For next week's Time Out Chicago, I wrote a review of City Lit Theater's production of Ben Jonson's Volpone, directed by Sheldon Patinkin. A program note claims that this is the first time the play has been staged in Chicago since 1953, when Paul Sills directed a version that starred Ed Asner and featured Patinkin, then a teenager, as piano accompanist. After digging around a bit on the Internet, however, I discovered that the city has not, in fact, been Volpone-less since 1953. Organic Theater put on the play in 1976, a production that had in its cast Joe Mantegna, who received a supporting actor Jeff nomination for his trouble (he did not win).
I included this information in a parenthetical remark in my review, but it was cut. I can see how it could be perceived as non-vital niggling, but because non-vital niggling constitutes a large part of what I do at this site, I now gladly pass the info along to you.
ELSEWHERE:
My reviews of WildClaw Theatre's Carmilla and TimeLine Theatre Company's In Darfur are in this week's Time Out Chicago.
Your niggle is of course correct. The mistake is my fault. Neither Sheldon nor I could remember a Chicago Volpone in recent decades. Rather than trust our memories, I looked through the Tribune index and scouted around online (obviously I didn't do my online research as well as you did). I even emailed Richard Christiansen to see if he knew of one, and he emailed back that he couldn't recall any. Feeling more confident than was warranted, I went ahead and included the niggle-worthy statement in our program. I found out it was wrong on opening night, as I was handing a press kit to Larry Bommer, who very pleasantly said, "I'm really looking forward to the show; I haven't seen this play since Organic did it in the '70s." I 'fessed up to him, and removed the mistake from future program printings. Live and learn.
Posted by: Terry McCabe | February 20, 2011 at 05:20 PM