Court Theatre and Writers Theatre both revealed the lineups for their 2017–18 seasons today; both are heavy on well-known titles, with only a single world premiere between the two.
That premiere is the new musical Trevor (Aug 9–Sept 17), which will open Writers Theatre’s fall slate in a production with commercial aspirations and New York producers attached, as was first reported by the Chicago Tribune last month. Based on the 1994 Oscar-winning short film of the same name, Trevor centers on a gay teenager in the 1980s; the film was also the namesake for the Trevor Project, the nonprofit focused on suicide prevention for LGBT youth. The musical has a book and lyrics by Dan Collins and music by Julianne Wick Davis, and will be directed by Marc Bruni (Beautiful: The Carole King Musical).
That's followed in Writers’ mainstage by the Oscar Wilde comedy The Importance of Being Earnest (Nov 8–Dec 23), staged by Writers artistic director Michael Halberstam. Two more chestnuts follow: Eugene O’Neill’s A Moon for the Misbegotten (Feb 7–Mar 18), directed by William Brown, and Sam Shepard’s Buried Child (May 9–June 17), directed by Kimberly Senior.
Two plays will be staged in Writers’ smaller Gillian Theatre. The first, running September to December, remains to be announced. The second is the Chicago premiere of Smart People (Mar 21–June 10), a comedy by the Chicago-connected playwright Lydia R. Diamond that opened Off Broadway in 2016. Hallie Gordon, a frequent collaborator with Diamond, will direct.
Court Theatre’s 63rd season in Hyde Park opens with Five Guys Named Moe (Sept 7–Oct 8), the 1990 musical revue based on the songbook of the 1940s bandleader Louis Jordan. Ron OJ Parsons directs, with assistance from Felicia P. Fields. That’s followed, somewhat jarringly, by The Belle of Amherst (Nov 2–Dec 3), the 1976 one-woman play by William Luce about the poet Emily Dickinson. Court’s production will star Kate Fry, with direction by Sean Graney.
In the new year, Court’s artistic director Charles Newell will stage Arthur Miller’s postwar family drama All My Sons (Jan 11–Feb 11), with a cast to include Timothy Edward Kane and John Judd. Next: Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (Mar 15–Apr 15), playwright Todd Kreidler’s stage adaptation of the 1967 movie; Marti Lyons will direct, and actor Jacqueline Williams is attached. And the final show of the season will be the Chicago premiere of The Originalist (May 10–June 10), a 2015 work by John Strand whose two characters are a fictional young law clerk and the Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia; director and cast remain to be announced.
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