Henry (Ricky Ubeda, center), surrounded by company members Byron Tittle, Christine Flores and Kara Chan, in Chicago Shakespeare Theater’s production of Illinoise.Supplied
Illinoise, a new dance musical based around the songs of American singer-songwriter Sufjan Stevens that premiered to rave reviews in Chicago over the weekend, is set to come to Toronto in 2025.
The City of Toronto itself is a co-commissioner of this Justin Peck-choreographed show through TO Live, the young municipal agency that manages city-owned theatres Meridian Hall, the Meridian Arts Centre and the St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts.
Josephine Ridge, TO Live’s vice-president of programming and a former Luminato Festival Toronto artistic director, was down in Illinois at Chicago Shakespeare Theater over the weekend for Illinoise’s opening night, as was chief executive officer Clyde Wagner.
“I loved it – it’s tremendously strong,” said Ridge, a self-professed Stevens fan, upon her return to Toronto on Monday.
Critics who agreed with Ridge include the Chicago Tribune’s Chris Jones, who called Illinoise a “gorgeous new theatrical experience,” and Steven Oxman at the Chicago Sun-Times, who wrote, “although the whole evening oozes an easygoing chic sophistication, this is a deeply complex piece.”
Peck, a highly acclaimed Tony Award-winning choreographer who is resident at the New York City Ballet, created Illinoise around the songs from Illinois, Stevens’s now-classic 2005 indie concept album that is full of references to colourful characters from the history of the Prairie State.
Peck worked on the story that connects them with Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Jackie Sibblies Drury (Fairview) – although there is no dialogue in the resulting dance-theatre piece that features, according to the Tribune review, “a dozen superb dancer-actors, a trio of hipster vocalists and 14 live musicians ... all looking every bit as indie cool as they sound.”
If it is slightly surprising to you that TO Live has commissioned an American musical, the city agency has been doing a lot more than simply renting out its spaces since it was formed out of the consolidation of three city-owned venues in 2018.
As well as presenting work and running a number of artist support programs and residencies, the entity commissions works with other performing arts organizations locally, nationally and internationally, with an eye to presenting them in Toronto. For instance, it was previously lead producer on Feist’s unusual Multitudes concert.
An earlier version of Illinoise premiered at the Fisher Center for the Performing Arts at Bard College in New York’s Hudson Valley last year. It now runs at Chicago Shakespeare Theater through February 18, before moving to the Park Avenue Armory in New York from March 2 to 23.
Illinoise is expected, at the moment, to run at Toronto’s Meridian Hall in 2025. (The exact dollar amount of TO Live’s co-commission is, according to a spokeperson, confidential.)
A look at what’s on stage this week across Canada
Vancouver: Speaking of dance-theatre inspired by celebrated singer-songwriters ... Chelsea Hotel: The Songs of Leonard Cohen, the hit 2012 show directed and choreographed by Tracey Power, is back once again at the Firehall Arts Centre from February 3 to March 3.
London, Ont.: Long before he was causing a stir with The Land Acknowledgement, or As You Like It, playwright-performer Cliff Cardinal made a splash with his solo show Huff. It’s back on tour and this week hits the Grand from February 6 to 17.
Montreal: Diggers, a play by Siminovitch Prize-nominee Donna-Michelle St. Bernard about a trio of gravediggers, runs at the Segal Centre from February 1 to 17. This is a co-production between Black Theatre Workshop and Winnipeg’s Prairie Theatre Exchange, where it heads at the end of the month.
Fredericton, N.B.: Becca, a new bilingual play by Melanie Léger based on the true story of a teen with terminal cancer who started an inspiring hashtag, premieres from Theatre New Brunswick and Caraquet’s Théâtre populaire d’Acadie at the Open Space Theatre this week, then goes on tour through March. It has surtitles incorporated into the design: When the performers speak in English, French is projected on the set, et vice-versa.
Toronto stages
It’s one of those extremely busy weeks in Toronto theatre.
On Tuesday, Crow’s Theatre’s surprise hit 2022 production of Uncle Vanya returns to the CAA Theatre, where it is playing as part of the off-Mirvish season through February 25. (I profiled Tom Rooney, the great stage actor playing the title role, last month.)
On Thursday, two new musicals inspired by classics open for review on the same night.
De Profundis: Oscar Wilde in Jail (on at Soulpepper to February 18) is based on a letter the playwright wrote to Lord Alfred Douglas while imprisoned at Reading Gaol. It’s a reunion of the team behind 2019′s Rose, with Gregory Prest billed as adaptor and director, while Mike Ross and Sarah Wilson are composer and lyricist, respectively.
Dion: A Rock Opera, a musical take on Euripedes’s The Bacchae with book by Steven Mayoff and music by Ted Dykstra, opens at the Coal Mine. Last week, Brad Wheeler spoke to Dykstra about the show.
Earworm, a new play written and directed by Mohammad Yaghoubi, is about a woman who fled persecution from the Islamic regime in Iran who discovers her son has fallen in love with a conservative Muslim woman. Nowadays Theatre has two openings planned. The first, performed in Farsi with English surtitles, takes place on Friday; the second, performed in English, takes place on Tuesday next week. The show runs at and in association with Crow’s Theatre to Feb 25.
On the Other Side of the Sea, a two-hander by El Salvador’s Jorgelina Cerritos that won the 2010 Casa de las Américas Prize for drama, opens on Saturday in an Aluna Theatre production at the Theatre Centre. Soheil Parsa directs Beatriz Pizano and Carlos Gonzalez-Vio in this play about two strangers who meet on a beach. Through February 25.
On top of all that, Buddies in Bad Times opens its annual Rhubarb Festival of new experimental theatre, dance and outside-the-box performance this week; it runs to February 18.