SR Digest: Here come the Jeffs again
Issue #14—April 19, 2019
Welcome to the free edition of Storefront Rebellion! This free digest brings Chicago theater news and reviews from me, Kris Vire, right to your inbox. If you’re enjoying it, please tell your friends. Word of mouth is our best advertising. (I borrowed that from a few thousand post-curtain-call speeches.)
I also very much want to hear your feedback: Reply to this email, or if you’re reading this on the web, hit me at kris@krisvire.com or find me on Twitter @krisvire.
Hello, newsletter pals! It’s been a bit since our last free post, sorry about it! Suffice to say I’ve been hard at work on some really cool projects that I’m excited for you to see soon.
Mark your calendars and set your DVRs
The nominations for this year’s Non-Equity Jeff Awards are coming this Monday, and I’ll have the full list (and probably Some Thoughts) delivered right to your inbox that morning. As a reminder of what to look for, the noms will cover non-Equity shows that opened between April 1, 2018 and March 31 of this year. The awards ceremony/theater prom will take place on Monday, June 3 at the Athenaeum Theatre.
And on the TV front, set an alarm for next Sunday, April 28 at 7pm—that’s when The Red Line premieres on CBS. It’s the new series created by Chicago’s own Caitlin Parrish and Erica Weiss, loosely inspired by their play A Twist of Water, which had its premiere with Route 66 Theatre Company at Theater Wit back in 2011. Like the play, the series counts Chicago as a character in its own right, and it was shot entirely in the city last year. It features dozens of Chicago theater actors in speaking roles; having seen some screener episodes, I can tell you it’s a delight as a Chicago theater fan to see who shows up. CBS is positioning The Red Line as an event series, so the eight hour-long episodes will air in two-hour blocks across four consecutive Sundays.
Reviews and other views
If you’re a paying subscriber, you got my review this morning of the literally *wild* First Love Is the Revolution, which opened last night at Steep Theatre.
Isa Arciniegas and Jordan Arredondo. Photograph: Gregg Gilman
So it’s a little disarming when First Love Is the Revolution, Steep’s new Midwest premiere by Australian-born, London-based playwright Rita Kalnejais, starts out not just charmingly funny but goddamn whimsical. As in actors-playing-cute-romping-animals whimsical. But don’t worry—while the play remains startlingly, disorientingly funny, it also reveals itself to contain Shakespearean violence. Kalnejais isn’t asking us to accept human actors as animals so much as to recognize the animal in humans.
It’s one of my favorite productions of the year so far. The script is discombobulating in the best way, Devon de Mayo’s direction is thrilling, the cast is astonishing, I will quite possibly see it again. Read the whole review here.
Also for newsletter subscribers last week, I reviewed Ike Holter’s Lottery Day, the thoroughly satisfying conclusion to his seven-play cycle, at the Goodman. (Every time I type Goodman it comes out first as “Goodamn”; here that feels appropriate.)
From left: James Vincent Meredith (Avery), Tony Santiago (Nunley), Michele Vazquez (Vivien), Pat Whalen (Ricky), J. Nicole Brooks (Mallory), Robert Cornelius (Robinson), McKenzie Chinn (Cassandra), Tommy Rivera-Vega (Ezekiel), Sydney Charles (Zora) and Aurora Adachi-Winter (Tori). Photograph: Liz Lauren
Last night, the final piece of the “Rightlynd Saga” opened at the Goodman Theatre. Lottery Day is both a farewell to this world and a very conscious crescendo. Where the six previous entries connected only at their edges, with fleeting mentions of plot points elsewhere in the shared universe acting like Easter eggs for die-hard collectors, Lottery Day actually brings together characters from each of the prior plays along with a few new faces to close out this story. It’s a carefully plotted crossover event: the Avengers: Endgame of the Holterverse.
I’ve also been busy this month at the Sun-Times, with three more reviews over there:
Porchlight Music Theatre’s revival of A Chorus Line is delightful.
DJEMBE! is not super sophisticated in its narrative skills or production design, but it’s infectious fun and it has Rashada Dawan, so.
I did not much enjoy The Absolute Brightness of Leonard Pelkey, despite Joe Foust’s great solo performance.
Finally, my Storefront Rebellion review of Jackalope Theatre Company’s Dutch Masters is unlocked now that the show is closed, so if you’re interested in my thoughts, read on.
Kris recommends
Landladies, Northlight Theatre, closes 4/20
Mr. Kotomoto Is Definitely Not White, NoMads Art Collective, closes 4/21
Lottery Day, Goodman Theatre, closes 4/28
Bright Star, BoHo Theatre, closes 5/5
Cambodian Rock Band, Victory Gardens Theater, closes 5/5
First Love Is the Revolution, Steep Theatre Company, closes 5/25
A Chorus Line, Porchlight Music Theatre, closes 5/31
DJEMBE!, Apollo Theater Chicago, closes 6/9
Opening soon
Non-Player Character, Red Theater Chicago, opens 4/20
Language Rooms, Broken Nose Theatre, opens 4/22
I’m Gonna Pray for You So Hard, First Floor Theater, opens 4/24
Hamlet, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, opens 4/25
The Children, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, opens 4/29
Too Heavy for Your Pocket, TimeLine Theatre Company, opens 5/2
August Rush, Paramount Theatre, opens 5/3
Mad Beat Hip and Gone, Promethean Theatre Ensemble, opens 5/4