It's been more than a dozen years since the last Chicago production of Nicholas Patricca's play Oh Holy Allen Ginsberg, Oh Holy-Shit-Sweet-Jesus-Tantric-Buddha-Dharma-Road! Now his serious comedy—about a middle-aged, HIV-positive Catholic priest with a Jewish lover of nine years—is in rehearsal for a revival at Bailiwick Repertory, opening March 23. But that's not all; the Bailiwick production will travel to Ireland for the Dublin International Gay Theater Festival, May 8-13. Bailiwick is the first American theater company to be invited to perform at the festival. Veteran Danne Taylor plays the lead role of Father Gerry, while the role of his lover, Josh Kaplan, will be played by Mike Driscoll ( whose name is far more Irish than Jewish ) . Bailiwick artistic director David Zak is the director.
Playwright Patricca has extensively revised the play for this new production, well aware of advances in HIV medicines and care since the play first was produced in 1993 by Bailiwick. Patricca also wanted to revise the work in light of the unexpected pertinence of issues surrounding gay members of the priesthood. To assist him through the changes, Patricca listened to advice from Zak, Dublin Gay Theatre Festival artistic director Brian Merriman, two physicians with infectious disease expertise and several gay members of the clergy. As Patricca is a Loyola University professor emeritus, access to clergy wasn't a problem. Patricca is dedicating this new production to the memory of three close friends, Steve Mandelson, Charles Kuschinski and fellow playwright Scott McPherson ( author of Marvin's Room ) .
Despite the fact that Oh Holy Allen Ginsberg ... raises a number of hot-button issues ( even crystal meth addiction and circuit parties ) , Patricca says that the play is not a discussion play and isn't about clergy sexual scandals, at least not primarily. Rather, says Patricca, it's a serious comedy about a gay Catholic priest 'who tries to live honestly in fidelity to his true nature, his love for another man, and his commitment to the priesthood. I do want the play to make the statement that, historically and in our present culture, gay clergy make an important and positive contribution to civil society as well as to the church. For me, however, the dramatic heart of the play is how Father Gerry comes to make the decision which resolves his predicament and irrevocably defines his identity, marking his place in the world until his death.'
That Nick Patricca sure knows how to talk comedy, doesn't he?
Speaking of comedy, TV and stage legend Bea Arthur returns to town with her popular one-person show, Just Between Friends, for one performance on March 19 at 4 p.m. at the south suburban Center for the Performing Arts at Governors State University.
Speaking of comedy, Neil Simon's ex-wife Marsha Mason, the inspiration for his play Chapter Two, is coming to Chicago in a most unusual career about-face. She will appear at Chicago Shakespeare Theatre April 26-May 18 playing the title role in Hecuba, the Greek tragedy by Euripides. Set in the aftermath of the Trojan War, Hecuba has witnessed the destruction of her city, the deaths of her husband and all her sons, and now is a prisoner of the Greeks. Quite a change from the film and TV work for which Mason is best known. This new adaptation of Hecuba is by the distinguished Irish author, Frank McGuinness.
A bout of pancreatitis forced popular Chicago-based star John Mahoney to drop out of the upcoming production of David Mamet's Romance at the Goodman Theatre, opening March 24 as part of the Goodman's Mamet Festival. Romance, Mamet's latest play, is a courtroom drama in which Mahoney would have taken the large role of the judge. Mahoney reportedly has made a swift recovery and once again is eating solid foods. He's still on track to star later this spring at Northlight Theatre in the wonderful marital drama, The Retreat from Moscow, opposite another of Jonny's favorite performers, Rondi Reed, now playing Madame Morrible in Wicked. Reed—who will take a leave of absence from Wicked for the Northlight show—and Mahoney both are members of the Steppenwolf Ensemble.
Mahoney, a longtime Oak Park resident, once told Jonny that he was called for jury duty by the Cook County Circuit Court, and was selected as a juror. The judge commented that they had a celebrity on the panel, whereupon Mahoney replied that he'd once played a judge, so he knew what the job was like. 'Yes,' the Circuit Court magistrate said, 'and I'll bet you were paid a lot more for playing a judge than I am for being one!'
