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From 'Hamilton' to notable farewells, Chicago-area theater scene had a busy year

"Hamilton" may have dominated Chicago-area theater news this year, but the Broadway blockbuster's arrival wasn't the only story. In the suburbs, 2016 marked the year Buffalo Theatre Ensemble returned to its longtime home, Paramount Theatre flexed its muscles, Writers Theatre christened its new space and First Folio Theatre bid farewell to its guiding force.

'Hamilton' arrives

The year's biggest theater story was the Chicago arrival of the first post-Broadway production of Lin-Manuel Miranda's blockbuster bio-musical. Theatergoers scrambled to purchase "Hamilton" tickets last June, waiting for hours online and in line outside the PrivateBank Theatre box office.

"Hamilton," about founding father Alexander Hamilton, is a show worth seeing. It's up to buyers to decide whether they want to pay the sky-high prices ticket brokers charge on the secondary market. But with performances scheduled into September, and the run likely to extend, theatergoers should be able to pick up tickets at face value, especially for weekday performances.

Paramount ascendant

Paramount Theatre in Aurora remained dominant, winning its second consecutive equity Joseph Jefferson Award for best musical for its re-imagined "West Side Story." The theater also announced a partnership with the City of Aurora and Community Buildings Inc. to develop an arts center in the former Waubonsee Community College Building located nearby. Aided by a $15 million tax credit from The Illinois Housing Development Authority, the $34 million project will include rehearsal rooms, performance space, a restaurant and apartments. Construction could begin in summer 2017.

Alison C. Vesely directed the slapstick comedy "Jeeves in Bloom" for First Folio Theatre in Oak Brook in 2010. Vesely, 59, died in November after a two-year battle with cancer. Courtesy of David Rice

Farewells

Chicago-area theater lost a gracious and talented artist with the death of Alison C. Vesely, co-founder and artistic director of First Folio Theatre in Oak Brook, who died in November after a two-year battle with ovarian cancer. A Jeff Award nominee, Vesely was known for the collaborative spirit she and her husband, actor/writer David Rice, fostered at their theater. Over the years, First Folio produced everything from screwball comedies to intense character studies, which Vesely directed with compassion and understated eloquence.

The theater community also said goodbye to comedian Judy Fabjance, who died in August of cancer. Fabjance, a 41-year-old Mount Prospect native, was known throughout Chicago's comedy community as an improvisation instructor at The Second City Training Center and the co-founder of the pioneering Chicago LGBTQ sketch comedy troupe GayCo.

Hello again, and goodbye

Typically, when a theater closes, it closes for good. Happily that was not the case for Buffalo Theatre Ensemble, which returned to the McAninch Arts Center at the College of DuPage in Glen Ellyn in September after a two-year absence. College officials terminated the college's relationship with the theater in 2014, claiming it had underperformed financially. BTE supporters pressed for the company's return, and in April COD board members voted to approve a two-year partnership that began with a revival of Marc Camoletti's "Don't Dress for Dinner."

Marc Camoletti's farce "Don't Dress for Dinner" marked Buffalo Theatre Ensemble's return to the McAninch Arts Center in Glen Ellyn. Courtesy of Rex Photography/Buffalo Theatre Ensemble

Newcomers this year included Lake Forest Theatre in its namesake city, the female-centered Firebrand Theatre and the Chicago Theatre Workshop. Evanston's Light Opera Works announced a name change to Music Theater Works effective Jan. 2, 2017, and an agreement with Actors' Equity Association means Williams Street Repertory in Crystal Lake is now a union house.

On a sad note, Mary-Arrchie, Signal Ensemble Theatre and Oracle Productions closed this year. The Hypocrites cut short its 2016-2017 season following a "dramatic drop in box office sales and fundraising goals." Musically Human Theater announced its relocation from New York City to Highland Park earlier this year, but the financially troubled company canceled its season before it opened.

Suburban inspiration

The suburbs, actually one in particular, featured prominently in plays produced by Silk Road Rising and Theater Wit. Playwright and Mount Prospect native Jamil Khoury chose Naperville as the setting for "Mosque Alert," a provocative drama inspired by the 2010 controversy over the proposed construction of an Islamic cultural center and mosque near the site of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in New York City.

Silk Road Rising's world premiere of Jamil Khoury's "Mosque Alert" was set in Naperville. Courtesy of Airan Wright

Theater Wit staged the Chicago premiere of "Naperville," a poignant portrait of people rebuilding their lives by Naperville native and Waubonsie Valley High School graduate Mat Smart.

Casting controversy

Marriott Theatre weathered protests over its revival of "Evita," which a Chicago actor claimed included only one Latino actor. Porchlight Music Theatre in Chicago faced similar criticism over its casting of Miranda's "In the Heights."

In other news, the Lincolnshire theater gambled on the envelope-pushing (for some audiences) "Spring Awakening" and the risk paid off. Director/choreographer Aaron Thielen's sensitive production proved a critical and commercial success, selling out its three-week run.

Epic year

Among the year's grandest productions was Chicago Shakespeare Theater's "Tug of War," consisting of "Edward III," "Henry V" and "Henry VI, parts 1, 2 and 3" and "Richard III." The two-part epic formed the centerpiece of the state's yearlong Shakespeare 400 celebration commemorating the death of William Shakespeare. The celebration reached into Lake County where the Lake County Discovery Museum had on display one of the rare 1623 First Folios, containing 36 of Shakespeare's 38 plays.

Goodman Theatre delivered its own epic: Robert Falls and Seth Bockley's 5½-hour adaptation of "2666," Chilean writer Roberto Bolano's 900-page opus based partly on the unsolved murders of more than 300 women and girls in Mexico's Ciudad Juárez.

Goodman also presented the Broadway-bound musical "War Paint," starring Patti LuPone and Christine Ebersol as rival cosmetic titans Helena Rubinstein and Elizabeth Arden. The show, by composer Scott Frankel, lyricist Michael Korie and writer Doug Wright, begins previews March 7 in New York City.

Drury Lane Theatre's world premiere of "Hazel, A Musical Maid in America" starred Klea Blackhurst in the title role. Courtesy of Brett Beiner

Drury Lane Theatre in Oakbrook Terrace hosted a pre-Broadway tryout for "Hazel, A Musical Maid in America" inspired by the 1960s sitcom and starring Klea Blackhurst. Broadway in Chicago did the same for "The SpongeBob Musical" based on Nickelodeon's animated series and for "Gotta Dance" about a real-life, senior hip-hop dance troupe. To date, none of those musicals has lined up a Broadway berth.

New spaces

Writers Theatre moved into its new Glencoe space this year.

Steppenwolf Theatre ensemble member Laurie Metcalf returned to Chicago to inaugurate the company's new black-box space known as the 1700 Theatre, which is located behind the new Front Bar.

Goodman opened the Alice B. Rapoport Center for Education and Engagement, a 10,000-square-foot facility with space for performances, lectures and classrooms.

And Chicago Shakespeare Theater announced in March it will construct a third performance space where Navy Pier's Skyline Stage once stood. The Yard will be a flexible space that can accommodate up to 850 audience members.

Scandal

Profiles Theatre, a mainstay on Chicago's storefront theater scene for 28 years, closed last June, less than a week after the Chicago Reader published a detailed investigation into misconduct allegations by mostly female theater professionals against a member of the artistic staff. The article provoked a firestorm within the theater community, which responded with an outpouring of support for the accusers.

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