American Blues Theater is out of the gate with its next season announcement, including a world premiere by Keith Huff (A Steady Rain). The season will also mark a location change for the company, which has spent the last few seasons in residence at the Greenhouse Theater Center; all four plays in the upcoming season will be performed at Stage 773.
Opening the season will be Beauty’s Daughter by Dael Orlandersmith, originally announced last year as the final production of the 2016–17 season with a June opening. It’s been pushed back a month to run from July 7 to August 5, with Ron OJ Parson remaining attached to direct American Blues artistic associate Wandachristine in the solo piece. Next up is ABT’s 16th annual holiday staging of It’s a Wonderful Life: Live in Chicago!, November 17 to December 30, staged by ABT artistic director Gwendolyn Whiteside.
Huff, the former Chicago playwright who’s moved into television (Mad Men, House of Cards, American Crime) since A Steady Rain found its way to a Broadway production in 2009 starring Hugh Jackman and Daniel Craig, returns to the city with Six Corners. On the surface, at least, the new play sounds very much like A Steady Rain—it follows two police detectives investigating a crime (in this case the murder of a CTA worker) that “evolves into a horrifying mystery and unearths a legacy of violence stretching back years.” Gary Griffin will direct the premiere, running February 16 to March 25.
Finally, ABT will revive the 1989 biographical jukebox musical Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story, to run from April 27 to May 25. Lili-Anne Brown will direct the play by Alan Janes, with musical direction by Michael Mahler.
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