There's as much theater as ever as 2010 gets underway, with over 40 productions opening in January alone, as is usual in Chicago. And yet, as we gaze into our highly polished and oh-so-slightly-pink-shaded crystal ball, we see surprisingly little fare that speaks directly to an LGBT audience, and that is not usual for Chicago.
We don't think there's a trend here, just a coincidence of timing as several troupes that generally play to a substantially gay crowd have nothing in production for the next two months. Companies such as Hell in a Handbag Productions, The People's Theatre and Easy Street Productions are missing in action for the moment even as About Face Theatre and Bailiwick awake from hibernation.
Of course, there's always theater fare that involves LGBT artists or is written by LGBT artistshell, there are two Noel Coward shows on the boards even as I write these words ( Oh, Coward! at Writer's Theatre and Private Lives at Chicago Shakespeare Theater ) but what really counts is work that addresses LGBT themes and issues no matter who wrote it.
Slim as the pickings are, consider the following mid-winter shows:
Mamma Mia!, Rosemont Theatre, through this Sunday only ( Jan. 24 ) . The silly show inspired by Abba songs has been here 12,000 times before and, yes, it's a long drive out to Rosemont, and, no, the show isn't particularly gay or lesbian. But it is oh-so-campy and features so many adorable boys in neoprene wetsuits and/or bathing trunks. Well, we told you pickings were slim. But do read on...
deliver me from evil ( sic ) , Chicago Young Playwrights Festival, Pegasus Players, through Jan. 31. Although only one-third of the Festival, Kat Blackburn's poetic world-premiere voice play concerns an adolescent girl who survives parental abuse and struggles to define herself and express her love for her girlfriend.
The End of the Tour, 16th Street Theatre, Berwyn, Feb. 4-March 6. Out Chicago-based playwright Joel Drake Johnson doesn't always write LGBT-themed plays, but this one is such, at least in part. It concerns a gay couple who return to the classic small Midwestern town where one of them was born, and the town happens to be Dixon, Ill., birthplace of Ronald Reagan.
Show Us Your Love, Bailiwick Repertory at Mary's Attic, Sundays in February. Under new artistic leader Kevin Mayes, Bailiwick returns to producing with a revue of love songs from familiar Broadway and Off-Broadway shows. It's not billed as an LGBT show but, hey, it's Bailiwick and it's at Mary's Attic, for goodness sakes! It features a cast of eight plus the esteemed and ever-tasteful Robert Ollis as musical director.
What Once We Felt, About Face Theatre at the Center on Halsted, Feb. 3-March 7. About Face lost the world premiere of this work when finances forced the troupe to suspend production last year. Perhaps, however, author Ann Marie Healy has improved the work since its debut in New York two months ago. In any case, this futuristic thriller is populated only by women, and revolves around the author of the last novel ever to be printed in a paper-and-ink format.