That's not all! Windy City residents can also take in the Chicago premiere of the Off-Broadway gay musical, Zanna, Don't! (Bailiwick Repertory, through November 4); Jason Robert Brown's Songs for a New World (Bohemian Theatre Ensemble at the Heartland Studio, October 5-November 4); I Do! I Do!, the two-character marital musical by Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt (American Theater Company, October 8-November 4); a new production of Altar Boyz, the hit spoof of Christian boy bands, (Drury Lane Theatre Water Tower Place, beginning October 7); a new production of The Rocky Horror Show (Mercury Theatre, beginning October 17); the movie-to-stage adaptation of Meet Me in St. Louis (Drury Lane Oakbrook Terrace, October 25-December 16); and a production of Cabaret squeezed into a 50-seat storefront venue (Theo Ubique at the No Exit Cafe, October 26-December 16).

On the non-musical front, one of the month's highlights is the remounting of the House Theatre of Chicago's The Sparrow (Apollo Theater, through December 31) the clever tale of a Midwestern teenage girl with superpowers. Meanwhile, two legendary films are making the transition to stage vehicles this month: Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds gets the screen-to-stage treatment courtesy of Hell in a Handbag Productions, a firmly tongue-in-cheek troupe known for both male and female drag (Berger Park Coach House, October 6-November 17), while the late, great Ingmar Bergman's iconic 1947 film, The Magician, receives a serious-minded world premiere stage adaptation from the National Pastime Theatre and Clock Productions (October 18-December 15).

This month's other world premieres include The Defiant Muse, a wordplay-and-swordplay look at the life of Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz, the 17th-century Mexican nun, poet, and social crusader (Victory Gardens Theater, through October 28), and MiLK a new work from notable actor/author Nambi E. Kelley, concerning the lives of three girls in the Chicago housing projects (MPAACT at Victory Gardens Greenhouse, October 7-November 11).

On the revival front are Moliere's The Miser (Northlight Theatre, October 10-November 11), Samuel Beckett's Endgame (Red Tape Theatre at St. Peter's Church, October 4-28), Arthur Miller's A View from the Bridge in a very intimate production (Actors Workshop Theatre, October 12-November 11); Clifford Odets' Waiting for Lefty (Backstage Theatre at The Viaduct, October 12-November 3); and Tennessee Williams' The Night of the Iguana (Raven Theatre, October 14-December 8).

Other noteworthy productions include The Siddhartha Project, a collaborative retelling of Herman Hesse's tale of Hindu mysticism, presented at a hip lounge with a programmable LED ceiling (Collaboraction at Lumen Lounge, through October 14); Lifeline Theatre's version of H. G. Wells' oft-imitated sci-fi tale, The Island of Dr. Moreau (October 22-December 2); The Madness of Edgar Allen Poe, performed by the remarkable Larry Neumann, Jr. in a restored semi-gothic mansion (First Folio Shakespeare Company at the Peabody Mayslake Estate, October 6-28); and Emma (Trap Door Theatre, October 18-Dec. 1), with the feisty Beatta Pilch playing the even more feisty firebrand revolutionary Emma Goldman.