Chicago's Lookingglass Theatre celebrates renovated space, return to stage

CBS News

28-01-2025

CHICAGO (CBS) -- Chicago's famous Lookingglass Theatre on Monday celebrated its new design and path forward.
The Tony Award-winning theatre company held a ribbon cutting Monday for its newly-renovated lobby, bar, and café at the Water Tower Waterworks, at 163 E. Pearson St.
Lookingglass cofounder David Schwimmer, whose involvement with the theatre predates his role as Ross Geller on "Friends" by six years, was at the venue to share the announcement Monday.
Schwimmer revealed the revamped lobby in the nearly 155-year-old Chicago Avenue Pumping Station complex as the theatre prepares to return to the stage after the COVID-19 pandemic and a long hiatus.
"Lookingglass was forced to close our doors, pause operations for 19 months, and let the majority of our staff go. It was devastating," Schwimmer said. "But this is Chicago — the City of Big Shoulders — and its strength, resilience, and work ethic inspires us. We decided to regroup, rebuild, and today, reopen."
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker was also present for the ribbon-cutting.
"The best way out of division and chaos may be by bringing people together to share experiences and find common bonds in the imagination of gifted playwrights and across actors, and so many others that bring Lookingglass to life," Pritzker said.
The Lookingglass is also renaming its theatre space the Joan & Paul Theatre in honor of longtime supporters Joan and Paul Rubschlager — whose name also graces the Rush University Medical Center building that houses the Rush MD Anderson Cancer Center.
The first show in the revamped space is "Circus Quixote," based on the early-17th-century Miguel de Cervantes novel "Don Quixote." As described by the theatre, the production goes "tiltingly, acrobatically into the dreamy madness of Don Quixote and his impossible folly-filled quest to bring good-deed doing back into the world — whether the world wants it or not!"
"Circus Quixote" debuts on Thursday.
The Lookingglass was founded in 1988 by Schwimmer and seven other Northwestern University students. Its space in the old pumping station first opened in 2003.
The Chicago Avenue Pumping Station is located opposite Michigan Avenue from the famous Chicago Water Tower. It was completed in 1869, according to published reports, and it survived the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 along with the Water Tower itself.
Before the Lookingglass, the Chicago Avenue Pumping Station was home to the"Here's Chicago!" exhibition — which featured a 13-minute film showcasing the city that ran several times a day in the space from 1983 until 1996.
Part of the pumping station remains in use for its original purpose as a water utility, pumping 250,000 gallons of water to the city's North Side each day.