SR Digest: “La Havana Madrid” (and me) in the NYT

Issue #15—May 1, 2019

May 02, 2019

Welcome to the free edition of Storefront Rebellion! This newsletter 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.)

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When I got laid off from Time Out last year on May 29, the day after Memorial Day, one of the first people to text me was my friend Margaret Lyons, an O.G. TOC-er who’s now a TV critic at the New York Times. I was sitting at a bar down the block from my now-former office, with a beer and the box of personal stuff from my desk, and wondering what the hell my next step would be—and if I was going to have to consider changing careers, like so many of my former-journalist colleagues have done. Margaret gave me some encouraging (and very salty) words, and urged me to consider freelancing. “We’re gonna get you in the Times in the next three months,” she told me.

It didn’t happen that fast, but I’m very proud that on Tuesday—11 months and one day from my last day at my old job—I got my first byline in the New York Times. And I’m even more proud that it’s a story about Chicago theater.

The piece, which I hope you’ll check out if you haven’t already, is a feature on the genesis of Sandra Delgado’s La Havana Madrid, one of my favorite shows of 2017 that’s about to return to the stage in a remount at the Den Theatre, starting previews next week. I believe the story will be in this Sunday’s print edition of the Times as well, if you want to keep an eye out on your Starbucks run this weekend.

Reviews and other views

I reviewed two shows for the Sun-Times this week: a late entry on the House Theatre’s Pinocchio and a four-star take on The Children at Steppenwolf.

If you’re a paid subscriber to Storefront Rebellion, you’ve seen two more reviews from me since the last free digest:

Walt McGough’s Non-Player Character, inspired by #Gamergate, is now onstage at the Athenaeum in an admirable Red Theater Chicago production.

Photograph: James Murphy/Trainman Photography

Walt McGough’s dramatic treatment of #Gamergate is a worthy primer on that particular flavor of toxic masculinity. And in Beth Wolf’s staging for Red Theater, it’s packed with clever touches for the video-game astute. Unfortunately, McGough isn’t able to bring this narrative to a satisfying conclusion—but then again, we as a society haven’t managed that, either.

Read the whole review here.

At First Floor Theater, I found impressive performances in I’m Gonna Pray for You So Hard even as Halley Feiffer’s script is a pretty punishing watch.

Photograph: WHO IS SHE

But while Feiffer imbues David and Ella with traits, she doesn’t give them much to do. David’s toxic blend of narcissism and insecurity poisons his daughter, yes. Viewing fame as your birthright—or having a parent tell you it is—can be crippling. But these don’t feel like new discoveries, and even at 90 minutes Feiffer’s insidery script can feel repetitive, and, frankly, exhausting in its relentless negativity.

Read the whole review here.

At Chicago magazine, I had a Q&A last week with the Chicago Humanities Festival’s Alison Cuddy about the Dutch legal-theater piece Please Continue, Hamlet, which CHF co-hosted with the Museum of Contemporary Art. I didn’t get to see the show, which was here for just four performances, but Chris Jones’s recounting of the first night, which (briefly) featured Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx for the prosecution, is an interesting read.

Also at Chicago mag, you can check out my theater picks for the month of May among the rest of the culture listings here. And in the May print issue, which is on stands now, I have a 1,200-word profile of Tarell Alvin McCraney ahead of his return to the stage as an actor for the first time in 15 years in Ms. Blakk for President. It’s not online yet—I’ll link to it in the next free email—but here’s a preview from the man himself.