ChiIL Live Shows On Our Radar
World Premiere of
BUST
BY PULITZER PRIZE FINALIST ZORA HOWARD
co-produced with Atlanta’s Alliance Theatre
Now Playing Through May 18, 2025
(L-R) Renika Williams-Blutcher, Raymond Anthony Thomas, Ivan Cecil Walks, Caroline Clay, Bernard Gilbert and Victoria Omoregie. Credit HugoHentoff
REVIEW
By Bonnie Kenaz-Mara
Here at ChiIL Live Shows, we were so excited to catch opening night of the world premiere production of BUST at Goodman Theatre. In our current real life dystopia, black and brown people are increasingly unjustly arrested, attacked, and literally disappeared. This visually stunning show flips the script and makes disappearing a superpower, not a victimization, but at what cost to friends and family? Now that racism in the US no longer hides beneath a hood, BUST is more than timely.
(L-R) Cecil Blutcher, Victoria Omoregie, Bernard Gilbert and Ivan Cecil Walks. Credit: JustinBarbin
It's not what you think:
What's the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the word bust? Boobs... a takedown by the cops... a downturn in the economy? This BUST is a boom... a sudden increase. An increase in frequency or popularity. Without giving too many spoilers, this BUST is about busting past rage to a safe alternate reality. It's about busting open the very fabric of reality. It's a movement that starts as an accident and accelerates to intention, involving escalating numbers of people.
In an era where our government is actively trying to disappear DEI, black history, thought provoking social commentary, and the work of smart women, this laugh-out-loud new drama is an endangered species. We're thrilled to see a show with a plethora of juicy parts for black men and women who aren't just criminals, victims, period piece slaves, or dealing exclusively with racist trauma. This production is both written and directed by black women. The mere existence of BUST is subversive as hell, and we're here for it.
(L-R) Raymond Anthony Thomas, Caroline Clay and Cecil Blutcher. Credit: JustinBarbin
The heavy subject matter, focusing on the experiences of African Americans in the United States, includes themes of rage, police brutality, and institutionalized racism, but there's plenty of humor and playful fun to provide levity. They don't call it comic relief for nothin', and Zora Howard gets the balance right. Her characters and scenes are both comedic and suspenseful, providing both a hilarious, highly entertaining show, and a piece that will get under your skin and make you think.
(L-R) Mark Bedard and Jorge Luna. Credit: HugoHentoff
Howard is not only an award winning writer, director, and actor. This Harlem born and raised powerhouse is birthing a whole new genre of work she calls "Afrocurrentist". This new form of theater is both African American and relevant to contemporary issues.
(L-R) Cecil Blutcher and Keith Randolph Smith. Credit:JustinBarbin
Special shout out to the excellent set design, sound design, and lighting. They made the time/space travel and new world building a wonder, and a delight to experience. This world premiere production had a pre-Goodman run with the same cast at Atlanta's Alliance Theatre, which may seem like it would be a simple transition to a new space. However, the stage dimensions, sight lines, and mechanics between the locations were quite different, so all those elements had to be reworked and changed for the Goodman run. Actors had to relearn new lighting cues, and the technical elements of the complicated visuals and set changes had to be redesigned. I'm still in awe of all the people on and off stage who collaborate and bring their own areas of creative expertise into play, in the service of storytelling.
Proud mom moment: My son’s on run crew, helping make the magic happen, as he was for Goodman's Christmas Carol this past season. Kudos to the entire cast and crew for bringing this thought provoking piece to life, and to Lileana Blain-Cruz for expert directing. BUST is excellent storytelling, perfect for turbulent times. Don't miss this! Recommended. ★★★ Three out of four stars.
Bonnie is a Chicago based writer, theatre critic, photographer, artist, and Mama to 2 amazing adults. She owns two websites where she publishes frequently: ChiILLiveShows.com (adult) & ChiILMama.com (family friendly).
**LILEANA BLAIN-CRUZ'S CAST FEATURES MARK BEDARD, CECIL BLUTCHER, CAROLINE CLAY, BERNARD GILBERT, CAITLIN HARGRAVES, JORGE LUNA, VICTORIA OMOREGIE, KEITH RANDOLPH SMITH, RAYMOND ANTHONY THOMAS, IVAN CECIL WALKS AND RENIKA WILLIAMS-BLUTCHER**
***THE WORLD-PREMIERE CO-PRODUCTION WITH ALLIANCE THEATRE IS PRODUCED IN ASSOCIATION WITH SONIA FRIEDMAN PRODUCTIONS, KHALIAH NEAL AND THOMAS SWAYNE***
Hell isn’t the only thing that breaks loose in BUST. A finalist for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize and co-produced with Atlanta’s Alliance Theatre and produced in association with Sonia Friedman Productions, Khaliah Neal and Thomas Swayne, the cast for the world-premiere production features Mark Bedard, Cecil Blutcher, Caroline Clay, Bernard Gilbert, Caitlin Hargraves, Jorge Luna, Victoria Omoregie, Keith Randolph Smith, Raymond Anthony Thomas, Ivan Cecil Walks and Renika Williams-Blutcher.
JustinBarbin: (L-R) Cecil Blutcher and Ivan Cecil Walks
BUST appears April 19 – May 18 (opening night is April 28 at 7pm). Tickets ($25 - $85; subject to change) are available at GoodmanTheatre.org/Bust or by phone at 312.443.3800. Goodman Theatre is grateful for the support of Allstate (Major Corporate Sponsor), the BOLD Theater’s Women’s Leadership Circle, an initiative of the Helen Gurley Brown Foundation (BOLD Ventures Grant), Laurents/Hatcher Foundation (Theater Development Grant), WBEZ Chicago (Media Sponsor) and The Elizabeth Morse Charitable Trust (Lead Funder of IDEAA Programming).
“BUST is absolutely unlike anything I’ve ever seen on a stage before. In one sit-down at the theater, this thrilling new play ranges from high comedy to transcendent drama—beginning in ways that feel familiar and moving to whole new worlds. Zora Howard’s masterful writing is in gifted hands with Lileana Blain-Cruz, one of the most sought-after directors working today,” said Artistic Director Susan V. Booth.
In BUST, Retta and Reggie are enjoying their usual evening on the porch when a longtime neighbor is pulled over by the police just before turning into his driveway. Everything goes as expected—until the unexpected happens. Humor, suspense and surrealism converge in this gripping exploration of what it costs to be Black and free.
"At its core, BUST is a meditation on rage," said playwright Zora Howard. "It asks, 'What if Black people could use the rage that we carry, with which we are in such constant and intimate relationship, for our own constructive and collective gain?' It is an offering—an invitation for all of us to consider how we might harness our rage, what we can move with it.”
(L-R) Raymond Anthony Thomas and Caroline Clay. Credit: JustinBarbin
Added Director Lileana Blain-Cruz, “There’s a real invitation at the center of this play to experience something new, to be part of a radical act of imagination. In BUST, the audience has the opportunity to recognize themselves in these characters. We get to simultaneously live inside their humanity and the absurdity of what it means to be alive in the world today.”
The BUST cast features Mark Bedard (TV/HBO Max: The Gilded Age) as Tomlin/Jack, Cecil Blutcher (TV/Paramount+: The Game, Signature Theatre Co.: The Hot Wing King) as Trent, Renika Williams-Blutcher (Starz: P-Valley) as Krystal, Caroline Stefanie Clay (Broadway: The Little Foxes and Doubt) as Retta, Bernard Gilbert (TV/Showtime: The Chi, Goodman Theatre: How to Catch Creation) as Zeke, Caitlin Hargraves (Alliance Theatre: A Christmas Carol, TV/HBO Max: Mi Casa) as Ms. Pinto, Jorge Luna (TV/Netflix: Zero Day) as Ramirez, Victoria Omoregie (Alliance Theatre: Fat Ham, The Huntington Theatre: John Proctor is the Villain) as Paige, Keith Randolph Smith (Film: Malcolm X, Alliance Theatre: God of Carnage, National Theatre, London: Jitney) as Mr. Woods, Ray Anthony Thomas (Film: American Fiction, The Harbinger and Pariah) as Reggie, and Ivan Cecil Walks (The Huntington Theatre: K-I-S-S-I-N-G) as Boobie. Understudies include Jodi Gage, Cory Hardin, Gabrielle Lott-Rogers, Vernon Mina, Patrick Newson, Jr., Joseph Primes and Jazzy Rush.
Zora Howard (Playwright) is a Harlem-bred writer and director. Plays include STEW (2021 Pulitzer Prize Finalist; P73 Productions), THE MASTER’S TOOLS (Wiener Festwochen; WTF), HANG TIME (The Flea), THE MOTIONS, and GOOD FAITH. Her work has been developed at Ojai Playwrights Conference, Stillwright, Mercury Store, and Cape Cod Theatre Project, among others. In 2020, her feature film Premature, which she co-wrote with director Rashaad Ernesto Green, opened in theaters following its world premiere at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival. Howard is a Lilly Award and Helen Merrill Award recipient, a former MTC Judith Champion Fellow and Lark Van Lier New Voices Fellow and alumna of the P73 I-73 Writers Group. She is currently under commission from Seattle Rep and Chautauqua Theatre Company. zoramakes.com.
Lileana Blain-Cruz is a director from New York City and Miami. She is the recipient of the Drama League’s 2022 Founders Award for Excellence in Directing and is currently the resident director of Lincoln Center Theater. Blain-Cruz was named a 2021 Doris Duke Artist, a 2020 Lincoln Center Emerging Artist, and a 2018 United States Artists Fellow. Recent projects include: El Niño (Metropolitan Opera); The Skin of Our Teeth (Lincoln Center, Tony nomination); Stranger Love (LA Philharmonic); Flex (Lincoln Center, Audelco Award Nomination); Create Dangerously (Miami New Drama); White Girl in Danger (Vineyard / Second Stage); The Listeners (Opera Norway); Dreaming Zenzile (NYTW/National Black Theatre); Marys Seacole (LCT3, Obie Award); Wayne Shorter and esperanza spalding’s …(Iphigenia) (MASS MoCA, Arts Emerson, The Kennedy Center); Hansel and Gretel (a film for Houston Grand Opera); Afrofemononomy (PSNY); Anatomy of a Suicide (Atlantic Theater Company); Fefu and Her Friends (TFANA); Girls (Yale Rep.); Faust (Opera Omaha); Fabulation, Or the Reeducation of Undine (Signature Theatre); Thunderbodies and Revolt. She Said. Revolt Again. (Soho Rep.); The House That Will Not Stand and Red Speedo (New York Theatre Workshop); Water by the Spoonful (Mark Taper Forum/CTG); Pipeline (Lincoln Center); The Death of the Last Black Man in the Whole Entire World AKA The Negro Book of the Dead (Signature Theatre, Obie Award); Henry IV, Part One and Much Ado About Nothing (Oregon Shakespeare Festival); The Bluest Eye (The Guthrie); War (LCT3/Lincoln Center Theater and Yale Rep.); Salome (JACK); Hollow Roots (Under the Radar Festival at The Public Theater). Upcoming: Purple Rain.
Full Company of BUST (in alphabetical order)
By Zora Howard
Directed by Lileana Blain-Cruz
Mark Bedard…Tomlin/Jack
Cecil Butcher…Trent
Caroline Clay…Retta
Bernard Gilbert…Zeke
Caitlin Hargraves…Ms. Pinto/Newscaster
Jorge Luna…Ramirez
Victoria Omoregie…Paige
Keith Randolph Smith…Mr. Woods
Raymond Anthony Thomas…Reggie
Ivan Cecil Walks…Boobie
Renika Williams-Blutcher…Krystal
Understudies for this production include Jodi Gage, Cory Hardin, Gabrielle Lott-Rogers, Vernon Mina, Patrick Newson, Jr., Joseph Primes and Jazzy Rush.
Creative Team
Associate Director…Malkia Stampley|
Set Designer…Matthew Saunders
Costume Designer…Dominique Fawn Hill
Lighting Designer…Yi Zhao
Associate Lighting Designer…Jonah Bobilin
Sound Designer…Mikaal Sulaiman
Ethnomusicologist…DJ Reborn
Special Effects Designer...Jeremy Chernick
Fight Choreographer...Rocio Mendez
Casting is by Jody Feldman, CSA and Lauren Port, CSA. shiku thuo is the Production Stage Manager.
ENHANCED AND ACCESSIBLE PERFORMANCES AT GOODMAN THEATRE
ASL-Interpreted Performance: Friday, May 9 at 7:30pm – Professional ASL interpreter signs the action/text as played.
Touch Tour* and Audio-Described Performance: Saturday, May 10, 12:30pm Touch Tour; 2pm performance – The action/text is audibly enhanced for patrons via headset.
Spanish-Subtitled Performance: Saturday, May 10 at 7:30pm – An LED sign presents Spanish-translated dialogue in sync with the performance.
Open-Captioned Performance: Sunday, May 11 at 2pm – An LED sign presents dialogue in sync with the performance.
Visit Goodmantheatre.org/Access for more information about Goodman Theatre’s accessibility efforts.
ABOUT ALLIANCE THEATRE
Founded in 1968, Alliance Theatre is the leading producing theater in the Southeast, reaching more than 165,000 patrons annually. The Alliance is led by Jennings Hertz Artistic Directors Tinashe Kajese-Bolden and Christopher Moses and Managing Director Mike Schleifer. The Alliance is a recipient of the Regional Theatre Tony Award® for sustained excellence in programming, education, and community engagement. In January 2019, the Alliance opened its new, state-of-the-art performance space, The Coca-Cola Stage at Alliance Theatre. Known for its high artistic standards and national role in creating significant theatrical works, the Alliance has premiered more than 140 productions including eleven that have transferred to Broadway. The Alliance education department reaches more than 90,000 students annually through performances, classes, camps, and in-school initiatives designed to support teachers and enhance student learning. The Alliance Theatre values community, curiosity, collaboration, and excellence, and is dedicated to representing Atlanta's diverse community with the stories we tell, the artists, staff, and leadership we employ, and audiences we serve. www.alliancetheatre.org
ABOUT GOODMAN THEATRE
Chicago’s theater since 1925, Goodman Theatre is a not-for-profit arts and community organization in the heart of the Loop, distinguished by the excellence and scope of its artistic programming and community engagement. Led by Walter Artistic Director Susan V. Booth and Executive Director John Collins, the theater’s artistic priorities include new play development (more than 150 world or American premieres), large scale musical theater works and reimagined classics. Artists and productions have earned two Pulitzer Prizes, 22 Tony Awards and more than 160 Jeff Awards, among other accolades.
The Goodman is the first theater in the world to produce all 10 plays in August Wilson’s “American Century Cycle.” Its longtime annual holiday tradition A Christmas Carol, now in its fifth decade, has created a new generation of theatergoers in Chicago. The Goodman also frequently serves as a production and program partner with national and international companies and Chicago’s Off-Loop theaters.
Using the tools of theatrical practice, the Goodman’s Education and Engagement programs aim to develop generations of citizens who understand and empathize with cultures and stories of diverse voices. The Goodman’s Alice Rapoport Center for Education and Engagement is the home of these programs, which are offered for Chicago youth—85% of whom come from underserved communities—schools and life-long learners.
Goodman Theatre was built on the unceded homelands of the Council of the Three Fires: the Ojibwe, Odawa and Potawatomi Nations. We recognize that many other Nations consider the area we now call Chicago as their traditional homeland—including the Myaamia, Ho-Chunk, Menominee, Sac and Fox, Peoria, Kaskaskia, Wea, Kickapoo and Mascouten and remains home to many Native peoples today. The Goodman is proud to have a relationship with Gichigamiin Indigenous Nations Museum. Located in Evanston, the Museum honors the survival and perseverance of Indigenous communities and promotes a greater understanding of Indigenous peoples: gichigamiin-museum.org.
Goodman Theatre was founded by William O. Goodman and his family in honor of their son Kenneth, an important figure in Chicago’s cultural renaissance in the early 1900s. The Goodman family’s legacy lives on through the continued work and dedication of Kenneth’s family, including Albert Ivar Goodman, who with his late mother, Edith-Marie Appleton, contributed the necessary funds for the creation on the new Goodman center in 2000.
Julie Danis is Chair of Goodman Theatre’s Board of Trustees, Lorrayne Weiss is Women’s Board President and Kelli Garcia is President of the Scenemakers Board for young professionals.
