Pictured: Ensemble member Eric Simonson with Laura Jacqmin and Laura Eason. Photo by Elizabeth Fraiberg. Movie star Hugh Jackman ( as Wolverine ) will sink his claws into a new Broadway production.
The upcoming Broadway production of Keith Huff's acclaimed Chicago cop drama A Steady Rain has already raked in more than $3 million in American Express advance ticket sales. The fact that film stars Daniel Craig ( a.k.a. James Bond ) and Hugh Jackman ( a.k.a. Wolverine ) are set to star in the two-character play probably has something to do with the ticket frenzy.
By the time general ticket sales begin through Telecharge on July 25, expect all seats to the 12-week limited engagement to be snapped up instantly. Tickets range from $66.50 to $130 ( or $176.50 to $301.50 if you want to pay premium prices ) .
That's quite a price jump to what you would have paid if you saw A Steady Rain locally during its acclaimed run at both Chicago Dramatists and the Royal George Theatre Center. And if you go back five years, you would only have had to pay $5 donation to see it.
That's when A Steady Rain was one of many plays presented at Chicago Dramatists through its weekly Saturday Series of staged readings and discussions on plays in progress. While you may not get fancy sets and costumes, Chicago Dramatists frequently goes out for Equity actors to help bring these plays to life. And what's even more fun is you frequently get to share your opinions with the playwright after the show in a panel discussion. Who knows? Your insights can sometimes help in the development of new are.
Presenting workshops of new plays is par for the course at Chicago Dramatists ( www.chicagodramatists.org ) , but this summer several other companies around town are rolling out the red carpet for new play readings and semi-staged productions.
Perhaps the most high-profile public play workshop series is The 5th Annual First Look Repertory of New Work at Steppenwolf Theatre Company, which runs July 22-Aug. 9. Staged in repertory at Steppenwolf's Merle Reskin Garage Theatre, these three plays get deluxe treatment. Actors frequently go off-script, and there are designers involved in the First Look stagings.
This year's First Look series features ensemble member Eric Simonson's Honest, a look at a best-selling memoir author's work that might not be so true-to-life as he presents it. Also on the bill is Laura Eason's intriguingly titled Sex With Strangers ( involving bloggers who publicly share their bedroom escapades ) , plus Laura Jacqmin's Ski Dubai ( a fish-out-of-water comedy about foreign workers in Dubai ) .
Now some might feel that the $20 ticket price to First Look Series plays might be high, but consider that you're getting top notch actors ( many whom are Steppenwolf regulars ) and a chance to help shape a new work. Visit www.steppenwolf.org for more information.
A $20 price tag is similarly shared by the plays in the provocatively titled Sex in the Summer in the City series of new plays in progress from the Black Playwrights Initiative ( BPI ) at Black Ensemble Theater ( BET ) . The plays may be performed on the set of its current hit A Tribute to the Black Crooners, but the actors perform without scripts and in costumes.
At the first production of Wendell Etherly's A Love Misplaced, BET founder and executive director Jackie Taylor made an amusing analogy about why these plays were vital to the company's future. Comparing BET to McDonald's, Taylor called BET's hit musical revues their best-selling hamburger products. But when BET moves to its future home, Taylor said they wanted other things ( like a McRib sandwich ) to help fill the smaller of its two planned theater spaces. With just $2 million left to complete its $15 million capital fundraising campaign, BET wants to make sure they have a storehouse of new works by African-American artists to fill their new home.
Two more plays remain in BET's series: Cory Wright's Glamorous Life on July 23 and 25, and Qween Wicks' A Love by Any Other Name on Aug. 27 and 29. Visit www.blackensembletheater.org for more information.
If you feel $20 is too much to play for a play in progress, two other Chicago troupes offer readings for free this summer.
Silk Road Theatre Project teams up with the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs to present a reading of Lauren Yee's comedy Ching Chong Chinaman at the Storefront Theater at Gallery 37 at 7:30 p.m. July 24-25 and at 3 p.m. July 26. It's all about an Americanized Chinese family hiring a Mainland Chinese servant to help around the house. Ching Chong Chinaman is presented as part of Silk Road's quarterly Al Kasida Staged Reading Series that focuses on works dealing with Asian, Middle Eastern and Mediterranean cultures that stretch along the ancient Silk Road. Visit www.srtp.org for more information.
Also doling out the readings for free is Dog & Pony Theatre Company through its Ruff Play Reading Series. Two more works, Jason Grote's Maria/Stuart on Aug. 17 and Justin Palmer's Alan Infinitum on Sept. 14, remain to be seen at the threewalls gallery, 119 N. Peoria. Visit www.dogandponychicago.org for more information.
Will any of these plays in progress make it to Broadway? Who knows? But for fun, try imagining which Hollywood stars would be the best stunt casting if the ever does make it to the Great White Way.
Please pass along theater news and other tidbits to scottishplayscott@yahoo.com .
