I was in Chicago this past weekend and saw The Story at the Goodman Theatre (I just couldn't work up enough enthusiasm to see Les Mis again...).

It is a play by Tracey Scott Wilson and directed by Chuck Smith. As usual, the theater was packed and the crowd was dressed up. I've noticed that New York audiences talk during theater and Chicago audiences chew gum...and Toronto audiences stay home. But I digress...

I enjoyed the play -- it was an OK story (inspired by an article the playwright read about Janet Cooke, the Washington Post reporter who lied about a story).

The play was about a reporter who has faked her resume and in her blind ambition to get ahead, ends up fingering an innocent girl in a murder case. But I really enjoyed how it moved along and the staging techniques used. The central character would have two conversations at once with two different people, the second conversation commenting on the first, and taking place at a later time. It wasn't at all confusing the way it was written. Apparently she was inspired by Tony Kushner's Angels in America where four characters are in two different scenes and their dialogue is overlapping and the meaning of the dialogue is overlapping. It made me want to use that technique in a musical.

Next month I see Floyd and Clea under the Western Sky which is having its world premiere at the Goodman. Stay tuned.