Goofy 'The Good Wife' slams Steppenwolf

Posted: 10/27/10 at 11:56am

I've never watched the show, but I've seen a lot of Steppenwiolf plays and never found them pretentious or arty...

"The first scene of Tuesday's episode, penned by Robert and Michelle King, was set at a fundraiser in a hotel ballroom. "And now as dinner is served," says the hostess, "Steppenwolf Theatre will entertain us with scenes from their hit play, 'The Cow With No Country.'"

Yeah, that's credible. Steppenwolf does bits of its shows in hotel ballrooms all the time. Just as the beef is served.

And with that introduction, a motley and pathetic little group of ragamuffin actors popped out, replete with their crude puppet-cow and all, and do some kind of whacked-out performance that lands somewhere between moronic Medieval drama, pantomime, Bertolt Brecht and "Jack and the Beanstalk."

Fake English accents and all. We kid you not.

The Midwestern rubes were putting on a show.

The fictional politicos snicker at the childishness of it all."

The commenters seem to think it's an in-joke among friends. Anyone have any guesses. Sounds pretty stupid to me.
See a play instead

[iluvtheatertrash]

Posted: 10/27/10 at 12:06pm

I don't think it was a joke on Steppenwolf but a joke on theater. It was meant in good fun. Get over it.

It's a great show.

[Jon]

Posted: 10/27/10 at 12:14pm

It was typical Midwest bashing. Any theatre created in Chicago must be incredibly lame, because all Chicagoans are either gangsters or ingorant hicks.

Posted: 10/27/10 at 12:37pm

It just seems weird to use the name of a real theater to make a generic "theater is pretentious' gag. And if Steppenwolf is in on the gag, it seems doubly odd- why have your big prime-time exposure make you look so lame?

[adamgreer]

Posted: 10/27/10 at 12:47pm

Given that the show is set in Chicago, I think they just took the name of a well-known Chicago theatre group and plugged it in. Just about the entire cast (and all of the guest stars) are NY theatre actors (some of whom have worked at Steppenwolf), so I doubt they really feel this way. It was an amusing joke on a wonderful show. I wouldn't worry about it.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 10/27/10 at 12:54pm

I like the show a lot, but as someone who lives in Chicago, it's clear that they don't make much of an effort to make the Chicago of the show anything like the real Chicago, which is fine by me.

What's funny about everyone getting their noses bent out of shape is that Chris Jones sounds so provincial in his outrage.

And all those New York actors, the same crew who climbed all over each for Broadway tickets to "August: Osage County" and potential parts in the upcoming movie, just stood by and watched?

Did no one have the guts to raise a hand and point out just how off base this was?

THAT is hilarious.

[ghostlight2]

Posted: 10/27/10 at 1:16pm

It never occurred to me that Jones wasn't in on it and was portraying himself that way deliberately. You think he might actually be serious? I haven't seen the clip, so I don't have full perspective.

[DCS]

Posted: 10/27/10 at 1:31pm

It was also pretty clearly a spoof on War Horse with a cow instead.....

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 10/27/10 at 1:34pm

ghostlight, I think he's on the level, despite how ridiculous he sounds.

[Tom1071]

Posted: 10/27/10 at 1:44pm

It's a tv show (and an excellent one) and the majority of the people who watch aren't theatre goers and don't even know or care that the Steppenwolf even exists. For all they know Steppenwolf is just a band from the 70's and 80's.

[bestfreakinshoes]

Posted: 10/27/10 at 2:09pm

Not to mention that this show features theatre actors every week. The cast (many of whom have worked in the theatre as well) has mentioned numerous times how honored they are to get to work with these people, especially since they've often seen them on New York stages.

I think maybe it was just an inside joke that didn't go over well. I mean, there was other entertainment at the dinner that was made fun of, but I haven't seen anyone complaining about that.

Posted: 10/27/10 at 2:26pm

I think the reaction would have been different to the earlier scene of a black poetess getting ignored by a roomful of wealthy white politicians if they had introduced her as Maya Angelou.

[Holbee]

Posted: 10/27/10 at 3:00pm

I do have to admit, I was taken aback by it...though any mention of a theatre company on a highly rated TV show has to be a good thing, there's no such thing as bad publicity thing....