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THEATER ROUNDUP STEVEN OXMAN
Original Plays Promise
to ‘Charm’ Chicago Auds
Every year, Chicago theater
heats up as the weather
begins to cool, but this
autumn has quickly turned
especially hot with high -
quality work, most all of it original. The
likes of David Rabe, Mary Zimmerman
and Broadway producer Kevin McCollum
are all involved in the robust crop, and
notably, the most significant work is
emerging from the theaters’ second, and
even third, spaces.
Take, for instance, Chicago
Shakespeare, where five flights up
from its sold-out, illusion-infused “The
Tempest,” co-directed by magician Teller,
the company’s second stage hosts a little
musical called “Ride the Cyclone” that
seems likely to make a major impact.
The show, by writer-composers Jacob
Richmond and Brooke Maxwell, has
producer McCollum already attached,
and it surprises with just how unusual,
and unusually good, it is. Six teenagers
die in a freak roller -coaster accident
and now exist in a sort of purgatory; by
the end, one will be given the chance
to return to the living. The exquisite
score ranges wildly, from a high-energy
pop dance number that recalls Michael
GENDER BLENDER
Dexter Zollicoffer,
center, teaches
an etiquette
class in Philip
Dawkins’ play
“Charm.”
Notably, the
most significant
new work in
Chicago is
emerging from
the theaters’
second, and even
third, spaces.
Jackson to a Marlene Dietrich-ish cabaret
piece. Despite the familiar types the
teens represent, the writers and Chicago
director Rachel Rockwell ensure that each
character has an opportunity to develop
into someone rich and real.
Meanwhile, at the venerable
Steppenwolf’s black-box Garage space, is
the single biggest surprise of the season,
the phenomenal new play “Charm” from
Northlight Theater. Inspired by a true
story, the work, by prolific Chicago writer
Philip Dawkins, is about a 61-year-old
transgender African-American woman
who starts an etiquette class for a
varied and troubled collection of teens
(and adults) at the city’s support center
for LGBT youth. Dexter Zollicoffer, as
the teacher Miss Darleena, delivers a
complex portrait of someone committed
to helping her community. Dawkins
shows just how fluid “gender” can be as
stereotypes, which impact the characters
as much as they inform our initial
impressions, peel away.
Other new works include Zimmerman’s
adaptation of “Treasure Island” at
Lookingglass Theater — which tells the
pirate tale intelligently but doesn’t yet
surprise us with Zimmerman’s usual
imagination — and the recently closed
“Feathers and Teeth,” a horror comedy by
Charise Castro Smith, which is smart, well
constructed and entertaining, but could
use just a few more genuine thrills.
But it’s the Gift Theater that has
what must be considered the coup of the
season: snagging the rights to produce a
world premiere by 75-year-old Rabe. And
if anyone is worried the playwright might
be rusty, such concerns dissipate quickly
in “Good for Otto.” Focusing on a mental
health clinic where two noble, overworked
therapists seek to assist a range of
troubled characters, the play is long, dark
and deep, but also thoroughly compelling
and beautifully performed. With a cast
of 15 in a theater seating about 50, it
feels like a true old-school, quintessential
Chicago theatrical experience.
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118 Final Cut