Joseph Wycoff, Will Zahrn (front), Steve Pickering/Photo: Michael Brosilow

Many a great disaster film begins with a disheveled scientist making a discovery that is bound to change the course of human civilization forever. And yet, when he stands before a delegation of politicians or military leaders, no one listens. Next Theatre’s “War with the Newts,” based on Karel Capek’s 1936 novel, has a similar scene, and yet it doesn’t come until halfway through the second act. Mr. Povondra (a spirited Joseph Wycoff), butler to a Czech industrialist, claims responsibility for having opened the doors that led to the discovery and exploitation of a new species of pearl-diving, island-building newt-people, who eventually grow smart enough to desire world takeover.

While the adaptation necessarily finds a new satirical target despite remaining in the original time period, it can’t reconcile its new environmental slant—with overtures toward Katrina and the recent oil spill—with the unavoidably human element of Capek’s pre-WWII prescience. Povondra’s mission through all this is to record the history for which he takes responsibility, but as inevitable as the newt uprising may be, it’s not a history we feel doomed to repeat.

The ensemble, especially Will Zahrn as the industrialist and Steve Pickering as a swarthy sea captain, certainly bring welcome theatricality to this science-fiction narrative, though. The elegant period design by Collette Pollard takes advantage of Loyola’s generous facilities, and yet the newt puppets, though beautiful, seem unnecessary. Jason Loewith’s direction finds a well-paced balance between humor and horror. (Neal Ryan Shaw)

Next Theatre, The Mullady Theatre, Loyola University Chicago, 1125 West Loyola, (847)475-1875. Through June 20.

Top 5 Shows
“Desire Under the Elms,” Goodman
“Blackbird,” Victory Gardens
“South Pacific,” Lincoln Center Theater
“The Tempest,” Steppenwolf
“Spring Awakening,” Broadway In Chicago 
—Brian Hieggelke

Top 5 Shows
“The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity,” Victory Gardens/Teatro Vista
“An Apology For the Course and Outcome of Certain Events Delivered by Doctor John Faustus on This His Final Evening,” Theater Oobleck
“The Pillowman,” Redtwist
“Frat,” The New Colony
“Red Noses,” Strawdog
—Nina Metz Read the rest of this entry »

The Addams Family at The Oriental/Photo: Samuel Adams

By Brian Hieggelke

As the wind blows the snow sideways this December evening, the weatherman is telling Chicagoans to stay bunkered; the deserted downtown streets reflect their obedience. All save the sidewalk near the intersection of State and Randolph, as TV crews jockey for faces on the red carpet in front of the Ford Center for the Performing Arts Oriental Theatre, where more than 2,000 patrons, including a who’s who of backstage Broadway, are gathering for the world premiere of a new musical featuring a AAA list of talent, onstage and off. “The Addams Family,” with multiple Tony winners Nathan Lane and Bebe Neuwirth in its leads, a book from the librettists of “Jersey Boys” and so on, is certainly Broadway bound, but tonight—tonight—Chicago is the center of theater in the world.

That’s the story of Chicago theater in the zeroes: the decade in which it grew up and got big. Whether it’s the launch and monumental success of Broadway In Chicago, the maturation and astonishing quality of a remarkable number of small and mid-sized companies or the increasing demand for Chicago product and Chicago talent on Broadway, Chicago theater has fully come into its own. Read the rest of this entry »

2000

Milestones

500 Clown, Steep Theatre, the side project and Teatro Luna are founded

Broadway In Chicago launches as a joint venture between Live Nation and the Nederlander Organization

Goodman departs its original home in the Art Institute of Chicago and moves into $51 million new digs in the North Loop

Chicago Shakespeare moves into a $24 million theater on Navy Pier

Collaboraction produces its first Sketchbook

The City of Chicago’s Department of Cultural Affairs opens The Storefront Theater

Passings

Michael Maggio, Goodman Theatre Associate Artistic Director and Dean of The Theatre School at DePaul University Read the rest of this entry »

Kelly O’Sullivan, John Stokvis/Photo: Michael Brosilow

Jason Sutherland, the new artistic director at Evanston’s Next Theatre, makes his Chicago directorial debut with Peter Sinn Nachtreib’s end-of-the-world comedy “boom.”  This play crackles with all the smartassery and f-bombs one would expect from a hip new play, although sometimes that hipness feels a little contrived. Don’t get me wrong, there are some really funny moments and artful turns of phrase, but what starts out as a rather intriguing story about two quirky loners bunkered down together as a result of a Craigslist personal ad suffers the drag of a second storyline, that of a museum curator with career troubles. Sutherland does an admirable job of keeping the action moving in Andre LaSalle’s beautifully rendered basement lab, but ultimately the play aches when it departs the apocalyptic aftermath and delves into the unnecessary personal problems of the curator. Although Nachtrieb exhibits great craft in shaping inquisitive characters full of honest emotional malfunction, he misses when he forces theatricality that is already present in the play. (William Scott)

Next Theatre, Noyes Cultural Arts Center, 927 Noyes Street, Evanston, (847)475-1875. Wed 1pm (Sept 30 and Oct 7 only)/Thu 7:30pm/Fri-Sat 8pm/Sun 2pm. $25-$40. Through Oct 11.

Here’s the press release announcing the Jeff noms for Equity:

Chicago Theatres Shine in Outstanding Jeff Nominated Productions of 2008-2009 Season

Goodman Theatre and Drury Lane Oakbrook
Top List of Award Nominees

50 Years of The Second City to be Spotlighted
at The Jeff Awards

Thursday, August 27, 2009 – Chicago, IL.   The Jeff Awards today announced 179 nominations in 35 categories for Chicago Equity theatrical productions which opened between August 1, 2008, and July 31, 2009. The Jeff Awards sent judges to the opening nights of 141 productions offered by 57 producing organizations. From these openings, 98 Equity productions were “Jeff Recommended,” which made them eligible for award nominations.

The 41st Annual Jeff Awards ceremony, honoring excellence in professional theatre produced within the immediate Chicago area, will be held on Monday, October 19, at the North Shore Center for the Performing Arts in Skokie, 9501 Skokie Boulevard. A pre-show Appetizer Buffet will run from 6:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m., and the Awards Ceremony, directed by Michael Weber, will begin at 7:30 p.m. The Second City, celebrating 50 years as a producer, will play a featured role at the Jeff Awards ceremony. Advance purchase tickets, which include the ceremony and the pre-show buffet, are $75 ($55 for members of Actors’ Equity Association, United Scenic Artists, Stage Directors and Choreographers Society, and The Dramatists Guild of America). The evening is black tie optional and the public is cordially invited to attend. To purchase tickets, visit the Jeff Awards website at www.jeffawards.org. For more information, contact Equity Chair Diane Hires at equitywing@jeffawards.org. Read the rest of this entry »

Here’s the press release from Strawdog: (Updated August 4, 2009)

STRAWDOG THEATRE COMPANY ANNOUNCES
22ND ANNIVERSARY SEASON THEMED “Why We Fight”

Strawdog Theatre Company of Chicago announces their 22nd anniversary season of presenting “the whole wide world in a little black box,” with the three mainstage plays focusing on the theme of “why we fight”:  the Midwest premiere of Matt Pepper’s St. Crispin’s Day, Curt Columbus’ translation of Anton Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya and David Harrower’s translation of Bertolt Brecht’s The Good Soul of Szechuan. The productions run Friday at 8 p.m., Saturday at 4 and 8 p.m., and Sunday at 7 p.m.

These productions, plus ongoing late night offerings, are presented at Strawdog’s space in the heart of Chicago’s Lakeview neighborhood at 3829 N. Broadway Street. Adult single ticket prices are $20 (single gala night tickets are $40 each, closing night tickets are $30 each); preview tickets are $10, student and senior tickets are $15 (with ID); and $15 tickets are available for groups of ten or more.  Season flex-passes are $50 for three admissions and $100 for six admissions, benefit performances count as two admissions. (All benefit performances include post-show reception with refreshments). Admission for Strawdog Late Night programming starts at $5 and varies for visiting artists. Tickets are available at 773.528.9696 and www.strawdog.org Read the rest of this entry »

Christoph Horton Abiel, Tamberla Perry, Lily Mojekwu/Photo: Michael Brosilow

This week it was announced that African-American playwright Lynn Nottage had received the 2009 Pulitzer Prize in Drama for “Ruined,” her harrowing play set amidst the atrocities of an African civil war.  I wish “Ruined” was still playing in Chicago (the show premiered last year at the Goodman).  I could then offer you  an alternative to J.T. Rogers’ “The Overwhelming,” his well-meaning but entirely forgettable political drama set on the cusp of an African civil war, specifically the Rwandan genocide that claimed the lives of nearly one million people in 1994.

In this underwhelming Chicago-area premiere by Next Theatre in Evanston, an American political scientist and professor of international studies (Jack) moves his new wife Linda and 17-year-old son Geoffrey to Rwanda in early 1994, and then is shocked (shocked!!) to discover that the country is on the verge of violent civil strife.  Read the rest of this entry »

Here’s the press release from Next:

Next Theatre Company Announces
a Season of Premieres for 2009-10
World Premiere by Artistic Director Emeritus Jason Loewith
to Join American and Chicago Premieres by Provocative New Writers

[April 8, 2009 - EVANSTON, IL] – New Artistic Director Jason Southerland has announced his first full-season’s roster of plays at Evanston’s Next Theatre Company, Chicago’s destination for socially provocative, artistically adventurous work. In the offering, theater-goers will find the highly-anticipated world premiere of Jason Loewith’s (Adding Machine) latest adaptation, Israeli playwright Boaz Gaon’s poignant drama Return to Haifa, and Peter Sinn Nachtrieb’s off-beat, but resonant apocalyptic comedy boom, which will begin performances on the 8th anniversary of the terrorist attacks on NYC and Washington. Southerland has also added a holiday program by his past artistic collaborator and friend Kyle Jarrow, A Very Merry Unauthorized Children’s Scientology Pageant. The final play of the 29th season will be announced shortly. (Updated 8-19-09 with “End Days”) Read the rest of this entry »

Nicole Wiesner and Coburn Goss/Photo: Christopher Shinn

Real-life dysfunction sucks. But as New York Times theater critic Charles Isherwood recently put it, “What might appall us in reality—the unearthing of duplicity or betrayal—can delight in drama.” Or so you hope.

Which brings us to Christopher Shinn’s “Dying City,” receiving an impeccably designed if starchily executed production at Next Theatre in Evanston. To exist in the world of this play is to be wandering a field of land mines. Not a single relationship here functions as it should. Too bad you don’t believe a minute of it.

A single actor (Coburn Goss) plays identical twin brothers: Peter is the self-involved actor; Craig is the straight-laced military man. A third character, Kelly (played by Nicole Wiesner), is Craig’s wife. She is a therapist by trade, but a lousy tactician when it comes to handling these velvet-gloved manipulators. Both brothers project their pathologies onto this woman as if she were a science experiment. It’s all disguised as love or concern or the desire for connection, and Kelly takes the bait.

Their secrets and lies unfold on a raked stage (Jim Davis is the scenic designer), tipping the actors forward—it’s as if any moment, the characters will tumble over the ledge into an abyss of their own making. It’s a canny visual that suggests there’s more to this production than there really is.

Craig has died in Iraq (we see him in flashbacks) and a year afterwards Peter shows up on Kelly’s doorstep to hand down a reckoning prettied up by his politesse and faux naïf ponderings about who Craig really was.

But the production itself (directed by Jason Loewith) lacks focus and psychological snap. Neither actor, I think, is quite right for their roles; very little here feels true or dangerously close to something resembling life. This more like “life.” But what is this play really about anyway, once you strip away the cat-and-mouse façade? Judging by this production, not much at all. (Nina Metz)

At Next Theatre in the Noyes Cultural Arts Center, 927 Noyes in Evanston, (847)475-1875 ext. 2 or nexttheatre.org. Thu 7:30p; Fri-Sat 8p, Sun 2p. $23-$38. Through March 8.