “White Christmas” at Paramount Theatre in Aurora. (Boris Martin)
9. Alex Syiek in “White Christmas” at Paramount Theatre
In the seasonal musical “White Christmas,” Bob Wallace is half of a double act that does the right thing for an old army general and gets tied up with a sister act on the way. Syiek, who plays that role in Aurora this Christmas, is following in the footsteps of no less than Bing Crosby, who played the likable character in the 1954 movie that spawned the live show. Syiek delivered the consummate baritone vocal performance, a booming yet warm sound that embodied the ethos of the show and that took those audience members of a senior age right back to the era of their youth. It was a truly lovely piece of acting and a rich treat for the ear.
Atra Asdou in “Iraq, But Funny” at Lookingglass Theatre. (Ricardo Adame)
10. Atra Asdou in “Iraq, But Funny” at Lookingglass Theatre
Here was a rare example of a highly energetic and creative performer with comedic experience at Second City moving into one of the city’s generally more serious theater companies. Asdou put that training to fabulous effect in a highly political satirical show she wrote herself; “Iraq, But Funny” essentially was a one-night history of the Middle East. Her narrating colonialist Brit, a Sgt. Pepper-like buffoon mixed up with some Monty Pythonesque nonsense, spluttered with pomposity and bombast in the most delicious of ways. Asdou, like most on this list, is a name to watch in 2026.
Ten more examples of excellence, in alphabetical oder: Isaiah Bailey in “The Phantom of the Opera“; Brianna Buckley in “Oak,” Raven Theatre; Chilina Kennedy in “Billie Jean,” Chicago Shakespeare Theater; Daniil Krimer in “Henry Johnson,” Victory Gardens; Olivia Lindsay in “Blackbird,” New Theatre Project; Tyler Meredith in “Translations,” Writers Theatre; Angela Morris in “Cygnus,” Gift Theatre; Keith Randolph Smith in “Bust,” Goodman Theatre; Raven Whitley in “Berlin,” Court Theatre; T.J. Wilkins in “44 — The Musical,” Studebaker Theater
Chris Jones is a Tribune critic.
cjones5@chicagotribune.com