Pictured Arthur Miller with Bob Falls from rehearsals for Finishing
the Picture. Barbara E. Robertson as Martha and Kevin Gudahl as George. Photo by Michael Brosilow
Below, in no particular order, save for chronologically, are the shows I'm most looking forward to seeing in the next few months. I've gazed into my crystal ball (which doubles as a prosthetic, but that's another story) and selected a dozen winners. Since I have been told I have the psychic proclivities of a Miss Jeanne Dixon, these are also the shows you should be looking forward to. Start saving your pennies and booking your seats now for:
1. Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf by Edward Albee, Court Theatre, opens Sept. 23. Who isn't familiar with the film, starring Dick and Liz (and set in bucolic small town academia) as a boozy husband and wife who cut each other to shreds with cruel words and put it all on display for an innocent young couple? See it up close and live as Court, the theater of the classics, launches its 50th season with one of Albee's most searing (and often most funny, if your sense of humor has a vicious bent, like mine) works. This masterpiece of American drama combines the banal, the vulgar and the poetic. Featuring Chicago favorites Barbara Robertson and Kevin Gudahl.
2. Equus by Peter Shaffer, The Hypocrites at the Athenaeum, opens Oct. 3. Chicago Magazine's 'Best Avant Garde Director for 2004,' Sean Graney directs the always-interesting Hypocrites in the Tony-award winning story of a disturbed boy who blinds a stable of horses, raising questions about the validity of psychology and more. The play has been performed frequently in the past few years; I'm looking forward to the creative spin Graney will surely put on it.
3. Finishing the Picture by Arthur Miller, Goodman Theatre, opens Oct. 5. A world premiere play by one of America's most renowned playwrights and starring a virtual constellation of stars (including Frances Fisher, Scott Glenn, Stacy Keach, Linda Lavin, and Matthew Modine), this is sure to be the theatrical event of the season. Echoing Miller's relationship with Marilyn Monroe on her last film, The Misfits, the story concerns a distinguished director about to lose his picture due to the unstable behavior of a famously fragile movie star. The studio owners are threatening to pull the plug, and a temperamental acting teacher is flown in to coax the actress out of bed and onto the set.
4. Maggie, A Girl of the Streets, adapted by Adam Webster from Stephen Crane's novella, opens Oct. 21. It should be interesting to see how the talented side project folks adapt Stephen Crane's novel about the descent of a young girl in the Bowery District of New York who falls prey to her environment, and her brother's struggle to identify his role in corrupting and saving her. Side project has done some sharp work, and Crane's novel should fit nicely into their oeuvre.
5. This Happy Breed by Noel Coward, Timeline, opens Nov. 6. If you like Noel Coward, This Happy Breed is one you may not have seen, because it doesn't fit neatly within what's now expected of Coward. I look forward to this touching and emotional drama that focuses on the conflict, frustration and love within a middle class British family during 20 years of peace between the two World Wars.
6. Big Time by Keith Reddin, Eclipse at Victory Gardens, opens Nov. 16. Eclipse concludes its season devoted to Reddin, with this look at Paul, who belongs to a fast-track crowd of young banker-broker-trader-dealers. On a trip to shore up a shaky financial situation in the Middle East, he has his faced rubbed in the global realities of America. Stripped to essentials, the play promises a sad, savage look at a new lost generation of spoiled Americans, sleek and corrupt, whose feelings of love and understanding have been starved out in their hunger for the sharp deal. While it certainly doesn't sound like Broadway musical material, it does sound provocative.
7. The Playboy of the Western World by J.M. Synge, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, opens Dec. 1. Well, it ain't Shakespeare! But it is a classic. Synge's Irish classic paints a portrait of a young man's growth from weakling to paragon of bravery. This special production will be presented by Ireland's National Theater, The Abbey, for a limited two-week engagement. The Courtyard Theater will be reconfigured into a proscenium stage modeled after The Abbey's Dublin home.
8. It's a Wonderful Life, adapted by Joe Landry, American Theater Company, opens Dec. 13. Tired of the Frank Capra chestnut starring Jimmy Stewart? If you're like me, you've probably seen it about as many times as you've seen The Wizard of Oz and it's ingrained in your brain so fiercely it's like a personal memory. I'm curious to see what ATC will do with this adaptation for their stage, and how they'll make it their own.
9. Lookingglass Alice, adapted by David Catlin from Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Lookingglass Theatre, opens Feb. 12. I can think of no better company than the often ethereal, always innovative and surprising Lookingglass to handle this material. In David Catlin's dizzying and breathless adaptation of Alice's adventures, umbrellas can be trees, a battle can be won by drum beats and sometimes calling can look a lot like saying goodbye. Calling upon dance, acrobatics, and the active imagination of the audience, Lookingglass Alice retells the story that first brought the ensemble together as undergraduates and will open 18 years to the day of the founding of the company.
10. Take Me Out by Richard Greenberg, About Face at Steppenwolf, opens March 24. About Face continues to make a name for itself in high quality gay-themed theater with this story about the coming out of a professional baseball player. The subject matter alone holds a lot of promise, but so does the fact that Greenberg, who won the 2003 Tony award for this play, penned the script. Midwest premiere.
11. Lost Land by Stephen Jeffreys, Steppenwolf, opens March 31. Ensemble member John Malkovich returns to Chicago to star in this production, set at the tail end of WWI in a remote castle in northern Hungary. Confronting ideas of statehood and personal obligation in times of great political shift, this production already seems to be a must-see, not only because of its star power, but because of its topicality and thought provocation.
12. Queen Lucia, adapted by Frances Limoncelli from E.F. Benson's novel, Lifeline Theatre, opens May 27. Benson's Lucia stories make up some of my most pleasurable reading experiences; his tales of the wannabe upper crust Brit matron in the 1920s are some of the most savage, and savagely funny, social commentary written during the 20th century. If nothing else, Lifeline's world premiere musical has great material to work with. Here's hoping they weave it into a memorable tapestry.
There you have it. See you in the stalls (no, not the men's room, silly).
