Both Chris Jones and TimeOut Chicago’s Christopher Piatt address the issue head-on at the beginning of their highly favorable reviews for Tracy Letts’s new play Superior Donuts, just opened at the Steppenwolf Downstairs Theatre: this is not August: Osage County/a great modern American play redux, so let’s just chill out and move on. And I think that is the savvy, responsible, truthful, and mature thing to do, just to neutralize the unrealistic and, frankly, unfair expectations all of us-critics, audience members, theatrical pundits alike- had for this play given the stature of its predecessor in the contemporary American theatrical canon. Superior Donuts, is not, cannot be, August: Osage County (and this is the last time I am going to conjure up the specter of that masterpiece), it is intimate, modest, heart-warming, focused, a gentle breeze on a hot summer afternoon. It is also one hell of a good, funny play taken on its own terms, and within its own low-flying ambitions.
Whew! It’s the last full week of June and the long fourth of July weekend will soon be upon us. Where was I during this month? Oh right, working on a couple of big deals, and shuttling between New York and Chicago (not to mention having to go out to Schaumburg for a couple of days and getting stuck in notorious, nefarious I-90 traffic). This month felt like I was on a bullet train to nowhere; which is not good for an arts and culture blogger. I can’t believe I haven’t been in a theater since June 1 when I was underwhelmed by Mary-Arrchie’s Beggars in the House of Plenty. Well, the deals have been put to bed and hopefully the next couple of weeks will be a little bit quieter, with more time and focus to savor Chicago’s thriving summer cultural life. Who wants to work like an ox plowing a muddy field during the heightened heat and humidity of July?
Wow, what a night. Everyone expected that Steppenwolf’s production of August: Osage County would win big at the Tony Awards last night, but to sweep five of the six categories it was up for is quite a big deal. I was at the Steppenwolf Tony viewing party in the downstairs theater last night, and the applause, yelling, hooting, and noise-making for every August win during the ceremony, projected on two large screens, was thunderous. Now, I know how my college sports fanatic friends feel when they’re sitting in their designated school bar during the NCAA championships games, because that’s exactly how I felt last night watching the Steppenwolf crew, Chicago artists all, take trophy after trophy - swoony, heady, feeling like I just got vacuum pumped with adrenaline. It was a glorious night for Chicago theater, and our folks gave the most sincere, most gracious, most elegant, most down-to-earth speeches of the night (unlike mega-diva Patti Lupone, winner of Best Actress in a Musical for the new Gypsy revival, who growled while the orchestra was trying to play off her extended, phoney, very arrogant-sounding acceptance speech, or Best Actor in a Play Mark Rylance who quoted a pretty long, obtuse passage from an obscure Minnesota writer instead of thanking anyone from Boeing Boeing, just to be different). Best Featured Actress in a Play winner, Rondi Reed, thanked her artistic families in her speech and dedicated her award to August playwright’s Tracy Letts’ recently passed father, Dennis Letts, who played the Weston patriarch both in Chicago and during its initial run on Broadway. Best Director Anna D. Shapiro brought goose-bumps and tears to many in the downstairs theater (especially me!) when she mentioned that her six nephews and nieces didn’t care about any of this, “they just wanted tickets to The Little Mermaid”. Best Actress in a Play, the magnificently unforgettable Deanna Dunagan, was so refreshingly honest and humble (again a contrast to her counterpart winner in the musical category, monster diva Patti) when she said “…none of us dreamed we would be (at the Tonys). I certainly didn’t. After 34 years in regional theater I never even thought about it. I watched it on TV like everybody else…” And of course the brilliant Mr. Letts, accepting the Best Play award (with the fabulous Steppenwolf Artistic Director Martha Lavey beaming by his side) concluded his speech with a huge thank you to the Chicago theater community “…who made this possible.” I was pretty bummed that we didn’t get to see the full acceptance speech that Barbara Gaines, Artistic Director of the Chicago Shakespeare Theatre gave for the Regional Tony Award, since the award wasn’t part of the telecast, but I think she summed it up beautifully for all of us who love this city, who scream our voices hoarse proclaiming the talent and artistry that this city overflows with, when she said that founding Chicago Shakespeare was a risk and that “…we only could have taken that risk in Chicago, a world class city, a place where the arts are cherished and where theater is celebrated with generosity and passion”. To anyone who says they’re flying to New York City to see a Broadway (or even off-Broadway show), I’d like to say to them, save the fare and spend it instead on seeing the plays at Steppenwolf, at Chicago Shakespeare, at the Goodman, the Hypocrites, Redmoon Theatre, Lookingglass, the Next Theater, and the other hundreds of theater companies in Chicago where real theater lives, breathes, and dynamically evolves. For a complete list of Tony Award winners, click here. Picture: Deanna Dunagan accepts her Tony, one of the most richly deserved in decades!
It’s been one of those busy weeks again (uhmmm, I haven’t worked this hard in months!). I am in New York City now for the rest of the week for a client presentation on one of the deals I have been working on. We were shortlisted, so that’s a good thing. Unfortunately, I didn’t score a ticket to attend the Tony Awards show on Sunday night, although I know some people from Chicago and elsewhere who will be attending the ceremonies in person to be part of August: Osage County’s and Chicago Shakespeare Theater’s cheering section. As I have mentioned previously, I will be joining many of Steppenwolf’s family of subscribers and supporters for a Viewing Party at the downstairs theater on Sunday. I am very excited and yes, proud, to be in Chicago, with Chicago theatergoers, in a communal setting to see the national theater community celebrate Chicago talent and artistry. It was the Chicago audience-literate, theatrically sophisticated, generous and supportive-that first embraced the masterwork that is August; who talked non-stop about it from the time they rushed out of the theater, reeling and giddy, after the first intermission; who told their friends; who flocked to the Steppenwolf last summer like groupies at Lollapalooza, realizing that this work was something special, something that would become a significant part of the American theater oeuvre. It has come full circle, for me then- I shared the amazingly unique experience of Augustlast July with a group of enthusiastic, astounded theatergoers, and I’ll be with a community of ardent fans again this Sunday to see the work honored with American theater’s top prize; it’s quite a journey and a privilege for me as an audience member. On June 17, the first performance after the Tony Awards, the new members of the Broadway cast will make their debut: Estelle Parsons takes over the monumental Deanna Dunagan as Violet, the matriatch; Steppenwolf ensemble members Molly Regan and Jim True-Frost replace their fellow ensemble members Rondi Reed and Ian Barford as the wacky aunt Mattie Fae and her browbeaten son, Little Charles; Robert Foxworth (who I can still vividly watching when I was a kid as the macho Chase Giobertti on Falcon Crest) steps in for ensemble member Francis Guinan (who’s returning to Chicago to star in the first play of the upcoming Steppenwolf season, an adaptation of Murukami’s Kafka on the Beach, which is one of the most haunting novels I have read) as Mattie Fae’s husband, Charlie; and Frank Wood, who won a Tony for Sideman, takes over from Steppenwolf co-founder Jeff Perry as son-in-law Bill. It’s an interesting switchover, but I am particularly intrigued as to how Estelle Parsons will come off as Violet. She’s a great actress, and is an Academy Award winner (as Gene Hackman’s paramour in Bonnie and Clyde), but Dunagan is just so indelible, so legendary, so much of a tsunami as Violet that I really can’t imagine anyone else doing the role. Latebreaking news: Chris Jones confirms that August will go on tour and come back to Chicago, sometime in 2010- get your tickets as soon as they’re available!
It has been that kind of a week. I am mentally and physically fried from having to work the weekend and really, really early mornings (4 am anyone?) as well as dealing with spring allergies and this crazy it’s summer-one-day, it’s-cold-and-rainy-the-next early June weather Chicago is having. So instead of writing on a focused topic, which I normally like doing, I’m just going to blog on a bunch of things. And, anyway, lots of bloggers blog on in this stream-of-consciousness manner all the time (and many of them are not even remotely close to William Faulkner’s talents…). I’ve also gone to a lot of things over the past weeks and months and have not had the catch up time necessary to write about them, and this is the time to do so.
It’s a wonderful 80 degree day in Chicago today, so welcome after the ridiculous non-spring of the past couple of weeks when rain and a cold front kept me and many other Chicagoans wondering whether the proverbial light of summer at the end of a lingering winter will ever come. It’s great to be out and about in the city today, but other than a couple of hours running around this afternoon, I’ve been at home, recovering, yes recovering, from the festivities last night at the Steppenwolf Theatre Auxiliary Council’s Red or White Ball (I guess my philosophy of age being just another number is demolished by the reality of a major hangover, achy feet and joints, and a hoarse voice brought about by a night of late-night carousing). The Ball is the major annual fund-raising event for the Auxiliary Council (of which I’m a Governor), and all proceeds go to Steppenwolf’s exemplary Steppenwolf for Young Adults program which brings high school students from the Chicago public school system to the theater to see adaptations of literary works on stage. The program also helps enrich the teaching toolkits of the drama and arts teachers of these students by providing immersion workshops for them to attend. It’s a really great program, which I am very proud to be supporting and to be associated with. The Steppenwolf for Young Adults 2008-2009 season consists of an all African-American production of Tennesee Williams’ The Glass Menagerie featuring ensemble member Alana Arenas, directed by ensemble member Yasen Peyankov, and John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men, directed by the actor Michael Patrick Thornton, who was terrific in last year’s Young Adults production of The Elephant Man. Some people I know are reluctant to come to the Young Adults productions because they think these plays are staged and performed with teenagers in mind (meaning adults might just be fidgeting and checking their watches every five minutes througout the performance), but I have to say both The Elephant Man and Harriet Jacobs which comprised the 2007-2008 season were as mature, involving, and impactful as the Main Stage productions. Come on- it’s Steppenwolf. And kids in this century are savvy enough to know when they’re in the midst of enthralling theater. On a personal note, I’d like to thank all my friends who came out last night to the Ball - I hope everyone had a great time, and a lot to drink (and needed less recovery time today than I did!)
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