Great news to start the month - most of the original Chicago/Broadway cast members of Steppenwolf Theater’s production of Tracy Letts’s monumental modern dramatic classic, August: Osage County will be reprising their roles in the National Theater production which will run in London from November 21, 2008-January 21, 2009. Tony winners Deanna Dunagan and Rondi Reed will be back, as well as Tony nominee Amy Morton (Bummer for us Chicago theater lovers that Amy has been away from our stages for so long, first on Broadway, and then now London, but it’s great for our community, and our global reputation, though. I guess she won’t be directing William Petersen anymore in Dublin Carol at the Steppenwolf, since that play is supposed to run during the Christmas holidays). I hope London’s a big enough city to contain the velocities created by having these three ladies on stage at the same time. Original Chicago cast members Ian Barford, Steppenwolf co-founder Jeff Perry, Sally Murphy, Mariann Mayberry, Kimberly Guerrero, and Troy West are all going to London, as are Broadway cast members Michael McGuire and Molly Ranson. Only Paul Vincent O’Connor is new to the London cast - he’ll be taking the role of Rondi Reed’s husband, Charlie, played magnificently in Chicago and New York by ensemble member Francis Guinan. It would have been great if Guinan went too but he’s in the first two plays of the Steppewolf season: Kafka on the Shore and The Seafarer, so we’ll have the pleasure of seeing him in town this year. The role of the sleazoid boyfriend “Steve”, played in Chicago by ensemble member Rick Snyder and in New York by Brian Kerwin, still has to be cast. The Broadway production is still in full swing, and so far, there’s been no news that it’s going to close any time soon, so later this year, there’ll be two productions of August running in two global theater capitals. We should continue to be proud of August’s success- but wouldn’t we be so much prouder, and happier, if there is also a hometown production running simultaneously? I’m still astounded by the number of people I meet who are kicking themselves for not seeing the original Chicago production. The 2009 national tour is not soon enough to have August back where it started, and if we can have sitdown productions of gulp, Wicked and Jersey Boys, why not a play that was nurtured, and originally championed and embraced in Chicago?
Sep 02
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