Chicago Tribune September 17, 2006
FALL ARTS PREVIEW '06 PLANNER
Our Writers Pick The Season's Best Bets
CHRIS JONES anticipates a bonanza of well-balanced fare featuring the Bard, a pre-Broadway tryout and can't-miss works. Chris Jones Published September 17, 2006 Every fall in Chicago means a theatrical explosion, so this year's prodigious slate of shows is hardly unusual. But this crop of openings not only seems uncommonly well-balanced -- a feast of non-profit Shakespearean tragedy followed by a pre-Broadway tryout of a colossal musical -- but unusually rich in must-see events.
Programming bespeaks Chicago's creative imagination -- the House Theatre recalls the iconic feud of the Hatfields and McCoys, and Mary Zimmerman takes on Jason and the Argonauts -- but also our love of the classic American theatrical text. In a matter of weeks, one can re-experience significant revivals of "Come Back Little Sheba," "Another Part of the Forest" and "The Dark at the Top of the Stairs." No other American city could make such a claim.
And because no year in Chicago theater feels right without another new theater to celebrate, the coming weeks also will see the rebirth of the historic Biograph Theater as a home for new plays, freshly baked in Chicago. Even John Dillinger surely would have approved.
On the strict understanding that the sins of omission are great, here are 10 exciting major shows for your further consideration:
"DANDELION WINE" After a long hiatus since their debut with "Frog and Toad," Chicago Children's Theatre opens its crucially important first full season with Ray Bradbury's autobiographical evocation of the sounds and smells of a Midwestern childhood. Director Eric Rosen -- long a careful observer of the local flora and fauna -- is in charge of the eager young minds expected in the audience. Nov. 10-Dec. 31 at the Steppenwolf Upstairs Theatre, 1650 N. Halsted St. 312-335-1650.
© 2006 Chicago Tribune