Chicago Shakespeare and Drury Lane Theatre announce live shows for fall
With confidence growing in a return to live theater this fall, two Chicago companies have announced recalibrated plans, mostly composed of previously announced shows postponed due to the pandemic.
Chicago Shakespeare Theater on Navy Pier, an attraction that remains mostly shuttered but is expected to open soon, said Tuesday that its first show back will be “As You Like It” in October, as conceived by Daryl Cloran and the Bard on the Beach Shakespeare Festival of Vancouver and infused with some 20 songs made famous by the Beatles. Cloran will direct. Precise dates for the show have yet to be announced, same for much of what will follow next winter and spring, especially since Chicago’s most internationalist theater remains hampered by closed borders and travel restrictions.
Over the summer, though, CST will produce a variety of digital programming, much of it filmed or recorded in recent weeks on its stages without the presence of an audience.
Attractions include “I, Banquo” (March 22–April 18), a reexamination of “Macbeth” through the eyes of the title character’s friend; “I, Cinna (the poet)” (April 5–May 2), a riff on the character from “Julius Caesar”; a production of “Measure for Measure” (April 19–May 16), directed by Henry Godinez as “an enhanced audio play”; and an audio staging by artistic director Barbara Gaines of “Twelfth Night” (also April 19–May 16) featuring original songs composed by Joriah Kwamé.
The theater will also release “We Are Out There” (May 24–June 20), billed as a prologue to a planned future premiere of a new sci-fi musical based on the 1950s movie “It Came from Outer Space,” coming soon from creators Joe Kinosian, Kellen Blair and Daniel Schloss.
Meanwhile, the Drury Lane Theatre in Oakbrook Terrace said that its first show back will be the perennial favorite “Forever Plaid,” directed and choreographed by Paul Stancato and now slated to open on Sept. 23.
Thereafter, the reordered live season at the Drury Lane will feature “Irving Berlin’s Holiday Inn,” directed and choreographed by Matt Crowle and opening Dec. 2; “Evita,” directed by Marcia Milgrom Dodge and opening Feb. 3, 2022; “The King and I,” directed by Alan Paul and opening April 7, 2022; and “Steel Magnolias,” directed by Johanna McKenzie Miller and opening June 16, 2022.
Chris Jones is a Tribune critic.
