Goodman announces 2012-2013 season
Goodman Theatre will begin its 2012-2013 season with a Tennessee Williams classic and conclude it with a world premiere of “The Jungle Book,” according to an announcement Tuesday from artistic director Robert Falls.
The season opens Sept. 15 with a revival of Williams’ “Sweet Bird of Youth.” It will be directed by Skokie native and 2010 MacArthur Fellow David Cromer, the local favorite who directed Writers’ Theatre’s 2010 revival of “A Streetcar Named Desire” and The Hypocrites “Our Town” (2008).
The season ends in June of 2013 with the world premiere stage version of “The Jungle Book,” written and adapted by Tony Award winner Mary Zimmerman from Rudyard Kipling’s stories and Disney’s 1967 animated film. The musical has the blessing of Disney Theatrical Productions.
Goodman’s season also features two Chicago area premieres. Henry Wishcamper (“Animal Crackers,” “Talking Pictures”) directs Jon Robin Baitz’s “Other Desert Cities” (Jan. 12 to Feb. 17, 2013) about a woman whose tell-all memoir threatens to tear apart her family.
Chuck Smith, the director responsible for Goodman’s blistering “Race” earlier this year, helms “By the Way, Meet Vera Stark” (April 27 to June 2, 2013), a comedy by Lynn Nottage (whose Pulitzer Prize winning “Ruined” premiered at Goodman in 2008), about a 1930s African American actress who makes a living stealing scenes in Hollywood blockbusters.
The company’s fifth production in Goodman’s Albert Theatre will be announced later.
Goodman’s smaller Owen Theatre boasts three world premieres, including the one-man show “Black n Blue Boys/Broken Men,” written by and starring Dael Orlandersmith and directed by Victory Gardens executive director Chay Yew. It opens Sept. 29.
Christopher Shinn’s “Teddy Ferrara,” about a gay university student who uncovers some uncomfortable truths about a campus tragedy, follows in February 2013. The Owen Theatre season concludes in April 2013 with “The Happiest Song Plays Last,” Quiara Alegria Hudes’ (“In The Heights”) play about an Iraq War veteran who becomes a film action hero and his cousin who tries to shore up her crumbling community.
Season subscriptions are available now. Individual tickets are available beginning in August. (312) 443-3800 or goodmantheatre.org.