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Chicago is about to lose one of its most over-the-top nights out—at least for a while.
Teatro ZinZanni will wrap its current Chicago run this Saturday, effectively going dark through the spring and summer, with hopes of returning in the fall. The immersive dinner-theater staple has been a Loop fixture since 2019, serving multi-course meals alongside circus acts, cabaret, comedy and live music inside a custom Spiegeltent perched on the 14th floor of the Cambria Hotel on West Randolph Street.
Founder Norman Langill says the decision came as a genuine surprise. Ticket sales have fallen more than 25 percent since September compared to last year and the usual holiday-season bump never arrived. By early January, it became clear the numbers just weren’t adding up.
Langill attributes the slump to a mix of factors hitting live performance spaces nationwide: lingering post-COVID habits that keep people home, economic pressure on discretionary spending and heightened anxiety Downtown tied to immigration enforcement activity. “It’s impacted us and every theater in Chicago,” he told Block Club Chicago, noting that the Seattle production has also paused for similar reasons.
The timing stings. ZinZanni’s current show stars Robert López—best known as El Vez, the “Mexican Elvis”—and leans heavily into comedy, music and a celebration of immigration, a theme Langill says felt especially important in Chicago. The production frames the city as a place shaped by immigrant stories and working-class grit, delivered with the trademark spectacle ZinZanni’s known for.
Despite the closure, this isn’t a goodbye forever. Langill plans to retain the space and is actively seeking partners to use the venue in the interim. Think guest productions, nonprofit galas, auctions, or limited-run performances, similar to last summer’s stint by comedian and RuPaul’s Drag Race alum BenDeLaCreme.
For ticket holders, logistics are straightforward: anyone with tickets for shows scheduled after January 31 will automatically receive refunds in February. Exchanges into remaining performances are being offered with fees waived, subject to availability, and Hot Tix purchases will be refunded directly through that platform.
Langill is encouraging Chicagoans to come out for the final shows if they can. Ending on a high note, he says, matters to the performers, the crew and a theater that’s spent the last seven years turning dinner into a full-blown circus.
For now, Teatro ZinZanni is hibernating. The tent isn’t gone—it’s just waiting for its next act.