(Chicago, IL) Goodman Theatre Artistic Director Robert Falls announced today that he will direct The Iceman Cometh, Eugene O'Neill's epic portrait of hope and disillusionment, running April 22 — June 10, 2012 in the Albert Theatre. Falls' major revival features Tony Award-winning stage and screen stars Nathan Lane as hardware salesman and pipe dream buster Theodore "Hickey" Hickman, and Brian Dennehy as one-time syndicalist-anarchist Larry Slade. Hailed by The New York Times as a "ferocious American classic that has lost none of its power," The Iceman Cometh marked Falls' and Dennehy's first O'Neill collaboration at the Goodman in 1990—a production which featured Dennehy in the role of Hickey.
Tickets to The Iceman Cometh are available now by subscription only; five-play Albert Theatre subscriptions start at $105; eight-play Albert and Owen Theatre subscriptions start at $168. Call 312.443.3800 or visit ExploreTheGoodman.org . One Owen Theatre selection in the upcoming 2011/2012 season is still to be announced.
"I am thrilled to create a new production of O'Neill's The Iceman Cometh—the greatest play by my favorite American playwright, Shakespearean in size, scope and challenge for its ensemble—led by two brilliant actors," said Artistic Director Robert Falls. "Nathan Lane has long expressed his passion for the work of Eugene O'Neill, and more specifically, the challenging leading role of Hickey. My longtime collaborator Brian Dennehy, who triumphed in the same role in 1990 at the old Goodman Theatre, will now assume the role of Larry Slade. It has been a dream of mine to return to this epic drama, and it is a thrill to collaborate with Nathan and Brian."
In The Iceman Cometh, Harry Hope's saloon is home to a ragtag band of drunks and dreamers who celebrate the arrival of Hickey, the charismatic traveling salesman whose raucous presence always ensures a grand good time. But when a newly sober Hickey blows in with a renewed outlook on life, his zealous attempts to fix the lives of his old friends leads to a series of events that are at once devastatingly comic and heartbreaking—and a revelation that threatens to shatter the tenuous illusions that fuel their lives. O'Neill's monumental drama is "as corrosive as rotgut whiskey, as morbidly funny as a funeral gone amok, and as hallucinatory as an alcohol-fueled excursion into purgatory" (Chicago Sun-Times).
Tony Award-winning stage and screen star Nathan Lane recently starred in the Broadway's musical The Addams Family at New York's Lunt-Fontanne Theatre. He will next be seen in the Tarsem Singh-directed The Brothers Grimm: Snow White, alongside Julia Roberts, Lily Collins and Armie Hammer (set for release in 2012). His numerous stage credits include the critically acclaimed production of Waiting for Godot at Studio 54; the Broadway production of David Mamet's hit comedy November; the blockbuster Broadway production of Neil Simon's The Odd Couple; and his wildly acclaimed portrayal of Max Bialystock in The Producers on Broadway, which earned Lane the Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle and Tony awards for Best Actor in a Musical. Films include Mike Nichols' The Birdcage, The Producers and the voice of Timon in The Lion King.
Brian Dennehy returns to the Goodman, where his credits include Hughie/Krapp's Last Tape (2010); Desire Under the Elms
(2009, also on Broadway), Hughie (2004), Long Day's Journey into Night (2002), Death of a Salesman (1998), A Touch of the Poet (1996), The Iceman Cometh (1990, also at Abbey Theatre, Dublin) and Galileo (1986). Broadway credits include Inherit the Wind (2007), Long Day's Journey Into Night (Tony Award for Best Actor, 2003), Death of a Salesman (Tony Award for Best Actor) and Translations (1995). Film credits include The Next Three Days; Alleged, Ratatouille; The Warden; Virtuoso; Tommy Boy; Presumed Innocent; F/X 2; Gladiator; The Belly of an Architect; F/X and Cocoon, among many others.
Eugene O'Neill (1888 — 1953) is considered one of the 20th century's greatest American playwrights, winner of four Pulitzer Prizes in Drama and the Nobel Prize in Literature. Works produced by the Goodman include Hughie (2010 and 2004); A 2009 International Exploration of O'Neill in the 21st Century, including: Desire Under the Elms, The Emperor Jones (The Wooster Group, New York), The Hairy Ape (The Hypocrites, Chicago) and Rouw Siert Electra (Mourning Becomes Electra,
performed in Dutch by Toneelgoep Amsterdam) and Strange Interlude (The Neo-Futurists, Chicago); Long Day's Journey into Night (2002); A Moon for the Misbegotten (2000); A Touch of the Poet (1996); and The Iceman Cometh (1990).
Complete bio information and photos of the artists may be found in the Goodman Theatre Press Room.
Robert Falls Directs a Major Revival of The Iceman Cometh
Nathan Lane and Brian Dennehy Star in Eugene O'Neill's Epic Masterwork
About the Plays and Artists in Goodman Theatre's 2011/2012 Season
All titles, artists and dates are subject to change
IN THE ALBERT THEATRE
Red
By John Logan
Directed by Robert Falls
September 17 — October 23, 2011
Full-blooded and visceral, the Tony Award-winning Red takes you into the mind of abstract expressionist Mark Rothko, for whom paintings are "pulsating" life forces and art is intended to stop the heart. Red chronicles the tormented painter's twoyear struggle to complete a lucrative set of murals for Manhattan's exclusive Four Seasons restaurant, and his fraught relationship with a seemingly naïve young assistant, who must choose between appeasing his mentor and changing the course of art history. Set amid the swiftly-changing cultural tide of the early 1960s, Red is a startling snapshot of a brilliant artist at the height of his fame, a play hailed as "intense and exciting" by The New York Times. ComEd is the official Lighting
Sponsor for Red. A Season Opening Benefit, in conjunction with Red, takes place on September 27, 2011 at the Art Institute of Chicago's Modern Wing. For tickets and more information about the Season Opening Benefit, call 312.443.5564.
Race
By David Mamet
Directed by Chuck Smith
January 14 — February 19, 2012
This latest work by Pulitzer Prize-winner David Mamet ruthlessly examines guilt and oppression via a compelling crime mystery. Two high-profile lawyers—one black, one white—are called to defend a wealthy white client charged with the rape of an African American woman, but soon find themselves embroiled in a complex case in which blatant prejudice is as disturbing as the evidence at hand. With characteristic bluntness, Mamet leaves nothing unsaid in this no-holds-barred suspense story which the Chicago Tribune declared "intellectually salacious."
Camino Real
By Tennessee Williams
Directed by Calixto Bieito
March 3 — April 8, 2012
Tennessee Williams' hauntingly poetic allegory takes us to the mysterious Camino Real, a surreal netherworld populated by
a colorful collection of lost souls anxious to escape but terrified of the unknown wasteland lurking beyond the city's walls.
When Kilroy, an American traveler and former boxer inadvertently lands in Camino Real, he sets off on a phantasmagoric venture through illusion and temptation in an attempt to flee its confines—and defy his grim destiny. Called "one of Williams' most imaginative plays" by The New York Times, Camino Real is a sensual carnival of desire and desperation.
The Iceman Cometh
By Eugene O'Neill
Directed by Robert Falls
April 22 — June 10, 2012
See play description on page one of this press release
Crowns
Written and directed by Regina Taylor
June 23 — July 29, 2012
Regina Taylor's gospel musical sensation returns to the Goodman, promising audiences a rollicking good time. When Brooklyn-born Yolanda relocates to the South after the death of her brother, she finds strength in the tales of the wise women who surround her—and the powerful rituals connected to their dazzling hats. Fusing the music of the South with rich storytelling and abundant "hattitude," Crowns is a jubilant celebration of song, dance, cultural history—and glamorous headwear.
Robert Falls Directs a Major Revival of The Iceman Cometh
Nathan Lane and Brian Dennehy Star in Eugene O'Neill's Epic Masterwork Pg. 3
IN THE OWEN THEATRE
The Convert
By Danai Gurira
Directed by Emily Mann
A Co-Production with McCarter Theatre Center (Princeton, NJ) and Center Theatre Group (Los Angeles, CA)
February 25 — March 25, 2012
Set amid the colonial scramble for southern Africa in 1895, The Convert tells the tale of Jekesai, a young girl who escapes a forced marriage arrangement with the help of a stalwart black African catechist, Chilford Ndlovu. Caught between her loyalties to her family and culture but indebted to this new Christian god, she becomes Chilford's protégé, but when an anticolonial uprising erupts she is forced to decide which side of the conflict she will choose—and where her heart truly belongs.
With wit and compassion, The Convert explores the untold cultural and religious collisions caused by British colonization in this section of southern Africa (now Zimbabwe), and the reverberating effects still felt in the region today. Emily Mann, the award-winning Artistic Director of McCarter Theatre Center, returns to the Goodman to direct. The Convert was commissioned by Center Theatre Group.
Fish Men
By Cándido Tirado
Directed by Edward Torres
April 7 — May 6, 2012
On a hot summer day in Washington Square Park, New York, a group of chess wizards engage in spirited matches hoping to lure unsuspecting players into a high-stakes hustle. Their patience is soon rewarded with the appearance of Rey Reyes, a young student who naively agrees to their challenge. But as the game progresses, the hustlers become the hustled— revealing the traumatic circumstances that lie at the heart of each player's obsession with the game. With biting humor and unexpected pathos, Fish Men focuses on a group of unforgettable characters, drawn together by a shared need to overcome their individual demons.
About Goodman Theatre Goodman Theatre, "the leading regional theater in the nation's most important theater city" (Time), is a major cultural, educational and economic pillar in Chicago, generating nearly $300 million in economic impact over the past decade in its state-of-the-art two-theater complex on North Dearborn Street. Founded in 1925 and currently under the leadership of Artistic Director Robert Falls, "Chicago's most essential director" (Chicago Tribune), and Executive Director Roche Schulfer, Chicago's oldest and largest not-for-profit resident theater has experienced unprecedented success over the past 10 years in its new downtown facility, welcoming nearly two million patrons to productions and events—including 10 festivals celebrating playwrights such as David Mamet, August Wilson and Horton Foote, as well as the biennial Latino Theatre Festival—serving 30 percent more students through its Education and Community Engagement programs (including the FREE Student Subscription Series and other interactive programs) and employing more than 3,000 artists and theater professionals. The Goodman has earned more than 90 awards for hundreds of productions, including the Pulitzer Prize for Ruined by Lynn Nottage—one of 25 new-work Goodman commissions in the last decade. The Chairman of Goodman Theatre's Board of Trustees is Patricia Cox and Joan Clifford is President of the Women's Board. American Airlines is the Exclusive Airline of Goodman Theatre.
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