Steep Scores on "Best of '07" Lists!

From On The Fringe column in the Chicago Tribune:

Nina Metz picks Coronado at #3: A mystery about past indiscretions and betrayals unspooled in this play by novelist Dennis Lehane ("Mystic River"), but it was the performances here that I loved. The actors swerved from playful seduction to cat-and-mouse anxiety, and I bought it every step of the way.

At the very top of Kerry Reid's list is The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui at #1 : Steep delivered a stunning version of Bertolt Brecht's Hitler-as-Capone allegory, bolstered by a dazzling performance by Yosh Hayashi in the title role and directed with verve and intelligence by Jonathan Berry.

Up next for STEEP THEATRE: Laura Wade's time-bending thriller "Breathing Corpses" in February.
Read the article here: http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/stage/chi-0104_bestofthefringejan04,1,1327194.story?ctrack=1&cset=true


TIME OUT's Most Wanted Top Ten list puts The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui at #6:

Just when we thought both ribald satire and serious analysis of Adolf Hitler’s ascent had lost all currency, Steep’s revival of Bertolt Brecht’s 1941 Hitler allegory, set by the author in gangland Chicago, showed us otherwise. Jonathan Berry’s live-wire period staging—a major step forward for storefront Steep—put its finger smack-dab on how despots can rise in times of economic panic. And as the hunchbacked title character, writhing Yosh Hayashi turned out the non–Osage County performance of the year.
Read the article here.

Over at the Sun Times, Hedy Weiss also named us on her "things I really dug this year" list. Don't pin her down to a number, she won't have it....
*The epic proportions of the tiny Steep Theatre revival of Bertolt Brecht's "The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui," with a star turn by Yosh Hayashi as a Chicago mob boss.