EXTENDED: WOMEN LAUGHING ALONE WITH SALAD AT THEATER WIT NOW RUNNING TWO MORE WEEKS, THROUGH MAY 12

Chi IL Live Shows On Our Radar:
WOMEN LAUGHING ALONE WITH SALAD 
STAYS FRESH LONGER!

Here at ChiIL Live Shows, we're elated that Theater Wit is extending its smash hit comedy Women Laughing Alone with Salad, Sheila Callaghan’s satirical feminist farce based on the Internet meme of the same name, through May 12 due to high box office demand. It's a favorite of ours and a fiercely funny show. Check out my full review right here, then go already. 

Originally slated to close April 29, audiences now have two more weeks to be shocked and convulsing with laughter at Wit’s wildly subversive tour-de-force about friendship, salad, sex, bodies, yoga, salad, men, envy, women, pharmaceuticals, diets, salad, uppers and salad.

Women Laughing Alone with Salad has been a fresh and healthy recipe for box office success at Theater Wit thanks to critical acclaim like:

“Don't read about it. Don't ask your friends about it. Just buy your tickets and go.”

- New City

“3-1/2 stars! Deeply original, stellar and fearless! Ribald and raucous, but also incredibly smart. Engstrom is breathtaking!”

- Chicago Tribune

“The ferocious, culture-eating acid of Callaghan's wit is hilariously rendered by Devon de Mayo's staging for Theater Wit.”

- Chicago Reader

“4 stars! One of the most hilarious things you’re likely to see in a theatre...more laughs in the first five minutes of this play alone than in most comedies. One of the best shows of 2018 so far. A must-see.”

– ChicagoOnStage.com

STOCK PHOTO CLICHÉ TURNED INTERNET MEME TURNED FEMINIST COMEDY 

MAKES ITS CHICAGO DEBUT MARCH 9-APRIL 29 AT THEATER WIT

 All photos by Charles Osgood 

(From left) Echaka Agba, Daniella Pereira and Jennifer Engstrom star in Women Laughing Alone with Salad, Sheila Callaghan’s satirical comedy based on the meta-feminist Internet meme of the same name. 

Expect nudity, a full on stylized orgy of a 3 way, beauty mutilation, masturbation, and plenty of colorful language, so leave the kids at home for this one!

(From left) Japhet Balaban, Echaka Agba, Daniella Pereira and Jennifer Engstrom 

Review:

I'll admit, I've never refrigerated a press release before! I have gotten some creative pitches, like a glass bottle full of sand delivered FedEx with a press invite for an iced tea company inside. Theater WIT's latest, a "Pinterest worthy" press release "salad" with lettuce, peppers and a fork, had me laughing before I left the lobby, and set the mood for this utterly unique show. 

**On a weird, semi related side note, if you have a phone app that turns phrases backwards, try speaking in "Eat The Salad". I discovered that backwards it sounds a hell of a lot like "philosophy". No kidding. 

Try it.**

With three large screens, Women Laughing Alone With Salad blasts us with a colorful media barrage that embraces the absurdity of the advertising we're bombarded with, and the joys of social media that loves to lampoon it. Philosophy indeed! The music is upbeat, recognizable, contemporary hits, and the nonverbal scenes are a scream. This show is achingly funny and revealing, literally and figuratively. The scenes are certainly exaggerated in style, and yet, they almost have to be, to counteract the crazy making diets, sexuality, and airbrushed, exuberant expectations we've held up as a feminine ideal for far too long.

"Three years, four performers, a production team of twenty eight and one thousand four hundred pieces of fake lettuce all came together at our press opening."

Jeremy Wechsler (Artistic Director, Theater Wit)

(From left) Tori (Daniella Pereira) tangles with Meredith (Echaka Agba) as Guy (Japhet Balaban) looks on

This show has some delightful gender bending drag going on, that more clearly exaggerates stereotypes and all too familiar behaviors. The second act also amusingly reveals just how clueless most adman bro dudes truly are about how to market to women or even how to date or relate to them as human beings. Of course, they've updated the stock images to represent contemporary women (snark font engaged). They are now using some androgyny along with mixed races and organic specialty greens instead of iceberg lettuce, to sell women on the laughing salad woman archetype. 

(From left) Echaka Agba, Daniella Pereira and Jennifer Engstrom

At least there's a ray of hope for change in the overeducated, multitasking mom boss. Although she's trapped in her own modern hell of unrealistic expectations as much as Sandy (Jennifer Engstrom), Guy's mom, a women's rights protester back in the day. She had a promising start fighting the patriarchy and ended fighting against a cheating spouse and unfulfilling destiny as a SAHM, and ultimately a fighting a losing battle against age and agism, one custom salad at a time. 

(From left) Jennifer Engstrom plays Sandy and Japhet Balaban is Guy

Women Laughing Alone With Salad is undoubtedly over the top, behind the couch, and below the belt funny. This intrepid cast eat raw onions and peppers, flee falling greens, and bare their bodies and souls in the name of story and truth telling. Echaka Agba, Japhet Balaban, Jennifer Engstrom and Daniella Pereira were all fabulously funny playing off one another and give lettuce entertain you a whole new connotation. As fun and funny as this show is, it'll likely leave a lasting impression, and have you kicking in that critical thinking at the sight of every salad and insidious ad, for days to come. 


(Foreground, from left) Meredith (Echaka Agba) and Guy (Japhet Balaban) flirt while Tori (Daniella Pereira) lies low behind 

(From left) Echaka Agba plays Meredith and Japhet Balaban is Guy 

Women Laughing Alone With Salad explores just what happens when a society orchestrates an organized assault on half the population for generations, to coerce them into buying more and more potentially painful and dangerous products to fix their flaws, all while starving themselves into sometimes fatally unrealistic and unsustainable sizes. 

We greatly enjoyed this raunchy, revealing, relevant exploration of what women do to ourselves and to others in the name of food, family, fashion, sexuality, and sizeism. This show is what happens when women stop laughing alone with salad and start laughing with friends at sexism. Highly recommended. 

 (From left) Japhet Balaban plays Guy and Echaka Agba is Meredith  

Don’t miss this subversive tour-de-force about friendship, salad, sex, bodies, yoga, salad, men, envy, women, pharmaceuticals, diets, salad, uppers and salad. Theater Wit’s Chicago premiere of Women Laughing Alone with Salad runs through April 29, 2018 at Theater Wit, 1229 N. Belmont Ave., Chicago. For mature audiences. Tickets: TheaterWit.org or call 773.975.8150. 

And in other great news, not only does this show promise to serve up big laughs, it comes with an immediate side of economic justice!

Single tickets to Women Laughing Alone with Salad are $12-$70.

However, tickets for women to all regular performances will be discounted to match the 79% wage gap between men and women in Illinois.

To illustrate, at the $24 ticket level, male-identifying patrons pay full price, while female-identifying patrons pay only $18.95, corrected for the 79% wage gap.

Theater Wit is tossing up a crisp Chicago premiere of Women Laughing Alone with Salad, Sheila Callaghan’s satirical comedy based on the meta-feminist Internet meme of the same name.

Don’t miss this four-person, satirical, subversive tour-de-force about friendship, salad, sex, bodies, yoga, salad, men, envy, women, pharmaceuticals, diets, salad, uppers and salad. 



Previews of Women Laughing Alone with Salad are March 9-18: Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m., Sunday at 3 p.m.

Performances run through April 29: Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m., Sunday at
3 p.m.

Theater Wit is located at 1229 N. Belmont in Chicago’s Lakeview neighborhood. Another great way to secure seats is to sign up for a Theater Wit Membership, an “all the theater you can eat” deal that lets you see as many plays as you want in any of Wit’s three spaces for a low monthly fee of $29/$22 for students, along with many member perks.

To purchase single tickets, a Membership, or to inquire about Flex Passes, visit TheaterWit.org or call 773.975.8150.



More about Women Laughing Alone with Salad

You’ve seen them a hundred times before. Stock photos of attractive women, sitting alone, enjoying a salad so hilarious they can’t help but explode with laughter and delight.

The proliferation of this absurd cliché caught the attention of the Internet in 2011 after Edith Zimmerman posted the first collection on the feminist blog The Hairpin. Titled “Women Laughing Alone With Salad,” it featured 18 photos illustrating this trend with no accompanying text.

Zimmerman’s post spurred a number of hilarious memes parodying this stereotypical portrayal of women in media, including a tumblr page.

And this play, a fierce, funny, feminist look at the maniacal gauntlet of gender relations and the relentless pursuit of insane ideals. Our heroines are trapped on a treadmill of dysfunctional relationships, warped body image and ludicrous pornography, carving their way through a suffocating, tangled mess. With pointed jabs and razor wit, Women Laughing Alone with Salad disembowels the cosmetic myth of pre-packaged feminine empowerment.

When it debuted at Washington D.C.’s Woolly Mammoth Theatre in 2015, playwright Sheila Callaghan, also a writer/producer on the hit Showtime comedy Shameless, told the Washington Post, “Nobody likes salad that much. And the notion that you’re supposed to feel that way – salad will never be that kind of satisfying. No matter how creative you get with salad, it’s still (expletive) lettuce and vegetables, right?”

DC Theatre Scene subsequently hailed Women Laughing Alone with Salad a “fresh, funny play…the poster child for what feminist theatre should be: a great night out on the town watching a slam bam comedy which is also a serious conversation about the society we oh-so-currently live in.”

Salad Days @ Theater Wit:
Behind the scenes of Women Laughing Alone with Salad



Here in Chicago, Devon de Mayo (pictured above) makes her Theater Wit directorial debut with Women Laughing Alone with Salad, fresh from staging the world premiere of The Burn by Philip Dawkins for Steppenwolf Theatre for Young Audiences. Other recent projects include Harvey at Court Theatre, You On the Moors Now by Jaclyn Backhaus for The Hypocrites, the world premiere of Sycamore at Raven Theatre and Don't Look Back/Must Look Back at Pivot Arts.

Wit’s Women Laughing Alone with Salad stars Echaka Agba, Japhet Balaban, Jennifer Engstrom and Daniella Pereira.

Echaka Agba (Meredith/Bruce) was named to the Chicago Tribune’s “Hot New Faces of Chicago Theater, Class of 2017”), and singled out in the 2017 Time Out Chicago Theater Awards for featured performance and breakout performance in Broken Nose Theatre’s At the Table, which also won her the Jeff Award for Best Supporting Actress. Other credits are Short Shakes! Romeo and Juliet at Chicago Shakespeare, United Flight 232, Jeff Award winner for Best Ensemble at House Theatre, and The Crucible and Between Riverside and Crazy at Steppenwolf.

Japhet Balaban (Guy/Alice) was also named to the Chicago Tribune’s “Hot New Faces of Chicago Theater, Class of 2017”), drawing particular attention for his work in Ideation (Jackalope Theatre). Other credits are You on the Moors Now (The Hypocrites), Posh (Steep Theatre), Never The Sinner (Victory Gardens), Balm in Gilead (Griffin Theatre) and Look Back in Anger (Redtwist).

Jennifer Engstrom (Sandy/Guy) is a veteran of regional and Chicago stages and an A Red Orchid Theatre ensemble member, where she performed in The Fastest Clock in The Universe, Eric LaRue, Fatboy, The Hothouse, 3C and The Mutilated (Jeff nomination for Outstanding Actress).

Daniella Pereira (Tori/Joe) was most recently seen in Letters Home (Griffin Theatre), The Taming of the Shrew (Oak Park Festival Theatre) and Cymbeline (Strawdog Theatre Company).



Sheila Callaghan's plays have been produced and developed with Soho Rep, Playwright's Horizons, Yale Rep, South Coast Rep, Clubbed Thumb, The LARK, Actor's Theatre of Louisville, New Georges, The Flea, Woolly Mammoth, Boston Court and Rattlestick Playwright's Theatre. She received the Princess Grace Award for emerging artists, a Jerome Fellowship from Playwright's Center in Minneapolis, a MacDowell Residency, a Cherry Lane Mentorship Fellowship, the Susan Smith Blackburn Award and the Whiting Award. Her plays have been produced internationally in New Zealand, Australia, Norway, Germany, Portugal and the Czech Republic. These include Scab, Crawl Fade to White, Crumble, We Are Not These Hands, Dead City, Lascivious Something, Kate Crackernuts, That Pretty Pretty; Or, The Rape Play, Fever/Dream, Everything You Touch, Roadkill Confidential, Elevada and Bed. She is published with Playscripts.com and Samuel French, and several of her collections are published with Counterpoint Press. She has taught playwriting at Columbia University, The University of Rochester, The College of New Jersey, Florida State University and Spalding University. She is an affiliated artist with Clubbed Thumb, a member of the Obie winning playwright's organization 13P and an alumni of New Dramatists. In 2010, Callaghan was profiled by Marie Claire as one of "18 Successful Women Who Are Changing the World." She was also named one of Variety’s "10 Screenwriters to Watch" of 2010. Callaghan is a writer/producer on the hit Showtime comedy Shameless and a founder of the feminist activist group The Kilroys. She was nominated for a 2016 Golden Globe for her work on Hulu’s Casual and a 2017 WGA Award for her Shameless episode “I Am A Storm.”

Designers for Women Laughing Alone with Salad are Arnel Sancianco (set), Mieka van der Ploeg (costumes), Heather Gilbert (lights), Shain Longbehn (sound), Joe Burke (projections) Jesse Gaffney (props), Rachel Flesher (intimacy) and Clare Cooney (casting).


About Theater Wit
Theater Wit, Chicago’s “smart art” theater, is a major hub of the Chicago neighborhood theater scene, where audiences enjoy a smorgasbord of excellent productions in three, 99-seat spaces, see a parade of talented artists and mingle with audiences from all over Chicago.

“A thrilling addition to Chicago’s roster of theaters” (Chicago Tribune) and “a terrific place to see a show” (New City), Theater Wit is now in its eighth season at its home at
1229 N. Belmont Ave., in the heart of the new Belmont Theatre District in Chicago’s Lakeview neighborhood. In 2014, Theater Wit was awarded the National Theatre Award by the American Theatre Wing for strengthening the quality, diversity and dynamism of American theater.

The company’s most recent hits include The Antelope Party by Eric John Meyer, This Way Outta Santaland by Mitchell Fain, 10 Out of 12 and Mr. Burns, a post-electric play by Anne Washburn, Naperville by Mat Smart, The New Sincerity by Alena Smith, Bad Jews by Joshua Harmon, The (curious case of the) Watson Intelligence and Seven Homeless Mammoths Wander New England by Madeleine George, and Completeness and The Four of Us by Itamar Moses.

Visit TheaterWit.org or call the Theater Wit box office, 773.975.8150, to purchase a Membership, inquire about Flex Pass options or to buy single tickets.

To receive an “artisanal selection of consonants and vowels from Theater Wit,” sign up at TheaterWit.org/mailing for exclusive updates, flash deals and behind-the-scenes production scoop every few weeks.

In an odd screaming symmetry, Theater Wit is currently running not one but two shows whose posters feature an open, yelling mouth. Though very different, both shows are quite good and well worth a look! 

REVIEW: Nuanced Nevermore Macabre Musical Madness

Through January 28, 2018 at The Edge Theater

Chi, IL LIVE Shows On Our Radar: 

Chicago Premiere!

Black Button Eyes Productions Presents

NEVERMORE – The Imaginary Life and 

Mysterious Death of Edgar Allan Poe

Book, Music and Lyrics by Jonathan Christenson 

Directed by Ed Rutherford 

Music Direction by Nick Sula

Choreography by Derek Van Barham

This has to be the creepiest, coolest board of headshots I've ever seen! Black Button Eyes Nevermore cast living up to their name.

Following its hit production of SHOCKHEADED PETER, Black Button Eyes Productions is pleased to conclude its 2017-18 season with the Chicago premiere musical NEVERMORE – The Imaginary Life and Mysterious Death of Edgar Allan Poe, the moving life story of the iconic American writer told through haunting music, poetic storytelling and stunning stagecraft, with book, music and lyrics by Jonathan Christenson. Directed by Producing Artistic Director Ed Rutherford, with music direction by Nick Sula and choreography by Derek Van Barham, NEVERMORE will play January 5 – 28, 2018 at The Edge Theater, 5451 N. Broadway in Chicago. Tickets are currently available at nevermorechicago.brownpapertickets.com. 

Running time: 2:10, including intermission.

REVIEW:

It was truly a treat to catch Nevermore with my teenage son. We've both loved Poe's work forever, but knew little of his life story. This eerie and excellent musical makes for an entertaining night out. Poe endures one wrenching loss after another throughout childhood and into adulthood. He loses his parents and then his beloved adopted mother to suicide after she's forcibly committed to an asylum. He loses his true love, his chance at a college education, his sobriety, and eventually his mind. 

Photo credit for all: Cole Simon

One of the most striking characters, is the ever-present Raven, who stalks Poe as a grim reaper like specter with a mask reminiscent of the black plague doctors. His spiraling descent into despair and madness parallels his increasing genius in stellar storytelling. As Poe is pouring out his grief onto the pages, he is increasingly haunted by characters, both from his life and of his own making. 

Black Button Eyes Productions does a fabulous job on a storefront theatre budget. The set design is sparse and simplistic, which works well since the story is so dramatic and colorful. The cast’s musical performance of the fitting score is fabulous. The accompanying band of three keyboards (Nick Sula, Michael Evans, TJ Anderson) and percussion (Cali Kasten) does a fine job. Still, I would love to see a remount with a small, live band actually on stage, featuring theremin, dissonant strings, and maybe even a saw. 

Kevin Webb does a standout performance as Edgar Allan Poe, and there's not a weak link in the ensemble. Overall, this is an eclectic and striking production that's well worth seeing. Highly recommended. Catch Nevermore at The Edge Theatre through January 28th.

NEVERMORE features Kevin Webb as Edgar Allan Poe with Megan DeLay, Jessica Lauren Fisher, Ryan Lanning, Matt McNabb, Maiko Terazawa and Jeremy Trager.

Edgar Allan Poe’s life reads like one of his short stories: an unrelenting tale of misery and woe. His death is also shrouded in mystery. Was he just spectacularly unlucky, or did a supernatural shadow fall over his life? This Chicago premiere weaves fact and fiction into a tapestry of music and poetry.

The production team for NEVERMORE includes: Jeremy Hollis (scenic design, technical director) Beth Laske-Miller (costume design), Liz Cooper (lighting design), Robert Hornbostel (sound design), Catherine Woods (props design, puppet design) and Hazel McCabe-Flowers (stage manager).



Location: The Edge Theater, 5451 N. Broadway, Chicago
Regular run: Saturday, January 6 – Sunday, January 28, 2018
Curtain Times: Thursdays, Fridays & Saturdays at 7:30 pm; Sundays at 3 pm.

*Please note: there will be added matinee performances on Saturday, January 13, Saturday, January 20 and Saturday, January 27 at 2 pm. 

Tickets: $30. Tickets are currently available at nevermorechicago.brownpapertickets.com. Tickets may also be purchased in person beginning one hour prior to each performance.



About the Artists:
Jonathan Christenson (Book, Music & Lyrics) is a director, writer and composer whose original musical plays have been presented at major theatres and festivals throughout the U.K., Australia, the U.S. and Canada. His work has been recognized with more than 40 British, Canadian and American awards and nominations, including a Lucille Lortel nomination for Outstanding New Musical of New York’s 2015 Off-Broadway season. His plays have been published by Playwrights Canada Press, Newest Press and Bayeaux Arts, recordings of his music can be found on iTunes and at Broadway Records, and his productions are featured in American Theatre, Maclean’s, CTR, PRISM International, Canada World View and All Stages. He was named one of “Alberta’s Fifty Most Influential People” by Venture Magazine and Alberta Playwrights Network chose him as one of Alberta’s one hundred most significant theatre artists of the past one hundred years.

Ed Rutherford (Director) recently directed Black Button Eyes’ Jeff-Recommended Shockheaded Peter, preceded by Amour (Chicago premiere), Goblin Marke, and Stephin Merrit's musical adaptation of Coraline (Midwest Premiere). In 2017, Ed also directed the Jeff-Recommend productions of The Liar with Promethean Theatre Ensemble and Paula Vogel’s The Baltimore Waltz at Brown Paper Box Co. He is an artistic associate at Promethean, where he additionally directed his own world premiere adaptation of the Peter S. Beagle fantasy novel The Last Unicorn, Brecht’s The Caucasian Chalk Circle and the company's inaugural production, Christopher Durang’s Beyond Therapy. As an actor, he has performed with Drury Lane Oakbrook, Porchlight, Theater Wit and many others. A graduate of Northwestern's theater program, he is currently completing his MBA at Kellogg.

Nick Sula (Music Director) is a pianist, arranger and award-winning music director for theater and cabaret. He is proud to return to Black Button Eyes where he performed as music director for Amour and Coraline. Recent theater credits include music direction at Porchlight Music Theatre, Pride Films and Plays, Bohemian Theatre Ensemble and Chicago Theatre Workshop. Nick is an instructor, music director and vocal coach at the Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University. He is also a member of the Chicago Cabaret Professionals, performing with vocalists at venues such as Davenport’s, Uptown Underground, Stage 773, Victory Gardens, The Twisted Vine and the Park West. www.nicksula.com

Derek Van Barham (Choreographer) is the Associate Artistic Director of Pride Films & Plays, a member of the Red Tape Theatre ensemble and a former Artistic Director of The Ruckus. For PFP, he has directed Angry Fags (Steppenwolf Garage Repertory), Songs from an Unmade Bed (Jeff nomination: Best Director of a Musical or Revue), PRISCILLA, Queen of the Desert: The Musical (co-directed by David Zak). He also wrote, directed and choreographed BITE: A Pucking Queer Cabaret and Kill Your Boyfriends. Other directing credits include Three Days of Rain (Boho), Miracle! by Dan Savage and Skooby Don't (Hell in a Handbag) and Trash (New American Folk Theatre). He has choreographed for Black Button Eyes (Shockheaded Peter, Coraline the Musical, Goblin Market, Amour), Permoveo (Albert Cashier), The Plagiarists, Inappropriate Theatre,and Salonathon. He can currently be seen improvising with the LGBT team Baby Wine (Fridays at The Annoyance). He was recently named one of Windy City Times 30 Under 30, recognizing individuals from Chicago's LGBTQ community. He holds an MFA from Chicago College of Performing Arts. www.derekvanbarham.com



About Black Button Eyes Productions
Along with the Jeff-Recommended Chicago storefront premiere of Shockheaded Peter, the other production of the 2017-2018 season, Nevermore continues Black Button Eyes Productions' mission to bring to Chicago premieres and seldom-seen works containing elements of fantasy, in which the magical and surreal invade reality. The company was founded in 2014 with the acclaimed Midwest Premiere of the musical Coraline, and continued in 2015 by producing the musical Goblin Market in its first Chicago production in over 15 years, attended by the author, Chicago native Polly Pen. In 2016 the company presented the Chicago premiere of the musical Amour.

REVIEW: Significant Brilliance at AFT and Theater WIT's Significant Other

Chi, IL LIVE Shows On Our Radar:

Midwest Premiere!

About Face Theatre and Theater Wit Present

SIGNIFICANT OTHER

By Joshua Harmon

Directed by AFT Artistic Associate Keira Fromm

November 3 – December 9, 2017 at Theater Wit



(left to right) Alex Weisman, Cassidy Slaughter-Mason, Amanda Drinkall and Tiffany Oglesby in About Face Theatre and Theater Wit’s Midwest premiere of SIGNIFICANT OTHER. Photo by Michael Brosilow.

Review:

With a brand new Jeff Award in hand, for Best Actor in Victory Garden's smash hit, Hand to God, and a Broadway role secured for spring, Alex Weisman seems like the last guy in town to convincingly play a down on his luck, angry, depressed guy who's jealous of his friends. Yet, he hits the mark in spectacular fashion in Significant Other. Alex and the entire cast more than do justice to this witty script by Joshua Harmon. We enjoyed Theater Wit's production of playwright Joshua Harmon's acclaimed comedy, Bad Jews, and caught it several times, so we are excited to see more of his work hit Theater Wit this season. 

(left to right) Amanda Drinkall, Alex Weisman and Tiffany Oglesby 
Photo by Michael Brosilow.

The energy on stage is palpable, and the rapport between all four friends and between Alex and his grandma is quite believable and a joy to see. The characters are quirky and interesting, with a bond to each other forged from long term friendships full of shared past adventures, inside jokes, traditions, and often recounted stories. This makes the growing pains of aging and changing relationships all the more wrenching. I particularly loved the parallels of a young, gay man longing for a lifelong partner and a family, striking out in the relationship department, and his grandmother's loneliness as a widow, on the other end of the romance spectrum, a rarely examined theme.

Significant Other hit hilarious high notes of friendship, adventure, and love counterweighted with universal lows of rejection, fear, loneliness, jealousy and self hatred. Even the grey areas where multiple emotions coexist and collide, are explored with humor and heartfelt bravery. Alex Weisman is a standout as Jordan Berman, as is his trio of girlfriends, and his grandmother, Ann Whitney. There's also a sweet dose of eye candy in the shape of lust interests, Benjamin Sprunger and Ninos Baba.

 (left to right) Alex Weisman and Benjamin Sprunger 

Photo by Michael Brosilow

SignificantOther-4 (left to right) Alex Weisman, Tiffany Oglesby and Ninos Baba 

Photo by Michael Brosilow

For anyone who's ever longed for love, laughed with friends, or felt conflicted/angry/lonely at others' happy events, this is a must see. We highly recommend Significant Other, now playing through December 9th at Theater WIT.

(left to right) Alex Weisman and Amanda Drinkall

Photo by Michael Brosilow

About Face Theatre and Theater Wit are pleased to present the Midwest premiere of the romantic comedy 

SIGNIFICANT OTHER 

by Joshua Harmon, 

playwright of the hit comedy Bad Jews. 

Directed by AFT Artistic Associate Keira Fromm, SIGNIFICANT OTHER will play November 3 – December 9, 2017 at Theater Wit, 1229 W. Belmont Ave. in Chicago. Tickets are currently on sale at aboutfacetheatre.com or theaterwit.org, by calling (773) 975-8150 or in person at the Theater Wit Box Office. 

Significant Other is the last chance for Chicago audiences to see Alex Weisman as a local, albeit playing a New Yorker, before he actually heads out to New York and dons Hogwarts Robes for his new gig on Broadway! Get your tickets ASAP, before the run is sold out. This is sure to be a hot ticket.   

The cast of About Face Theatre and Theater Wit’s Chicago premiere of SIGNIFICANT OTHER (top, l to r) AFT Artistic Associates Benjamin Sprunger and Alex Weisman with Ninos Baba (bottom, l to r) Amanda Drinkall, Tiffany Oglesby, Cassidy Slaughter-Mason and Ann Whitney.

SIGNIFICANT OTHER features AFT Artistic Associates Benjamin Sprunger and Alex Weisman with Ninos Baba, Amanda Drinkall, Tiffany Oglesby, Cassidy Slaughter-Mason and Ann Whitney.

Jordan Berman is a single gay man in New York City. Mr. Right is nowhere on his horizons. As he's nearing his 30s, his close group of girlfriends begin getting married en masse. What happens when you feel like life is leaving you behind but you're still expected to be at the forefront cheering on your friends on their perfect wedding day? Significant Other is a bittersweet comedy about friendship, single-hood and hoping you're not the one choking on car exhaust as the "Just Married" sign disappears from view. 

(left to right) Alex Weisman, Benjamin Sprunger and Amanda Drinkall 

Photo by Michael Brosilow.

In 2015, Joshua Harmon's play Bad Jews hit Theater Wit and performed to capacity crowds for eight months. A breakaway playwright of his generation, Harmon's work offered a unique and searingly funny look at a new generation of American Jews. Now, with Significant Other he turns his compassion and considerable wit to marriage.

"This feels like the perfect moment to be bringing Significant Other to the stage," comments Director Keira Fromm. "On the surface, Significant Other is a very funny play about single-hood and friendship. On a deeper level, our protagonist, Jordan, is enduring an existential crisis. On the brink of turning 30 and recognizing that being gay today no longer means you're immune to expectations of marriage, Jordan is failing at the task of finding his soulmate. He begins to feel that life is passing him by and finding his way in the world starts to feel like a gargantuan undertaking. In our increasingly alienating world, I find that quest intensely moving and relatable.” 

"I am very excited to join About Face Theatre in presenting the Midwest premiere of Joshua Harmon’s newest work,” comments Theater Wit Artistic Director Jeremy Wechsler. “I think Josh is a remarkably original writer with a gift for showing us the utterly real and utterly unexpected. His plays are always about deeply human characters with a writerly perspective we've not seen previously dramatized, and Significant Other is no exception. Bad Jews was a legitimate theatrical event of 2015 – and Significant Other promises, in its writing and casting, to be another for 2017."

(left to right) Cassidy Slaughter-Mason, Benjamin Sprunger, Alex Weisman, Ninos Baba and Tiffany Oglesby

Photo by Michael Brosilow

The production team for SIGNIFICANT OTHER includes Jeff Kmiec (scenic design), Noël Huntzinger (costume design), John Kelly (lighting design), Christopher Kriz (sound design), Pauline Oleksy (props design), Catherine Allen (production manager) and Helen Lattyak (stage manager).

Location: Theater Wit, 1229 W. Belmont Ave., Chicago
Dates: Previews: Friday, November 3 at 7:30 pm, Saturday, November 4 at 7:30 pm, Sunday, November 5 at 7 pm and Tuesday, November 7 at 7 pm.
Press opening: Wednesday, November at 8 at 7 pm
Regular run: Friday, November 10 – Saturday, December 9, 2017
Curtain Times: Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 pm; Sundays at 3 pm. Please note: there will not be a performance on Thursday, November 9 or Thursday, November 23 (Thanksgiving); there are added performances on Wednesday, November 15 at 7:30 pm, Sunday, Saturday, November 25 at 3 pm and Sunday, November 26 at 7 pm and Saturday, December 9 at 3 pm.

Tickets: Previews: $15. Regular run: $20-$38. Discounts available for groups of 10 or more. Tickets are currently on sale at aboutfacetheatre.com or theaterwit.org, by calling (773) 975-8150 or in person at Theater Wit Box Office.

Artist Biographies
Joshua Harmon’s (Playwright) play Bad Jews received its world premiere at Roundabout Underground and was the first production to transfer to the Roundabout's Laura Pels Theatre (Outer Critics Circle and Lucille Lortel Award nominations, Best Play). It became the third most-produced play in the U.S. during the 2014-15 season and transferred to London’s West End after sell-out runs at Theatre Royal Bath and the St. James Theatre. His newest play, Significant Other, opened at Roundabout this summer. His work has been produced and developed by Manhattan Theatre Club, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Hangar Theatre, Ars Nova, and Actor's Express, where he was the 2010-2011 National New Play Network Playwright-in-Residence. He has received fellowships from MacDowell, Atlantic Center for the Arts, SPACE at Ryder Farm, and the Eudora Welty Foundation. Joshua is a recent graduate of Juilliard and at work on commissions for Roundabout Theatre Company and Lincoln Center Theater.

Keira Fromm (Director) is a Jeff Award nominated director, a casting director and a teacher based out of Chicago. Favorite recent directing credits include: Bright Half Life (About Face Theatre), A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Gynecologic Oncology Unit at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Hospital of New York City (Route 66 Theatre Company) The Columnist (American Blues Theater), How the World Began (Rivendell Theatre Ensemble), A Kid Like Jake (About Face Theatre), Luce (Next Theatre), Charles Ives Take Me Home (Strawdog), The How and the Why (TimeLine Theatre), Broadsword (Gift Theatre) and Fallow (Steep Theatre). Keira is a proud Artistic Associate with About Face Theatre. She received her MFA from DePaul University and her BFA from Boston University. She is a member of SDC, as well as the Lincoln Center Theater Directors Lab. Keira is a frequent guest director at DePaul, as well as Roosevelt University. 

SIGNIFICANT OTHER was developed during a residency the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center's National Playwrights Conference in 2013. Preston Whiteway, Executive Director; Wendy C. Goldberg, Artistic Director.

About The Theatres 
About Face Theatre creates exceptional, innovative, and adventurous theatre and educational programming that advances the national dialogue on sexual and gender identity, and challenges and entertains audiences in Chicago and beyond.

Theater Wit, Chicago’s “smart art” theater, is a major hub of the Chicago neighborhood theater scene, where audiences enjoy a smorgasbord of excellent productions in three, 99-seat spaces, see a parade of talented artists and mingle with audiences from all over Chicago. 

“A thrilling addition to Chicago’s roster of theaters” (Chicago Tribune) and “a terrific place to see a show” (New City), Theater Wit is now in its seventh season at its home at 1229 N. Belmont, in the heart of the new Belmont Theatre District in Chicago’s Lakeview neighborhood. The company’s most recent hits include 10 Out of 12 and Mr. Burns, a post-electric play by Anne Washburn, Naperville by Mat Smart, The New Sincerity by Alena Smith, Bad Jews by Joshua Harmon, The (curious case of the) Watson Intelligence and Seven Homeless Mammoths Wander New England by Madeleine George, and Completeness and The Four of Us by Itamar Moses. 

In 2014, Theater Wit was awarded the National Theatre Award by the American Theatre Wing for strengthening the quality, diversity and dynamism of American theater. Theater Wit also brings together Chicago’s best storefront companies at its Lakeview home, including 2017-18 resident companies About Face, Kokandy Productions and Shattered Globe. 

(left to right) Amanda Drinkall, Alex Weisman, Tiffany Oglesby and Cassidy Slaughter-Mason in About Face Theatre and Theater Wit’s Midwest premiere of SIGNIFICANT OTHER. Photo by Michael Brosilow.

LAST CALL: SPAMILTON at The Royal George is Closing 10/8/17

Chi, IL LIVE Shows On Our Radar:

THE CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED CHICAGO PRODUCTION OF 

“SPAMILTON” 

AT THE ROYAL GEORGE THEATRE MUST CLOSE SUNDAY, OCTOBER 8 

After a Seven-Month Run in Chicago, “Spamilton” Premieres in Los Angeles November 12

Kenaz-Mara 2017

Don't miss your chance to keep a souvenir "Playkill"!
A big favorite of ours here at ChiIL Live Shows is leaving Chicago,

so catch it while you can.

Here at ChiIL Mama & ChiIL Live Shows we highly recommend Spamilton. This show is more of an irreverent roast of Lin-Manuel Miranda and the whole Broadway musicals genre than a parody of Hamilton in particular, though it does include brilliantly funny lyric rewrites of Hamilton tunes. Both of my teens adored it as much as I did, and we all laughed early and often throughout the show. It's fabulously funny and exceeded all our expectations.



If you're looking for something to entertain the tough to please teen demographic, Spamilton is a good bet. This is also a fun find for a date night or multigenerational entertainment. If you're searching for a show as funny to the kids as it is to the grandparents, Spamilton is nearly 90 minutes of non stop fun. They keep the sets and costumes minimalist and two of the sisters are puppets, but the over the top creative writing, fabulous vocals, and heartfelt hilarity is more than worth the admission. There's not a bad seat in the place, as the Royal George cabaret space is intimate. There's also a convenient bar, right at the back of the seating. 

This wickedly witty and wonderful production is an absolute must see for anyone familiar with Hamilton and/or Broadway musicals. Don't miss this!

 Check out our full review and more show info HERE then GO already.




The producers of “Spamilton,” the critically acclaimed parody of “Hamilton,” announced an October 8 closing date for the Chicago run at the Royal George Theatre (1641 N. Halsted). Created by Tony Award honoree Gerard Alessandrini, the mastermind behind “Forbidden Broadway,” “Spamilton” officially opened in Chicago on March 12 to rave reviews, with Hedy Weiss of the Chicago Sun-Times calling “Spamilton” an “altogether brilliant, hilarious, cliché-demolishing send-up of ‘Hamilton,’” Chris Jones of Chicago Tribune noting “You really don’t want to miss ‘Spamilton,’” and Barbara Vitello of the Daily Herald exclaiming the show is “deliciously silly. The laughs come fast and furious!” The all-Chicago “Broadway ready” (Chicago Sun-Times) cast includes Becca Brown, Aaron Holland, Adam LaSalle, Yando Lopez, Gabriel Mudd and David Robbins. Original cast members include Donterrio Johnson, Michelle Lauto and Eric Andrew Lewis.

The final tickets for “Spamilton” are available now. The final performance takes place Sunday, October 8 at 5 p.m. Tickets ($59 – $99) can be purchased at the Royal George Theatre’s box office online, at Ticketmaster.com or by calling 312.988.9000.  

“After seven great months in Chicago here at the Royal George with our talented local cast, we feel very lucky to have been so well-received for so long,” said Alessandrini. “While it’s bittersweet to be leaving the Windy City, we’re thrilled about the next steps for ‘Spamilton,’ including continuing our open run in New York and opening the Los Angeles production in November.”

“Spamilton,” which was initially scheduled in New York as an exclusive 18-performance off-Broadway engagement, has extended three times and is now playing its seventeenth smash month of an open engagement at the 47th Street Theatre in the heart of New York’s Theatre District. The New York production earned rave reviews across-the-board, with Ben Brantley of The New York Times calling it “smart, silly and convulsively funny!” and Lin-Manuel Miranda exclaiming “I laughed my brains out!” In its Chicago premiere, the local cast received additional acclaim, with critics hailing the production “endlessly entertaining” (Performink), “A Must-See!” (BroadwayWorld.com), and “razor sharp and filled with wit and humor” (Chicago Theatre Review). On opening night, cast members from the Chicago production of “Hamilton” were in the audience, and following the performance Wayne Brady called the production “Amazing! It’s the perfect blend of funny and parody. Go see ‘Spamilton!’ This fall, “Spamilton” makes its West Coast debut at the Kirk Douglas Theatre with Center Theatre Group November 5 – December 31, 2017.



In addition to Alessandrini, the creative team includes Gerry McIntyre (Choreography), Dustin Cross (Costume Design), Milo Blue (Scenic Design), Andy Kloubec (Lighting Design), Matt Reich (Sound Design), Jamie Karas (Prop Design), Leah Munsey-Konops (Wig Design), Fred Barton (Musical Director), and Richard Danley and Fred Barton (Musical Arrangements).

“Spamilton” is produced in Chicago by John Freedson, David Zippel, Gerard Alessandrini, Margaret Cotter and Liberty Theatricals, in association with JAM Theatricals. Brandon Kinley and Keirsten Hodgens are the understudies for the production.

The performance schedule for “Spamilton” is as follows: Tuesdays through Fridays at 7:30 p.m., Saturdays at 5 p.m. and 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. and 5 p.m. For additional details, visit Ticketmaster.com or TheRoyalGeorgeTheatre.com.

For more information, visit Spamilton.com.