March 27--The Hypocrites announced its 2015-16 season on Friday. A longer-than-usual lineup for this theater company, it features remounts of three popular productions of the past four years, plus a play by Sean Graney and two musicals.
"All Our Tragic," Graney's 12-hour marathon of every extant Greek tragedy, will return, as previously announced, this summer (June 20-Aug. 9). Like last year there will be ample intermissions, and every ticket will include meatless meals.
Beginning in the fall is "American Idiot" (Aug. 28-Oct. 25), the angsty coming-of-age musical featuring songs from the homonymous Green Day album (and a sprinkling of tunes from "21st Century Breakdown" and "Rock Against Bush"). The show will be directed by Steven Wilson, with music direction by Andra Velis Simon and choreography by Katie Spelman.
The cast includes Luke Linsteadt as Johnny, Jay Cullen as Will, Alex Madda as Heather, Becca Brown as Extraordinary Girl, Drew Tildon as Whatsername, Steven Perkins as Favorite Son and Malic White as St. Jimmy alongside Isa Arciniegas, Elisa Carlson, Dakota Hughes, Michael Kurowski, Aubrey McGrath, Janelle Villas and Alexander Zukoff.
Then comes a very short run of "The 4th Graders Present an Unnamed Love-Suicide," a play Graney wrote in 2004 that has been performed at The Side Project and 59E59 Theater off-Broadway. In the drama, a boy kills himself and leaves a play for his classmates to perform as a kind of suicide note. The fourth graders will be played here by actual students from Senn Arts Magnet High School. It runs Oct. 30-31 and Nov. 6-7, and will be co-directed by Joel Ewing and Mechelle Moe.
Jay Torrence's subversive holiday dramedy "Burning Bluebeard" (Nov. 22-Jan. 3, 2016), performed by The Ruffians, will come back for the fourth consecutive year, although for the first time with The Hypocrites. The show premiered at the Neo-Futurarium in 2011 and is about the 1903 Iroquois Theater Fire in the Loop, and six clowns' dizzying efforts to beautify an ugly history.
Next is the return of Tennessee Williams' "The Glass Menagerie" (Jan. 22-March 6, 2016) as directed by Hans Fleischmann. Fleischmann's staging, which revolves around Tom the narrator being a homeless man in the present, first played Mary-Arrchie Theatre Company in 2012 and then ran at Theater Wit in 2013. Most of that cast remains, with Fleischmann as Tom, Joanne Dubach as Laura and Walter Briggs as the Gentleman Caller. Donna McGough will now play Amanda.
The penultimate show is "Adding Machine: A Musical" (March 18-May 15, 2016), Joshua Schmidt and Jason Loewith's adaptation of Elmer Rice's experimental classic. The show premiered at the recently defunct Next Theatre in 2007. For The Hypocrites, it will be directed by Geoff Button and choreographed by Katie Spelman.
A final, short-run spring production, to be directed by Graney, will be announced later.
The Hypocrites perform at The Den Theatre, 1329 N. Milwaukee Ave.
