League of Chicago Theatres Self-Destructs
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One source sympathetic to the former executive director maintains that his job was made impossible because of the many conflicting agendas of board members. The league’s staff must now be completely rebuilt. A bookkeeper is apparently the only full-time employee left.
The first several months of 1996 already look promising. Director Andrew Davis, who shot most of the hit movie The Fugitive in Chicago, will be in town again to film his new picture Dead Drop with John Travolta. Michael, a film directed by Nora Ephron, also will be shooting here for a month, and The Chamber, a movie based on the John Grisham novel and slated to star Chicago-area native Chris O’Donnell, will be in town for two weeks.
Neil Simon’s London Suite closed on November 28, a mere two months after it opened at the Briar Street Theatre. According to producer Michael Leavitt, the show managed to recoup only about 10 percent of its $300,000 investment, and the loss would have been $50,000 greater if the Chicago production had not been able to use a set from the off-Broadway staging, which closed at the end of August after it too had a briefer-than-expected run. Leavitt maintains he could have run London Suite for at least another month, but the sudden availability of Jackie Mason: Politically Incorrect prompted him to close the show early. Sometime at the start of the new year, Leavitt plans to bring in the Broadway hit Having Our Say.
