MUSICAL

A Minister’s Wife (Writers’ Theatre, 325 Tudor Court, Glencoe, Ill., closes Aug. 2). Josh Schmidt, Austin Pendleton, and Jan Tranen have teamed up to create a musical version of George Bernard Shaw’s Candida that’s better than the original. The score is exquisite, the book crisp and pointed, the lyrics plain-spoken yet poignant. The ensemble cast, led by Kevin Gudahl, is excellent in every way, and Michael Halberstam’s staging is wonderfully sensitive. A perfect show, in short, one that is surely destined to make its way to New York–but why wait? You’ll never see it done better than in Chicagoland (TT).