It’s all about the “duelling” Our Towns this week in Chicago theater news. The much-acclaimed, and very much sold-out, Hypocrites production, directed by, and starring, the current darling of New York’s theaterati, David Cromer, is closing as scheduled this Sunday, June 8, but will be re-mounted for six weeks in the fall, still at the Chopin Theater, and still (sigh of relief!) with Obie and Lucille Lortel-winner Cromer as the Stage Manager. I was blown-away and mashed to a pulp by the production, which I raved about here- it’s on my top three cultural experiences of 2008, so far. Right on the heels of that announcement, Lookingglass Theatre, which had previously announced a production of Our Town for its 2008-2009 season, to be co-directed by August: Osage County’s Anna Shapiro (a sure bet to win the Tony Award next week for Best Director of a Play) and Jessica Thebus, confirms the cast for their production, scheduled to begin in February 2009, which includes ensemble members Joey Slotnick as the Stage Manager, and the most famous Lookingglass alumni of them all, David Schwimmer, as George. For grins, check out this heated January discussion on Chris Jones’s blog about David Schwimmer’s thespic talents being put to use (for good or for ill depending on who’s point of view it is) in Our Town, in which Mr. Schwimmer ultimately jumped into. I am a very avid fan of Anna Shapiro, and admire Jessica Thebus a lot (her production of When the Messenger was Hot was one of my genuinely heart-warming nights at the theater last year), but I am really hard-pressed to conjecture how their Our Town can surpass the gravity-stopping and emotionally-wrenching brilliance of Cromer’s production for the Hypocrites. The Lookingglass Our Town will be going against such a high standard of artistic excellence, and I certainly am crossing my fingers that it can at least approximate it, not necessarily surpass it. And for the record, for those who have never seen David Schwimmer onstage and only know of his work as Ross in Friends, I think you all just have to bite your tongue black and blue, since I do think he is a superb stage actor which he ably demonstrated in Lookingglass’s The Idiot (which I saw probably around a hundred years ago).
Jun 06
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