For Dr. Ricardo Rosenkranz of “Physician Magician,” an unprecedented vision to perform his show in Spanish is no longer an illusion.

In a series of back-to-back English and Spanish performances set for the Cinco de Mayo holiday weekend, the “Physician Magician” will become “El Medico Mago” at the Rhapsody Theater in Rogers Park.

Rosenkranz bought and opened the Rhapsody in 2022.

“I’ve been doing the show in English for a long time,” he said. “I'm originally from Mexico, I speak Spanish and I get audience members that come and say, ‘Oh, I wish you would do the show in Spanish because my mother would like to see it.’ And really, we have a wonderful theater in Chicago, we have great shows that in fact are translated into Spanish. But people should see a show in their own language as if they had walked into a theater in Mexico City. So I translated the show, I changed some things. There's some cultural ideas that I infused into it being Mexican. And now I'm doing a 2 p.m. show in one language: a two-hour solo show in one language. And at 7:30, I'm doing it in a completely different language.”

A neonatologist and clinical assistant professor of pediatrics at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, Rosenkranz has won teaching awards for his ability to fuse medicine and magic in the classroom.

But it was his love of music that led to his nickname.

“It’s very funny. It came from Yo-Yo Ma, actually,” Rosenkranz explained. “I had a chance to perform for him at the Chicago Symphony. And then the second time that I was performing for him a few months later, he said, ‘Wait a minute, I know you. You are the doctor who's a magician: You're the physician magician.’ I loved it, I thought it was great.

"But now it is also part of a philosophy that I teach medical students, which is, even though I’m the ‘Physician Magician’ in this sense, I think we all need a ‘Physician Magician.’ And what that means, in that particular order, is a doctor who is excellent at the science of medicine and at evidence-based medicine and gives patients the best chance of healing from science. But then helps them with that other part that is equally important, which is empowerment and empathy and being able to give them hope.”

The English and Spanish versions of the “Physician Magician” and “El Medico Mago” will be held May 4-5 at the Rhapsody Theater, 1328 W. Morse Ave. For tickets and more information, visit rhapsodytheater.com.