Steppenwolf Theatre Company

09/05/2026

Theatre folx 🎭 Join us for the Thurs, Sept 17 performance of TOPDOG/UNDERDOG and enjoy a preshow mixer in Front Bar. Mix, mingle and use code INDUSTRY15TIX for $15 tickets! steppenwolf.org/topdog

09/04/2026

Get a sneak peek into the rehearsal room, and grab those TOPDOG tickets now! 👀🎟️ steppenwolf.org/topdog

Steppenwolf Theatre Company will launch its 51st Season with Suzan-Lori Parks’ Pulitzer Prize-winning drama Topdog/Underdog, helmed by Tony Award-winning…

09/04/2026

TOPDOG/UNDERDOG begins performances soon!

 Steppenwolf Theatre Company, the nation's premier ensemble theater company, is pleased to launch its 51st Season with Suzan-Lori Parks' Pulitzer Prize-winning drama Topdog/Underdog, helmed by Tony Award-winning direct...

09/03/2026

"All day long I wear that getup. But that don't make me who I am."

Ensemble member Glenn Davis makes money as a Lincoln impersonator in Suzan-Lori Parks' TOPDOG/UNDERDOG, now in rehearsals! steppenwolf.org/topdog

Don't miss your chance to see him face off with ensemble member Namir Smallwood, playing Lincoln's brother... Booth.

09/03/2026

TOPDOG/UNDERDOG tops The New York Times list of 25 Best American Plays in recent memory, lauded for being "a perfectly shaped distillation of epic themes: race, history and the con games of American identity."

This Pulitzer Prize-winning masterpiece hits the Steppenwolf stage Sept 17—get your tickets now! 🎟️ steppenwolf.org/topdog

"There was very little debate among us about who should occupy the first spot on this list. During the past quarter century, Suzan-Lori Parks has emerged as the most consistently inventive, and venturesome, American dramatist working today.

TOPDOG/UNDERDOG is a tale of two impoverished African-American brothers, a scam artist and a carnival sideshow performer, who have the burdensome names of Lincoln and Booth. In depicting the daily rituals of these rivalrous but interdependent siblings — which include acting out the fateful historical encounter of another Lincoln and Booth — TOPDOG/UNDERDOG is both a vivid, present-tense family portrait and an endlessly reverberating allegory."

It has been 25 years since “Angels in America” redefined what a play could be. With the epic masterwork on Broadway once more, New York Times theater critics took the opportunity to rank the best American plays of the last quarter-century.

09/02/2026

Our 2026/27 Season launches with Suzan-Lori Parks’ Pulitzer Prize-winning masterpiece, TOPDOG/UNDERDOG! 🔥🎟️ steppenwolf.org/topdog

Called one of the greatest American plays of the last 25 years by The New York Times, this fast-paced thrill ride features Steppenwolf ensemble members Glenn Davis and Namir Smallwood as brothers Booth and Lincoln in a ferocious and darkly comedic showdown. Directed by Tony Award winner Kenny Leon, TOPDOG/UNDERDOG hits the Steppenwolf stage Sept 17.

This limited engagement must close Nov 1—so get your tickets now! 📸 Photos by Joel Moorman

09/01/2026

TOPDOG, ADIRONDACK, HAYWARD and more—it's Fall Theatre Season in Chicago! 🎭🍂

Talk about a rich harvest, suburban and Chicago theaters are overflowing with premieres (both world and regional) as well as a couple of timely revivals and remounts. With subjects ranging from contra...

09/01/2026

The Chicago Defender is excited about TOPDOG/UNDERDOG!

"Ensemble members Glenn Davis and Namir Smallwood go head-to-head in this highly-anticipated revival, more than two decades after the company’s celebrated 2003 production."

Get your tickets for TOPDOG/UNDERDOG now @ steppenwolf.org/topdog

Topdog/Underdog Steppenwolf Theatre Company, the nation’s premier ensemble theater company, is pleased to launch its 51st Season with Suzan-Lori Parks’ Pulitzer Prize-winning drama Topdog/Underdog,helmed by Tony Award-winning director Kenny Leon, who returns to Steppenwolf following his hit prod...

09/01/2026

Announcing The Gift Theatre's return to Steppenwolf! 🎉

As part of its 25th Anniversary Season, The Gift is proud to present HAYWARD by The Gift ensemble member Netta Walker, presented in Steppenwolf's 1700 Theater from Oct 14 through Nov 15.

HAYWARD reimagines Hamlet and Electra through the eyes of Luna, who reveals to her family — on the day of their father's funeral — that his ghost has come to see her. Beneath the haunting, this is a love story: a daughter's love for her father, and the complicated, unresolved feelings he left behind. The story follows a family shaped by the trauma passed down by a father who served in the Navy during the Gulf War. Across grief, they reach for each other, trying, imperfectly, to come back together.

Tickets are on sale now! 🎟️ steppenwolf.org/hayward

09/01/2026

ADIRONDACK CHAIR CIRCLE is a Chicago Tribune TOP 10 PICK for Fall 2026! Get your tickets and join the circle! steppenwolf.org/adirondack

"When you build a new theater-in-the-round, as did Steppenwolf Theatre, a title like ADIRONDACK CHAIR CIRCLE must look attractive. Actually, this is a show about suburban moms “armed with pickleball paddles and hard kombucha,” fighting over which books should or should not in their kids’ school library. So you expect a show about the culture wars that fill our feeds and also a continuation of the venerable Steppenwolf tradition of critiquing liberal elites, maybe sympathetically, maybe not. Happily, this is not only a world premiere by a Chicago playwright, Stephanie Alison Walker, but also marks the return to Chicago of the distinguished, Tony Award-winning director Pam MacKinnon, whose past Chicago work has included “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” and “Downstate.” As a bonus, the stellar Steppenwolf ensemble member Carolyn Neff is one of the stars."

Our critic’s picks for the season include “Birth of the Pill” at TimeLine, “Kowalski” at Lookingglass and the Victory Gardens Biograph returning to life.