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 »

Andy St. Clair, Brad Morris/Photo: Bob Knuth

RECOMMENDED

If the comedy revues at Second City hew to a familiar pattern, it’s for a purpose. I don’t always agree with that purpose, but the theater just reached its fiftieth anniversary, so something’s working.  The company’s latest mainstage show may not be its strongest, but it is worth seeing for two reasons: Brad Morris and Andy St. Clair.

“Taming of the Flu” feels especially traditional in its Second Cityness. (Longtime director Mick Napier is at the helm.) This isn’t humor that comes from uncomfortable introspection. The material and its execution is standard stuff. Ultimately it’s up to the cast to differentiate their show from years past and, on that score, Morris and St. Clair do most of the heavy lifting.

I barely noticed Morris three years ago when he joined the mainstage. It can take a little while for performers to figure out where they fit in, and Morris sorted things out by the time he hit the stage in 2008’s “No Country for Old White Men.” Read the rest of this entry »

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 »

The Second City just launched its Neighborhood Tour this month, designed to be an entertaining—and educational—walk through Old Town. Second City originally considered doing an all-Chicago tour, but “we talked about Old Town for an hour and a half. There are so many landmarks and so much history just in Old Town alone,” says Managing Director Jenna Altobelli. The Tour was written by Margaret Hicks, who is also the primary guide. Altobelli says a similar tour had been done before, but time restraints had prevented a revival. “Margaret Hicks came in last year and wanted to bring it back,” she says. “It’s her persistence that made it happen. We’re coming up on our fiftieth anniversary and we’re trying to do some auxiliary things to celebrate our time in this neighborhood and in Chicago.” The tour highlights local bars, homes, churches and architecture, including St. Michael’s Church, Old Town Ale House and Pipers Alley, as well as Second City facilities. While rooted in history, the tour is designed for humor. “It’s based in fact, but there’s also improvisation in there, and it’s funny,” Altobelli says. “It’s not for the major history buff, but it’s for somebody who wants to learn some stuff and have a lot of fun.” The tours run Wednesdays and Sundays through October 4.

Amanda Blake Davis, Beth Melewski, Andy St. Clair, Christina Anthony, Timothy Edward Mason and Tom Flanigan/Photo: Bob Knuth

RECOMMENDED

Second City revues rarely diverge from format.  The rhythms are bright and confident, and comedic actors with darker, more unusual inclinations typically have a steeper learning curve adjusting to the form while retaining some bite.

For audiences, the setup provides a baseline consistency.  It has also served many a Second City alumus very, very well—banging out the same show every night, they leave here with TV-ready experience and polish.

Ultimately, the quality of any revue is contingent on how well its writer-performers mesh—their comedic philosophy, their personalities—and the cast occupying the Second City’s e.t.c. stage is among the best in recent years.  The same cannot be said of their current show, directed by Matt Hovde. Read the rest of this entry »

Here’s the press release from Chicago Dramatists:
CHICAGO DRAMATISTS 2009-2010
Production, Development & Education

Chicago, June 10, 2009 After a massively successful 30th Anniversary Season, Artistic Director Russ Tutterow announced Chicago Dramatists’ 2009-2010 season of programming today, featuring world premiere productions and a slate of programs engaging over five hundred playwrights throughout the year.

Programming will include collaborations with Chicago  institutions such as  Stage Left, The Second City, and the playwriting programs of DePaul and Northwestern University; four quarters of Playwrights’ Studio Classes; the distinguished guests of the Visiting Artists Program (previous artists have included Jeff Daniels, Paula Vogel and Sarah Ruhl); and signature developmental programs such as The Saturday Series, Script Lab and The First Draft Series. World premiere productions of Lucinda’s Bed by Resident Playwright Mia McCullough and Jade Heart by Senior Network Playwright Will Cooper will represent the culmination of plays that have been developed and fine tuned in many of those same programs.

As the only theatre in the country that is both a playwrights’ workshop and a full producing theatre, Chicago Dramatists’ programming focuses on the three major stages of a new play’s life: Production, Development and Education. Working with playwrights at every step of the writing process, Chicago Dramatists will continue its thirty-one-year old mission of developing new plays and playwrights for the American theatre. Read the rest of this entry »

By Whitney Dibo

Before Michael Patrick Thornton became the artistic director of The Gift Theatre, he worked at the airport. “Drum roll please,” he says with a sardonic smile, “I actually pushed people in wheelchairs from security to their gates.”

The irony of this revelation can only be appreciated if you’ve met Thornton, seen him in a show, or happened to catch a full-body photo of him taken within the last six years. At the age of 23, Thornton suffered what doctors now call a “spinal stroke” that left him paralyzed from the waist down. Well, at least that’s the technical medical term, but in reality no doctor is really sure what happened. Read the rest of this entry »

Mike Bradecich, Lori McClain, Lauren Dowden, Sam Richardson and Joey Bland (photo by Bob Knuth)

RECOMMENDED

So last week Rod Blagojevich went on the radio and slammed Illinois legislators as a bunch of losers and lechers, sparking this hilarious headline on Chicagoist.com: “Bitter Blagojevich Drinks Springfield Haterade.”

The timing was perfect—coming just one day after Second City opened “Rod Blagojevich Superstar.” Seriously, does Blago have a financial interest in the show? He’s doing one hell of a job marketing this ode to his idiocy. Because yes, he’s a lowlife egomaniac and the human equivalent of the herpes virus. And yet his continued delusions and obsessive media whoring, it’s kind of golden, no?

National late-nighters hit paydirt with the guy—the coif is a punch line all its own; big ups to “Daily Show” for “Scumdog Million-Hairs”—but Second City’s “Rod Blagojevich Superstar” is the first major flaying of the ousted governor by (and for) the people who actually voted him into office.

Revenge is a dish best served cold, but comedy is best served fast and reckless, and director Matt Hovde understands this in a big way. Jokes about political backroom bullshit fly faster than Blago’s thicket of bangs on a gust of lakefront wind, and somehow it all feels right.

As portrayed by Joey Bland in a black turtleneck and super-deluxe luxuriant wig, Blagojevich is a blissed-out douchebag ignoramus convinced of his own messianic powers. (Actually, Bland looks a little like Sean Hannity under all that hair, and I would argue that, despite their opposing political leanings, they actually have more in common than you’d think.)

In this skewering of all things Rod (and a few things Burris), “Jesus Christ Superstar” was an inspired choice to parody. When Lori McClain’s ball-busting Patti Blagojevich belts out, “I don’t know how to fucking love him,” it’s like some kind of musical theater karmic justice is being handed down on a silver platter. McClain’s performance really got me—the look on her face suggests Patti is a gal who sees life as one long bar fight. Oh Patti. (Nina Metz)

At Second City e.t.c. in Piper’s Alley,1608 N. Wells, (312)337-3992 or secondcity.com. Tues-Wed 8:30p. $14. Through March 18. After that, it moves to Upstairs at Chicago Shakespeare Theater, 800 East Grand, (312)595-5600, through September 6.

What makes Chicago’s theater world special? We picked up the latest issue of Entertainment Weekly for clues. In the cover story, “CSI” star William Petersen explains his decision to leave his role as one of the top paid actors in television, earning a rumored $600,000 an episode, to move back to Chicago and Chicago theater: “It was too safe for me at this point. So I needed to try and break that, and the way to do that, for me, is the theater.” EW went on to credit Petersen for much of the show’s success, notably bringing a theatrical ensemble philosophy to play in its production. Or consider the runaway success of Steppenwolf’s “August: Osage County,” which transferred to Broadway,  receiving critical acclaim and multiple Tony Awards, not by shaking it up with Broadway “names” but instead by virtually transferring the Steppenwolf production intact, with the addition of lead producer and fellow Chicagoan Steve Traxler. What makes Chicago theater—or for that matter, Chicago dance or any other form of performance practiced on our stages—special? We’d contend it’s the power of the ensemble, the spirit of collaboration that champions artistic risk-taking and subordinates the commercial. And so, in that spirit, the critical ensemble responsible for Newcity’s ongoing stage coverage presents our take on the most influential people on and offstage in Chicago. Read the rest of this entry »