Chicago theater legend Robert Falls joins Steppenwolf for 50th anniversary season
The latest: Legendary Chicago director Bob Falls will make his Steppenwolf directorial debut with "Amadeus" this fall, after the theater announced former artistic director Anna Shapiro is stepping away due to health reasons.
Falls steered the Goodman Theatre for decades before stepping down in 2021.
What they're saying:"On behalf of Anna and the entire ensemble, we are moved and honored to finally welcome Robert Falls for his Steppenwolf directing debut," Steppenwolf artistic directors Glenn Davis and Audrey Francis said in a release.
"We know that our production is in the inventive and reliable hands of one of the all-time greats."
The intrigue: The theater also announced it is postponing the play "Topdog/Underdog" due to scheduling conflicts and replacing it with Conor McPherson's "The Dance of Death," starring Steppenwolf co-founder Jeff Perry.
Zoom in: The 50th anniversary season will feature actors like K. Todd Freeman, Gary Cole, Yasen Peyankov, Tim Hopper and Kathryn Erbe.
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Axios
18 hours ago
- Axios
Chicago theater legend Robert Falls joins Steppenwolf for 50th anniversary season
Chicago's renowned Steppenwolf Theatre Company is celebrating its 50th anniversary with a star-studded season this fall. The latest: Legendary Chicago director Bob Falls will make his Steppenwolf directorial debut with "Amadeus" this fall, after the theater announced former artistic director Anna Shapiro is stepping away due to health reasons. Falls steered the Goodman Theatre for decades before stepping down in 2021. What they're saying:"On behalf of Anna and the entire ensemble, we are moved and honored to finally welcome Robert Falls for his Steppenwolf directing debut," Steppenwolf artistic directors Glenn Davis and Audrey Francis said in a release. "We know that our production is in the inventive and reliable hands of one of the all-time greats." The intrigue: The theater also announced it is postponing the play "Topdog/Underdog" due to scheduling conflicts and replacing it with Conor McPherson's "The Dance of Death," starring Steppenwolf co-founder Jeff Perry. Zoom in: The 50th anniversary season will feature actors like K. Todd Freeman, Gary Cole, Yasen Peyankov, Tim Hopper and Kathryn Erbe.
Chicago Tribune
21 hours ago
- Chicago Tribune
Review: ‘The Color Purple' renews its Chicago welcome at the Goodman Theatre
Chicago loves Celie, Sofia and Shug Avery, and has embraced 'The Color Purple,' the 2005 Broadway musical based on both the beloved Alice Walker novel of strife, resilience and triumph in rural Georgia and the romantically hued Steven Spielberg movie for more than 20 years. So its warmly received return at the Goodman Theatre on Monday night felt very much like a well-fitting pair of Miss Celie's pants. The original Broadway production, directed by our own Gary Griffin and featuring our own Felicia P. Fields, opened its first national tour at the Cadillac Palace Theatre, staying for months in 2007; I remember watching Oprah Winfrey, a co-producer, go backstage in a heady era when the rise of Barack Obama was making Chicago feel like the epicenter of a hopeful world. The tour soon returned here, followed by a new tour of the 2015 Broadway revival, and then local stagings aplenty followed, at the Mercury Theater and the Drury Lane in Oakbrook Terrace, to name but two. I reviewed the pre-Broadway tryout of this show in Atlanta (where, improbably, it did not have an all-Black cast) and, all in all, I've seen the work of book writer Marsha Norman and songwriters Brenda Russell, Allee Willis and Stephen Bray at least a dozen times. The great Willis, who co-wrote both 'September' and 'Boogie Wonderland' for Earth, Wind & Fire, died in 2019, although the Goodman Theatre program seems to think she is still alive. Only through her music, alas. That 2019 Drury Lane production was directed by Lili-Anne Brown, who also staged this show at the MUNY in St. Louis in 2022 and who is in charge again this summer on Dearborn Street. The Goodman's production uses much the same group of talent from that 2019 Drury Lane staging, including set designer Arnel Sancianco, costume designer Samantha C. Jones, music director Jermaine Hill and choreographer Breon Arzell and also many of the actors, including (among others) Gilbert Domally (as Harpo), Sean Blake (Ol Mister) and Nicole Michelle Haskins, who appeared both in Oakbrook Terrace and now downtown as Sofia. No wonder Brown brought back Haskins; she's a consummate, powerhouse Sofia. The newcomers are mostly Chicago-based and Chicago-raised talent, including Brittney Mack ('Six') as Celie, the former Black Ensemble Theater star Aerie Williams, a fine vocalist, as the Shug whom everybody loves, and Evan Tyrone Martin, ranging far from his wheelhouse as Mister, the abusive husband who eventually embraces redemption. It's fair to say that the Goodman staging uses a similar aesthetic palette as the prior suburban production, a presentational, relatively minimalist staging that keeps houses and cars off stage, suggests rather than builds a juke joint and wisely avoids bucolic, Spielberg-esque vistas of purple flowers. This matches the trajectory, really, of this particular musical, a show that has some structural limitations and has come to be be seen as most effective in a minimalist, almost concert-style staging, even though it started out very differently. After all, this is a musical based on an epistolary novel, driven by letters sent between Celie, trapped in an early 20th century world of impoverished Black hurt and her beloved Nettie (Shantel Renee Cribbs), driven away from that world in order to survive. For all the similarities, though, this is a vastly improved staging, filled with stellar singing and a more robust confidence. Over time, Brown and Hill clearly have figured out to deepen the mostly pop melodies in this score, a catchy and accessible song suite, to fit their vision of a more soulful interpretation, closer to the Black church than Top 40. And, this time, they have the singers who can follow through with their ideas. Mack's intensely focused performance suggests she long has been waiting for this particular role. She sings it superbly, which is no surprise, but her work in Act 1 is most striking in how intensely she captures the capturing of a wonderful young woman by a pair of brutally abusive men, and how she manifests the physical trauma that evokes. It's a rich and empathetic performance and it is, of course, key to the success of the production. I have my quibbles. The musical and dramatic tempos in Act 2 drag some and I don't care for how Sofia gets blocked by Celie for most audience members in the crucial dinner-table scene where she literally comes back to life by what both Walker and Norman imply is by the grace of God. I felt that way in 2019 and that scene is staged much the same. (I also still miss the much larger original orchestrations, although 'The Color Purple' now is often and effectively staged with eight musicians, as is the case at the Goodman.) But the heart of the show beats here with intensity. Martin has probably the hardest job on the stage and he's surely more comfortable with where Mister goes than where he begins. But he and Brown also don't shy away from the pain behind his journey. Mack and Haskins operate with great gravitas and, just as importantly, Brown always includes the audience in the storytelling, more than I've seen before with this title. And at least on opening night, the response proved that is the way to go with this show. Review: 'The Color Purple' (3.5 stars) When: Through Aug. 3 Where: Goodman Theatre, 170 N. Dearborn St. Running time: 2 hours, 50 minutes Tickets: $33-$143 at 312-443-3800 and
Chicago Tribune
a day ago
- Chicago Tribune
Anna D. Shapiro is stepping away from Steppenwolf for health reasons
Steppenwolf Theatre Company said Monday that its former artistic director, Anna D. Shapiro, will no longer be directing 'Amadeus' in its upcoming season. She will be replaced by former Goodman Theatre artistic director Robert Falls, making his Steppenwolf directorial debut. A Steppenwolf spokesman said the Tony Award-winning Shapiro was stepping down from leading the planned November staging for health reasons and hopes to return to directing projects soon. Steppenwolf also said that it was postponing its previously announced production of 'Topdog/Underdog' due to artistic scheduling conflicts, and will instead stage Conor McPherson's 2012 adaptation of August Strindberg's 'The Dance of Death.' To be directed by Yasen Peyankov, the replacement production will bring longtime ensemble member Kathryn Erbe back to Steppenwolf after an absence of nearly 30 years, along with Steppenwolf co-founder Jeff Perry. 'The Dance of Death' is slated for late January 2026. Steppenwolf Theatre hits 50: Its anniversary season will include 'Amadeus' and a new play by Tarell Alvin McCraneyChris Jones is a Tribune critic. cjones5@
