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Chicago Tribune
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Chicago Tribune
Review: ‘Billie Jean' at Chicago Shakes is a straightforward account of a champion's story
In the final few minutes of 'Billie Jean,' the new play with Broadway aspirations at Chicago Shakespeare Theater, we follow Billie Jean King and her spouse, Ilana Kloss, the South African former tennis player. King, one of the most extraordinary living Americans and once (frankly, still) one of the most famous women in the world, came fully out of the closet relatively late in life, and the scenes involve King's loving but traditional Southern California parents accepting the lesbian couple. Those moments are deeply emotional and, quite frankly, beautiful enough in their simplicity to bring a tear to the eye. Chilina Kennedy, the Canadian star who plays King, is finally allowed a chance to breathe and Callie Rachelle Johnson, who plays Ilana (among others), is one of those performers capable of creating a character to whom one inherently warms. King has come home in all the ways we all crave and the gravitas and challenges of her journey feel at once familiar and extraordinary. In a world seemingly bereft of heroes and heroines, these last few minutes send the audience out on a genuine high. I wouldn't normally talk about the end of a show like this, but this hardly is a spoiler for any tennis fans who have followed King's career. More importantly, this script and production would be so much better if more scenes took their time to land emotionally and felt the same way. Biographical shows about very famous, and very impressive, living people are tricky. The writer inevitably wants to please and hail the subject, who holds the keys to her own life, having been there. As we've seen with many Broadway jukebox biographies, even if the subject doesn't want a hagiography (and I can't imagine that the famously honest King did), that doesn't mean she won't get one. There's also commercial motivation: No one coming to a play about Billie Jean King is looking for something that does not celebrate her achievements. So it's easy for the authorial voice to blur with the subject, and that is what happens here, a bit too much. Supporting characters, many of whom remain overly one-dimensional, are seen through a singular lens. On some levels, that's fair enough. We can read whose name is on the marquee. And why not celebrate the struggles and triumphs of such an icon? Given that King is now 81 years old, it's also likely that generations of Americans are less than fully aware of all she achieved and I can see mothers, especially, taking their daughters to this show and saying, 'See?' The piece is also a celebration of the multi-decade LGBTQ struggle, and of the LGBTQ community as a whole, especially since it includes King's full-throttle support of the pioneering transsexual player Renée Richards (Murphy Taylor Smith), tacitly distinguishing King from, say, Martina Navratilova on that issue. All of the above are valid reasons for a piece of biographical theater. But I also think plays, even plays about a person as virtuous and courageous as King, also have an imperative to challenge and surprise their audiences. You don't get other points of view here on anything, at least not beyond the appearance of various stereotypical obstacles to King's progress. So when the play, say, posits the Australian player Margaret Court mostly as a villain, one cannot help but wonder what she would have had to say, given the chance. The same is true of Larry King (Dan Amboyer), who is a confusing and underwritten presence here, kinda supporting the heroine one moment and behaving like the classic controlling dude the next, so as to fit the overall narrative in which his influence must be vanquished for full self-actualization. I wonder what he would have said, too. Plus, human lives like this one are long, and they can feel that way when plays precede chronologically. 'Billie Jean' sets itself the task of exploring its subject from girlhood through emergent doubles accomplishment, through her astonishing list of singles titles at Wimbledon, where she thrived, to her complicated but abiding marriage to Larry, through the famous 'Battle of the Sexes' match with Bobby Riggs to the scandal involving King's relationship with Lenne Klingaman's wacky Marilyn Barnett (who filed a palimony suit against King in 1981), to King's work to create the Virginia Slims tournament (and by extension the WTA tour), to how the media treated her to her admirable philosophies of life to her impact on Venus Williams (Courtney Rikki Green). Along the way, it heralds many of King's views of sports and life, including her conviction, rare among professional athletes of all stripes, that 'pressure is a privilege.' King's life has, to say the least, been amply documented. For decades. So for those of us who have followed tennis, we already know about her astonishing 39 Grand Slam titles and her unstinting advocacy for women's tennis, especially the need to persuade the tennis establishment that women deserved to have a place to play, equal and fair compensation, and to be recognized and understood not just for their looks or as amateur curiosities but as some of the world's greatest professional athletes. And, of course, we also know what King achieved in tennis also (eventually) crushed barriers to women in other sports from golf to soccer. 'Billie Jean' tells its laudatory story very capably, thanks in no small part to a very energized and fluid production from director Marc Bruni. The show does not feature actual tennis (beyond a few stylized arm movements and sound effects), nor does it get into the tennis weeds at all; 'Billie Jean' actually never really explores what made King so good at the game besides chronicling her determination and love of winning. Some sense of her formidable technique surely would help round out the picture. The show also glosses over her first singles title, which seemed strange to me, but then there's a lot to cover in such a life. The battle with Riggs also zips by, presumably since the show well knows it already was the subject of an excellent movie. At times, it feels like you are watching a staged Wikipedia entry, frankly, given all the narrative interjections from the eight-person ensemble, not all of which are needed. But at others, playwright Lauren Gunderson's skills with poetic language really kick in, the text takes more risks of style and form and Kennedy, who is superbly cast in this difficult role, handles everything anyone hurls her way with aplomb. I'm sure many of King's fans will love this piece, which is set on a revolving tennis court set designed by Wilson Chin, but I hope the next draft deviates a little more from the straight race through an incredible American life and sits longer with the beating heart of its most human of subjects. That, after all, was Billie Jean King's actual secret weapon. Review: 'Billie Jean' (3 stars) When: Through Aug. 10 Where: Chicago Shakespeare's Yard Theatre on Navy Pier, 800 E. Grand Ave. Running time: 2 hours, 20 minutes Tickets: $73-$134 at 312-595-5600 and
Chicago Tribune
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Chicago Tribune
Billie Jean King on today's tennis, the media and a new play at Chicago Shakespeare about her life
'Billie Jean' is the name of the new play by Lauren Gunderson now in its world premiere at Chicago Shakespeare Theater. This show about the tennis great Billie Jean King is currently in The Yard on Navy Pier through Aug. 10, and then is widely expected to have a life beyond Chicago. King spoke to the Tribune in a telephone interview just after returning from the All England Lawn Tennis Championships, better known as Wimbledon, where she sat next to Princess Kate in the Royal Box for the women's singles final and watched Iga Świątek defeat Amanda Anisimova by a score of 6-0, 6-0. Our conversation has been edited for clarity and length. Q: That final was quite the wipeout. A: Świątek was amazing. She couldn't even get through the qualifier last time. But you know, we don't have two dominant players anymore. It used to be Steffi (Graf) and Monica (Seles), or Chris (Evert) and Martina (Navratilova). Now on a given day, any of the top 200 women can beat any of the others. Q: The women's game has come a long way. A: I put on the tennis channel and I can't believe all the cities we are in now. We've really been the leaders in women's sport since the 1970s. The Ladies Professional Golf Association was founded a year before the Women's Tennis Association but we've eclipsed them. Q: Could you have beaten Świątek or Anisimova when you were in your prime? A: No. My brother played professional baseball for 12 years. Our parents taught us both that every generation gets better. I them to be better. When we women signed our first one-dollar contract, we wanted three things: a place to compete, to be appreciated for our accomplishments and not only for our looks, and to be able to make a living playing the sport we love. Now you see all the other women's sports people are starting to invest in. My former husband and I used to own the Chicago tournament. I've been involved in Chicago for a very long time. Q: You still have your place here, right? A: I do. Q: Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz also played an amazing match. A: They did. Italy and Spain right now have the best male players in the world. And Jannik is such a great guy. You could not ask for a more thoughtful, smarter human being. He walked all the way over as we were leaving Wimbledon and introduced himself to my entire group, one by one. He didn't have to do that. There really has been a changing of the guard with Sinner and Alcaraz and all the others. I've been through six generations of players now. And don't forget the Italian woman, Jasmine Paolini. She loves to perform. Q: You are very easy to talk with. A: I have always talked to the media. When younger players complain about doing so, I've always said, 'Have you ever thought that this is how these people make their livings? And that if you don't talk to them they might lose the job they are in?' No players ever answer yes to that. I always say you have to know the business you are in. I could come up with other names for you to interview if you like. Q: Most athletes don't look at things that way. A: True. Most players also have no clue how much things cost. The top players are just starting to understand they should run their own businesses, not just get money from endorsements. I've invested in sports since 1968. Q: Now Chicago gets to see a play about you. A: When the producer, Harriet (Newman Leve), said she wanted to start in Chicago, I said that's fantastic. Aside from the apartment, I am so invested there. Q: This is not your first go-around in terms of dramatizations of your life. There was the movie, 'The Battle of the Sexes,' about your beating Bobby Riggs. A: We are still friends with Emma Stone (who played King). She married a great guy we love. She had a baby. The baby loves tennis. Did you know tennis was the healthiest sport in the world? They've done research. Q: I can believe it. A: I still love to hit balls against the wall. Q: I can believe that too. So you are involved in this play? A: Are you kidding me? We've been involved. I've met all the actors. I've made suggestions. Lauren (Gunderson) has done a really great job. Q: Chilina Kennedy, a musical star I've seen many times, plays you. A: I want her to sing. She's so talented. Q: Plays about sport can he hard unless you have incredible actor-athletes. Tough to pretend to play like you did. A: Sure. But this play isn't about tennis as much as it is about life. It's off the court that matters here. It's about my trying to figure out my sexuality. I think it's a great platform for the community. Tennis is a part of it, of course. But for me, it's really about the audience so that when they leave they are inspired by something. I hope they can derive something from it that makes their lives better. I think it expresses my journey through the thick and the thin. We've all been going like a bat of hell. Of course. It's about women's sports.
Chicago Tribune
11-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Chicago Tribune
Review: The Broadway-bound '42 Balloons' is a musical lifted by songs you've heard before
Had the young British writer Jack Godfrey made up the plot of '42 Balloons,' his new musical with Broadway aspirations now in its North American premiere at Chicago Shakespeare Theater, he'd have been obliged to justify its eccentricity. But a California man who came to be known as 'Lawnchair Larry' Walters really did attach 42 helium-filled weather balloons to a Sears lawn chair, take a seat and leave terra firma in 1982, reaching a whopping height of 16,000 feet during his 45-minute flight before popping some balloons with a pellet gun and floating back down to Earth. The introverted Walter was not some TikTok influencer (he took no pictures and did not inhabit any such gestalt), but an eccentric man who simply wanted to fulfill his lifelong dream of being a pilot. For those who have not seen other material influenced by Walters' flight (the movie 'Up' being just one example), the veracity of the story gets pointed out at the top of '42 Balloons' by an eight-person ensemble, a self-aware Greek chorus that knows it is in a musical. 'This actually happened, you can look it up after the show,' they sing. 'And you can tell your friends about it and they can say, 'That's pretty crazy, why did you go and see a musical about balloons and what makes a man try to fly in a lawn chair?'' That's a good question on many levels, especially since Walters (played by Charlie McCullagh) persuaded his wife, Carol (Evelyn Hoskins, in a dominant performance), and his best pal, Ron (Akron Watson), to fund and back his quixotic quest, despite its obvious risks to life and limb. But it's also a clever bit of self-protection from the exceedingly smart Godfrey, a newcomer who has written an enjoyable and engaging new musical that strives to see Walters as an everyman with a weird dream — not so different, of course, from the dreams people describe in Tony Award acceptance speeches. His fast-moving, sung-through show (Godfrey penned the whole shooting match) is a quizzical, chirpy, mid-sized musical written for a cast of 12, with an undeniably charming and very British insouciance. American eccentrics like Walters long have provided material for satirists across the pond. But the difference between '42 Balloons' and, say, 'Jerry Springer — The Opera' is that this one has an emotional openness at its core. Godfrey walks a careful line between making musical hay with the strangeness of Walters' 'Candide'-like quest and admiring the guy's chutzpah and his determination to find his grail, as they say in 'Spamalot.' Many of his lyrics are written in narrative rather than dramatic form, allowing his characters to comment on their own actions and motivations ('Suddenly Larry felt a flash in his mind,' Larry sings at one point, and Carol warbles 'Carol didn't really expect this'). But then Godfrey also knows how to write sharp, funny lyrics. When Carol's mom, Margaret (the caustic Lisa Howard) makes her first entrance, her song starts with, 'When your daughter marries a loser …' It's funny, because it reflects back exactly what the audience is thinking. The score is, well, strangely familiar. There's a number that recalls 'Light My Candle' from 'Rent.' Another that sounds like 'Everything's Alright' from 'Jesus Christ Superstar.' A third shot me right into the middle of Justin Paul and Benj Pasek's 'Dear Evan Hansen.' A fourth felt like 'Come From Away.' And a fifth catchy hook, penned for Carol and beautifully sung by the fabulous Hoskins, kept me awake half the night trying to remember in which show I had heard that particular musical phrase before. You can hear the strong influence of Tim Minchin, who wrote the score for 'Matilda,' as well as other English composers from John Barry to Andrew Lloyd Webber to Willy Russell to Elton John to the Australian songwriter John Farrar, who wrote 'Xanadu,' another show you keep hearing. There's a 'Hamilton'-like rap and, unsurprisingly, some harmonics not so different from 'Six.' At other moments in the orchestrations, you feel like you are listening to ABBA or Electric Light Orchestra or 10cc or the show 'Rock of Ages.' I recount all that not necessarily as pejorative or to say that '42 Balloons' is like a musical Wikipedia (although, come to think of it …). Broadway musicals are an incremental art form and shows quote other scores all the time, and that above list is long enough to suggest intentionality and provide contrasts. But it is especially noticeable here and is part of what makes Godfrey's score Godfrey's score. There's a baked-in familiarity to everything you hear and, while purists will likely demur, I can see regular audiences latching onto its retro, gently satirical comforts. It's easy on the ears and it also knows that it's easy on the ears and has fun making fun of the fact that it's easy on the ears. The musical '42 Balloons' at Chicago Shakes is a producer's bet on the unknownBy Act 2, I'd decided this was the most jukebox-like musical that was not a jukebox musical I had ever heard. That might well be its secret to success: giving an audience original songs that they will feel like they have enjoyed before. That's actually far from easy to pull off and, despite the undeniably derivative nature of this theatrical experience, I find myself wanting to go back and hear it again. Hoskins, a powerhouse British talent, takes the most advantage of the score's many opportunities. A performer with integrity, McCullagh is laudably committed to honoring his troubled and introverted character, but he still needs to fully find his way to the emotional center of the show. That's the show's biggest issue right now. There's other work to be done, beginning with a song or two that quote absolutely nothing, although this piece already has been staged in Manchester in the U.K. and it's performed at a very capable level under director Ellie Coote, another talented newcomer. There's a hole in Act 1 where Larry needs a song to better explain, like, why he wants to fly in a lawnchair. The Act 2 swirl where post-flight Larry becomes a media curiosity feels underdeveloped. And the show still has to figure out how to logically negotiate both the sadness of the end of this story and its inspirational properties, as musicals always demand. It's all rushed right now. And, frankly, if it says '42 Balloons' on the marquee, they need to be in the show, not the lobby; the lawnchair alone looks mighty lonely. Godfrey introduces an original character to this story, called The Kid, a bystander who finds himself inspired in his own life by Walter's acts. That's a great device and worth further developing, especially since the fine young performer, Minju Michelle Lee, makes you feel what you need to feel. Walking out the door, I found myself thinking about the ubiquitousness of casual American cruelty, present in the 1980s and, of course, today. Plenty of folks right now would like to ascend into the air and get away. If Godfrey can have fun tap into that, Walters will seem like the most logical person in the country. Review: '42 Balloons' (3 stars) When: Through June 29 Where: The Yard at Chicago Shakespeare Theater on Navy Pier, 800 E. Grand Ave. Running time: 2 hours, 20 minutes Tickets: $71-$132 at 312-595-5600 and
Chicago Tribune
09-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Chicago Tribune
The musical '42 Balloons' at Chicago Shakes is a producer's bet on the unknown
The 63-year-old Broadway producer Kevin McCollum is of the age when one starts to wonder about one's legacy. Then again, producers, an optimistic crew by trade and existential necessity, always have to be looking forward. No producer wants to be tagged a nostalgist. And so, at a bar on Navy Pier, one can see McCollum's famously restless mind flit back and forth between past and present, defining his oeuvre and shying away from the task. McCollum's past includes 'Rent,' 'Avenue Q,' 'In the Heights' and 'Six,' to name the biggest titles upon which his reputation and financial well-being most fully rest. In the immediate future, there is '42 Balloons.' That's the title of McCollum's latest tryout at The Yard at Chicago Shakespeare Theater, the same theater that launched both 'The Notebook' (with a short Broadway run that still stings the producer) and 'Six,' a blockbuster hit despite having the most of Broadway musical budgets. '42 Balloons' is a musical about the quixotic Vietnam veteran known as 'Lawnchair Larry' Walters, who took to the air in 1982 above Southern California while seated in a lawn chair lifted by more than 40 helium-filled weather balloons. Walters reached as high as 16,000 feet, which meant he entered the sights of commercial pilots in airspace controlled by the Los Angeles International Airport. He came down by popping his balloons with a BB gun, a metaphor waiting to happen. The Federal Aviation Administration did not appreciate the stunt, eventually charging Walters with violating controlled airspace, operating a non-airworthy craft (surely debatable, given the success of the flight) and flying without a balloon license. But Walters' lawnchair, replete with its jerry-rigged frame and attached water bottles, is still on display at the National Air and Space Museum as part of an exhibit aptly titled 'We All Fly.' The core of Walters' audacious story has long interested others. In 2009, Steppenwolf Theatre Company produced Bridget Carpenter's 'Up,' a moving play that imagined the life of a man named Walter, who once had been famous for attaching balloons to his lawn chair but then spends his days fiddling in his basement trying to re-create his moment of fame. The Disney movie 'Up' from the same year also had some similarities, and Walters has been the subject of podcasts and articles aplenty. But the possibilities for a musical from the story are pretty self-evident, given the long Broadway history of flight as a metaphor for escape, a willingness to take risks and the ever-popular craving for self-actualization. All of that pretty much describes 'Defying Gravity' from 'Wicked,' one of the most popular Broadway numbers of the 21st century: 'So if you care to find me,' Elphaba sings, 'Look to the western sky.' A broomstick? 42 balloons? The pneumatic ascent to the 'Heaviside Layer' in 'Cats'? All very much a shared metaphor. Those shows, though, were the work of a highly experienced writing and composing team. That's far from the case with '42 Balloons.' To say that the show's sole writer and composer, the 32-year-old Jack Godfrey, is a newcomer to the musical theater is to understate. '42 Balloons' is not only his first musical but his first foray into the professional theater. His director and dramaturg, Ellie Coote, is a childhood friend with whose brother Godfrey played rugby. Until recently he had a day job in London teaching English as a foreign language. Born and raised in Oxford, England, the earnest, modest and likable Godfrey says he came from a family that did not have any connections to the theater, beyond attending tours of 'Les Miserables.' But his dad wrote him silly songs as a kid and he picked up that mantle. 'I wanted to write songs for Beyoncé,' he says. Godfrey studied religion at Durham University as an undergraduate, with a year abroad at Boston College, but eventually found his way to a musical theater course at the University of London and remained, having decided to pursue a career as a writer of musicals. His only other real experience prior to '42 Balloons' has been penning music for his brother's short movie and writing a musical history of the Methodist Church ('kind of an 18th century 'Book of Mormon,' he says, 'only much less funny'). But then, some eight years ago, he came across the story of Walters on the internet and he says, 'I could relate to a story about a man who had a dream.' He started meeting with Coote and putting together a score. By happenstance, Coote knew a member of the creative team behind 'Six' and Godfrey played his score for him. That led to a meeting with Andy and Wendy Barnes, a British married couple who became late-in-life developers of new British musicals and are well respected for having discovered 'Six.' That led to a few Monday night workshops in London at the Vaudeville Theatre, staged on top of the set for 'Six,' which led to a call to McCollum, which led to a first full staging of '42 Balloons' at the Lowry Theatre in Manchester, which has now led to the show's North American premiere at Chicago Shakespeare Theater. 'We love working on new musicals here,' says Edward Hall, Chicago Shakespeare's relatively new artistic director, as he watches rehearsals. His company has already put a lot of development work in the title alongside McCollum, whom Hall has known for years. Should '42 Balloons' follow a similar trajectory to those 'Six' queens, it's fair to say that everyone involved would be delighted. After the run at the Lowry, Godfrey got a call from McCollum. At Navy Pier, he showed he can do a pretty good impression of the producer's voice: 'Jack, it's Kevin McCollum. I want to take your show to America. How does that sound?' Ergo, '42 Balloons' has its official liftoff on Navy Pier on Tuesday night. 'I really love this country,' Godfrey says unprompted and rather touchingly after recounting the show's brief history alongside his own. 'I have this fascination with American culture and I picked an American story because I wanted to write sort of from an outsider's perspective, very much like Bill Bryson has written about Britain. I really want this show to be my love letter to America.' Fascinatingly, one of Godfrey's lyrics points out that although Walters had a camera attached to his chair, he never took one photograph; such was the difference between 1982 and today. '42 Balloons' appears very much in the McCollum aesthetic. Its physical scale and cast size is relatively modest (like 'Six'), a sampling of Godfrey's songs suggest a melodic, soft-core romanticism (like 'Rent's' Jonathan Larson), the show aims to have a certain insouciance (like 'Avenue Q') and the central character is a misfit like Man in Chair from 'The Drowsy Chaperone,' another McCollum title. Such comparisons are, of course, wildly premature and may prove ridiculous. Or apt. Such aspirations are why producers take risks on the unproven. '42 Balloons,' McCullom says, 'is about what musicals are so often about: 'How do you fly against all odds?''
Chicago Tribune
28-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Chicago Tribune
Theater for summer 2025: Our top 10 from '42 Balloons' on Navy Pier to Amy Morton back at Steppenwolf
As our chilly, dusty spring turns into summer, Chicago theaters have a stellar line-up of warm-weather attractions for you and your out-of-town guests to enjoy. Here are 10 shows opening between Memorial Day and Labor Day that look especially promising. Live entertainment can be found all over town, of course, but Chicago Shakespeare Theater will be especially busy this summer with two new shows likely to attract international attention. Before I list my picks, I'll add my annual reminder that some here may disappoint, and that 10 shows hardly do the full seasonal slate justice. You can also find an Ethiopian Circus at Chicago Shakespeare this summer, not to mention magic and comedy all over town, some familiar musicals in the city and suburbs, and a new Second City e.t.c Stage. revue, to name just a few more. And we've also not included the likes of American Players Theatre in Spring Green, Wisconsin, just a short drive away. '42 Balloons' at Chicago Shakespeare Theater: Arguably the highest profile Chicago show this summer, '42 Balloons' is a pre-Broadway tryout from producer Kevin McCollum ('Six') in Chicago Shakespeare's Yard on Navy Pier. First produced at The Lowry in Salford, Manchester, in the United Kingdom and penned by the British writer-composer Jack Godfrey, '42 Balloons' is the real-life story of 'Lawnchair Larry' Walters, a Vietnam veteran who, in 1982, made a quixotic, solo 45-minute flight above Southern California in, of all things, a lawn chair, as lifted by more than 40 helium-filled weather balloons, reaching 16,000 feet. Expect an all-new pop score themed to the power ballads, funk and glam rock sounds of the much-maligned 1980s. 'Diana the Musical' at Theo Theatre: Although a flop on Broadway, this campy musical from Joe DiPietro was to be rethought and retooled in Chicago-style fashion by Fred Anzevino, the longtime artistic director of Theo and a man who deeply appreciated all the former Princess of Wales did during the AIDS crisis. Alas, Anzevino died while in rehearsals for a show now dedicated to his memory. For all its excesses, 'Diana' did have a better score than a lot of critics first realized, so I'll be interested to see how it works as director Brenda Didier and the other Theo artists work to honor a man who did so much for small productions of musicals in Chicago. 'Iraq, But Funny' at Lookingglass Theatre: The list of theatrical comedies about Iraq is short, but Lookingglass Theatre, experiencing a rebirth this season after a long hiatus, is adding to the canon with this semi-autobiographical show about five generations of Assyrian women, as penned by ensemble member Atra Asdou and starring Asdou, Susaan Jamshidi, Gloria Imseih Petrelli, James Rana and Sina Pooresmaeil. Asdou describes her show as a 'raucous satire,' and the narrator is 'a British guy.' Intriguing. 'You Will Get Sick' by Steppenwolf Theatre Company: The title might not suggest summer frolics but few will care, since 'You Will Get Sick' represents the return of the much-loved Amy Morton to the Steppenwolf stage after an absence of eight years (since her appearance in 'Hir' in 2017). Since then, she's been one of the main characters on the massively popular Dick Wolf TV show 'Chicago P.D.,' which has been good for her and the franchise's global viewers but less good for Chicago theatergoers. Morton returns to the mainstage of her home theater in a much-acclaimed play by Noah Diaz about a young man and his caregiver, a role first played off-Broadway by Linda Lavin. Co-artistic director Audrey Francis directs. 'Kimberly Akimbo' at CIBC Theatre: Chicago gets its first look at the first national tour of the justly acclaimed Broadway musical from 2022 about the 16-year-old title character who has a rare genetic disorder — meaning that she ages very quickly and has the appearance of a 62-year-old woman, even as she is just trying to go to junior prom. The gorgeous score is by the incomparable Jeanine Tesori with a book and lyrics by David Lindsay-Abaire, after his own play. This affirmative and teen-friendly piece, fundamentally, is the quirky story of a stranger in the strange land of her own body. And it's far more life-affirming than its plot might first suggest. 'Dhaba on Devon Avenue' by Writers Theatre: I'm a sucker for locally set plays and this summer attraction at Writers Theatre in Glencoe is set on Chicago's famously rich and diverse Devon Avenue, the Far North Side artery and early epicenter of the Indiana diaspora in the Midwest. Homing in on a big dilemma for family restaurants, playwright Madhuri Shekar writes about a small Indian eatery that has to contend with the economic struggles of the restaurant business at large and generational change within a hard-working family that has long served hungry diners on Devon. 'Beauty and the Beast' at Cadillac Palace Theatre: This 1994 live adaptation of the beloved animated movie was a seminal event in the launch of Disney Theatricals, a producing entity that went on to create 'The Lion King,' 'Aladdin' and many others. The first Broadway project of the mighty mouse basically set about putting the movie on stage, replete with the fabulous songs by Alan Menken, the late Howard Ashman and Tim Rice. It was masterfully done and never repeated, even by Disney, who then turned to distinctively theatrical artists like Julie Taymor. This summer, Disney is bringing back this title in a whole new touring production. I'll be fascinated to see what decisions they make for the tale as old as time. Better yet, the Chicago great Kathy Voytko is playing Mrs. Potts. 'Twisted Melodies' at Northlight Theatre: The talented and longtime Chicago actor Kelvin Rolston Jr. has written this new show for himself about the late Chicago-born musician, singer and composer Donny Hathaway, known for his soul music and R&B hits, as well as his duets with Roberta Flack. Expect to hear Hathaway classics like 'I Love You More Than You'll Ever Know,' 'The Ghetto' and 'The Closer I Get to You.' The highly experienced Ron OJ Parson directs this show about a musical giant who, alas, lived only for 33 years. 'Billie Jean' at Chicago Shakespeare Theater: In one of the biggest shows of the post-Wimbledon summer, Chicago Shakespeare Theater explores the life and times of the tennis icon and LGBTQ activist Billie Jean King, who lived for many years in Chicago. I'm told King is involved with a show likely to have a future beyond Chicago. Penned by the popular and prolific Lauren Gunderson, 'Billie Jean' will be directed by Marc Bruni and already has a commercial producer attached. How the show will handle the action on the court itself remains to be seen but you can expect a celebration of King's ground-breaking achievements in and out of the great game. 'Things With Friends' at American Blues Theater: The high-profile writer Kristoffer Diaz ('Hells Kitchen,' 'The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity') is now an ensemble member at American Blues and he has given them the coup of producing the world premiere of his latest play, 'Things With Friends.' Therein, we meet Adele and Burt throwing a dinner party for their dearest friends, even as the George Washington Bridge and Brooklyn Battery Tunnel have collapsed into their respective rivers. Things apparently go from there.
