Regional Tony Award recipient, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, continual efforts to bring a plethora of diverse genres to their stage, brings a witty new musical, It Came from Outer Space. A new musical comedy adapted from the 1953 classic sci-fi film from Universal Pictures, produced by William Alland and directed by Jack Arnold, featured the first in the 3D process.

Located in the small town of Sand Rock, Arizona, It Came from Outer Space tells the story of John Putnam, an astronomer, and his school teacher fiancée, Ellen Fields, looking at the stars through John's telescope in the desert when a meteorite crashes on Earth. John runs towards the location of the crash and discovers an extraterrestrial spaceship, and sees a glimpse of the aliens. However, begin a new settler of Sand Rock, John is branded a crackpot and considered a town's laughingstock when he tells the local sheriff and others in the local village that aliens had invaded their small, boring town. However, the aliens are on a mission, which includes using the bodies of the town folks, and John is determined to save the world from destruction.

If you like Spaceballs, Mars Attacks, or Conehead or television shows like Third Rock from the Sun, then, It Came From Outer Space is the play for you. This wacky, witty, and comical new musical will grow on you to where you can't help but laugh.

Walking in, you see a somewhat bland, slightly amateurish stage setting, and your mind thinks this will be a long night. But, as the performance starts, you begin to adjust your perspective. The set design can transform into different scenes, providing the illusion of space. Illusion being the keyword.

From the book, lyrics, and music from Joe Kinosian and Kellen Blair, this clever Monty Python, Mel Brooks goes to outer space new musical is so silly and absurd throughout that even if you try not to laugh, you will! It's contagiously funny! Kinosian and Blair also have several entertaining and humorous original songs, like "Ain't Nothin Like a Desert, I Can't Figure Out Men, If The Humans Only Knew, and We Are Out There."

The actors, Jonathan Butler-Duplessis, Ann Delaney, Alex Goodrich, Sharriese Y. Hamilton, Christopher Kale Jones, and Jaye Ladymore, are all excellent in performing this cornball production. What I enjoyed the most of the moments of their mouths junctures as other voices were speaking, giving the illusion that aliens had taken over their bodies. Kudos to them for working their theater magic by not making it look like one of those Japanese to American English translations films, where the mouth is still moving with no words being spoken.

Butler-Duplessis and Goodrich are exceptional in their multi roles. Hamilton and a recent actor from the powerful and outstanding Relentless, Jaye Ladymore (Ellen Fields), along with arrogant city boy John Putnam played by Christopher Kale Jones, had me silently chuckling profusely. Ann Delaney, who plays Maizie (Thalgorian X), reminded me of Ruth Buzzi, whose fame came from Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In. All of them make it a wacky night.

Orson Welles scared the world with his brilliant 1938 radio drama depicting the invasion of aliens in The War of the Worlds. This live broadcast, a part of a Halloween episode, caused panic among its listening audience to a point where people around the world turned in, fearing invasion. With no commercial interruptions, hysteria broke, and Wells, who compares the show to "dressing up in a sheet and jumping out of a bush and saying 'boo!" had to let audiences know it was just a theatrical drama.

In the 50s, the world was so mysteriously fascinated with being invaded by outer-earth creatures that it ushered in the golden age of sci-fi. Monsters with slimy green tentacles with one eye beaming down to earth in a flying saucer were a part of society's fear of what lies beyond the stars.