Author: Kevin Curran
What Do You Want to Be When You Grow Up?
Herland – Redtwist Theatre
Herland, a new play getting its Chicago premiere at Redtwist, is the story of three friends who decide that rather than shuffle off to a sad retirement community, they are going to form one of their own. Their defacto leader, Jean, converts her garage, the previously off-limits rehearsal space for her ex-husband’s Bruce Springsteen cover band, into her office and the headquarters of their planned retirement community. She hires an intern to help them, primarily by being more comfortable with technology. The name of the play is taken from a 1915 utopian novel about a world with no men.
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Leaving on a Jet Plane
2 Unfortunate 2 Travel – Prop Thtr
Seeking to escape the outcome of the Election that Shall Not Be Named, Jack takes off on a tour of the world. Returning with a diary full of his journeys, he turns the portrayal of his travels over a group of six women to bring the stories to life.
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Is There Life on Mars?
How to Live on Earth – Chimera Ensemble
The key of science fiction is the question “What if?” What if we had flying cars? What if we met aliens? What if we could transfer our brains to robot bodies? Sometimes the questions are small changes; sometimes they are seismic shifts. The best science fiction explores not just the technological marvels themselves, but the impact on people and their relationships. Chimera Ensemble’s new production “How to Live on Earth” is a great example of that. Focusing on four people all trying for the opportunity to be picked for a one-way mission to colonize Mars, we get to meet not just the aspiring astronauts, but the people and lives they’ll be leaving behind.
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The Face of an Honest Man
Doubt – The Gift Theatre
Doubt, the Pulitzer Prize winning play and basis for the film starring Meryl Streep and Philip Seymour Hoffman, is being given a Chicago revival by The Gift Theatre at Steppenwolf’s 1700 Theatre. It centers on St. Nicolas, a parochial school in the Bronx in 1964, and its principal, the stern Sister Aloysius and a new progressive priest, Father Flynn. One of Sister Aloysius’ teachers, Sister James, comments that Flynn is paying special attention to one boy, Donald Muller, the school’s first black student. Sister Aloysius becomes convinced that something inappropriate is happening and embarks on a crusade to stop him.
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Ariodante – Lyric Opera of Chicago
Ariodante, premiering this week at the Lyric, is story of a medieval Scottish prince and his betrothed, Ginevra. The Evil Duke (Are there any non-evil Dukes in opera?) is Ariodante’s rival for Ginevra’s hand. She spurns him, but since women weren’t really allowed opinions at this time, the Duke carries on, tricking Ariodante into believing Ginevra has been unfaithful. Ariodante is heartbroken and Ginevra faces execution for a sin she did not commit. The Duke now plans to intervene to save her, winning the King’s favor and her affections.
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All Torn Up
I Wanna F#!&ing Tear You Apart – Rivendell Theatre
Rivendell Theatre is giving Morgan Gould’s I Wanna F#!&ing Tear You Apart its Midwest premiere this month. The story centers on Samantha, a self-described fat woman and Leo, her gay best friend and roommate. They have been friends since college. Now roommates in New York, they are trying to jump-start writing careers in between bingeing reality television and fighting over who left an empty soda bottle in the refrigerator.
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Pride and Prejudice
Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde – Promethean Theatre Ensemble
One of the oldest maxims of the theater is that you can create drama by letting the audience know something the characters don’t, at least not yet. It’s what gives historical dramas their bite. We know what’s going to happen, but we aren’t bored as long we’re invested in the characters unknowingly marching to their doom. That truism is on full display in Promethean Theatre Ensemble’s restaging of it’s 2016 production of Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde.
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The Opera You Didn’t Know You Knew
La Traviata – Lyric Opera of Chicago
Before seeing the premiere of the Lyric’s new production of La Traviata at the Civic Opera House this weekend, I attended a preshow lecture about the history of the show. I learned that though it is now considered one of the finest operas ever written and a staple of many companies’ repertoires, it actually flopped on opening night amid composer Verdi’s battles with censors demanding edits and an opera house that wouldn’t cast the roles of its young lovers with actors who were…well…young. A couple of years later, some edits and better casting made the show the hit it has remained but, while I was listening to the lecture, I couldn’t help but think how hard it is to picture how classical works were received in their own time. They didn’t come into the world at stuffy or sophisticated pieces — they were the popular culture of their day, and inspired as much passion in their audiences as Hamilton or Dear Evan Hansen do in ours. Fortunately for this show, once the curtain went up the gap was easy to bridge.
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Almost
Requiem for a Heavyweight – The Artistic Home
Requiem for a Heavyweight started life as a television play in 1956 by a pre-Twilight Zone Rod Serling, starring Jack Palance as an aging boxer. It was adapted into a film in 1962 with Anthony Quinn. This week, it is adapted into a stage version at The Artistic Home. The story focuses on ‘Mountain’ McClintock, a heavyweight boxer who spent his career always almost, but never quite, winning the championship, and is now too injured to continue boxing, and his manager Maish. It is revealed in the opening scene that Maish bet against Mountain in his final fight to get the money he needed to buy the contract of a young up-and-comer, Mountain’s replacement. Seeking any work he can get, he meets Grace at an employment agency and begins a tentative friendship.
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Chicago Musical Theatre Festival
5th Annual Chicago Musical Theatre Festival – Underscore Theatre Company
Producing a new musical is hard. Nearly impossible. The time, the energy, and the cost make it a daunting task. It’s part of the reason most new Broadway musicals are revivals of classics or adaptations of known, successful properties. There’s no other way to ensure a show will make back its investment. To counter that, Underscore Theater Company is dedicated to nurturing new works in Chicago. For the fifth year, they take submissions from writers around the world and give a chosen few productions over the course of three weeks. By pooling backstage resources like sound and lighting equipment and crews, new musicals can be more economically staged, and hopefully reach a wider audience.
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