Windy City Conquers New York

BROADWAY MAGAZINE—City of broad shoulders? Maybe, Mr. Sandburg. City of Broadway? You better believe it! There is no secret that Chicago is a theatre town, but this season Broadway is becoming more and more a Chicago town. The line-up this season on Broadway could have many Chicago theatre fans smiling and saying ‘already saw that when it played here last year.’ To celebrate and make our case for why Broadway is becoming the new Chicago, we offer these 7 reasons. We must’ve missed some, so tell us what you think. Also follow us on Twitter
to see which shows are coming out of Minot, North Dakota to Broadway this season too.

1. David Mamet’s Race – The dean of Chicago playwrights, Mr. Mamet has long been a fixture on Broadway. This season, his muscles are fully flexed both as playwright and director. Race will bring a new (and almost secret) Mamet play direct to Broadway, directed by the playwright. When we say Mr. Mamet has a pair, we don’t just mean two plays on Broadway (though he has that too).
2. David Mamet’s Oleanna – Bill Pullman and Julia Stiles star in a revival of this challenging Mamet play. The show has already generated strong reviews out of town.
3. Tracy Letts’ Superior Donuts – The Pulitzer Prize winning playwright brings his new play from Chicago to Broadway. Mr. Letts’ brilliant August: Osage County may have left Broadway, but the glow of all of Mr. Letts’ work is hard to deny and easy to welcome back to Broadway.
4. Keith Huff’s A Steady Rain – Sure some call it the Daniel Craig and Hugh Jackman play, but it is really Mr. Huff’s play which has brought those two stars together. Set in Chicago, the police play represents yet another powerful Chicago voice on Broadway.
5. Billy Elliot The Musical Tour Starts in Chicago: With a basket full of Tony Awards, the National Tour of Billy Elliot could’ve started anywhere. It didn’t, it started in Chicago. It will be at The Ford Center.
6. Chicago The Musical still towers on Broadway. The production is the longest running revival in Broadway history, and with Jerry Springer in talks to take part in the Broadway run, it looks like the cheeky combination of celebrity-sass and Jazz Age sizzle will remain a hot ticket on Broadway for some time to come.
7. Jude Law in Hamlet by William Shakespeare. The show is one of Broadway’s hottest tickets. Sure the production began in London, but everybody knows that Shakespeare was born in Galena, Illinois. Of course, Galena isn’t quite Chicago, but close enough for our case to be made.

You can check out all the Chicago shows on Broadway right here.

Tags: Broadway, Broadway Magazine, Chicago, daniel craig, David Mamet, Hamlet, hugh jackman, Jude Law, Keith Huff, Oleanna, RACE, Steady Rain, Superior Donuts, Tickets, Tracy Letts

This entry was posted on Monday, July 27th, 2009 at 1:06 am and is filed under Broadway Magazine, Broadway Magazine List. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.