Chicago Takes Center Stage in New York

Huff's play outshines the two other Chicago offerings that have opened so far this fall: Letts' Superior Donuts, a relatively formulaic comedy-drama about a crusty inner-city doughnut-shop owner and the black kid who comes to work for him, and Oleanna, Mamet's scathing account of a bogus sexual-harassment charge that was too polemically freighted back in 1992 and has the added disadvantage of seeming dated today. But collectively, they showcase much of what makes Chicago theater so distinct and vital. The City of Big Shoulders produces big-shouldered theater as well--thematically ambitious, emotionally juiced, socially impassioned. It's a contrast to the hothouse quality of so much current New York theater: wispy memory plays, absurdist satires, Manhattan-centric relationship dramas, many written by gay playwrights on gay themes. Not that there's anything wrong with that. But there's a big country out there, and right now the freshest breezes onstage are blowing in from the Windy City.