Our list of shows we’d like to see in Chicago comes primarily from two sources (reflected in the sections on this page): staged readings (of plays either still in development or already in final form) and plays we’ve seen produced elsewhere.
(in alphabetical order within section)
Readings
Forbidden Best Sellers of Pre-Revolutionary France by David Isaacson: The 2013 Theater Oobleck reading of this new play (inspired by the Robert Darnton book of the same title) was a tour de force combination of erudite scholarship and laugh-out-loud hilarity.
A Great Migration by Preston Choi, presented by Silk Road Rising and A-Squared Theatre: The 2018 reading of this fascinating play, directed by Brian Balcom, was only its second developmental reading, but it seemed much more polished than that. The play paints a multi-dimensional portrait of a single-parent, mixed-race family, with beautifully delineated characters, nuanced relationships, and a liberal dose of humor.
Leopoldstadt by Tom Stoppard: In 2020 when the pandemic sidelined live theatre productions, Court Theatre treated their audience to an online deep dive into Tom Stoppard’s new play Leopoldstadt, just weeks after its London premiere and two years before its Broadway opening. Following multiple sessions with University of Chicago scholars illuminating the world of Leopoldstadt, Court Theatre pulled off a magnificently moving Zoom-based reading of the play—a seemingly impossible feat considering the cast size and complexity of the work, which spans 1899 to 1955. (The abstracts of the deep-dive sessions and the cast list for the reading are available online.) Needless to say, we eagerly await a Chicago production of Leopoldstadt!
Les Blancs by Lorraine Hansberry: The 2018 Goodman Theatre staged reading of Lorraine Hansberry’s last play (completed by her ex-husband and literary executor Robert Nemiroff) was directed by Lili-Anne Brown. The play, considered by Hansberry to be her most important work, is a treatise on race, colonialism, and culture clashes.
Mill Girls with book by Samantha Beach and music/lyrics by Diana Lawrence, conceived and directed by Jess McLeod: The developmental reading we saw at American Theatre Company in 2017 covered only Act 1, but we were nonetheless captivated by the story of young women working in a Massachusetts textile mill in the 1840s and finding their voices and mutual advocacy.
The Outsider by Paul Slade Smith: Route 66 Theatre Company’s 2015 reading of this over-the-top political satire was one of the funniest, most entertaining evenings of theatre we’ve ever experienced. Needless to say, a full production would be a huge treat.
Syndrome by David Isaacson: The 2023 Theater Oobleck reading of Syndrome had us from the opening sound cue. The play takes place in 2018, when real life and theatre-of-the-absurd were increasingly hard to differentiate. Against a backdrop of international economic diplomacy and the mysterious illness known as Havana Syndrome, flawed but fascinating characters made us think deeply and laugh heartily, non-stop.
Productions we originally saw elsewhere
The Adventures of the Black Girl in Her Search for God by Lisa Codrington: The 2016 Shaw Festival’s premiere production of this one-act play, directed by Ravi Jain, was our favorite show of the entire festival. Their online notes about the play summarized it as follows: “A comic look at all of the things you were told never to talk about in polite conversation—the Bible, God, racism, slavery, colonialism, colonization, assimilation, feminism, voice appropriation—and all in under an hour.” Both hilarious and thought-provoking, this roller-coaster ride is playwright Lisa Codrington’s adaptation/reimagining of George Bernard Shaw’s 1932 novella of the same title.
Amelia by Alex Webb: We saw this two-hander at Renaissance Theaterworks in Milwaukee in 2014, directed by Laura Gordon. This tale of a Civil War-era woman who sets out to find her missing soldier husband was inspired by something the playwright read in a Civil War diary 20 years before tackling this play. (The details of that discovery are described in a fascinating article published at the time of the play’s 2012 world premiere.) One actor plays Amelia, the wife, and the other actor plays her husband, both her parents, and all the people she encounters in her search for her husband.
Helen’s Necklace by Carole Fréchette, translated by John Murrell: This is another of the many fascinating plays we’ve seen at the Shaw Festival in Canada. The seemingly small story (about a Canadian woman who has lost her necklace in a war-torn Middle Eastern city) transforms a search for the necklace into a series of important revelations about loss, coping, and other weighty issues. This two-actor play requires a level of intimacy that would be right at home in a Chicago storefront theatre.
The Magic Fire by Lillian Groag: Yet another captivating play we saw at the Shaw Festival, this 2006 production (directed by Jackie Maxwell) totally transported us to Buenos Aires in the 1950s, as if we lived with the play’s family of Italian immigrants at the time of the death of Eva Peron. The characters are unforgettable and the stakes are high. Although tackling this three-hour show with a large cast (but a single set) would be no small task, we would love to see a production in Chicago, where the typical intensity of the acting and directing would be a good match for this epic story.
My Antonia, Jarrett Dapier’s adaptation of the Willa Cather novel: We saw the inaugural production of this play in 2011 at the Station Theatre in Urbana, IL, directed by Gary Ambler and Joi Hoffsommer, and found it profound and moving. The imaginative staging (including crates reconfigured to depict a humble abode or a remote spot on the Nebraska prairie) was the perfect setting for the sweeping story of pioneers and emigrants in the late 19th century, told through poetically drawn characters and touching relationships. The show that we’ve seen in Chicago that was most reminiscent of My Antonia was the 2014 production of Plainsong by Signal Theatre, a similarly poignant story of both individuals and community, with sparse staging and first-rate ensemble acting and direction.
… Oppenheimer …: The artistic triumph of Christopher Nolan’s film Oppenheimer has left us eager for more. The stage plays The Love Song of J. Robert Oppenheimer by Carson Kreitzer and In the Matter of J. Robert Oppenheimer by Heinar Kipphardt were last produced in the Chicago area in 2005 (by Next Theatre in Evanston, with David Cromer in the title role) and 2014 (by Saint Sebastian Players, with Gary Barth in the title role), respectively. We missed the former and saw the latter, but we would welcome another opportunity to see both of them.
Plays we’ve yet to see
The Coast of Utopia by Tom Stoppard: This trilogy is a huge undertaking for a theatre company, but we have our fingers crossed for a Chicago production.
