Theatre News Wire

Two-time Tony Award-winner Brian Dennehy has thrilled Chicago audiences in unforgettable productions over the past two decades-Desire Under the Elms, Long Day's Journey into Night, The Iceman Cometh and Death of a Salesman; now, his portrayal of contrasting roles in the double-bill of Hughie by Eugene O'Neill and Krapp's Last Tape by Samuel Beckett is "sheer theatrical dynamite" (Toronto Star). First, Goodman Theatre Artistic Director Robert Falls directs Hughie, featuring Dennehy as the wise-cracking, down-on-his-luck gambler Erie Smith, and Joe Grifasi as night clerk Charlie Hughes. Then, in "a transformation of extraordinary stature" (Associated Press), Dennehy becomes the title character in Beckett's classic one-man show, Krapp's Last Tape, helmed by award-winning Canadian director Jennifer Tarver.

"The coupling of Hughie and Krapp's Last Tape creates a resonant, eloquent showcase of the finest work by three master artists of the theater: Eugene O'Neill, Samuel Beckett and Brian Dennehy, my longtime collaborator and friend," said Artistic Director Robert Falls. "These plays are mini-masterpieces; both are leavened by the black Irish humor that was the heritage of each author, and both offer incomparable challenges to an actor-which Brian negotiates with thrilling artistry. I am happy to welcome Jennifer Tarver to the Goodman for the first time, to recreate her successful production of Krapp's Last Tape that she directed at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival two seasons ago, and to welcome back Joe Grifasi, who so brilliantly plays our night clerk in Hughie."

This production marks Dennehy and Falls' fourth production of Hughie, an intense, intimate character study composed late in the playwright's career, and their sixth O'Neill collaboration in two decades.

"O'Neill's plays are about ideas, written for people who like to think. As an actor, you can never let go of his plays; you're never finished," said Dennehy, an accomplished artist of stage and screen. "This production is very important to me; when an actor's own life dovetails with the themes of a play, it becomes personal. But what's most important is that at the end of the experience, the audience realizes the play is not about me, the playwright, or the director; it's about them."

In Hughie, high-rolling gambler Erie (Brian Dennehy) and Hughie, the credulous night clerk at a single-occupancy hotel, were confidants. Hughie admired Erie for his bold lifestyle and Erie considered Hughie his good luck charm. When Hughie dies unexpectedly, Erie's luck changes for the worse and he finds himself in dire straits. Then Erie meets the new night clerk (Joe Grifasi), who reminds him enough of Hughie that he takes the gamble that his luck is about to change. Krapp's Last Tape is Samuel Beckett's classic one-act, one-man show. Every year on his birthday, Krapp (Brian Dennehy) records the important-and the banal-moments of the last year. As he prepares to record a new tape on his 69th birthday, he begins to listen to his archives. This immersion in his own history leads Krapp to question, with growing regret, whether his present lives up to his past.

Brian Dennehy and Robert Falls - Collaborations over Twenty–five years

In 1985, Dennehy appeared in Cocoon and Silverado, two films that affirmed his status as one of Hollywood's leading character actors. That same year (the 1985/1986 theater season) Dennehy also made his Chicago stage debut in the role of a menacing interrogator in Ron Hutchinson's Rat in the Skull-a gritty psychological thriller set in a London police station during the height of "the troubles" between England and Northern Ireland-at Wisdom Bridge Theatre, where Falls was artistic director. When Falls became artistic director of Goodman Theatre, he signaled a muscular new direction for the Goodman by opening the 1986/1987 season with a production of Bertolt Brecht's The Life of Galileo (retitled Galileo). To play the role of Brecht's titular character, Falls knew that he needed an exceptional actor whose talent and stage presence would match the immense physical, emotional and intellectual demands of the role. On September 26, 1986, Dennehy made his Goodman debut as Italian natural philosopher Galileo Galilei-and launched one of the great and enduring actor/director partnerships in the American theater.

Falls and Dennehy teamed up again in 1990 to tackle one of Eugene O'Neill's masterworks, The Iceman Cometh. Dennehy's towering performance as Theodore "Hickey" Hickman, the quintessential purveyor and slayer of pipe dreams, earned rave reviews and the show was named by Time magazine as one the American theater season's "ten best." The revival production at the Abbey Theatre was hailed as the highpoint of the 33rd annual Dublin Theatre Festival. Over the next two decades Dennehy returned to Chicago to collaborate with Falls on Arthur Miller's Death of Salesman (1998) and O'Neill's A Touch of the Poet (1996); Long Day's Journey into Night (2002), Hughie (2004) and Desire Under the Elms (2009). Subsequent Broadway productions of Death of a Salesman and Long Day's Journey into Night were honored with multiple Tony Awards, and Dennehy also received the Laurence Olivier Award for his performance in the London revival of Death of a Salesman.

Tickets to Hughie/Krapp's Last Tape ($25 - $83) are available for purchase at GoodmanTheatre.org, by calling 312-443-3800 or visiting the box office (170 North Dearborn). Mezztix are half-price mezzanine tickets available at 12 noon at the box office, and at 10am online (promo code MEZZTIX) day of performance; Mezztix are not available by telephone.