April 01--Chicago theaters took April Fools' antics very seriously this year.
Fake season annoucements popped up, false promises were made and a storefront was invaded by a creature from the Jurassic age.
The Clyde Fitch Report announced a new 2016-17 Batman-inspired Steppenwolf season. The slate of seven world premieres promises a Frank Galati adaptation of the Joker origin-story, starring Tracy Letts, obviously. There's also a controversial comedy from Bruce Norris about Bruce Wayne's sexism and a hip-hop musical about the life and times of Harvey Dent from Lin-Manuel Miranda. It has yet to be announced if sad Ben Affleck will star in any of the productions.
The season also includes Steppenwolf for Young Adults plays from Jose Rivera and Lydia Diamond. Rivera's is a prison-set coming-of-age tale about Bane, directed by Hallie Gordon, and Ron OJ Parson will helm Diamond's play about a police violence showdown between Rahm Emanuel and Batman. And you thought that graffiti play was intense!
In other faux season announcement news, Steep Theatre posted an ambitious year of programming. The season of global premieres includes: "Grover," like "Hamilton" but about Grover Cleveland and starring the "Sesame Street" puppet, "'Night, Bro," the update to Marsha Norman's "'Night, Mother" that you never knew you wanted but always needed, "Mary," "Mary Poppins" told "only the way Steep knows how," and, most notably, "A Long Weekend's Journey Into Steep," a 96-hour performance of every Eugene O'Neill play ever for $375, a steal at a price less than the cost of two tickets to "War Paint."
Strawdog Theatre Company transformed its entire mission, changing its Facebook page to a celebration of Theatresaurus Rex. The company will now be dedicating itself to "theatre for dinosaurs by dinosaurs" with the new motto "LIVE LIKE YOU'LL NEVER GO EXTINCT!"
The TodayTix App, now including various Chicago theaters in its daily deals, is offering a new feature called "Dial-A-Drama." An agent placed discretly inside each theater will be available via hotline to give any late audience members a play-by-play of everything happening on stage. Shame that this feature wasn't introduced during American Theater Company's bare-all production of "Fulfillment."
Second City stepped up to the plate with a class made for Insane Clown Posse fans titled "Improv for Juggalos," with registration dates "Whoop Whoop." Included in the class description is the uplifting anecdote, "It doesn't matter if you're born with a silver spoon in your mouth, or a crack rock in your mouth, improv is for everyone."
In other news, "Hamilton" has cancelled its Chicago sit-down production.
Yeah, right! April Fools!
