Review: EUREKA DAY Presented By Timeline Theatre And Broadway In Chicago

As a former teacher, I have spent my fair share of hours in parent-teacher conferences and school town halls where much is said but very little is done. Everyone wants what is best for their own child, but achieving that goal often requires conflict, cooperation, and action that never comes easy even in the best-intentioned of communities. Of course, this problem isn’t limited to classrooms either. The people and representatives of Chicago know all too well how difficult it can be to improve the lives of all the city’s residents while making everyone as happy–or even as content–as possible as we navigate the most polarizing issues of our day.

How refreshing it is, then, to have a contemporary play like Jonathan Spector’s EUREKA DAY that approaches these tough conversations with empathy, humor, and a potential path forward. And how proud we should be that Timeline Theatre and Broadway in Chicago have gifted audiences with a Chicago premiere of EUREKA DAY that cements the play as one of the most prescient in the contemporary canon while also reaffirming Chicago’s reputation as an ambassador of daring theatrical works. The production runs through February 22 at the Broadway Playhouse at Water Tower Place.

Winner of the 2025 Tony Award for Best Revival of a Play, EUREKA DAY follows the efforts of one progressive school’s PTA board as they struggle to address a sudden mumps outbreak that has sent the community into quarantine. But because school policies can only be changed or implemented by consensus, the frustrated parents and one hilariously beleaguered administrator (Timeline Artistic Director PJ Powers)  engage in conversations and debates that test the limits of their progressivism and raise real questions about how far tolerance and inclusivity can go when lives are on the line.

But EUREKA DAY is a play about vaccines and quarantines in the same way that HAMLET is about ghosts and revenge. The provocative subject matter is more of a launching off point for deep reflections on ethics, authority, and responsibility, all while treating competing perspectives with nuance and sincerity.

Director Lili-Anne Brown and her compelling cast of Chicago theatre all-stars make clear just why EUREKA DAY has become an instant American classic (it is currently the nation’s third most-produced play of the 2025-26 season). Tensions run high throughout the show’s brisk 105-minute runtime, but every moment and role are treated with empathy and care, even if viewers may not personally agree with some characters’ beliefs or motivations.

For instance, take Suzanne (Rebekah Ward), the self-proclaimed super-mom and longtime Eureka Day School parent who is also the board member most vocal in her opposition to vaccines and pharmaceutical disease prevention. In early scenes, Ward appropriately plays Suzanne for laughs, equal parts hip and hippie, using the buzzwords of DEI even if she doesn’t always uphold its values as she  hilariously steamrolls her fellow board members in conversations. But Ward’s talents shine brightest late in the play during a monologue where audiences learn the emotional basis for why Suzanne is so vehement in her “anti-vax” positions. The scene is played delicately, seamlessly and easily moving from emotional vulnerability to heartbreak. And while neither the play’s script nor Ward’s performance make excuses for Suzanne’s behaviors and beliefs, they make the character more understandable and provide a framework for confronting those we disagree with in our own lives. When Suzanne finally faces the consequences for her convictions, it doesn't come as a relief because we have come to care about and empathize with this woman on a deeply emotional level. Much like in real life, not every win is a victory.

As Eli, the stay-at-home dad with a questionable ethical compass, Jurgen Hooper also skillfully balances humor and heart, though he’s at his most moving in scenes where Eli is forced to understand how the sins of the father are too quickly visited on his children. Eli may be a kind of performative male, but–in Hooper’s skillful hands–he comes through a dark night of the soul with a hard-won sense of power and responsibility that is too often missing from our authority figures. Hooper’s counterpart in this journey is Aurora Adachi-Winter as Meiko, a single mom desperately trying to do right by her child even as she’s buffeted by a stream of conflicting parenting tips and professional recommendations. Like Ward, Adachi-Winter shows the strength not only necessary for motherhood but for questioning one’s own understanding of the world and admitting wrong even at the cost of swallowing one’s pride.

But if EUREKA DAY can be said to have a “hero,” a character that audiences find themselves rooting for even as problems become seemingly insurmountable, it’s Gabrielle Lott-Rogers as Carina, a no-nonsense mom whose son is also Eureka Day’s newest student. Lott-Rogers has the clearest transformation arc over the course of the play, and she handles it with great confidence and subtlety, meekly commenting from the sidelines in early scenes before growing into a powerful force whose convictions have the power to overcome obstacles and bring about much-needed change to an institution blind to its own shortcomings. Then again, this has been the role of women of color in American life through much of the country’s most transformative periods. Why should a pandemic be any exception?

Holding it all together as Eureka Day’s principal Don, Powers makes for an exceptional leader, skillfully guiding his fellow performers through each tonal shift and tempo change in ways that reflect the messiness of any tense conflict. Powers especially has his work cut out for him in EUREKA DAY’s most memorable, most side-splittingly hilarious scene in which Don and the others hold a virtual town hall with the school community to discuss vaccination recommendations and next steps forward. The scene is not without its challenges; on opening night, audiences were laughing so loudly at the virtual chat projected upstage that most of the characters’ scripted dialogue was drowned out. And while I may never know if that laughter covered up particularly insightful lines of dialogue or pivotal plot developments, Powers proves himself most adept at navigating the chaos, holding for laughs as best he can while still driving toward the town hall’s explosive conclusion. I’m normally wary of artistic directors being cast as leads in shows produced by their own company, but Powers is the consummate ensemble member, holding his own while also allowing his costars’ talents to shine even more brightly due to his efforts.