Goodman's Betrayal: Helen Hunt, Robert Sean Leonard, and Ian Barford

This was not on my radar, but it's worth a trip to Chicago. Looks like a new production of Fool for Love is also going on at the Steppenwolf Theatre Company at the same time.

Anything else happening in Chicago mid-February? I'm cold just thinking about it, but I'm already sold on going!

Lookingglass is doing a new production, Circus Quixote... in the past their circus shows have been incredibly impressive and often dramaturgically sound. Since this is new... can't speak for how successful it is but I have tiny hopes. The Court is doing a production of A Raisin in the Sun that we know very little about yet but I'd imagine there might be at least a little bit of added resonance seeing it just a few blocks from the neighborhood Hansbury based the fictional "Clybourne Park" on.

The production of Fool for Love was supposed to have a big star in it but they bailed... what we have instead are some magnificent Steppenwolf ensemble members and that may actually have been the best case scenario anyway. Caroline Neff should be brilliant in that role.

While I'm sure Betrayal will be fantastic... one does sort of scratch their head at the casting. Helen Hunt is 61 and her character is 29-38 over the course of the play. Ian Barford (58) and Robert Sean Leonard (55) play characters that have an age range of 31-40.

I agree that it's odd to have the three characters of Betrayal be in their 50's/60's instead of their 30's. I'm guessing that The Goodman wants their target demographic to feel "represented" onstage, lol.

With everything else in the industry constantly going younger, I’m excited to see this version. I’ve only ever seen the one with Tom H that had no set or anything so I think the story just didn’t really grab me.

JasonC3 said: "Play Esq. said: "Jason and JK: Thank you! WIll check those out. If you wouldn't mind, please let me know if you see anything pop up between now and February that strikes your fancy!"

Jason: I thank you so much for this! But, guilty admission, pure dance (ballet, contemporary, etc) has just never been a medium I could access. I appreciate it, but not really for me.

I did look at the Harris thanks to you (which was previously unknown to me) and saw a number of performances I would travel for to see, so thank you for that, they are now on my radar!

The CSO has a good program while I’m visiting, so will probably chose that. Sadly, the Lyric season is so blah this year. Especially compared to last year’s inspired season (a few predictions at least).

Thanks for posting this. It might finally be time to make the trip to visit my friend in Chicago.

Updated On: 11/14/24 at 10:41 PM

^I’d also be interested to know

Also, anyone looking to buy tickets for Betrayal now, the early access code is not difficult to guess 🙄🙄🙄

Hyde Park Hildy said: "The Court Theatre in Hyde Park is doing a revival of A Raisin in the Sun in February. Their productions are almost always quite good and their current one, a revival of Falsettos, is excellent. The Trib critic said it's better than the recent Broadway revival.

Fat Ham which will also be at the Goodman at that time is probably worth a look. Definition Theatre, thetheatre company that's doing it in conjunction with the Goodman, has done some fine work.

If you're interested in experimental/avant gradetheatre at all, the Trap Door Theatre always does interesting stuff. In February they're doing a production of an early 20th centuryPolish futurist play called The Mannequins' Ball that sounds wild.

In addition to TodayTix, I recommend checking out Hottix.org for discounted tickets. They usually have a wider variety of offerings and sometimes their prices are a little better."

Thank you for this! I find it so hard to find great works in smaller spaces…in a city where great works start in small spaces. Word of mouth is hard to locate in Chicago unless you’re actually there, so I really appreciate this.