Between Holding on and Letting Go

Ashland Avenue

Welcome to Pete’s Television and Radio. For forty years, Pete’s owned and managed fifteen branches of his popular business, in addition to the main branch which is located on Ashland Avenue, on Chicago’s North side of the city. Pete’s known for his homey friendliness and his over-the-top television commercials. Because the world turns and things continually change, progress has affected Pete’s business dynasty. New rival competition and the popularity of online shopping have resulted in the closure of the branch locations, leaving only his main store in operation. But the Ashland Avenue shop hasn’t seen a customer all week and so its future is in jeopardy.  

Since she was a child, Sam, Pete’s smart, creatively talented daughter has spent her entire life inside Chicago’s iconic electronics store. As a child she watched Saturday morning cartoons on the TVs while doing her homework at the desk in Pete’s office. As she grew older, Sam began helping her dad more and more with the business. She became so good at the job Pete assumed Sam would inherit the Ashland Avenue business. Maybe, Pete thought, he’d even get a loan so that he could reopen another branch of store. But children grow up, marry and have their own dreams. 

As the play opens, Pete is about to receive a prestigious award from the Mayor, commemorating his longtime success as a small business owner and a Good Samaritan to his friends and neighbors. While he writes his acceptance speech, Sam is wrestling with something she desperately needs to tell her father. She wants to follow her heart. Sam and her husband Mike have finally decided to pursue their own dreams, which don’t include the Ashland Avenue store where they both work. Sam dreams of writing a novel and Mike, who’s a writer and illustrator of graphic novels, has his sights set on becoming an animation artist. To turn their dreams into reality, the couple has decided to relocate to Los Angeles, which means severing their lifelong ties to the Windy City. But more than that, the move will undoubtedly break Pete’s heart and leave him alone with his Ashland Avenue store. And so this tender, heartbreaking play that kicks off the Goodman Theatre’s 100th season becomes a conflict between holding on and letting go.

Written by Lee Kirk, a graduate of DePaul’s Theater School, the play evolved out of a nostalgic 2023 visit back to his old stomping grounds. Chicago motivated the talented screenplay writer and the drama first appeared in the Goodman’s New Stages Festival. Directed with dignity, grace and a great deal of love by Walter Artistic Director, Susan V. Booth, this play opens the Goodman’s Centennial Season. The program of upcoming plays are all built around stories that reflect who we are. ASHLAND AVENUE is a true Chicago story. It tells about a man with heart and a stubborn streak trying desperately to hold onto the past as his world is changing.

The play absolutely and totally belongs to Pete, its leading character. He’s played with sensitivity and soul by one of Chicago’s finest actors, Francis Guinan. Mr. Guinan was seen in Goodman’s productions of THE SEAGULL and THE CHERRY ORCHARD, among other plays. He has also appeared in many Steppenwolf Theatre productions, including AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY, THE NIGHT ALIVE, BALM IN GILEAD and AMERICAN BUFFALO, as well as at Northlight and Route 66 Theaters. Francis’s performance is simply sublime. He absolutely and totally inhabits this multilayered character. Mr. Guinan’s physicalization of Pete is superseded only by his powerful emotional and verbal responses to the other characters and the outside forces. Chicago can boast many, many talented actors, but I can’t think of anyone else who could play the role more correctly and consummately. Francis Guinan IS Pete and I predict that, come awards season, he’ll be receiving many accolades for this role.

Close on his heels is the talented Jenna Fischer, playing the role of Pete’s daughter, Sam. Ms. Fischer, who’s also married to playwright Lee Kirk, will be familiar to many theatergoers as Pam Beesly, from NBC’s brilliant, long-running mockumentary style sitcom, “The Office.” Jenna co-hosts the podcast, Office Ladies, with her best friend and cast mate from “The Office,” Angela Kinsey. Jenna’s previous theatrical performances include the Off-Broadway production of Neil LaBute’s REASONS TO BE HAPPY, as well as Steve Martin’s METEOR SHOWER. Ms. Fischer plays Sam with honesty and a relatable naturalness. There’s nothing artificial in this actress’ portrayal and the chemistry between Jenna and Fran Guinan is real. Watching Ms. Fischer tackle everything from trying to reason with her father to stubbornly vacuuming the grimy carpeting in the store, we get to enjoy a gifted actress who enjoys living in the role she’s portraying.

The remaining cast members are all gifted Chicago actors who play their respective characters as spontaneous and straightforward. Chike Johnson, who was so excellent in Northlight’s BIRTHDAY CANDLES, Remy Bumppo’s GALILEO’S DAUGHTER and the Greenhouse Theater Center’s WHEN HARRY MET REHAB, is fantastic and funny as Mike, Sam’s loving husband. The gifted actor adds just a modicum of subtle humor into his portrayal to make Mike a likable, endearing character in this battle of wit and will.

Cordelia Dewdney (STEEL MAGNOLIAS at Drury Lane, MOBY DICK at Lookingglass), who plays Jess, Pete’s former salesperson and his currently estranged life partner, grabs this role with both hands and never lets go. Ms. Dewdney fully inhabits the challenging role of a young mother of two, trying to redirect her own life against so many odds. She carefully navigates her way around Pete, who has a way of manipulating people and gently getting them to do what he wants. The scene where Cordelia totally breaks down, trying to convey to Pete her desperation for a normal life, is simply exceptional. Lastly, talented Will Allan (THE CHERRY ORCHARD at the Goodman, THE FLICK at Steppenwolf) appears near the end of the play. He’s totally convincing as the Young Man, a desperate drug addict attempting to get money for his next fix. But instead of calling the police, Pete calms and befriends him, demonstrating that despite his own personal issues, the aging businessman is, as always, an empathetic father figure for everyone he encounters.

This is a play that seems headed for Broadway. Despite being a Chicago story, Lee Kirk’s two-act play is universal. It boasts an honest, heartrending story about real families and the changes that take place over time. This is a warm, sometimes bitterly truthful tale about dreams, aging and acceptance. Staged on an extraordinarily realistic Scenic Design by the gifted, much-sought-after Kevin Depinet, Pete’s store is stuffed to the gills with more props, paraphernalia and set decor than anyone could imagine. Susan V. Booth’s incredibly moving production is a treasure, a story about how people decide about holding on or letting go, and how we all cope with this personal dilemma in our own lives.          

Highly Recommended

Reviewed by Colin Douglas

Presented September 6-October 12 by the Goodman Theatre in the Albert Theatre, 170 N. Dearborn, Chicago. 

Tickets are available in person at the Goodman box office, by calling 312-443-3800 or by going to www.GoodmanTheatre.org.

Additional information about this and other area productions can be found by visiting www.theatreinchicago.com.