Some like it hot, some like it cold, some like it in a pot five days old. Theater critics are the same way, and with roughly 40 professional theater openings each and every month in Greater Chicago—12 months a year—critics have plenty from which to choose. Chacun a son gout, as a French critic might say. With that in mind, here are my Top 10 shows to see in the second half of this 2003-2004 theater season.
The Vortex is the 1924 drama that made closeted Noel Coward famous as both author and star. It's an overheated affair about a young musician and his mother—of whom he is a bit too fond—and her much younger lover, fueled by drugs and drink. Coward himself played it in Chicago in 1926, where it arrived with much hype but puzzled audiences ('Noel Coward died here,' the author/star scrawled on the dressing room wall). Boxer Rebellion revives it in their postage-stamp playhouse, March 4-April 10. Will they play it straight, or camp it up?
Award-winning Shattered Globe Theatre Company has snared rights to create a stage adaptation of the classic Frank Capra movie, Meet John Doe; a timely tale about political demogoguery. Ensemble member Joe Forbrich will play John Doe, the role taken by Gary Cooper on screen. At the Viaduct Theatre, March 18-April 24. This is my No. 1 choice.
A decade ago, Chicago Shakespeare Theatre had a surprise success with King John, one of The Bard's least-produced plays. It proved to be a work of sharp politics with a strong modern message. Lead actor Greg Vinkler won a Jeff Award for his work. Vinkler returns in the title role as CST stages a new production of King John in its new playhouse on Navy Pier, March 28-June 6. Barbara Gaines directs.
Some say Jason Robert Brown will be the next great Broadway composer after Sondheim. His score for Parade won a 2000 Tony Award (as did Alfred Uhry's book), yet Parade was too dark to be a commercial success. Very definitely a musical drama, it concerns the lynching of a Jewish manufacturer in 1913 Georgia, and is based on fact. See for yourself when Bailiwick stages Parade, April 22-May 29. This portrait of America seems to cry out for a big-scale production, which Bailiwick certainly cannot muster. It will be interesting to see how they do it.
The Steppenwolf Stage should be overflowing with the great acting for which the troupe is famous when ensemble members John Mahoney and Kevin Anderson play father and son in Robert Anderson's moving prize-winning drama, I Never Sang for My Father, April 22-June 20. The roles of the aging Dad and his son/caretaker seem tailor-made for the two.
Over the last three years, Javon Johnson has proved himself a hot property both as author and actor. His new play, The House That Jack Built, receives its world premiere by Congo Sqaure Theatre Company Mary 20-June 20 at Theatre Building Chicago. The workd concerns five ex-cons trying to find—and define—the straight path. Johnson is a talented young man to watch.
Court Theatre and Redmoon Theatre Company are combining forces for a puppet, mask, music and live-actor adaptation of Cyrano de Bergerac. The new work, called simply Cyrano, will be scripted by Mickle Maher and co-directed by Court's Charles Newell and Redmoon's Jim Lasko, May 20-June 27.
Life Line Theatre comes up with a winner every summer, usually a fast-paced and entertaining adaptation of a British costume romance or thriller. This year, the troupe returns again to the work of immensely popular novelist Dorothy L. Sayers, and her gentleman-detective Lord Peter Wimsey. In Strong Poison, May 21-July 25, Lord Wimsey falls in love and must prove his sweetheart innocent of murder.
Provocative British dramatist David Hare, who always writes with a social conscience, tackles Oscar Wilde and Lord Alfred Douglas in The Judas Kiss, his contemporary speculation on their private relationship. Circle Theatre in Forest Park offers the Chicago premiere of The Judas Kiss, July 9-August 22. The title suggests betrayal. Well, do tell!
Illness and surgery postponed the February opening of Maggie: A Girl of the Streets; but The Side Project is determined to mount it this spring. This adaptation (by Adam Webster) of the 1893 Stephen Crane novel is a dark tale of a young woman forced to make her own way in Lower Manhattan's poverty-stricken Bowery district. Crane, who died at 29, was regarded as a master of psychological realism. Dates TBA.
Some of these shows will fulfill all expectations; others will not. Keep up-to-date with the theater reviews in the Windy City Times, and our weekly Critics' Picks.
