Purpose at Steppenwolf

[MidWestTheater]

Posted: 4/16/24 at 12:18pm

For all of those coming to Chicago for Death Becomes Her over the next month, do yourself a favor and while in town check out the new Brandon Jacob-Jenkins play Purpose at Steppenwolf. It has been extended into May and it is another really fantastic play from one of this countries best playwrights. You know when you step into a Steppenwolf play and see a dining room set-up, ****'s gonna go down. And does it indeed go down, one of the most tense, funny, exciting, brutal dinner scenes since August: Osage County. One could probably even rename this play as January: Cook County. It's a coming home play in which the amazing actor Jon Michael Hill comes home to his civil rights leader father, disgraced senator brother and his wife, and of course a seemingly loving but calculated mother trying to keep everything in it's place. The entire cast is uniformly excellent, totally believed them all related. Massive shout out to Alana Arenas who sets off a firestorm during the dinner scene. What I loved most about this play is it doesn't go the way you think, especially in the second act when a major event happens that you see building, and has a very different outcome. 

Would not be surprised to see this on the NYC boards next year in some capacity whether on or off-broadway. It's been rumored that Angela Bassett is looking to come to broadway and I could totally see her in this. 

[Alex Kulak2]

Posted: 4/16/24 at 12:44pm

I wasn't a fan of this one. Branden Jacobs-Jenkins is one of my favorite playwrights working today, but the script was really a let down. I was totally on board with the first act, it was funny, they were building all this great tension, it flew by. But the second act was just a slog, it went in all the places you expect it to go, and it really lacked a lot of the stakes that I've come to expect from BJJ's work.

The cast was all great, with Henry Lennix, Tamara Tunic, and Glenn Davis as the standouts. 

Maybe there's a better version of this that'll make it to New York, but the one playing at Steppenwolf isn't it.

[RippedMan]

Posted: 4/16/24 at 1:26pm

Anyone ever done the day of “pay what you want” by phone?

[Call_me_jorge]

Posted: 4/16/24 at 1:35pm

I haven’t done the pay what you want, but I’ve done the 20 for 20 deal for every show at Steppenwolf with great success

[Alex Kulak2]

Posted: 4/17/24 at 11:44am

Call_me_jorge said: "I haven’t done the pay what you want, but I’ve done the 20 for 20 deal for every show at Steppenwolf with great success"

I also do the 20 for 20 deal. I call right at noon when the box office opens, and I've always been able to get in.

[RippedMan]

Posted: 4/17/24 at 11:44am

Oh, I will try that! 

[KJisgroovy]

Posted: 4/17/24 at 12:10pm

Seconding that its very easy to call and get tickets if there are any available. Unfortunately, I believe the 20for20 are sold out for the run. 

I thought this play was just smashing (and it was almost universally praised) but it is still very clearly in development. The top of the first and the back half of the second need to be tightened and cleaned up. The play did not have an ending when it went into rehearsal and the playwright delivered 30+ new pages at the start of previews (leading to the first previews cancellation). Actors were on book for part of the second act until literally the opening performance. I'd imagine this stunning play (with career best performance by Jon Hill and Alana Arenas) will just get better.

Angela Bassett would be STUNNING in the matriarch role and I can't get that casting out of my head. Tamara Tunie (and Harry Lennix for that matter) is good/fine in the role but doesn't quite get past simply declaiming her lines.

[RippedMan]

Posted: 4/17/24 at 1:18pm

Hoping to go Saturday! Thanks for the heads up. 

[Call_me_jorge]

Posted: 4/17/24 at 2:28pm

KJisgroovy said: "Seconding that its very easy to call and get tickets if there are any available. Unfortunately, I believe the 20for20 are sold out for the run."

anytime the website has said the 20for20 “sold out” I would call the box office and they ended up having 20for20 tickets available. At least, that’s just my experience.

[KJisgroovy]

Posted: 4/17/24 at 3:14pm

That's good to know! 

I avoid talking on the phone at all costs... but I'm sure many people will find that helpful! Haha.

[BalconyClub]

Posted: 4/17/24 at 5:35pm

KJisgroovy said: “The play did not have an ending when it went into rehearsal and the playwright delivered 30+ new pages at the start of previews (leading to the first previews cancellation). Actors were on book for part of the second act until literally the opening performance.”

I caught the first preview, and was wowed by the First Act. Late in Act 2, I felt bad for one of the 6 actors holding their script, but soon, others did too. If I recall correctly, Lennix was the only one working with no script.

At the end of the performance, as Jon Michael Hill completed his brief monologue, he placed his script on the stage floor. The cast joined him on stage for an enthusiastic standing ovation.

I wonder if they fixed the outdoor lighting. It looked like daytime behind the dining room table but it always looked like nighttime out the front door.

A thrilling script. See this one.

 

 

[Hyde Park Hildy]

Posted: 4/25/24 at 1:44am

Saw this tonight and found it immensely enjoyable. Not a great play but captivating and very funny, with memorable characters and a killer dinner scene. At tonight's performance the role of Naz was played by the understudy, an actor named Jabari Khaliq. It's the central role in the play and a demanding one. Naz narrates the play and has many long monologues. But Khaliq knocked it out of the park. It's always thrilling to see an understudy rise to the occasion like this. 

Another current Chicago production I highly recommend is the Goodman's revival of August Wilson's Joe Turner's Come and Gone. This is probably my favorite August Wilson play and this production does it full justice, handling both the comic and the tragic elements exceptionally well. And the entire cast is terrific, the first among equals being the great A.C. Smith, one of my favorite Chicago actors, in the role of Herald Loomis.

The Goodman has really been killing it lately.  Matchbox Magic Flute (directed by Mary Zimmerman) and The Penelopiad (written by Margaret Atwood and directed by the Goodman's new artistic director Susan Booth) were also excellent. The only Goodman clinker I've seen recently was the thoroughly mediocre Dana Delany play Highway Patrol (which inexplicably was well-reviewed). 

The only other current Chicago production I've seen is the Court's revival of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. I thought it was very meh, but then again I'm not a Stoppard fan so take that with a grain of salt.

[The Other One]

Posted: 4/25/24 at 7:59am

I saw this two nights before its official opening.  We were told in advance that Jenkins was still in the process of writing it and that we should expect scripts to be held and lines to be called for. Naz called for a line in his opening monologue, but never again.  The actors all sat down and held scripts for one long scene in Act Two, though no one was glued to their pages.  Harry Lennix was not involved in this scene. 

I felt that Act Two was a peeling away to face the more serious consequences of what we'd spent much of Act One laughing at.  In fact, Naz's final speech was unexpectedly and unforgettably poignant. 

I love Angela Bassett, but when it comes to NY (and I am sure that it will) I hope Tamara Tunie comes with it.  I loved her performance.  Jon Michael Hill is the only cast member I'd consider replacing.  He seemed a bit exhausted at the preview I caught, though that could easily have been the result of the rewriting.  Naz carries the bulk of the show's tonal shifts, and I did feel that Hill's performance added up as he delivered that last monologue.

Updated On: 4/25/24 at 07:59 AM