While looking back at the first half of 2026, The A.V. Club would be remiss in our assessment of the best it’s had to offer if we left out all the concerts, plays, and musicals that encouraged us to get out into the real world. So, here, in alphabetical order, is a collection of our favorite live events, anchored by news editor and Broadway correspondent Drew Gillis.
Arca at C2C
I was a bit of an Arca agnostic going into this set. I had listened to some of her albums and appreciated her production on albums like Yeezus and Magdalene. That all being said, I came out of her set at C2C at the Knockdown Center earlier this year an evangelist. I was left in awe of the sounds and rhythms Arca was able to make; her stage presence left me, as they say, gagged. It was a set of rhythms that in anyone else’s hands would have been nothing but noise, as she strutted across her own decks dressed almost like a dominatrix while flashes of lightning crashed on the screen behind her. I’m not always the biggest fan of electronic sets, but when they’re this well-crafted and demand this much of your attention, the experience is like nothing else. [Drew Gillis]
Becky Shaw (The Helen Hayes Theater)
It felt like a stronger season for plays than musicals on Broadway this year, and, for me, Becky Shaw was the highlight of those plays. Becky Shaw at first sounds like the kind of premise that people who don’t like plays imagine what they’re all like: After the death of a family patriarch, a family grapples with their relationships to each other and how to deal with the problems of inheritance. What distinguishes Becky Shaw is how sharp and often mean (meant as a compliment!) these characters and their personalities are. The titular role, however, is not one of them, nor is she even the main character. Becky is a sweet woman who actually wants to connect with people who mostly view each other as competition. It’s Becky’s blind date with Max Garrett (played here by Alden Ehrenreich) and the fallout from it that gives the play much of its motion and drives home how damaged all of these characters are. Ehrenreich’s Tony-winning performance totally lived up to the hype; he made Max someone both pitiable and impressive, the kind of guy who draws you in even when his words are pushing you away. [DG]
Brokeback Mountain (Chicago Shakespeare Theater)
Eschewing painted backdrops that might feel artificial, Ashley Robinson’s stage adaptation of Brokeback Mountain conjures the spirit of the Wyoming wilderness through vegetation, starry skies, and the intense yearning of his two leads. As Ennis Del Mar and Jack Twist, respectively, Harrison Ball and Jack Cameron Kay share a too-brief romance that nonetheless burns hot enough to be felt from a distance, spied on by ranchers and suspected by their wives. Ball and Kay radiate sexual chemistry and Dan Gillespie Sells’ songs deftly denote the passage of time in this condensed rendition, but the set design at the CST’s Courtyard Theater is particularly inspired. Brokeback Mountain, the Del Mar home, a motel, Alma’s workplace—each setting appears and disappears through subtle changes in the layout. The lack of doors and walls requires Ennis to be a little more laconic; Jack, a little more reliant on humor to take the edge off, to hide his feelings. The ever-visible campsite is a tantalizing reminder of the life they want, while the Del Mar marital bed pulling double duty for Ennis’ nights with Jack is a reminder of the obligations they can’t shed. Robinson’s adaptation is frequently playful, almost painfully grounded at times, and the overall effect is transportive. [Danette Chavez]
Can I Be Frank? (SoHo Playhouse)
Technically, Can I Be Frank? first opened in New York in 2025, but that limited run was such a success that a second run was scheduled for this year, where it plays at the SoHo Playhouse until June 27. The one-person show stars Morgan Bassichis performing material from Frank Maya, an up-and-coming stand-up comic who died from AIDS in 1995. Going into the show, I feared it was going to be something of a tribute act, 70 self-important minutes waxing about history and community. What a delight for Bassichis to have anticipated these concerns and to have created a show both deeply self-aware yet willing to give itself over to the material without self-consciousness. A show like Can I Be Frank? is the reason we choose to go to the theater and be in the presence of other people. There is hardly a better place to laugh or cry together. [DG]
Oh, Mary!, Maya Rudolph edition (Lyceum Theatre)
I know we’ve written previously about Oh, Mary!, Cole Escola’s revolving-door play about an anachronistically silly Mary Todd Lincoln and the useless men surrounding her, but Maya Rudolph turned the depressed, alcoholic First Lady into a live-action Looney Tune. Making her Broadway debut in the show, Rudolph brought the kind of petulant, cartoonish, on-the-verge-of-breaking energy that gives the best Saturday Night Live sketches their electricity. I saw Rudolph’s penultimate performance before she handed the role over to Meg Stalter, and she’d honed her sweaty desperation to a fine point—a mean clown fighting for her life to persist through all the national and personal drama surrounding her. I’m sure everyone who sees the play sticks up for their Mary of choice, but man, Rudolph was something else. [Jacob Oller]
Son Rompe Pera (Thalia Hall)
Son Rompe Pera brought their famous marimba moshpit to a multigenerational crowd eager to kickstart the summer concert season, and the energy was unmatched. SRR are pioneers of cumbia punk fusion, a new genre that follows in the tradition of rock en español. The chilangos held nothing back as they played songs from Batuco, their debut album named after their musician dad, whom the brothers once accompanied at weddings and other events. Thalia Hall’s grand ballroom-style main floor (the adjoining bars also feature performances) belies the fact that it’s one of the more intimate venues in Chicago, and Son Rompe Pera harnessed both of those energies. The show had the raw feel of discovering a new punk band, while also recalling dancing cumbia in your aunt’s backyard after a carne asada, which is to say, there’s nothing quite like it. [DC]
The Hold Steady, featuring sheltering in place during a tornado warning (Thalia Hall)
The Hold Steady marked the 20th anniversary of Boys And Girls In America with a three-day stint in Chicago, and our fair city greeted them with sold-out crowds and tornado-like weather. This mini-residency began at Thalia Hall, the mid-size venue in the lineup (the subsequent shows were at the Empty Bottle and the Salt Shed, the latter of which included Built To Spill, Bully, and Titus Andronicus), with a stripped-down Storytellers In The Round set. The night began promisingly, Craig Finn warming up the crowd with banter and a mix of songs old and new. But not even 30 minutes in, a PA walked briskly to the stage and then Finn announced that we had to shelter in place. We headed down to the lower-level bar—which sounds ideal for the situation but the only drink available was water—and everyone around me kept it together even in the tight confines, soothing the more weather-anxious among us. We were soon escorted back up to the ballroom, where the band thanked the venue staff before picking things right back up. It was a great Hold Steady show, and a lovely display of humanity. [DC]
The Wild Party (New York City Center)
It’s a shame that this off-Broadway revival had such a short run, because The Wild Party was easily the best musical to open in New York so far in 2026. This production, which starred the ascendant Jasmine Amy Rogers as Queenie, made its 100-year-old source material feel as alive as ever. The Wild Party follows Queenie and Burrs (played here by Jordan Donica), two vaudeville performers in a horribly toxic (to put it mildly) relationship who decide to have a party; the rest of the night follows the arc of an increasingly out-of-control house party, the kind that’s fun until it really, really isn’t. The text itself, adapted by Michael John LaChiusa and George C. Wolfe, holds up beautifully from its 2000 debut, but it’s Lili-Anne Brown’s direction that left me astounded. Queenie and Burrs’ entire apartment was visible on the stage, and most of the characters were on stage together for most of the show, even as they peeled off into bedrooms and bathrooms while the action took place somewhere else. The audience got to see the whole party, in all its tawdry, jazz-age glory. [DG]
They Might Be Giants (The Vic Theatre)
“Stalwart” doesn’t begin to describe They Might Be Giants, who released their 24th studio album (yes, this includes the children’s albums), The World Is To Dig, earlier this year and have been touring behind it. The band arrived in Chicago for a three-night stand at The Vic, where they switched up the sets every night, as they are wont to do. I was there for the second show, where they kicked things off with John Henry, their 1994 album that marked a major evolution in their sound, before journeying through their discography and doling out songs from their latest. And I don’t mean to marvel at older pros doing what they do best in a “good for them!” way, but I’ve only been to one other TMBG show (and that was years ago), and I was in awe of just how great they are live. The fullness of the brass, the brightness of John Linnell’s keyboard, John Flansburgh’s riffing, the accompanying visuals, the backwards performance of “Sapphire Bullets Of Pure Love,” complete with a video recording projected onscreen in the immediate aftermath—it was funny and rousing and swooning, so much so that I both could and couldn’t believe they were planning to do it all over again, except with a distinct set, the very next night. [DC]
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