The Goodman Theatre has released details about its 2013–14 season, a slate of nine full productions—eight as part of the subscription season, along with the 36th annual A Christmas Carol, newly helmed by artistic associate Henry Wishcamper—plus the New Stages series of works in development. The season includes three world premieres (two born out of previous New Stages lineups) and two Goodman commissions.

In the larger Albert Theatre space, the season will open in September with the Chicago premiere of Pullman Porter Blues, a piece centered on the 1937 championship bout between Joe Louis and James Braddock as well as three generations of African-American train porters. The play, by Cheryl L. West and directed by Chuck Smith, is infused with classic blues numbers. Wishcamper's Christmas Carol follows for the holiday season.

In January, artistic director Robert Falls directs a new work by Rebecca Gilman titled Luna Gale, about a social worker handling a tricky case. Next, Joanie Schultz helms the Chicago premiere of David Ives's lauded two-hander Venus in Fur in March and April.

Mary Zimmerman, who's currently working on her own version of Disney's The Jungle Book to debut at the Goodman this summer, will write and direct a new take on the Chinese fable The White Snake to open in May. The late-summer slot will go to the previously announced and newly revised revival of the Lerner and Loewe musical Brigadoon, to be directed and choreographed by Rachel Rockwell.

In the fall, the smaller Owen Theatre space will feature Smokefall, a world premiere by Noah Haidle in a co-production with South Coast Repertory directed by Anne Kauffman, followed in December by the New Stages series. Buzzer, a dark comedy about race and gentrification from Tracey Scott Wilson (The Good Negro), will have its Chicago premiere there in February, to be directed by Jessica Thebus. Seth Bockley's Ask Aunt Susan, a Goodman commission about a female advice columnist who's actually a twentysomething man, will premiere in the Owen in May, directed by Wishcamper.

Perhaps taking a page from the notebook of Steppenwolf Theatre Company, which has made a habit of naming a theme for its recent lineups, the Goodman is calling this its "DREAM" Season. Tickets for subscriptions and groups are on sale now; individual tickets will go on sale in August.

Skokie's Northlight Theatre has revealed three of the five productions that will make up its 2013–14 season, including a Neil Simon revival, a Chicago premiere by rising playwright Amy Herzog and a world premiere by Irish playwright Christian O'Reilly to star John Mahoney.

The season will open in September with Herzog's 4000 Miles, about a young man's relationship with his grandmother. The production will follow closely on the heels of another Chicago premiere by Herzog, whose Belleville occupies the summer slot at Steppenwolf.

Mahoney will star in O'Reilly's Chapatti, opening in March, as a lonely dog owner who finds a late-life romance with a cat lady. Following in May is a revival of Simon's Pulitzer winner, Lost in Yonkers, making this two consecutive seasons with a Simon play for Northlight, which mounted his The Odd Couple last fall. Productions for the two remaining slots in the season will be announced soon, the theater says.

You know that moment when you’re at a gay orgy and you realize you’re the ugliest person in the room? Okay, me neither, but a character (played by Brett Mannes) in pH Production’s new musical sketch comedy show Same Sex, Different Gays has been there, and he can sing all about it.

Same Sex, Different Gays, directed by Beverlee Bailey, is a sharp new show dressed in rainbow-flag flair. Sketches like “Are You a Virgin?” (which challenges notions of lesbian sexuality) and “Bitter & Numb”  (about dating pessimists) prove that gay humor can be more than just a punch line. Brad Kemp wrote the music, and the best song is about one-night stands, like taking a guy home and him not being, um, "properly prepared." With some changes it could inspire Katy Perry's next big hit.

A couple of the sketches were a little too let’s-all-get-gay-married-and-stop-being-bitter for the OkCupid cynic in me, but with the recent gay marriage bill passed by the Illinois Senate (on Valentine's Day, no less), these were timely and relevant. The show's point of view on relationships is strongest when it's most subtle. For example, in the sketch "At First," a lesbian couple, stuck in the daily routine of marriage, tell their child what their relationship was like when they first met. It's a very real situation many couples confront.

While the material is gay-themed, most of the sketches deal with relationship issues. Here's a little secret: Queer couples have problems similar to their hetero counterparts', just with a little more glitter. That is to say, you don’t have to be part of the LGBT community to like this show or get the jokes—well, most of them.

Same Sex Different Gays plays Saturdays at 9:30pm through Mar. 30 at pH Comedy Theater.

Crime noir isn’t the easiest genre to capture on stage, but the Den Theatre does admirable work with Don Nigro’s City of Dreadful Night, a quickly paced thriller in which everyone has something to hide. Justine C. Turner delivers a sultry performance as Anna, a femme fatale who lures two men into her web of deception that stretches back to before World War II. Turner got her first taste of theater as a child, and she began performing when her family moved to Oak Park. She became acquainted with Chicago theater as an undergraduate at Columbia College, and since graduating has gone on to become an ensemble member at Strawdog Theatre. Turner speaks to us about classic femme fatales, how noir is like Shakespeare, and why the genre still resonates with contemporary audiences.