On a recent visit to New York I saw two new plays and two old ones, all with significance for Chicago. The new plays are certain to be produced here, possibly within the next 12 months as part of our 2017-2018 theater season.
First, The Harvest by Samuel D. Hunter, presented in a six-week run ( closes Nov. 20 ) at Lincoln Center Theater's small LCT3, which presents new works at very modest ticket prices. Hunter's award-winning earlier play, The Whale, was seen locally in 2013 at Victory Gardens Theater ( VG ), where Hunter is part of VG's Playwrights' Ensemble. He's completed seven plays since The Whale, and I'll venture that The Harvest is the best of them.
Set in semi-rural Idaho ( Hunter's usual locale ), it concerns young adults within an evangelical church community, among them Josh and Tom who are lifelong best friends now facing permanent separation. Subtly at first, and then more directly, The Harvest reveals Tom's longing for Josh goes far beyond church-sanctioned friendship. It's uncertain whether Josh fully perceives Tom's passion, or fully returns it. Complicating things, Tom's father is pastor of the church, which is sponsoring both young men on overseas missions.
The Harvest is a lovely ensemble piece, from the opening semi-erotic scene of church youth speaking in tongues to the final lady-or-the-tiger moment when Josh must choose. All the actors perform with nuance and conviction as directed by Davis McCallum. Well-known Chicago veteran Scott Jaeck, now living in NYC, plays the pastor/father. He enters late in this 100-minute work and performs a near-monolog with quiet authority against what the audience anticipates. It's cagey writing which highlights the dilemma of Josh and Tom, caught between what is expected of them and their fundamental doubts. I suspect Victory Gardens artistic director Chay Yew will have The Harvest in the VG schedule ASAP.
The other new work, at the Manhattan Theatre Club ( through Nov. 27 ), is Vietgone, by U.S.-born Qui Nguyen. The play won the 2016 Steinberg/American Theatre Critics Association Award of $25,000. Vietgone is a comedy using non-realistic meta-theatrical style to embrace serious issues of understanding—or lack of it—between generations, decisions/actions taken under the duress of war, and the legacy of the Vietnamese War for immigrant South Vietnamese survivors. Mostly set in 1975 ( the end jumps to the present ), it utilizes hip-hop songs, projections, breaking the Fourth Wall and cartoon-like martial arts battles. They aren't all necessary and they lengthen a work which would be better without an intermission. Still, Vietgone is vital, imaginative, funny and eventually unexpectedly powerful. The worthy MTC production MTC was directed by May Adrales. I suspect several Chicago troupes will vie for Vietgone—Silk Road Rising, Northlight, Goodman, Writers, Steppenwolf. Perhaps small Silk Road can mount a co-production with one of them.
For something old I saw Christopher Hampton's 1985 play, Les Liaisons Dangereuses, and also The Front Page, the nearly 90-year-old comedy by one-time Chicago newspapermen Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur. Both are strictly limited Broadway engagements, with Liaisons at the Booth Theatre through Jan. 22 and The Front Page at the Broadhurst Theatre through Jan. 29. Both boast major star power and also have Chicago actors in their casts. Both shows are up to the highest Broadway production and acting standards, although posing questions of interpretation which may not please everyone.
Les Liaisons Dangereuses, a production that began at London's Donmar Warehouse, stars Janet McTeer ( Marquise de Monteuil ) and Liev Schreiber ( Vicomte de Valmont ) as 18th-century French aristocrats who are too wealthy, wicked and attractive to do anyone any good. They play sex games in which they seduce the pious and innocent, earning the reward of sex with each other when they succeed. Valmont is ruined when he actually falls in love with his victim. The production is elegantly designed, set in a dilapidated palace lit by fluorescent lights which suggests the faded glories of 250 years ago. The fluorescents quickly disappear, however, and are replaced by dozens of real candles burning.
Donmar director Josie Rourke ( who's guested at Chicago Shakespeare Theater ) makes some curious choices. The play's polished and witty language is delivered in a conversational way ( sometimes hard to hear ) avoiding its refinement and, certainly, suppressing its passions. McTeer and Schreiber sprawl on sofas and chairs in a modern way distinctly not of the 18th Century. Finally, Valmont constantly drinks wine, brandy or champagne and is weaving drunk by the play's end. It's a character tick that works: the more he's lost to himself, the more he drinks. One pities Valmont at the final curtain as one should, while Monteuil sheds crocodile tears. Steppenwolf Ensemble member Ora Jones appears in an important supporting role, and former Chicago actor Josh Salt plays Valmont's cheeky serving man.
That leaves The Front Page, the famous screwball comedy homage to 1920s Chicago journalism. The large cast sports Tony Award winners or nominees Nathan Lane, Robert Morse, Holland Taylor, Jefferson Mays, Dylan Baker, Sherie Renee Scott and Lewis J. Stadlen, along with John Goodman and John Slattery, under the always-capable direction of Tony winner Jack O'Brien, who knows how to pull off this complicated comedy. Former Chicagoans Joey Slotnick ( Lookingglass ) and Joe Forbrich ( Shattered Globe ) appear in smaller roles.
Slattery is mature for the lead role of reporter Hildy Johnson and Nathan Lane doesn't seem ideal as Hildy's older editor, Walter Burns, but they make it work. Slattery is agile and sincere, a good combination for Hildy, while Lane's blustery, bullying, manipulative Burns is kin to Max Bialystock and perfectly suited for Lane's immense comic abilities. Among the supporting roles, Jefferson Mays steals all his scenes as prissy Tribune reporter Bensinger.
The production features handsome 1920s costumes and a scenic design ( Douglas W. Schmidt ) that accurately captures Chicago's old Criminal Courts Building, which still stands in River North. Running during the World Series, the clever company added a Cubs pennant to the set. The Front Page is a high-energy, audience-pleasing show.
