Robert Falls announces his last Goodman Theatre season, including a revival of ‘Tommy’
After 35 years at the Goodman Theatre, artistic director Robert Falls this week announced his final season as artistic director. One highlight is a 30th anniversary revival of “The Who’s Tommy,” helmed by its original director Des McAnuff, along with the rest of the original creative team, and likely headed to Broadway. “Tommy” will complete the Goodman season and play in the summer of 2023.
However, the Goodman lost its previously announced pre-Broadway production of “The Outsiders,” due to post-pandemic scheduling disagreements. That show now will premiere at the La Jolla Playhouse in California early next year.
Falls also revealed that his final show as Goodman’s artistic director will be a new production of Anton Chekhov’s famous reflective drama “A Cherry Orchard,” inarguably a piece about letting go.
Other productions on the 2022-23 slate in the main Albert Theatre include the Chicago premiere of “Clyde’s” by Lynn Nottage (Sept. 10 through Oct. 9), an allegorical show set in a restaurant that recently was on Broadway. Kate Whoriskey will again direct.
“A Christmas Carol” will return for the holidays for its 45th year, with Jessica Thebus directing again this year.
In January, Ron OJ Parson will stage Lydia R. Diamond’s “Toni Stone” (Jan. 28 to Feb. 26, 2023), a play about a young baseball player rejected from the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League due to her race. It’s based on a book about the real-life Stone, who set out to be the first woman to play professional baseball.
Following Falls’ production of “A Cherry Orchard” (April 1-30 in the Albert Theatre), McAnuff’s production of “Tommy” (music and lyrics by Pete Townshend) will play June 13 to July 26 on the Albert mainstage.
In the smaller Owen Theatre, the previously announced and delayed “Swing State” by Rebecca Gilman will now be staged under Fall’s direction from Oct. 7 to Nov. 13. Then the Goodman will stage Miranda Haymon’s production of Christina Anderson’s “the ripple, the wave that carried me home,” set around the swimming pools of 1960s Kansas and dealing with issues of race and segregation (Jan. 13 to Feb. 12).
A new play follows in the Owen from March 3 to April 2. Martin Yousif Zebari’s “Layalina” looks at a family emigrating from Iraq to a Chicago suburb. Sivan Battat directs.
In the Owen Theatre April 28 to May 28, the Goodman will stage “Antonio’s Song / I Was Dreaming of a Son” by Dael Orlandersmith and Antonio Edwards Suarez, billed as a “poetic journey of a dancer/artist/father.”
For more information, visit goodmantheatre.org
Chris Jones is a Tribune critic.
