Lyric News, Events & Offers for May 2019

Lyric Opera is pleased to offer luxury motor coach service from Northbrook Court Shopping Mall for the Wednesday, May 15, matinee of West Side Story. Join us on our Lyric Bus to avoid the hassles of traffic and public transportation — plus, ride to your performance with fellow music lovers! Call Lyric's Audience Services department at 312.827.5600 to purchase bus tickets for your ride to your opera or musical performance.

Join us at West Side Story and enjoy a delicious bite to eat at one of Lyric’s on-site restaurants! Lyric offers a pair of terrific dining experiences with The Sarah and Peer Pedersen Room and the Florian Opera Bistro. The Pederson Room (reservations required) will be open pre-performance, at intermission, and after the show. The Florian Opera Bistro welcomes walk-in guests prior to each performance and at intermission. For a Mother’s Day treat, be sure to book your afternoon tea service on the American Airlines Mezzanine! Additionally, The William B. and Catherine Graham Room is open to West Side Story ticket-holders with a specially crafted menu (reservations required). 

Lyric's production of West Side Story is one of the most highly anticipated musical theater offerings of the season. Now, you can also be a part of one of the most highly anticipated social events of the year with Lyric's West Side Story Celebration — a special performance, benefit and celebration, all in one. It's happening on May 10th and as one of the evening's special guests, you can choose your own unique experience — from sponsoring an elegant table for dinner in the opera boxes to securing a limited After Party ticket; any package you create includes terrific seats for that evening's performance of Bernstein's West Side Story.

For the night owls, the West Side Story After Party at Ignite Glass Studios, chaired by Guild Board members Minka Bosco and Sarah Demet, will keep the celebration going far into the night. Directly following the performance, all After Party guests will be transported from the opera house to Ignite in Chicago's west loop neighborhood for a street-scene themed happening with food and drink, a DJ and West Side Story cast members!

This special event is quickly nearing capacity – and you don't want to miss out on being part of it. Learn more here or by contacting the Guild Board office directly at 312.827.5723 or [email protected].

The Harris Theater's Beyond the Aria series offers audiences a one-night-only experience with some of the greatest operatic talents of our generation in an intimate, cabaret-style setting on the enclosed stage of the Pritzker Pavilion at Millennium Park. The series finale is on Wednesday, May 29 with an appearance by Patricia Racette (who stars as Sister Helen Prejean in Lyric's Dead Man Walking next season), along with Ryan Opera Center Ensemble members Ann Toomey and Mario Rojas, and music director Craig Terry.

An adventuresome program of repertory treasures, ENCORE! takes the viewer on a journey through the classic purity of Balanchine’s Concerto Barocco, the contemporary worlds of Ted Seymour’s Danzon! and LongLivingLine, and the beloved tale Hansel and Gretel as told through Daniel Duell’s beautifully realized choreography. The highly acclaimed Ballet Chicago Studio Company performs all works in a display of extraordinary artistic accomplishment. Use promo code BCLyric for 20% off! 

Porchlight Music Theatre presents the singular sensation A Chorus Line, extended through May 31. The Chicago Tribune says it's “PERFECTION” and the Chicago Sun-Times gives this production FOUR OUT OF FOUR STARS. Performances are selling out for this landmark production featuring an incomparable score including “What I Did for Love,” “One,” and “Dance Ten, Looks Three.”

David Cromer, the Tony-winning director of Broadway’s The Band’s Visit, returns to Writers Theatre to direct the electrifying musical Next to Normal! Called “brave” and “breathtaking” by The New York Times, Next to Normal runs for a limited engagement May 8 through June 16 only! The winner of three Tonys and the Pulitzer Prize, Rolling Stone says Next to Normal will “pin you to your seat.” Save $5 on tickets with promo code LYRIC!

^{Offer valid for publicly available performances of Next to Normal through June 16 only. Not valid on previously purchased tickets. Cannot be combined with other offers and subject to availability. Regular ticketing fees apply.}

The acclaimed Chicago a cappella ensemble proudly presents their 27th season. October begins with American Anthem: Songs that Challenge, Unite, and Celebrate, with the ensemble performing songs from some of the most important moments in United States history. Inspired by the NPR series of the same name, the concert will connect music with history, featuring songs that have become symbolic anthems for social movements. In December, audiences will hear a new collection of beloved Christmas classics as well as music for Chanukah in Holidays a cappella. In the New Year, Fiesta Coral Mexicana will highlight works commissioned by ¡Cantaré! Chicago Mexican composers-in-residence, as well as Baroque masterpieces and familiar melodies from Mexico. Concluding in April with Swing, Swing, Swing: Music of the Big Band Era, the ensemble travels back to the age of zoot suits and the Lindy hop.