The Goodman Theatre continues to commemorate its 100-year anniversary with the 40,000-year-old caveman musical, Iceboy! The Completely Untrue Story of How Eugene O'Neill Came to Write "The Iceman Cometh." Marc Bruni directs this world premiere with music by Mark Hollmann, lyrics by Hollmann and Jay Reiss, who also wrote the book with Erin Quinn Purcell.
It’s two acts of silly fun set in 1938 and follows Broadway diva doyenne Vera Vimm (Megan Mullally, comfortable in period slacks and sneakers by Linda Cho, who lusciously clads the rest of the cast in period finery). Vera’s reached the pinnacle of her stage career, but is still lonely and isolated so the next logical move is to purchase a frozen troglodyte not unlike Frozen Caveman Lawyer or Ötzi, played as a lovable, hulking doofus by Grey Henson. This Popsicle-American quickly becomes a sensation, surpassing Vera’s reputation and usurping her audience when she only wanted to consider him her son, since she sings about being born a poor little orphan girl (another Broadway allusion, Annie).
The production is narrated by “boorish peacock” playwright Eugene O’Neill (Nick Offerman, dry and affable as ever, returning to Chicago as a proud Defiant Theatre co-founder), who is struggling with writer’s block, alcoholism and his legacy but finds inspiration in this friendly frost giant. From the sides, he advises and cajoles the audience, starting with “young people need to quickly learn how to behave in public.” He also muses about repatriating artifacts, which he encourages audience members to “look up on the radiation squares you keep next to your genitals” in another delightful anachronistic observation.
The talented ensemble (well-cast by Lauren Port) plays various supernumeraries, like Vera’s assistant Frankenstein (Alex Goodrich), no stranger to icy wastelands himself, plus brow-beaten boyfriend Floyd (Cedric Yarbrough) and forever-menopause-suffering Lambert (Sarah Stiles), as well as historical figures like Katherine Hepburn, Paul Robeson and Ethel Merman.
The set by Paul Tate dePoo III and Kaitlyn Peterson is flashy and fun, complete with an in-floor Iceboy dispenser. Despite the whimsy, the production still feels like a work-in-progress, trying to wrangle various comedic threads into a cohesive narrative. Reiss said that “it’s fun to cherry-pick history to suit the story,” indeed, but what about the emotional threads? The first version of this play was produced in 2001, and this iteration feels like the next draft, but perhaps not the final one. The Goodman is known for its love of the O’Neill canon (including its 2012 staging of The Iceman Cometh starring Nathan Lane), so perhaps this is the next step in the exploration of that legacy, like a defrosted deconstruction.
Iceboy! has been extended to run through August 9, at the Goodman Theatre, 170 N. Dearborn St. Tickets ($49–$199) are available at 312-443-3800. Shawn Pfautsch will understudy for Nick Offerman on 7/28 at 7:30pm, and the 7/30-8/1 performances. Runtime is 2 hours and 15 minutes with one intermission.
For more information on this and other productions, see theatreinchicago.com.
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