With the Lookingglass Theatre musing on Nelson Algren, and Famous Door’s “Early and Often” skewering the glory days of the Cook County Democratic Party, Chicago theater suddenly seems obsessed with local history.
Add to those TimeLine Theatre’s “Streeterville” (which opened last night), and it’s now possible to make an entire weekend out of shows that have a palpable and pleasurable connection to city lore.
“Streeterville,” the latest project of the recently resurgent TimeLine, purports to tell the tale of George W. “Cap” Streeter, the rascally 19th Century fellow for whom the Near North district that contains some of Chicago’s ritziest real estate is named.
In 1886, Streeter’s steamboat became mired in a sandbar just off the shore of Lake Michigan, at what is now the northeast corner of Superior Street and Fairbanks Court. No shrinking violet, Streeter declared the sandbar to be part of the “Free District of Lake Michigan” and named himself as governor — basing his claim on an 1820s map that showed Michigan Avenue as the eastern boundary of Chicago and Cook County. By 1899, enough dry land had emerged around Streeter’s sandbar to support establishments devoted to gambling, drinking and other forms of amusement. But the idea of such activities on their doorsteps did not go down well with the tony residents living just west of Michigan Avenue, and they fought this one-time salesman, criminal and owner of a traveling circus.
“Cap took them all on,” says the play’s author, G. Riley Mills, “and the rich people eventually had to get together with their alderman and hire a gunslinger to get rid of him.”
So why should we care about ancient battles over land?
“Cap was a dreamer and populist crusader who wanted to create a land out there for the people who don’t have anything,” says Mills. “It’s all the same stuff that people in Chicago argue about today — real-estate prices and issues of power and gentrification.
Things, though, did not fall Cap’s way. “He ended up,” says Mills, “a desolate man selling hot dogs on Navy Pier.”
TimeLine has been faring rather better than the subject of its latest play did.Its production of “Not About Nightingales” last fall was its most successful to date and greatly raised the group’s profile. “We were making more money in a single weekend,” says artistic director P.J. Powers, “than we were making three years ago during an entire season.”
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If you happen to find yourself wandering down Southport Avenue this summer, it’s entirely possible that you will run into Barry Manilow.
Details are still sketchy and there has been no official announcement yet; still, serious conversations apparently have taken place between representatives of the perennially popular singer and Chicago’s Mercury Theatre about Manilow coming to the North Side as an off-Loop stage director, in some form or another.
The immensely popular recording artist wants to create an intimate revue-style show that would be made up of songs from his own extensive backlist. As things are currently envisaged, Manilow would not perform himself but would oversee, conceive and (here’s the big news) personally work on the piece here. The long-range plan is a national tour in big theaters, of course, but the smaller confines of the Mercury apparently appealed to Manilow as a place where he could work out all the kinks in relative peace.
This revue idea has worked well with shows like “Mamma Mia,” which arrives here this spring and is built around the hits of Abba, the European group whose era of dominance roughly coincided with Manilow’s peak years. And while the new Manilow project will probably not feature a full-blown book in the fashion of the bigger Abba project, shows like “Smokey Joe’s Cafe” have not found that an impediment in the past.
Manilow’s show, says someone familiar with the project, will have a loose, rhythm-and-blues flavor and feature a diverse cast and a more offbeat ambience than some might readily associate with Manilow. Still, given the local legions of his fans, the singer’s personal involvement will surely be enough for tickets to fly out the door.
But don’t call the box office yet; we wouldn’t want to scare Barry away.
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After some three weeks of previews, “The Producers” finally shows its collective face in front of critics this weekend (Richard Christiansen’s Tribune review is scheduled to appear on Monday). At press time, it was still unclear as to whether Ron Orbach, who missed a lot of preview performances due to an injury, will have recuperated in time for the opening-night performance on Sunday night.
Neither the reviews nor the casting will have much financial impact on the local run; by the time it closes, the show will have grossed almost $4 million in Chicago. Because the New York schedule is already set, though, the show will not be extended here. That’s a pity, because you would have to go back a lot of years to find another show that has generated as much business and excitement.
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Center Theater Ensemble is closing its doors for good on March 1, after 17 years of existence. Although the troupe, which was founded by Dan La Morte, has a storied history that includes numerous awards and the presentation of several premieres by Beth Henley, its storefront space at 1346 W. Devon Ave. has been quiet for the last couple of seasons, aside from classes and a few rentals.The troupe, it seems, was never able to regroup after La Morte’s departure a couple of years ago. According to board president Charlie Frankel, the current combination of limited artistic activity and rising overhead have made the theater no longer viable.
