Pictured GayCo's Weddings of Mass Destruction.
According to stats compiled by the League of Chicago Theatres, there are more than 800 shows produced each year by the 200+ theater troupes in metro Chicago. No critic can see them all, nor would he or she want to. Still, from my personal, limited perspective here are some month-by-month highlights.
January—Goodman Theatre opens the affecting The Light in the Piazza. The Adam Guettel musical now is headed for Lincoln Center. After a year's hiatus, Irish Repertory Theatre returns with a stunningly acted female three-hander, Bailegangaire, a contemporary work with mythic qualities. Victory Gardens Theater premieres Charles Smith's Free Man of Color, a potent work about racial issues in 19th Century Ohio. The award-winning Roadworks Ensemble cancels its winter show and quietly closes shop after a decade.
February—Griffin Theatre's adaptation of the British adolescent novel Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging is a huge hit, extended three times. It's Griffin's greatest box office success. Chicago Shakespeare Theatre ( CST ) presents Brian Bedford's Stratford Festival production of The Moliere Comedies, using a mixed cast of Canadian and Chicago actors. About Face Theatre's world premiere of Patricia Kane's Pulp pokes fun at the purple lesbian fiction of the 1950s. A run-away success, Pulp is scheduled for other productions across the country. Congo Square Theatre stages King of Coons, inspired by the life and career of Stepin Fetchit. It's powerful, well-acted and reverse racist.
March—Tiny storefront Boxer Rebellion Theatre tries Noel Coward's rarely seen early drama, The Vortex. They don't pull it off, but their ambitious failure is more interesting than many safe successes. The Artistic Home offers a beautifully acted and funny bill of three Synge one-acts. Profiles Theatre stages Adam Rapp's Blackbird. Critics rave and audiences flock to this dark play, which runs eight months. Shattered Globe adapts the great Frank Capra film, Meet John Doe, the perfect kick-off to an election year. Northlight Theatre's stately Lady Windermere's Fan is a wow. Victory Gardens offers the world premiere of Trying, starring Fritz Weaver and Kati Brazda. The VG production transfers to New York for a three-month Off-Broadway run.
April—Steppenwolf's world premiere of The Fall to Earth features ensemble member Rondi Reed in the year's finest performance as the overbearing mother of a dead gay son. Director Rick Snyder superbly plumbs the unexpected depths and secrets of this deceptively simple drama by gay Chicago author Joel Drake Johnson. Infamous Commonwealth Theatre offers Big Dreams about the interior life of an elephant, featuring a life-size elephant puppet. Intriguing idea badly written; another interesting failure. Eclipse Theatre presents Keith Reddin's Frame 312 about the JFK assassination. Bailwick Repertory stages the Chicago premiere of Parade, the dark musical by Jason Robert Brown and Alfred Uhry. Bailiwick's best and most ambitious work transfers to the Mercury Theatre for a brief commercial run.
May—Lookingglass Theatre Company offers Philosophy of the World, a bio-musical about the untalented cult girl group, The Shaggs. This quirky charmer is a dark look at the American Dream, with an intense performance by Larry Neumann, Jr. as the girls' father. Time Line Theatre scores with It's All True, about the 1937 production of The Cradle Will Rock by gay composer Marc Blitzstein. The esteemed Writers' Theatre works wonders with Shaw's rarely-seen The Doctor's Dilemma. Kevin Gudahl heads the convivial ensemble cast.
June—Victory Gardens rocks its 195-seat house with The Romance of Magno Rubio. Critics respond to the wonderful cast and rich material by Victory Gardens Ensemble playwright Lonnie Carter. The Artistic Home successfully packs Elmer Rice's huge Street Scene into its 50-seat storefront. The Journeymen mount a discreet version of Cocteau's gay erotic memoir, Le Livre Blanc to acclaim. Chicago Shakespeare Theatre presents the Chicago debut of La Comedie Francaise—340 years after the troupe was founded—in Moliere's La Malade Imaginaire. About Face Theatre and Steppenwolf stage a musical version of Sherwood Anderson's Winesburg, Ohio that everyone admires. Goodman Theatre dances to a Latin beat with its second annual Latino Theatre Festival, headlined by Luis Alfaro's Electricidad.
July—Open Eye Productions mounts You Can't Take It With You, and breathes life and charm into the old chestnut. Sketch comedy troupe GayCo goes political with Weddings of Mass Destruction, now scheduled for a national tour. The National New Play Network brings its National Showcase of New Plays to Chicago including more gay, Latino monologs from author Guillermo Reyes in Man on the Verge of a His-Panic Breakdown II.
August—Artistic director Lara Teeter exits Light Opera Works with a triumphant Candide. Teeter departs to assume a professorship. The dragalicious Matt and Ben plays Theatre Building Chicago and charms audiences but not critics. Live Bait premieres Camp Nimrod for Girls, an original musical about a horse, a girl and true love that channels Equus, Grease and Mr. Ed. The off-hoof-beat delight runs three months.
September—Tom Mula and Steve Rashid mock George Bush in their original musical revue, W! It's a huge hit with Mula as Dubya. At Chicago Shakespeare, veteran actor Greg Vinkler plays Falstaff for the third time in The Merry Wives of Windsor. Antigone stops at greasy joan & company, while Miss Julie visits the Organic Theater. John Mahoney and Tracy Letts do well in The Dresser at Steppenwolf. Porchlight Music Theatre Chicago launches its 10th season with a sensational chamber Sweeney Todd . The brilliant orchestration features keyboard and four woodwind players ( covering 10 instruments ) .
October—The Playing French festival offers seven productions of contemporary French plays, most performed in English for the first time. The Goodman Theatre fields an all-star cast in the Arthur Miller world premiere, Finishing the Picture. Critics are mixed; still, attention must be paid. The side project scores a hit with Maggie: A Girl of the Streets, adapted from Stephen Crane's muckraking 1890s novel. George Orwell proves his election year mettle as Bailiwick stages Animal Farm and Lookingglass offers a new adaptation of 1984.
November—Another rare Noel Coward play, his 1943 patriotic drama This Happy Breed, is rendered with love by TimeLine. Steppenwolf stages The Cherry Orchard], freshly translated by out artistic associate Curt Columbus. The Artistic Home scores with another large cast show in its tiny space, Ibsen's Peer Gynt. The oddly-named Remy Bumppo Theatre makes great good sense out of Tom Stoppard's delicious intellectual comedy, Arcadia. Chicago Shakespeare brings Dublin's Abbey Theatre to town with Playboy of the Western World. Visions & Voices premieres Arrangements for Two Violas, an unusual look at 1930's rural gay love. The Actors Workshop does right by Arthur Miller's The Last Yankee, ditto Next Theatre with Omnium Gatherum. Mamma Mia returns to the Loop yet again.
December—The year winds down with Broadway wind-ups: Joe DiPietro's All Shook Up at the Cadillac Palace for pre-Broadway tuning; ditto, Monty Python's Spamalot, at the Shubert where Mike Nichols directs Hank Azaria, Tim Curry and David Hyde-Pierce. About Face, Steppenwolf and Tectonic Theatre Project stir critics and audiences with One Arm, an adaptation of a steamy, gay-slanted Tennessee Williams story. The Second City opens two shows in one week to mark its 45th anniversary. Red Scare, on the mainstage, is rock'em-sock'em political satire, which we need more than ever as we enter 2005.
