Two Chicago world premiere plays are now Broadway-bound.
David Henry Hwang's hilarious comedy, Chinglish, got an instant Broadway try-out last weekjust one day after it officially opened at the Goodman Theatre June 27. That's when New York producers Jeffrey Richards and Jerry Frankel announced their plans to transfer Chinglish to a Shubert-owned Broadway theater this fall.
Hwang is riding high at the moment in Chicago, since his other plays, Yellow Face and Family Devotions, are also playing around town this summer (respectively, with Silk Road Theatre Project and Halcyon Theatre). However, the Broadway news about Chinglish is extra-sweet for the Tony Award-winning playwright of M. Butterfly and Golden Child. Don't wait to get your Chinglish tickets now.
You won't be able to see the other Chicago world premiere headed to Broadway. That's because Lydia R. Diamond's Stick Fly closed back in 2006.
Stick Fly debuted with Chicago's Congo Square Theatre and has subsequently had high-profile regional productions like at the McCarter Theatre in Princeton, N.J., the Arena Stage in Washington, D.C., and the Huntington Theatre Company in Boston. Stick Fly deals with a wealthy African-American family spending a weekend in Martha's Vineyard.
Stick Fly casting hasn't been announced, but the Broadway production already boasts one celebrity: Grammy Award-winning pop star Alicia Keys has signed on to be on of the show's producers.
"This is a story that everybody can relate to," Keys said in a statement reported on Playbill.com . "I'm passionate about this play because it is so beautifully written and portrays Black America in a way that we don't often get to see in entertainment. I know it will touch all audiences, who will find a piece of themselves somewhere inside this house."
Extensions aplenty
Procrastinators can breathe an extra sigh of relief. A whole slew of acclaimed shows around Chicago have recently announced extensions.
Million Dollar Quartet, the jukebox show that celebrates the historic night in 1956 when Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins all jammed together in a recording studio, has announced an extension through Dec. 31 at the Apollo Theatre. The hit musical has been playing in Chicago since 2008 and recently opened in London. Though the Broadway production of Million Dollar Quartet abruptly closed in June, the show will move off-Broadway later this month. Visit www.milliondollarquartetlive.com .
Chemically Imbalanced Comedy's long-running 2010 revival of Amy and David Sedaris' The Book of Liz has announced a final extension through to Aug. 13. The quirky tale of a religiously "Squeamish" woman who must fend for herself in the real world has proven to be quite the hit for this tiny storefront theater at 1420 W. Irving Park Road. Visit www.cicomedy.com .
Fresh off its 2011 Regional Theatre Tony Award win, Lookingglass Theatre has announced an extension through Aug. 7 for its world-premiere production of The Last Act of Lilka Kadison. The ensemble-created piece is inspired by the life and work of Johanna Cooper and is about a woman who reflects on her life after fleeing Poland on the eve of World War II. Visit www.lookingglasstheatre.org .
Audiences have one more week to catch Keith Huff's acclaimed world-premiere drama The Detective's Wife, now through Aug. 7 at Writers' Theatre in Glencoe. The Gary Griffin-directed production stars Barbara Robertson as the wife of a Chicago homicide detective who is determined to find out who gunned down her husband on the job. Visit www.writerstheatre.org .
Another locally set world premiere, William Nedved's Northwest Highway, gets more mileage at the Gift Theatre. Following its sold-out run through July 17, Northwest Highway returns for another run from Aug. 18 through Sept. 11 at the Jefferson Park neighborhood theater. Visit www.thegifttheatre.org .
Redtwist Theatre's hit production of Bug will continue to get under people's skin since it has been extended through July 31. (The disturbing drama, by Pulitzer Prize-winning Steppenwolf Theatre ensemble member Tracy Letts, will play in repertory with Polly Stehham's That Face.) Visit www.redtwist.org .
Finally, if you like theatrical spectacles in tents, then you'll be pleased to hear that the London-born production of Peter Pan (the one in the custom 1,300-seat tent near the Chicago Tribune Freedom Center) will finish out the summer months through Aug. 21. Visit www.broadwayinchicago.com . Also sticking around a bit longer is the insect-inspired Cirque du Soleil show OVO, which will stay put through Aug. 21. Visit www.cirquedusoleil.com .
Be on MTV
Most people don't think of the Portage Theatre in Chicago's Portage Park neighborhood as a hotbed for drag acts, burlesque dancers or go-go boys. However, Expose Theater Company is trying to change that perception with its one-night-only revue Inhibition: Let Go! at the historic 1,300-seat theater located along Milwaukee Avenue just north of Irving Park Road.
Inhibition: Let Go! is set to star drag artists Cyon Flare and Tajma Hall with special appearances by pop singer Andrea Eve, Teri Yaki and the Windy City Beauties and Dolce and Gabanna DiVita. However, according to publicist James Baptist, the other major draw is the news that MTV plans on taping the entire evening (including an after-party) for broadcast in the future.
Expose Theater Company's Inhibition: Let Go! plays the Portage Theatre, 4050 N. Milwaukee, at 7 p.m. Saturday, July 9. (Doors open 6 p.m.) Tickets are $20 and can be obtained by visiting www.exposetheater.com .