Honky Tonk Angels In performance style and attitude, the heroines of 20th-century American country music are about as theatrical as they come. Here, under the music direction of Jeremy Ramey, a trio of crystalline voices at Theo Ubique brilliantly capitalize on the live, unplugged, raucous energy of the western repertoire. Ted Swindley, author of the tribute show Always . . . . Patsy Cline, loosely ties together more than two dozen singles with some zero-sum plotting surrounding the formation of a girl group with characterizations and speeches that don’t add much but are harmless. The real draw, of course, is the songs themselves, from transfixing renditions of the Tanya Tucker staple “Delta Dawn” and to a shiver-inducing surround-sound cover of Dolly Parton’s original “I Will Always Love You.” —Dan Jakes
The Weir Here’s a real knife in the heart from the Irish Theatre of Chicago. In Conor McPherson’s The Weir, a night of serious drinking is under way at Brendan’s pub in Northern Ireland. With a cold wind blowing off the sea, two regulars, Jack and Jim, plop down at the bar to wet their whistles, and these are men who know every old house in the area down to the last floorboard, who can recall from memory the entire history of every clan in Sligo. In walks the tycoon Finbar, a married man, with a Dublin woman named Valerie on his arm. What follows might be called a seance; beginning with a few ghost stories, the night finally concludes at the outer limits of emotional beauty and honesty. I’ve never seen anything like Brad Armacost as Jack, but really each actor’s performance is a triumph. —Max Maller
