D. Marie Key Words: Theater’s Silicon Valley? Third-coast Chicago ranks first for new plays
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This year more than ever, theater risk-takers flock to Chicago. The city previously premiered “Kinky Boots” and other big productions.
Between now and the end of the year more than 30 plays will make their world premiere in Chicago, which makes 2016 particularly robust for a city that’s never taken its theater scene lightly but is increasingly taking risks with material the coasts won’t touch.
All of Chicago’s Tony-winning theaters—Steppenwolf, Goodman, Victory Gardens and Chicago Shakespeare—have at least one world premiere on their fall schedules, Crain’s Chicago Business reports. Plenty of smaller theaters are packing in the audiences, too — all hoping they’re staging the next “August: Osage County.”
The homegrown theater scene is competing with the toughest ticket in town right now, the Chicago run of Tony-winning musical “Hamilton,” which opened in late September after dominating Broadway in New York since 2015. Chicago has had its share of high-profile and high-profit musical debuts over the years, too, when you consider this list: “The Producers,” “Spamalot,” “Kinky Boots,” “The Addams Family” and “Aida.” But, sure, they’re no Hamilton.
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So what gives? Crain’s asked several playwrights, directors and critics: Chicago audiences are more welcoming, the theater industry is less risk-averse, its arts patrons generous, critics are less powerful and the talent bench is deep.
An up to 20% tax credit for select Broadway-bound productions that launch in Illinois doesn’t hurt, either, nor does stuck-in-the-middle geography as it turns out.
“Chicago is like the Goldilocks locale. L.A. is too far from New York; Boston is too close. We’re just right,” Broadway in Chicago President Louis Raizin told Crain’s, describing Chicago as an incubator for playwrights and a city that’s happy to be the test audience.
I’ve heard Chicago referred to as the Silicon Valley of new plays.
Among the larger launches this season was Pulitzer Prize-winning and “Mr. Robot”-starring Michael Cristofer’s gritty boxing-and-dementia offering, “Man in the Ring.”
Cristofer told Crain’s: “In New York, everybody — even the not-for-profits — has to produce shows that make money. When money is always forefront, there’s not a lot of room for risk or real experimentation.”
Published at Sat, 15 Oct 2016 00:32:15 +0000
