July 21--If the thought of spending an evening with the dour Russian country folk in Anton Chekov's "The Seagull" seems much too hard to swallow, a cocktail might help. The Zombie Pigeon (vodka plus ginger beer) or the Bird's Milk (vodka plus coffee liqueur), perhaps?
Comedy could help too. The two cocktails will be available at "Stupid F---ing Bird," the upcoming comedic adaptation of "The Seagull" by the Sideshow Theatre Company, playing July 25 to Aug. 30 at Victory Gardens Theater (2433 N. Lincoln Ave., 773-871-3000). Sideshow partnered with CH Distillery on the cocktails to mark, in part, the return of happy hour to Illinois, as well as the launch of the production, directed by Jonathan L. Green and adapted by Aaron Posner.
Serving alcohol before theater performances is nothing new, of course. But these drinks may be part of a burgeoning trend: specialty cocktails, themed to a particular play that, at least in the case of Windy City Playhouse, you're encouraged to take into the theater rather than gulp before you find your seats.
When the curtain went up on the first play at Windy City Playhouse (3014 W. Irving Park Rd., 773-891-8985) earlier this year, audience members sipped cocktails a mixologist had created just for the play.
"We have a full bar, and we design cocktails based around each show," says Amy Rubenstein, Windy City Playhouse's artistic director. "There's a character called Cheryl in 'Stick Fly' -- the show we just closed -- so there was a drink called Cheryl's Crush. And there's a point where a father and son go out fishing in a boat, and there's a drink called Gone Fishin'."
Right now, the Playhouse's mixologist, Carol Donovan, is busy crafting cocktails for the Aug. 12 opening of "Things You Shouldn't Say Past Midnight," a bedroom farce.
Donovan reads every script and notes characters' personalities and their interactions throughout the play before crafting cocktails from seasonal ingredients. "I like to tell folks at the bar that, by the time intermission rolls around, they'll have met all of our cocktails," she said in an email. "They see for themselves why certain flavor profiles are there and why the signature cocktails are named what they are.
"I also take care to design cocktails that sip well for longer. If you get caught up in the action and don't take a drink for a while, you still want it to taste like that first sip."
This is the first time Sideshow Theatre has had the specialty cocktails, says Brian Loevner, general manager of "Stupid F---ing Bird." The Zombie Pigeon updates the Moscow Mule (vodka, fresh lime juice, ginger beer) with joking directions that include "Shake and serve with a pigeon feather." The Bird's Milk mimics a White Russian with a mix of vodka, coffee liqueur and half-and-half.
"It's a fun thing to do," said CH co-founder Tremaine Atkinson, whose team has also come up with cocktails for the Neofuturists.
Why add drink to live theater? "We want to create an environment that's new to theatergoers today and to people who don't think they like theater," Rubenstein says. "We focus on shows that are highly entertaining, very contemporary, very conversational in tone. ... We just feel because people are so limited with time these days, people want to get multiple things accomplished at once. In this case, in a very social atmosphere."
jhevrdejs@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @judytrib
