SEEING A PLAY in Chicago can be easier and cheaper than going to the movies. Most theaters offer student rates, low-price or free previews and industry nights, and/or discounted rush tickets. Weeknights are usually cheaper than weekends (and seats are easier to get). Some theaters have a regular “pay what you can” policy; others offer free seats to volunteer ushers. Even high-priced commercial shows like Wicked and The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee have day-of-show lotteries for bargain seats. And the League of Chicago Theatres’ Hot Tix booths sell half-price tickets; go to chicagoreader.com or hottix.org for booth locations and available shows.
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The Reader publishes longer reviews as well as comprehensive theater listings, complete with critical commentary. They’re posted online at chicagoreader.com with links to ticket services for individual shows. The listings also highlight openings, closings, recommended productions, and free shows. You don’t have to plan months in advance to enjoy our internationally famous theater scene. For every big-bucks commercial production that comes to town, there are a dozen low-cost alternatives—classic drama and cutting-edge world premieres, musicals and performance art, large-cast ensemble pieces and hip-hop solo shows. The storefront/basement/loft/garage theaters are known as a breeding ground for emerging talent. This is the place to see people at the start of their careers, people who wouldn’t mind being John Malkovich—or David Schwimmer, or John or Joan Cusack, or Megan Mullally, or Joan Allen, or any of the other stars who got their start here.
Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind, the Neo-Futurists’ long-running late-night underground hit, features “30 plays in 60 minutes,” with a different lineup of new material each week, at the Neo-Futurarium (5153 N. Ashland, 773- 275-5255). Admission price is $7 plus the roll of a die.
The Plasticene physical-theater ensemble’s One False Note, or How to Rob a Bank, playing October 19 through November 5 at the Storefront Theater (66 E. Randolph, 312-742-8497), employs “the body in action, objects in motion, light as revelation, and sound as sensation” to explore the question of whether or not crime pays.
Marquee Names
SEAN GRANEY The artistic director of the Hypocrites ensemble has stirred fierce controversy with his handling of sexually charged material; his first show this season is a December revival of Tennessee Williams’s steamy Cat on a Hot Tin Roof at the Building Stage.
TRACY LETTS Equally accomplished as actor and writer, he’s featured at Steppenwolf this season in Martin McDonagh’s dark comedy The Pillowman and Harold Pinter’s marital drama Betrayal, and Steppenwolf is premiering his new play August: Osage County next spring. William Friedkin’s much anticipated screen adaptation of his hit Bug opens nationwide this December.
BRETT NEVEU has been favorably compared to Mamet, Pinter, and Albee. This season he has two world premieres: The Meek, at A Red Orchid Theatre (where he’s an ensemble member), and Harmless, at TimeLine Theatre.
MARY ZIMMERMAN The Tony-winning director and Galati protege brings the myth of Jason and the Golden Fleece to life in her rendition of Apollonius’s Argonautika at Lookingglass Theatre in October; she remounts her version of the 12th-century Persian epic The Mirror of the Invisible World at the Goodman next summer. | AW
