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Chicago Tribune
16-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Chicago Tribune
Chicago Heights native Lynn Hamilton, who had roles in ‘Sanford and Son' and ‘227,' dies at 95
Actress and Chicago Heights native Lynn Hamilton worked steadily in TV for many years, with recurring roles in the hit shows 'Sanford and Son,' 'The Waltons' and '227.' 'She was a very good actress — it was (due to) the work that she put in,' said actress and Chicago native Marla Gibbs, 94, who starred in '227,' a sitcom that ran from 1985 to 1990. 'She (also) was a very nice person.' Hamilton, 95, died of natural causes on June 19, said her publicist, Calvin Carson. She had lived in Chicago since 2015 after moving to the city from Los Angeles. Born Alzenia Lynn Hamilton in Yazoo City, Mississippi, Hamilton moved with her family to Chicago Heights at age 4. She graduated in 1947 from Bloom High School, where she was a member of the drama club. 'From that point on, I was able to, as I grew up, I was fairly attractive, and I was able to get into the modeling profession, and at which point I discovered the Goodman Theatre, which is in Chicago, and I went to the Goodman Theatre for four years and got my B.A. degree,' Hamilton said in a video interview in 2009. 'I learned all I could about acting, because I felt that were I to become an actress, it was necessary that I know my craft, that I'm able to do everything. I felt that I needed to be versatile.' After receiving a bachelor's degree from the Goodman School of Drama at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Hamilton took roles in local productions. A December 1953 Tribune article listed Hamilton as one of the Skyloft Players — a Black acting company that had gained renown in the 1940s — performing alongside future radio star Herb Kent in a play. Skyloft performed in a former orphanage at 5120 S. Park Way — now Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive — in the South Side Washington Park neighborhood. The former orphanage was the home of the Park Way Community House, a social and cultural center for the South Side's Black community, and the Skyloft Players staged work from Black writers like Richard Wright and Langston Hughes. In the 2009 interview, Hamilton noted she was the only Black person in her class at the Goodman. 'And so there weren't any roles for me, and so I was able to supplement my experience by working in a Black theater company on Chicago's South Side, and that was the beginning,' she said. In the late 1950s, Hamilton moved to New York City, working for three years at the New York Shakespeare Festival and performing in four Broadway shows, including the short-lived 1959 play 'Only in America,' which starred Alan Alda. After about a dozen years in New York, Hamilton relocated to Seattle for a year to do repertory theater. She moved to Los Angeles in the late 1960s and pursued television and movie roles. In her first year in Los Angeles, Hamilton scored guest spots on well-known programs, including 'Mannix' and 'Gunsmoke.' Other roles followed, including on 'Hawaii Five-O' and 'Barnaby Jones.' Hamilton was hired for her most notable role in 1972, as a nurse who becomes engaged to wisecracking junk dealer Fred Sanford — played by Redd Foxx — on the sitcom 'Sanford and Son.' Hamilton appeared in 22 episodes of 'Sanford and Son,' and had a recurring role in 18 episodes of the historical drama series 'The Waltons.' Hamilton was initially cast as a landlady in 'Sanford and Son,' and she used her theatrical training to impress the show's producers. In her lone scene as a landlady, her character was asked to evict Lamont, Fred Sanford's son. 'They said you can be as big as you want to be and I thought, oh my God, I can use my stage stuff,' Hamilton said in the 2009 interview. 'And so that one scene, they were so impressed with that one scene that … a month or so later, they decided to give Fred Sanford a girlfriend, and I among, oh, I don't know 100 other actresses in Hollywood auditioned, and we had screen tests.' Red Foxx 'was impressed with my experience and he always said, 'You're so dignified, and I need somebody dignified opposite me.' He was aware of his earthiness, shall we say,' she said. Hamilton continued acting in small TV roles during the 1980s, including on shows like 'Highway to Heaven,' 'Riptide' and 'The New Leave It to Beaver.' She picked up a recurring role on '227' in 1996, appearing with Gibbs in five episodes. In the early 1990s, Hamilton acted in more than 50 episodes of a syndicated nighttime soap opera about female prisoners, 'Dangerous Women.' In a 2002 episode of 'Curb Your Enthusiasm,' she played the mother of comedian Wanda Sykes' character. After Hamilton's husband of 50 years, poet and playwright Frank Jenkins, died in 2014, she returned to live in the Chicago area. She was also preceded in death by a daughter. Hamilton is survived by four grandchildren. A service in Los Angeles is being planned. In the 2009 interview, Hamilton expressed optimism for the opportunities available for African Americans who are interested in pursuing a career in acting. 'If this is your desire, get the proper training, first and foremost, and go for it,' she said. 'Because I think that African-Americans can go straight to the top now. The opportunities are there. We have African-American producers and African-American writers and heads of studios. The opportunities are there.'
Daily Mail
06-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Richard Greenberg dead at 67: The Tony-winning Take Me Out playwright is remembered for legacy on Broadway
Richard Greenberg, the Tony award-winning playwright behind Take Me Out, has died at age 67. Over the weekend, the New York native's death was announced on social media by his friend and theater director Robert Falls. 'Heartbroken by the news of playwright Richard Greenberg's death. For the past several years we've been deep in collaboration on his gorgeous adaptation of Holiday, Philip Barry's great American play — premiering at the Goodman this February. A profound loss mid-process,' Falls wrote on Bluesky. He continued: 'For over 30 years, it's been one of life's great pleasures to know Rich and his writing. Dazzling, humane, wildly funny. … His kindness was real. His loss is enormous.' American actor, Denis O'Hare, who received a Tony Award for his role as Mason Marzac in Take Me Out, shared a heartfelt tribute to Greenberg on Instagram. 'Hard to believe the genius that was Richard Greenberg is no more. I owe him more than I could possibly say,' he wrote. 'He gave me the greatest gift ever--a beautiful character to inhabit in a beautiful play.' O'Hare went on to praise his former colleague for giving him his two best friends, Lisa Peterson and Linda Emond, who he recalled meeting on Greenberg's 'one act play, The Author's Voice, at Remains Theatre in 1987 in a festival of one acts called "Sneaky Feelings."' 'I have a sneaky feeling of grief mixed with gratitude for this man. RIP Rich,' he concluded. At this time, a cause of death has not been publicly revealed. His fans flooded X with tributes as they remembered the late playwright for pushing boundaries and inspiring 'thought for generations to come.' 'Farewell to the playwright Richard Greenberg, of Take Me Out, The Assembled Parties and Three Days of Rain. A lyrical chronicler of the mysteries that are human beings, he understood that the past, far from being another country, is forever a pulsing part of our present,' one tweeted. Another wrote: 'RIP Richard Greenberg, a great American playwright. His work included the award-winning TAKE ME OUT and the superb THREE DAYS OF RAIN. He wrote about everyone from Major League baseball players to upper crust New Yorkers, always with wit and compassion. A major loss.' In addition to Take Me Out, Greenberg is remembered for writing plays as The Dazzle, The American Plan, Life Under Water and The Author's Voice. Take Me Out, which had an all-male cast, followed a baseball star's coming out journey during a season filled of racial tension and violence. He also penned the Broadway adaptation of Breakfast at Tiffany's and the book for the musical Far From Heaven. Over his career, he had more than 25 plays premiere on, Off-Broadway, and off-off 'Broadway in New York City as well as eight at the South Coast Repertory Theatre in Costa Mesa, California. Greenberg, who was born in 1958, graduated magna cum laude from Princeton University. He studied creative writing under American novelist Joyce Carol Oates and was roommates with future Harvard economics professor Greg Mankiw.
Axios
01-07-2025
- Entertainment
- 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
01-07-2025
- Entertainment
- 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
01-07-2025
- Entertainment
- 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@
