Ensemble Theatre Group

The girlfriend and I took in a show at the Ensemble Theatre on Friday. Now I’ve been to a couple of theatres in NYC (both Broadway and off-Broadway)…I’ve also been to multiple shows at the Aronoff and other various venues (ie CCM). With that said I must say that this was one of my favorite venues.

The ETC offers a fantastic view from every seat (about 200 or so by my guestimations), and also has surprisingly good acoustics for that space. What makes the venue even better is the building itself…it is a gem and has all sorts of architectural details for you to enjoy (if you’re in to that sort of thing).

As for the show we saw ‘Rabbit Hole’ which is the winner of the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for Best New Play and a Tony Award-winning drama. The show was great and the seats were full…at the end the audience gave a standing ovation for the great performance. The ETC is a great theatre that has a strong history and is nationally known.

I highly recommend a visit to the ETC. It is a good alternative to the movies and the show lets out with plenty of time to go out drinking afterwards. The ETC offers student discounts, as well as, senior discounts. You can now also buy tickets online…and if you want to see ‘Rabbit Hole’ then you better hurry because its time runs up this Sunday.

When David Hampton—the notoriously raffish con man who inspired Guare’s most popular play—died of AIDS complications in 2003, The New York Times quoted one of his last victims. The man had gone on a date with Hampton in 2001, during which the swindler managed to finagle $1,000 for a phony September 11 celebrity benefit before sneaking off, leaving his date with a $423 dinner tab. But “Honestly?” said the mark. “It was one of the best dates that I ever went on.”

Evidently, Hampton maintained his beguiling knack for separating urbanites from their money long after Guare dramatized, in 1990, Hampton’s most impressive scam, that of persuading members of Manhattan’s upper crust to take him in as the son of Sidney Poitier. Of course, Guare is interested in more than the attractions of one con artist; he uses the story both to poke fun at and commiserate with his real subject: the well-meaning but somewhat lost liberal rich.

The play’s success in performance hinges on whether we buy that Paul (the Hampton character) could charm the pants and pocketbook off pretty much anyone. On that account, Marra’s otherwise lively production fails: Engelen brings to the character a childlike sincerity that justifies the older characters’ parental concern for him, yet there’s nothing irresistibly seductive about his Paul. As the principal scamees, Griffith and Steinhagen display some comic timing but lack the necessary air of patrician breeding troubled by liberal guilt.

Read more: http://chicago.timeout.com/articles/theater/69269/six-degrees-of-separation-signal-ensemble-theatre-at-chopin-theatre-theater-review#ixzz0ah3XrnwH