Dec. 23--Martin Sheen was there. So was Gov. Pat Quinn, posing for pictures with some guy from "Chicago Fire." Mayor Rahm Emanuel was floating around on a higher level.
And the banks of the Chicago River were filled with tens of thousands of people.
These were mostly not those of us who had first seen Redmoon Theater more than two decades ago during its super-cool Halloween festival in Logan Square, or who had sat with their children at the Winter Pageant, relishing the warm, creative atmosphere and inclusive spirit. These were mostly people who had no idea what Redmoon stood for, or had done in the past, and who knew nothing about its dedication to free, public art. These were folks who had heard something big was happening for free in downtown Chicago.
Wow, I remember thinking that cool October night in 2014. This Great Chicago Fire Festival thing had better be good.
Alas, it was not good, mostly because the pyres on the barges did not light as planned. The audience was disgruntled and the VIPs were confused. In the press the next day, Redmoon tried to point out that other parts of the Fire Festival had been taking place in the toughest neighborhoods of Chicago all summer long. Nobody cared. The big bash had fizzled.
All of this came flooding back to me last weekend, when it became clear that Redmoon was massively in debt and out of options beyond the most painful -- ceasing to exist. So did that 2014 debacle kill Redmoon?
Self-evidently, it was a significant blow. The publicity was terrible and the city of Chicago, always sensitive to the common Chicago criticism of spending money on art in the midst of hard fiscal times, had little choice but to quietly move away.
But as the longtime artistic leader Jim Lasko admitted to me Monday, the issue also stemmed from Redmoon's broader challenge -- a desire to be the Cirque du Soleil of Chicago when it came to spectacle, but also to do good works for young people in the neighborhoods.
Comparing Redmoon to Cirque may seem absurd now, but it's worth remembering that 25 years ago, they were not at such different levels. Cirque, though, did not give a darn about underserved neighborhoods and it quickly got over any desire to perform for free. It preferred Las Vegas Boulevard, where you can get away with massive ticket prices. If you do excellent work for global audiences.
Redmoon (where, in disclosure, my wife worked for a while more than a decade ago) was never able to produce spectacles on a Cirque level, nor deliver the kind of clear (if simplistic) storytelling that audiences tend to want at such things. And its good neighborhood works were expensive and, being free and all, inherently not producing income.
