Storefront Rebellion

Osage County backlash!

It's not much of a backlash, really, but darned if they aren't trying. Critic Rob Kendt points out that the NYT's Ben Brantley hopped on the Hilton Als bandwagon on Sunday, joining the New Yorker critic's cries of Mama's Family.

Now I know Mama's Family pretty well—it's one of the many bad ’80s sitcoms I grew up on—and not once did it enter my mind when I first saw Tracy Letts's play last summer. It's a pretty mighty leap from the half-assed caricature of Vicki Lawrence as a cranky grandma in a bad wig to the destructive malevolence of the Weston clan, and I noted in December that Als's characterization struck me as a spiteful dismissiveness of the flyover states—the sort of attribute one might assign, as long as we're dealing in caricatures, to a born-and-bred New Yorker like Als.

It's somewhat more surprising coming from Brantley at this late date, given his earlier assessments of the play. He didn't assign it a spot in his 2007 top ten, but he did give it an honorable mention in that piece, calling it "the kind of sprawling American drama you thought they didn't write anymore." Reassessment is a critic's prerogative, but this one-eighty sounds suspiciously like, as Time Out New York's David Cote puts it at Rob's blog, "contrarian-for-contrariety's-sake."

As for Als, he just comes off like a dick in his snide answers to the last three questions of this post-Tonys online-only piece:

7. Quick hits: Worst casting?

ALS: “August: Osage County.”

8. Worst direction?

ALS: Anna D. Shapiro, for “August: Osage County.”

9. Worst accent?

ALS: Everybody in “August: Osage County.”

Sorry, Hilton, I'm calling shenanigans. In a Broadway season that also included Young Frankenstein, The Little Mermaid, and a Grease cast via reality TV, this sour-grapes bull is as callous as Clinton supporters claiming they'd rather vote McCain than elect Obama. Back up, take a deep breath, and ask yourself what's really worse for the state of the union.

Tony Awards

Congrats to Steppenwolf, Tracy, Anna, Deanna, Rondi and Todd for their wins for August: Osage County, and to Chicago Shakespeare Theater (not to mention Ravinia for getting a shoutout from Patti LuPone).

We're currently having technical difficulties on the TOC blog, but expect a full roundup of the Tony Awards there sometime Monday.

Drink your way through the Tony Awards

If you're like me, this Sunday is all about the Chicago Tonys—if you were only reading our city's media, TOC included, you'd think they'd been officially renamed. (As a reminder, Sunday is also Father's Day. [Note to self: remember to call Dad before the show.])

As if I need to tell you, Steppenwolf-born August: Osage County has several Chicagoans in pole position to pick up awards (quick, read this very entertaining Backstage.com roundtable with August's cast that I've been meaning to link to all week), and two other Steppenwolf ensemble members are nominated for separate shows. And then there's the pre-announced regional theater Tony going to Chicago Shakespeare Theater.

Riffing on something Kerry Reid said to me tonight, I'm proposing a contest in the comments. Chris Jones will be live-blogging the Tonys from backstage in New York, and Kerry will be covering Steppenwolf's private viewing party for the Reader's new performing arts blog, but I'll be watching the show from my usual vantage point: In front of the TV at my buddy Jeremy's house party, drink in hand, just like the rest of you.

The challenge is this: The 2008 Tonys Drinking Game. Post your proposed rule in the comments (which must be timestamped before the show's 7pm Central start time). Example: "If the roof of the Red Lion Pub is mentioned, everyone downs a Boddington's."

Once my hangover subsides sometime Monday or possibly Tuesday, I might pick winners. There may even be prizes. I'm posting this late on Friday night, and traffic around here tends to plummet over the weekend (you day-jobbers, you), so we'll see how many entries we get. Hit it.

Some less than fully formed thoughts on the Jeffs and the Tonys

On Friday night, I caught up with Brett Neveu's Gas for Less, which opened on the Goodman's second stage (the Owen) last weekend.

I spent much of the rest of this weekend talking with some New York theater folks about, inevitably, next week's Tony Awards (one of my weekend pals is a Tony voter).

I'm struck, all of a sudden, by the slight parallels between Gas for Less and In the Heights, the Broadway show that racked up the most Tony nominations this year.

More on the Tony nominations

With all the attention that must be paid, from our vantage point, to the numerous Tony nods for August: Osage County and other Steppenwolf ensemble members plus the regional Tony for Chicago Shakes, not to mention my entire office's frothing obsession with the pressing matter of the Chicago promoters' ordinance—and again, major props are due to Scott Smith and John Dugan for their tireless efforts to draw attention to it on TOC's blog, which included contributions from many other staffers (keep up with their coverage at this link)—I didn't have time Tuesday to really process the rest of the nominations.

Time Out New York's David Cote lays out some of the egregiously overlooked in this post on the TONY blog. The exclusions of Elizabeth Marvel and the smokin'-hot Cheyenne Jackson are unfortunate, though all of the nominees in their categories seem deserving, and the complete shutout of the Cat on a Hot Tin Roof revival is odd. And I'll toss out a few thoughts of my own:

The Little Mermaid as a nominee for Best Score: I know Alan Menken and Glenn Slater wrote some new songs for the stage version, but isn't the bulk of this score the one that Menken and the late Howard Ashman wrote 20 years ago?

Was it really so important to have four nominees in Best Revival of a Musical that the reviled, reality-TV Grease had to be included? (I read somewhere in the past few days that these were the only four musical revivals on Broadway this year, and it's Grease's only nomination, so it does seem like a by-default inclusion. I'd rather have just had three nominees.)

There are two women nominated for Best Direction of a Play (including our own Anna Shapiro), which I think might be a first. (Neither the Tony Awards site or IBDB are built for that kind of search, so correct me if I'm wrong.) I'm also pretty sure that Garry Hynes (Beauty Queen of Leenane) and Mary Zimmerman (Metamorphoses) are the only women to have won this category.

Check out the age range in the Best Direction of a Musical category: Arthur Laurents, 89, for Gypsy, is up against Thomas Kail for In the Heights, who's something like 26. Sam Buntrock (Sunday in the Park with George) is 32, and Bart Sher (South Pacific) is…somewhere in the middle.

As for Chicago Shakespeare Theater's regional award, I think it's for the most part well-deserved. Their World's Stage series alone is worth rewarding—this season, I've seen terrific work by James Thierée, Peter Brook and the Shaw Festival thanks to the efforts of Barbara Gaines and Criss Henderson. And they produce some great stuff on their own (see my current review of The Comedy of Errors). But I happened to meet CST's casting director Bob Mason at last week's Comedy opening, and I'll take this opportunity for a plea to Bob, Barbara and Criss:

Stop doing so much casting out of New York, Toronto and elsewhere. We have plenty of great actors here who deserve work. Save the importing for the World's Stage, and cast your own productions in Chicago. Please?

Thanks,
Kris

Roundup: Tony noms, promoters ordinance, Gift

Congrats to Steppenwolf and Chicago Shakespeare on today's Tony news—two Steppenwolf castmates competing against one another in the Best Actress–Play category, three ensemble members up against each other for Featured Actress. As dilemmas go, that's a good one to have. And Chicago Shakes's regional Tony marks Chicago's fourth. Not bad. Christopher had our reaction on the TOC blog this morning.

The big news—and bad news—closer to home is the proposed Chicago promoters' ordinance. We've been covering the hell out of it on the TOC blog (props to Scott Smith and John Dugan for their tenacious work). Yesterday I spoke to Ben Thiem at the League of Chicago Theatres about whether theater could be affected by this moronically vague ordinance if passed, and he told me that Julie Burros at the city's Department of Cultural Affairs, who is also a League board member, had assured them that it wouldn't, as non-profits are exempt. But Don says he was told by someone at Alderman Schulter's office (Schulter is chair of the licensing committee) that storefront theater would fall under the ordinance. This just further proves that no one understands what this ordinance will really do, nor why the mayor's office is attempting to push it through without enough examination.

We've just heard (at 1pm) that the ordinance has been tabled for now, thanks to response from the community. Good job. We need to keep a watchful eye on this going forward.

Finally, the Gift and Victory Gardens are teaming up to transfer the Gift's production of The Last Days of Judas Iscariot to the Greenhouse. I have more on that at TOC.

Another post sponsored by New York

The Tony Award nominations are announced tomorrow morning, and this year we have a few friends in the running. Perhaps you've heard of this little show called August: Osage County? And Steppenwolf ensemble members are eligible in several other high-profile shows—Laurie Metcalf in November, Martha Plimpton in both Top Girls and Cymbeline and Kevin Anderson in Come Back, Little Sheba.

Word on the street is there will be a Tony announcement in the morning that will, quote, "take Chicagoans by surprise." Since Chicagoans are pretty well prepared for all of the above possibilities, I can only imagine what might surprise us. A fourth local recipient of the Regional Theatre Tony, to join Goodman, Steppenwolf and Victory Gardens? Or, given the mighty presence noted above, some kind of special citation for Steppenwolf?

It's been a pretty darn good season for Chicago theater in New York, overall. Both August and Next's Adding Machine have continued to clean up in awards announced in the past week (including the Lortels, Outer Critics Circle and New York Drama Critics Circle), and last fall's GoChicago! mini-fest at 59E59 featured Steppenwolf, Writers' Theatre and the Hypocrites in pretty well-received runs. Of course New York audiences and critics aren't the reason this work came into being, but we won't kick 'em out of bed for eating crackers, either.

Speaking of things from New York on the street, I spotted David Stone, producer of Wicked, walking down the street in Lakeview this evening. Do with that what you will.

Congrats, Tracy

What Christopher said. Good news, and much deserved.

Professional behavior

Friday on the TOC Blog, Christopher posted about some changes being planned by the Jeff committee—most notably, to us, the retirement of the "Citations." The year's two award ceremonies will now be known as the Equity Jeff Awards and the Non-Equity Jeff Awards.

We thought this was a great move, but the first comment we got on the post was a hysterical accusation that the Jeff committee was "disrespecting" the "professional" theater companies by giving non-Equity awards with the same name. "There is nothing you can write that will convince me The Goodman Theatre efforts should be considered in the same playing field as (ex) Lifeline," the commenter wrote, and furthermore, "They should have done the exact opposite-more to separate the professional and non-professional theatres in this city."

While we've discussed this here before, it seems to bear revisiting. There's clearly a contingent out there that fervently believes all non-Equity theater companies might as well be community theater, as these same folks often fan the flames of this argument in the comments at The Theater Loop as well. I can't for the life of me figure out who these people are. I have a hard time believing they're theater artists. In some other city, maybe (and when non-Equity tours of Broadway musicals come through town charging Equity-tour prices [*cough*Rent*cough*], I hope Equity pickets those shows). But as far as our homegrown theater, Chicago is different. Equity even acknowledges that by the existence of Chicago Area Theatre contracts.

As I mentioned in the comments at TOC, the "brand audit" on which basis the Jeffs are making these changes was based on interviews with managing and artistic directors at theaters both Equity and non. In other words, this is based on what the theaters indicated they thought should happen.

And as I also said there, I have to believe that the people getting so hung up on "professional" and "non-professional" have a limited understanding of the way theater actually works in Chicago. The Equity and non-Equity designations are only an indication of the theater's status with the actors' union. Let's not forget that there are directors and designers in the mix as well. Take Dolly West's Kitchen at TimeLine, since I was at that premiere last night. The cast is all non-Equity, and the show will go in the Non-Equity wing of the Jeffs, but the production staff includes director Kimberly Senior, scenic designer Brian Bembridge, costume designer Christine Conley, lighting designer Charles Cooper, and sound designer Tamara Roberts, all of whom work regularly on both sides of the Equity divide. (Consider also that PJ Powers told Nina Metz in the Trib two years ago that TimeLine's budget had reached half a million dollars. Does that sound like community theater?)

Then there's the range of CAT contracts. Many companies that are in the Equity wing of the Jeffs (and that our commenter would presumably consider "professional") run under contracts like the CAT-N, and can have casts with the likes of one Equity actor to 15 non-Equity (to name one show I saw not too long ago). That's why non-Equity performers often get nominated for Equity Jeff Awards already, as with Sara Sevigny's win at last fall's ceremony for Porchlight's Assassins.

And of course don't forget that big theaters like the Goodman and Steppenwolf provide day jobs for untold numbers of young artists who are running their own non-Equity companies by night. It's not simply a dichotomy of "professional" and "non-professional" in Chicago; happily, there's so much more interplay among all the levels than folks like our commenter seem to realize.

So you see why I find it hard to imagine our artists having this vitriolic attitude towards non-Equity companies. Which leads back to the question: Who are these misguided people zealously defending the Goodman's honor? Where are they getting their ideas, and who's encouraging them to think this way?

Also of note this week: My story from Wednesday's issue on PJ Paparelli's bold plans for American Theater Company was enhanced by Friday's announcement of ATC's next season. "Bold plans" starts to look like an understatement.

Thank goodness they finally got some recognition

The League of Chicago Theatres, the marketing arm of Broadway in Chicago—oh, wait, is that not right?—well, regardless, the League has apparently established a new little scholarship fund for up-and-coming theater companies called the (ahem) Broadway in Chicago Emerging Theater Award. The inaugural award will be presented May 21 at the League's gala fundraiser shindig at Broadway in Chicago's Auditorium Theatre, featuring performances from Broadway in Chicago's Wicked and The Color Purple and the presentation of the Leadership Award to, um, Broadway in Chicago.

The award comes with a $5000 grant and "marketing support," and the winner was announced today: it's The House.

Now look, I'm as big a fan of The House as anyone else, if not bigger. But The House is the last small theater company in Chicago to need any marketing help. In fact, I'd venture to say they won this award precisely because they're so marketing savvy. According to the press release eight finalists were selected by a nominating committee, and the winner was chosen by a vote of the League's membership. The House has had more lavish press in the last five years (some of it written by me) than any other young company, and they certainly know how to market themselves. I'd guess The House has ten times the name recognition, especially among the big guns in the League, than any other company on that finalists list.

I'm not arguing that The House isn't deserving of the award—far from it—but I do wonder if there were other companies on the list more in need of it. Anyone care to share the rest of the list?

(Back to the Broadway in Chicago League gala, it's fair to say that at $300 a ticket the invited winners from The House will be the only emerging theater artists in attendance.)

UPDATE: The finalist list is in the comments, thanks to Rebecca Zellar of GreyZelda. Also, great minds think alike, as my editor Christopher Piatt says basically this same thing on TOC's blog. He makes one especially good point about The House (who, again, we both love): "Once you’ve received two reviews in The New York Times, you’ve 'emerged' by just about any standard. (Just ask the many Off-Off-Broadway companies who’ve never been reviewed by their own city’s paper of record.)"