As a theater town, Chicago may currently be unrivaled in the U.S. But it’s a fair bet that even the savvy Chicagoans have never seen anything quite like 500 Clown, a three-person (yes, only three) troupe dedicated to presenting serious theater with serious, well, clownage. The company’s first show was 500 Clown Macbeth, which turned Shakespeare on its head and wowed the critics in the process. “With a manic brio, the show challenged past assumptions about the limits of on-stage violence and what director Leslie Buxbaum Danzig has dubbed ‘clown-theater,’ with equal emphasis on both words.”
Tag: 07.24.04
New York’s Second City Presence
The New York Philharmonic travels a lot, even by major orchestra standards, but this summer, one could forgive Chicagoans for mistaking the Phil for their own orchestra. This month, the New Yorkers’ radio broadcasts have been added to Chicago radio, a sign that negotiations with the Chicago Symphony’s musicians for a radio presence are at an impasse. And this past weekend, the Phil made its first appearance in five years at the CSO’s own Ravinia festival, showing off the much-hailed collaboration between the notoriously conductor-unfriendly New York musicians and guest conductor David Robertson, who is considered a strong candidate to be the orchestra’s next music director.