Spotlight: Goodman premieres new tuner starring Megan Mullally, Nick Offerman
Chicago welcomes home Mullally, Offerman
Emmy Award winners, Chicago-area theater veterans and spouses Megan Mullally (“Will and Grace”) and Nick Offerman (“Parks and Recreation”) star in Goodman Theatre’s premiere of “Iceboy! Or the Completely Untrue Story of How Eugene O’Neill Came to Write ‘The Iceman Cometh,’” a new musical by composer/lyricist Mark Hollman, writer/lyricist Jay Reiss and writer Erin Quinn Purcell. Marc Bruni (“Beautiful: The Carole King Musical”) directs the tuner about a 1930s Broadway star who discovers a 40,000-year-old Neanderthal who inspires Eugene O’Neill’s famous play.
Previews at 7:30 p.m. Saturdays, June 20 and 27; 2 and 7:30 p.m. Sunday, June 21; 7:30 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, June 23-26; and 2 p.m. June 28 at the Goodman Theatre, 170 N. Dearborn St., Chicago. The show opens June 29. $49-$199. (312) 443-3800 or GoodmanTheatre.org/Iceboy.
BET salutes soul men
Black Ensemble Theater continues its 50th anniversary season with a revival of “Men of Soul,” a celebration of the music of Ray Charles, Luther Vandross, Bill Whithers, Lionel Richie, Joe Cocker and others. Daryl D. Brooks wrote and directs the review.
Previews at 7 p.m. Saturday, June 20; 2 p.m. Sunday, June 21; and 7 p.m. June 26-27 at 4450 N. Clark St., Chicago. The show opens June 28. $69. (773) 769-4451 or blackensembletheater.org.
Circus-themed ‘Water for Elephants’ arrives in Chicago
Lake Zurich native Zachary Keller plays Jacob, a grieving young man who joins up with a ramshackle circus in “Water for Elephants,” a Depression era-set musical by the acclaimed PigPen Theatre Co. and book writer Rick Elice, adapted from Sara Gruen’s 2006 novel. Helen Krushinski plays Jacob’s love interest Marlena, who’s married to circus owner August (Connor Sullivan). The production incorporates puppetry and circus artists.
The preview is at 7 p.m. Tuesday, June 23, at the James M. Nederlander Theatre, 24 W. Randolph St., Chicago. The show opens Wednesday, June 24. $30-$130. BroadwayInChicago.com.
Thank you, five
Marriott Theatre’s “A Little Night Music,” Drury Lane Theatre’s “Nunsense,” Oil Lamp Theater’s “The Last Five Years” and Kokandy Productions’ “Hair” are among the productions included in The League of Chicago Theatre’s summer promotion “Thank you 5,” which refers to the response actors give to the stage manager’s announcement that the curtain will rise in five minutes. Through July 3, theatergoers will receive $5 off the ticket price with the code THANKYOU5 at checkout on tickets purchased through HotTix.org.