Michael Stegall, Jen Short/Photo: Dean LaPrairie

RECOMMENDED

It’s a situation “straight from Chaucer,” as Jon Steinhagen’s Dr. Lyman puts it: On a dreary March evening, a blizzard closes the highway near a bus stop in rural Kansas, and the passengers on a bus out of Kansas City take refuge in the adjoining diner for the night. But it’s not just March that comes in like a lion. Cherie (Jen Short), a nineteen-year-old nightclub singer, bursts in from the bus, followed shortly by the young cowboy, Bo (Michael Stegall), she claims has abducted her.

William Inge’s 1955 classic is an exhaustingly popular play, but for good reason. Read the rest of this entry »

Manny Buckley, JoAnn Montemurro, Ron Quade, Frederick Harris/Photo: Dean LaPrairie

Chekov’s final play, “The Cherry Orchard” examines the end of oblivious gentility and the rise of an ambitious, vulgar middle class. It’s hallmarked with Chekov’s standard longing and regret, but Raven’s interpretation misses the piece’s classic Russian soul.

Ranevskaya (JoAnn Montemurro) returns to her heavily indebted Russian estate, too enraptured by her lovely cherry orchard to acknowledge her financial overdraft. She continues to rebuff the moneyraising suggestions of Lopakhin (Frederick Harris), living in the past until time runs out.  Daughters Varya (Helen Young) and Anya (Sophia Menendian) have their eyes on various suitors, only to be disappointed. It’s a world of inertia.

Andrei Onegin’s lovely vine-covered set suggests a life overgrown by a callous world but the ensemble fails to capture the bittersweet nostalgia and frustrating lack of action the characters are mired in. While Michael Menendian’s direction insists on livable pacing, it doesn’t seem to scratch the piece’s emotional surface. (Lisa Buscani)

“The Cherry Orchard,” Raven Theatre, 6157 North Clark, (773)338-2177. Through July 23.

Here’s the press release from Raven Theatre:

RAVEN THEATRE ANNOUNCE 2011-2012 SEASON

Truth CHICAGO – Producing Artistic Director Michael Menendian and Co-Artistic Director JoAnn Montemurro announce Raven Theatre’s 2011/2012 Season, which includes Bus Stop by William Inge, Dating Walter Dante, a world premiere by Chicago playwright, Jon Steinhagen,developed through Raven’s New Works workshop series; The Price by Arthur Miller and Bang the Drum Slowly by Mark Harris and adapted for the stage by Eric Simonson.  Read the rest of this entry »

It’s not really a nostalgic childhood memory unless it’s summer, is it? Cynthia VonOrthal’s new full-length puppet show places us in the summer of 1971, when children still played in the street and you put new clothes on layaway at Sears just long enough before they go out of fashion. The Martini and Blahute families have been friends as long as they’ve lived next to each other, but this rose-colored slice-of-life becomes threatened when rumors begin to spread that Harm Martini has been fooling around on Gay. Aside from that, not much actually happens, and the threadbare plot moves along mostly due to the captivating puppet work. The puppeteers really disappear behind their puppets, which end up displaying a disarming humanity. The stage and script often get cluttered with too much business, and the play is a little too preoccupied with establishing the culture of the era with little payoff. It’s just a mismatch of a well-trod story and ingenious stagecraft. (Neal Ryan Shaw)

VonOrthal Puppets at the Raven Theatre West Stage, 6157 North Clark, (773)878-8337. Through December 19.

Jason Huysman, Liz Fletcher/Photo: Dean LaPrairie

RECOMMENDED

Tennessee Williams’ classic 1955 play gets a solid, breezy production by the Raven Theatre. Not content to stage a nostalgic Southern melodrama, the production confronts Williams’ themes of personal honesty, sexuality and social mores head-on.

On a sprawling Mississippi plantation, the Pollitt family has gathered for Big Daddy’s sixtieth birthday. Believing this to be his last birthday, his wife and children are determined to make a last impression on him that will secure them a healthy portion of his will. Only Brick doesn’t seem to care, too caught up in his alcoholism, former athletic glory and closeted homosexuality.

Liz Fletcher, as Maggie, and Jon Steinhagen, as Big Daddy, dominate their major scenes in part due to their sheer verbosity, but Jason Huysman’s Brick never really rises to the challenge set by his scene partners. When things get hot, they get really hot, although the climactic storm winds die down a bit too easily. Ultimately it’s a luscious, passionate portrayal of the desperate search for truth. (Neal Ryan Shaw)

Raven Theatre, 6157 North Clark, (773)338-2177. Through December 19.

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 »

Peter DeFaria and Randy Steinmeyer in "A Steady Rain" at Chicago Dramatists

Annoyance Theatre
Coed Prison Sluts: $64,000, 5,380 people

The Artistic Home
Peer Gynt: $19,044 box office, 1,200 people

Chicago Dramatists
A Steady Rain: $21,000 box office,1,500 people at CD, 10,000 at Royal George Theatre
Cadillac: $23,000 box office,1,600 people at CD, 1,500 at Theatre on the Lake

Collaboraction
The Intelligent Design of Jenny Chow, $150,000 box office, 6,500 people Read the rest of this entry »

The 2006/07 season brought the grand opening of the new Victory Gardens Biograph Theater, following more than $11 million in renovations

Annoyance Theatre (founded 1987)
“We don’t really have a regular operating budget—just plan as we go along.”
—Jennifer Estlin, President, Annoyance Theatre

The Artistic Home (founded 1998)
End of nineties: $62,000
End of zeroes: $164,500

Bailiwick Chicago (founded 2009)
End of nineties: N/A (Bailiwick Repertory is now defunct)
End of zeroes: $120,000 projected 2010

Chicago Dramatists (founded 1979)
End of nineties: $171,000
End of zeroes: $550,000

Collaboraction (founded 1996)
End of nineties: $50,000
End of zeroes: $500,000

Court Theatre (founded 1955)
End of nineties: $2.6 million
End of zeroes: $3.2 million 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 »