New Chicago theater openings | January 26–February 1

This week's crop of play openings is pulsing with energy—starting with the bad energy of Enron, Lucy Prebble's skewed take on the energy company's scandalous downfall, seeing its Chicago premiere at TimeLine. Steppenwolf has another Chicago premiere in Pulitzer Prize winner Donald Margulies's war-correspondent drama Time Stands Still. Plus, check out two very different plays about Harry Houdini, with the House Theatre of Chicago's 10th-anniversary remount of its Death and Harry Houdini at the Chopin and Chicago Children's Theatre's The Houdini Box playing the Mercury.

Thursday 26

TimeLine Theatre Company 
Rachel Rockwell directs the Chicago premiere of British playwright Lucy Prebble’s comic tragedy about this century’s first unthinkable financial collapse.

Drury Lane Oakbrook Terrace 
Klea Blackhurst takes on über–stage mother Momma Rose in the classic musical about burlesque legend Gypsy Rose Lee.

Friday 27

Albany Park Theater Project 
The APTP’s teen ensemble presents a series of stories about the immigrant experience around the world and the ways people adjust to a new home.

Chicago Children's Theatre at Mercury Theater 
A troublesome boy receives a box that potentially holds the key to Harry Houdini’s secrets in Hannah Kohl and Mark Messing’s new adaptation of Brian Selznick’s children’s book.

Saturday 28

Signal Ensemble Theatre 
The high-stakes world of professional football is the setting for Ronan Marra’s new drama about a sports agent trying to get his client to the top of the draft.

Sunday 29

The House Theatre of Chicago at Chopin Theatre 
The House remounts its first production, Nathan Allen’s spin on the famed magician and escape artist. Company member Dennis Watkins re-creates a number of Houdini’s original illusions, including the harrowing Water Torture Cell escape.

Steppenwolf Theatre Company 
Donald Margulies delves into the pervasive effects of war on the human psyche in his 2009 drama about a photojournalist who has difficulty adjusting to her life back home after an attack overseas.

Monday 30

American Theater Company 
Ayad Akhtar’s new drama follows a Muslim-American lawyer as he ascends the corporate ladder and the professional and personal betrayals he encounters along the way. Kimberly Senior directs.

Wednesday 1

Profiles Theatre 
The bachelorette party: ground zero for female competition, gluttony and self-pity. Darrell W. Cox directs the Midwest premiere of Leslye Headland’s dark comedy.

Steep Theatre 
An artist locks himself in a theater where he performs, audience-free, every night for 15 years in Jason Lindner's peculiar solo show. Michael Salinas performs the piece's Chicago bow.