A month doesn't go by in Chicago theater without at least a few shows with particular appeal to LGBT audiences be it an appropriate theme, storyline or just a few undraped bodies of special splendor. However, Pride Month probably offers more LGBT-specific shows than any other time of year. Here's Stage Door Jonny's personal run-down of the what's what and who's who of Pride Month Theater, listed by date.
Durango. Photo by Michael Brosilow
—The Ville, Bare Boned Theatre at Mary's Attic ( Hamburger Mary's ) , open run. Catch a burger, a beer and an LGBT soap opera, too, as season two of The Ville—as in Andersonville—rolls itself out each Monday night, with a new episode the first Monday of each month. It's filled with gays, lesbians and even straight people, and its tongue is firmly in its cheeks.
—Durango, Silk Road Theatre Project, through June 15. Julia Cho's elegy to a contemporary American-Korean family in disarray features a father and his teenage son both in the closet. In a crushing ending, neither one comes out. Although hardly an affirming template of LGBT candor and liberation, this beautifully performed and directed work is a moving reminder of how very difficult the journey sometimes can be.
—Because They Have No Words, Piven Theatre, Noyes Arts Center ( Evanston ) , through June 22. This is the true-life tale of gay actor and activist Tim Maddock, who packed his car; left his boyfriend and dog in Los Angeles; and drove to New Orleans to rescue pets left stranded and endangered by Hurricane Katrina. Maddock himself, a Northwestern theater graduate, wrote the play and stars in it.
—The Lion in Winter, through Aug. 3, Writer's Theatre ( Glencoe ) . James Goldman's popular play, set within the bosom of the 13th-century Anglo-Norman royal family, isn't a gay play, but it does have hints of special affection between Philip, the dashing young King of France, and Prince Richard, the heir to the English throne ( later King Richard Lionheart ) . It's a dandy, literate costume drama.
—'Til the Fat Lady Sings, June 5-30, Citadel Theatre Company at Victory Gardens Greenhouse. This is the first full-length play by the award-winning gifted gay Chicago writer Scott McPherson, who died young of AIDS after the triumph of his best-known work, Marvin's Room. Fat Lady is a dark comedy set within the bosom of an American family, examining the customs and comic excesses of grieving. If you admire Marvin's Room, you'll like this one.
—Math and Aftermath, Ludicrous Theatre at the Heartland Studio Theatre, June 13-21. A lesbian is shooting a gay porn film on Bikini Atoll in the South Pacific in 1954, just as the French ( whose atoll it is ) begin their atomic bomb tests there. Yes, it's an entirely impossible fantasy, but it's a fantasy of notable out novelist and playwright Jim Grimsley ( Dream Boy ) and it walks the line between the comic and serious. This production has been in the works for months—seems a shame the run is so short.
—Questa, The People's Theatre, Heartland Studio Theatre, June 26-July 19. This 2005 drama by Victor Bumbalo—a name most theatergoers won't know, but one which Jonny knows and hasn't heard in years—deals with gay-bashing, retribution, guilt and a homeless gay man who is the play's narrator and conscience. Spirituality, sexuality, suffering and loss—hey, this play has them all. Directed by the unflagging Madrid St. Angelo with original music by Annah Zaman.
—Lesbians Who Kill, Bailiwick Repertory, June 27-July 27. Something for the boys, something for the girls—that's the way it is at Bailiwick. This production, part of Bailiwick's Second Sex Series, is a satirical gender-bending look at what might motivate women—lesbians in particular—to become killers. It explores anger, sexism and violent impulses through musical numbers, parody and memorable movie moments. Lesbians Who Kill is written by Deb Margolin, Peggy Shaw and Lois Weaver. It's co-directed by Lauren Love and L. M. Attea, and is performed by Lisa Cordileone and Tiffany Albers-Lopez.
—Pride Month also offers several shows that are secondarily LGBT, among them the musicals The Full Monty ( Village Players, Oak Park, June 6-July 13 ) and Shout! The Mod Musical ( Drury Lane Water Tower, through July 20 ) , and the great swashbuckler, Bloody Bess: A Tale of Piracy and Revenge ( Back Stage Theatre at the Storefront, June 12-July 20 ) with their gay/lesbian subplots. Even so, Jonny can't help suggesting two more shows playing in July that should be opening during Pride Month.
—A Midsummer Night's Dream: A Queer Tale, MidTangent ( sic ) Productions at National Pastime Theatre, July 3-Aug. 3. MidTangent's thoroughly genderfuck-and-drag take on Shakespeare's romantic comedy has become a summertime staple, but this—its fourth year—will be its final one. In the original, Jonny reminds you, the wrong boy loves the wrong girl loves the wrong boy. MidTangent—uh—straightens it all out by having boy pursue boy and girl pursue girl, and turning Nick Bottom into a giant penis instead of into an ass.
—A Dreadful Day, BoyGirlBoyGirl at Live Bait Theatre, July 11-19. A return visit by writer/performers Rachel Claff, Susan McLaughlin Karp, David Kodeski, Stephanie Shaw, Diana Slickman and Edward Thomas-Herrera in a world premiere evening of monologues inspired by a 19th-century children's book about two orphans who contemplate mortality when their pet rabbit dies ( no, really! ) . A Dreadful Day will feature stories about the loss of innocence, the passing of youth, woodland creatures and all things full of dread. Jonny's never slept with the women in question, but he needn't tell you how gay and fabulous Mssrs. Thomas-Herrera and Kodeski are.
