Prop Loses Its Lease
The city’s theater industry may be about to lose one of its cheap, accessible, and popular off-Loop venues: a ramshackle but cozy space called the Garage at 1843 W. North. Co-owner Rich Katz is negotiating with a private phone company that wants to acquire the property, and he guesses there’s “about a 50-50 chance” the deal will go through. “We’ve been trying to sell the property on and off for several years,” he explains. The Garage, which has housed a number of cutting-edge productions over the past several years, was an attractive space for many small theater companies because of its adaptability, its location, and its reasonable rent.
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If the proposed deal should collapse, Katz doesn’t rule out letting theater companies continue to produce in the space. But Prop Theatre, which moved out of the Garage at the end of May after six years there, won’t be among those invited to return. “We asked them to vacate the property because the company was falling far behind in its rent payments,” says Katz. Prop apparently had a hint that its hold on the space was shaky: “We had been on a month-to-month lease since the beginning of 1994,” explains Jonathan Lavan, Prop’s managing director.
Selling Guys and Dolls
The Jerry Zaks-directed revival of Guys and Dolls rocked Broadway when it debuted there two years ago, and it’s still racking up respectable grosses at New York’s Martin Beck Theatre. But it doesn’t look as if it will be the same kind of box-office sensation here. The national touring production arrived at the Shubert Theatre this week at the end of its 18-month tour for a four-week run. Privately producers had hoped to stretch out the Chicago run for several more weeks; there is no commitment to open the show in another city, nor are there any scheduled bookings at the Shubert until September. But earlier this week a Shubert spokeswoman said that for now the show is sticking to its originally announced schedule, though she didn’t rule out a last-minute extension.
Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): photo/Jim Alexander Newberry.
