Cheryl Graeff and Rondi Reed in Steppenwolf's acclaimed production of A Fall to Earth.

One of the plusses of being a critic is you get to see so much theatre. One of the minuses is you get to see so much theatre. A statement like this might cause one to wonder, “Are critics ever satisfied?” The answer is yes. The answer is no.

Two thousand and four, just like 2003, 2002, and so on, was a mixed bag of highs and lows. When PerformInk asked me to do a year-end review, I started wondering how I could pull off such a Herculean task. After all, Chicago mounts a gazillion productions every year. How could I possibly get down, in about 1,000 words, what worked and what didn’t? I can’t. So I’ll just go with what I reviewed (because, in my little world, it’s all about me) to bring you my list of 2004 blunders and what I’ll call—for the sake of alliteration—blasts. Forced? You bet. But I’m tired of going through the “B” section of Webster’s.

Join with me now on a chronological stroll (take my hand and we’re halfway there/hold my hand and I’ll take you there…everybody sing!) through the year and let’s see if we can find at least one blunder and one blast for each month.

January

Blunder: Sex. A show about sex done by those passionate artists, the Neo-Futurists, should result in some fireworks. Instead, we got a slow, comfortable screw.

Blast: Pulp. Playwright Patricia Kane knows her lesbian lore. In this theatrical take on the lesbian pulp novels on the 1950s, Kane scores a fresh, funny, and musical coup.

February

Blunder: The Graduate. A boo for the misbegotten. Among its many faults was the sight of a shoulda-been-embarrassed Lorraine Bracco naked and channeling Foster Brooks to become a drunken and unsexy Mrs. Robinson.

Blast: American Dead. Playwright Brett Neveu emerges as the newest—and sharpest—chronicler of small town life, its secrets, and its universality, since Thornton Wilder, Sherwood Anderson, and William Inge.

March

Blunder: Gary Stereo Raves On. With shows like this one portraying homosexual life as completely shallow, it’s no wonder Bush and his minions are pulling for a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage. If they’d seen this anti-pride show, they’d be pulling for mass executions.

Blast: Sin: A Cardinal Deposed. A sensitive take on a touchy subject: sexual abuse by the Catholic clergy. Finally, the victims find an articulate voice for their suffering.

April

Blunder: Member of the Wedding. An abysmal lead performance (I’ll leave the name out to protect the guilty) sucks all the life out of Carson McCuller’s sensitive coming-of-age tale.

Blast: Proof. David Auburn’s drama, set in Hyde Park, comes home to Chicago (where it belongs) with a spot-on production featuring an astonishing Karen Aldridge in the lead.

May

Blunder: Fraulein Elsë. Why’d they have to go and make it into a play? Sometimes, the medium truly is the message and this Arthur Schnitzler story belongs on the page and not on the stage.

Blast: Betty Rules. Three spirited gals rock the Lakeshore Theatre with their own brand of introspection, biography, and the pleasures and pitfalls of being small fish in a big ocean.

June

Blunder: Fuddy Meers. This ode to amnesia should have been forgotten. Oh wait, it has been. Strawdog can do much, much better…and has.

Blast: Winesburg, Ohio. Eric Rosen’s adaptation of Sherwood Anderson’s small town novel set at the turn of the century sings, both literally and figuratively. A show about the past with a bright future.

July

Blunder: Sister Mary Ignatius Explains it All for You. Already dated ten years ago, this horrible late-night production from Chemically Imbalanced Comedy is cringe-inducing. I don’t know what the penance is for this blunder. Thou shalt do no bad, dated comedies again?

Blast: Weddings of Mass Destruction. Ah, a comic breath of fresh air from GayCo, back in the day when optimism for gay marriage rode high and hopeful.

August

Blunder: Matt and Ben. This celebrity piffle proves that even a self-conscious gimmick like having women play showbiz pals Matt Damon and Ben Affleck isn’t enough to pull a skit out of mediocrity and into the realm of full-blown theatre.

Blast: About Face Youth Theatre. Every year, a troupe of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning and allied (LGBTQA) kids gets together and puts on a show. And every year, their courage and honesty brings tears to our eyes.

September

Blunder: Iphigenia in Kingman. Let’s update a classic and set it in a southwestern diner! Great idea! Let’s have everyone talk in stilted, Greek tragedy language! Bad idea!

Blast: Diva Diaries. This year’s big drag queen musical, smarted up with the saucy Alexandra Billings.

October

Blunder: Black Comedy. Half the battle is in making the right choices. Speaking Ring Theatre Company lost that half when they staged Peter Shaffer’s dumbed-down, dated, and gimmicky play, which leaves audiences in the dark when it comes to smart humor.

Blast: Maggie, A Girl of the Street. Stephen Crane’s Bowery-set novel about a young girl’s descent into the streets makes great material for adapter Adam Webster and director Jimmy McDermott, who demonstrate how genius and artistry can triumph over material constraints.

November

Blunder: Middle Aged White Guys. Although I’m all for casting blame on fat, middle aged right wingers for the decline of America, this painfully obvious exercise sacrificed theme over character, plot, and laughs.

Blast: Cherry Orchard. Curt Columbus’s clean, crisp adaptation and Steppenwolf’s sense of drama and style make this version of Chekhov’s classic one to which the playwright would have raised a glass of vodka.

December

Blunder: No Sock Puppet Christmas Carol. The irreverent, delightfully crude troupe didn’t hang their stockings with care this year, leaving curmudgeonly, irreverent types drowning in a sea of saccharine thespian Christmas cheer.

Blast: Self Defense, or death of some salesmen. The holidays aren’t complete without a dark descent into the mind of a serial killer and the corrupt, exploitative forces around her. Aileen Wuornos gets the artistic, feminist treatment here, with shocking and thought-provoking results.

And finally, who takes it for blunder/blast of the year?

2004

Blunder: Greed and Playing It Safe. These two qualities were on ample display in The Graduate, one in a long line of “big” shows extorted from other (usually higher caliber) sources for their marquee value.

Blast: Rondi Reed. Steppenwolf may have more famous names associated with it, but those names can only hope to equal the artistry of Ms. Reed, which was on heartbreaking display in her astonishing performance as a grieving, unbalanced mother in The Fall to Earth.

Rick R. Reed has been a beloved Windy City Times theatre reviewer for more than six years. He is also a published novelist (“Obsessed,” “Penance” and “A Face Without a Heart”); his short fiction has appeared in more than a dozen anthologies. He is also a royal pain in the ass to those who do not live up to his exacting standards. (This means you!)

2004 YEAR-IN-REVIEW

Headlines-In-Review

Trends in Chicago Theatre in 2004

Annual Report: A Healthy Year in Chicago Theatre

Proletariat Theatre: 2004

2004 Theatre Season Gets a B

A Year of Scattershot Splendor

The Literature of the Stage

Five Reasons to be Optimistic and a Couple, Three More Not to Be