Halfway House
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
Noble Fool had expected to be using its new theater in the former Old Heidelberg restaurant by spring. But by February it was clear that wasn’t going to happen: the Art Institute, which owns the building at 16 W. Randolph, was still waiting for its contractor to finish work on the outer shell before the tenant’s construction could begin. Meanwhile, the Royal George had leased its space. It looked like Noble Fool would be homeless for six months or more when, glory be, the leprechauns at City Hall sprang to its aid. Last Wednesday, June 27, the City Council approved a temporary lease for the company in a city-owned building. Just two days later–a month after their last show at the Royal George–Flanagan’s Wake, an audience participatory spoof, and a second Fool production, Sopranos satire The Baritones, opened in the former Hit or Miss clothing store at 8 E. Randolph, within spitting distance of the Old Heidelberg.
Binns and Gilmore acquired their titles earlier this year, as Noble Fool geared up to make its leap into the theater district. Among other things, Gilmore ran Aurora’s Paramount Arts Centre for 11 years; Binns has been with Noble Fool since the beginning. He was one of the founders of the company (as Zeitgeist Theatre, in 1994) and one of eight creators of Flanagan’s Wake, developed at the Improv Institute soon after Tony ‘n’ Tina’s Wedding came to town. Binns says Zeitgeist was a very small company two years ago when then board chairman Paul Botts read a newspaper report that the Art Institute wanted a theater in its Block 36 development and picked up a phone. “We just cold-called and pitched,” says Binns. “They liked it that we were a nonprofit comedy theater.”
Late Nite Catechism creator and producer Vicki Quade was “a little bit miffed” when she came upon this proclamation by columnist Chris Jones in last Friday’s Tribune: “When it comes to long-running shows in Chicago, the gold standard remains Blue Man Group, which has now been running for nearly four years at the Briar Street Theatre. With the recent demise of Forever Plaid, Blue Man can now claim the title of the longest-running show in the city.” Notes Quade: “Late Nite Catechism is in its ninth year, Hellcab opened before we did by about six months and is still running, and Flanagan’s Wake is in its eighth year.” And unlike Blue Man, “these shows all originated in Chicago.” So did Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind, which has been running since 1988. It’s enough to try the patience of a nun. Catechism is playing in the Royal George space vacated by Flanagan’s Wake.
