The Problem(s) With Chicago Theatre

The hit musical “Urinetown” had its origins ten years ago in Chicago in a tiny storefront. But the show never got traction there, and it took a move to New York and a decade for the show to morph into a hit. “And yet had ‘Urinetown’ become a fringe Chicago musical – which it was inches away from becoming – it likely would have run here for a month and then sunk without a trace in a city that still seems woefully unable to propel its homegrown properties to national prominence and longevity – unless those artists involved ship out for the coasts and start all over.”