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 »

As part of our decade retrospective, we surveyed more than forty theater companies for their observations to a couple of questions. What follows are their formatted but unedited responses.

Deb Clapp
Executive Director, League of Chicago Theatres (founded 1979)

Any observations or thoughts about Chicago theater in the last decade?
Over the last decade, Chicago has seen the downtown theater district grow and thrive, Goodman moved downtown and several theaters were re-furbished. Lookingglass moved into their new digs on Michigan Avenue and theater has flourished. Several exciting new companies have been established including The House Theatre of Chicago, Silk Road Theatre Project, New Leaf Theatre and Rasaka, among many others.

Is there a “Chicago style” anymore (if there ever was) and has it changed? What, today, distinguishes Chicago theater from anywhere else?
A number of unique characteristics distinguish Chicago theater. We have a unique ecology encompassing a wide range of theater artistry, from spectacle to culturally specific, horror to improv, houses with thousands of seats to houses with 18 seats. Our community is very collegial and collaborative, sharing ideas and resources. When one theater has a hit show, its not just a hit for that show, it’s a hit for Chicago. Our directors, authors, actors, stagehands, producers, all are Chicagoans and all create for a Chicago audience.

Outside of your own company, who or what excites you most about local theater right now?
Chicago is the best place to see and to make theater in the world. A lot of attention from other parts of the country and the world is being paid to Chicago theater right now and while that is wonderful and will inevitably lead us to greater things, what continues to happen every night in Chicago theater brings me joy. Telling our stories and the stories of others, bringing the world on stage every night, that’s what excites me most. Read the rest of this entry »

Kevin Hope, Jason Huysman, Chuck Spencer, Greg Caldwell/Photo: Dean la Prairie

RECOMMENDED

Sixty years after its premiere, Arthur Miller’s “Death of a Salesman” continues to echo as a powerful reminder of the dark side of the American Dream. The two paths it represents—getting by on peer approval and likeability or on studying and hard work—remain permanent options. The bitterness and confusion that Willy Loman experiences when confronted with the truth that both he and his onetime star-high-school-athlete son who his future hopes become pinned on after his own fall apart are failures is something we have all witnessed to one degree or another, whether up close or from a distance. How many of us have headed to a high-school reunion only to find out that the most popular folks of yesteryear are today’s lost souls, but that the nerds that were constantly picked on are now CEOs?

Decades before American capitalism came to the brink of the cliff last year, Miller raised fundamental questions in this play that seem more relevant today than ever before. Read the rest of this entry »

Here’s the press release from Eclipse:

Eclipse Theatre Company Leads Year-Long Exploration of Arthur Miller
in 2009 / 2010 Chicago Theatre Season

(CHICAGO, August 5, 2009) – Classic American theatre fans are in for a treat this upcoming season with several new productions exploring the works one of the 20th century’s greatest American playwrights – some might argue the greatest – Arthur Miller.

Currently, there are four local theatre companies with Arthur Miller productions slated, including Chicago’s Eclipse Theatre Company, which is unique in the Midwest in its mission to focus on a single playwright each season. After a critically acclaimed and commercially successful two-year Celebration Series, in which Eclipse featured the work of the first 10 playwrights produced since the company adopted its mission of “one season, one playwright,” the 2010 Arthur Miller Season is a welcome return to the company’s seasonal format. Read the rest of this entry »

Here’s the press release from Raven:

RAVEN THEATRE ANNOUNCES THEIR 27th SEASON
Family. Justice. Laughter

CHICAGO – Producing Artistic Director Michael Menendian and Co-Artistic Director JoAnn Montemurro announce Raven Theatre’s 2009/2010 Season, which includes Arthur Miller’s timeless Death of a Salesman, Reginald Rose’s thrilling Twelve Angry Men, and Neil Simon’s classic comedy The Odd Couple. This season follows the rise of the baby boomer generation, moving from issues of morality and success through class and ethnic divisions, ending in the middle of a social and cultural revolution. Raven kicks off the season with its 27th annual benefit gala, Back Stage at Raven, Saturday, August 1, 2009. Season subscriptions are available for $35-72. Visit www.raventheatre.com or call 773-338-2177. Read the rest of this entry »

Mackenzie Kyle, Claudia Garrison/Photo: Dean La Prairie

RECOMMENDED

Ibsen’s “Hedda Gabler” is either a modern woman acting out against an oppressive society or a shrew who needs a hobby that doesn’t involve guns. Either way, the Raven Theatre’s new production of the 1890 classic is a well-portrayed, smartly executed chess game played by a woman who wants more.

Hedda (Mackenzie Kyle) is a brittle beauty who has married beneath her to affable, naïve George (Ian Novak).  Bored, she wreaks havoc on her brilliant ex Eilert (Ian Paul Custer) and her former schoolmate Thea (Symphony Sanders). Kyle deftly walks a razor-thin line of control, keeping Hedda’s frustration-fueled bitchiness in check until her second act spin-out; even then she makes the character’s insane personal agenda plausible. Novak tugs at the heartstrings as George, desperate to find the love in a woman can’t love him. Andrei Onegin’s lovely set is beautiful valise one should open with care. (Lisa Buscani)

“Hedda Gabler” at the Raven Theatre, 6157 N. Clark Street. Through June 27.