CHICAGO—BoHo Theatre is excited to announce its 15th Anniversary season under the leadership of incoming Artistic Director Stephen Schellhardt. The company’s 2019 season will include a trio of stories focusing on characters in search of human connections. “These three shows are stories that need to be told now, by BoHo,” Schellhardt says. “Experiencing these shows in an intimate space, which is one of BoHo’s signature strengths, will help illuminate the central stories and human relationships.” Schellhardt has also signaled BoHo’s continuing commitment to being an incubator for diverse, up-and-coming Chicago talent by creating safe, supportive artistic environments for our artists to experiment and grow. With these goals in mind, BoHo Theatre’s 2019 season will feature Steve Martin and Edie Brickell’s bluegrass musical BRIGHT STAR, the intimate thriller THE RIVER by Jez Butterworth; and the whimsical and imaginative musical BIG FISH by Andrew Lippa and John August.
To support the company’s growth and expanding audience base, BoHo is also thrilled to announce that it will become a resident company at the Greenhouse Theater Center in Lincoln Park. The company’s production of Stephen Sondheim and High Wheeler’s A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC is currently playing at the Greenhouse through July 8th.
The Season In Depth
BRIGHT STAR
Music, lyrics, and book by Steve Martin and Edie Brickell
Spring 2019 (dates TBA) at the Greenhouse Theater Center
BoHo is proud to bring to Chicago this new work from Grammy, Emmy, and Academy Award-winner Steve Martin and Grammy Award-winner Edie Brickell. Inspired by a real event, BRIGHT STAR tells a sweeping tale of love and redemption set against the rich backdrop of the American South in the 1920s and ‘40s. The story follows young writer Billy Cane, recently returned from World War II, and Alice Murphy, the editor who takes a chance on him. As Billy mines his childhood home for engaging stories, Alice explores her own small-town past. The secrets they uncover lead them to a startling and heart-warming connection.
BRIGHT STAR was nominated for five Tony Awards and called “a shining achievement” by The New York Times. It received a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Music and Outer Critics Circles Awards for Outstanding New Broadway Musical and Outstanding Score.
THE RIVER
By Jez Butterworth
Summer 2019 (dates TBA) at the Greenhouse Theater Center
BoHo is excited to introduce Chicago to THE RIVER, Jez Butterworth’s haunting and complex new play that asks: when we find someone new, are we really just trying to recapture someone we once lost? On a moonless night in August when the sea trout are ready to run, a man brings his new girlfriend to the remote family cabin where he has come for fly-fishing since he was a boy. But she’s not the only woman he has brought here—or indeed the last. Part thriller, part ghost story, this haunting play is a poignant tale of love, loss, and patterns of pain acknowledged but nonetheless unbroken. THE RIVER was called “a magnetically eerie, luminously beautiful psychodrama” by Time Out London.
BIG FISH
Music and lyrics by Andrew Lippa; Book by John August
Fall 2019 (dates TBA)
Based on the celebrated novel by Daniel Wallace and the acclaimed film directed by Tim Burton, BIG FISH tells the larger-than-life tale of Edward Bloom, a man who leads an extraordinary life—according to the stories he tells his son, Will. But Will, who is getting married and expecting a child of his own, doesn’t think there’s any truth to the extravagant tales his father tells about meeting witches, kissing mermaids or joining the circus. He doesn’t even believe the story of how his father proposed to his mother, Sandra, in a field full of daffodils. But when Edward’s health begins to decline, Will must decide whether to accept his father’s wild stories as fact or risk losing him completely. BIG FISH is a heartfelt, powerful, and truly magical musical about fathers, sons, and the stories that we use to define our identities.
Season Memberships On Sale Now
BoHo Memberships are unique subscription packages that allow for flexibility in choosing productions and dates, as well as reserved seating and invitations to exclusive events. Membership packages for BoHo’s 2019 season are on sale now at www.BoHoTheatre.com or (866) 811-4111.
BoHo Theatre’s mission is to create bold theatre that challenges convention through innovative storytelling and unites artist and audience in the examination of Truth, Beauty, Freedom and Love through the lens of human relationships. Its vision is to create a shared community of artists and patrons in which all members are moved through art to make thoughtful, well-examined, caring relationships the highest priority in their lives.
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