The title adjective tells you exactly what to expect. A descent into one family’s elaborate agonies, “Long Day’s Journey Into Night” delivers an epic day in the life of a tragedy-stalked family.
Strangely, these are the same loved ones whom Eugene O’Neill wrote about with humor and forgiveness in “Ah, Wilderness!”
Instead, raw regrets and bittersweet frustrations set the tone for this much later memory play. Seldom in post-Greek theater have the sins of two parents so cursed their children.
The misery marathon opens Monday in a potentially electrifying Goodman Theatre revival starring Brian Dennehy. That tower of power is noted, among many triumphs, for his bravura O’Neill turns in Goodman’s “The Iceman Cometh” and “A Touch of the Poet.”
Robert Falls directs Dennehy, Pamela Payton-Wright, Steve Pickering and David Cromer in this eviscerating look at a Connecticut clan who slowly succumb to miserliness, tuberculosis, alcoholism and drugs. It’s all in this family.
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“LONG DAY’S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT” runs through April 6 at Goodman Theatre, 170 N. Dearborn St.; 312-443-3800.
OTHER OPENINGS
“STRANGE INTERLUDE,” North Lakeside Cultural Center, 6219 N. Sheridan Rd.; 773-293-1358: Another monumental work by Eugene O’Neill opens Saturday in a mansion overlooking Lake Michigan. His most sprawling work, this equally personal drama runs an impressive six hours and includes a complete dinner served in the North Lakeside Cultural Center. Linda LeVeque directs a hardy cast of nine.
“LE COSTUME (THE SUIT),” Chicago Shakespeare Theater at Navy Pier, 800 E. Grand Ave.; 312-595-5600: Opening Tuesday in a staging by the great British director Peter Brook (and its only U.S. engagement), this significant cultural import event features Chicago actress Karen Alexis Aldridge in a story of jealousy adapted from a tale by South Africa’s Can Themba. In the slum section of Sophiatown, an unfaithful wife is forced by her outraged husband to display the discarded suit of her lover in the house and to treat it as an honored guest. “Le Costume” is performed in French with a projected English translation in the theater’s upstairs studio.
“THE MUSIC MAN,” Chicago Theatre, 175 N. State St.; 312-902-1500: River City returns. Opening Tuesday, Meredith Willson’s beloved 1957 musical, the enchanting story of how an Iowa town learns trust from a con artist, plays the Chicago Theatre for one week. A presentation by the Chicago Association for the Performing Arts, this post-Broadway touring production features choreography by Tony winner Susan Stroman and a staging by Ray Roderick.
“THE WAVERLY GALLERY,” Pegasus Players, 1145 W. Wilson Ave.; 773-878-9761: Kenneth Lonergan’s comic drama opens Thursday to present the story of a Greenwich Village grandmother and feisty arts activist who battles the onset of Alzheimer’s disease. Susan Padveen and Jeff Ginsberg direct this study of aging, self-fulfillment and family devotion.
“CONJURING TIME” at Live Bait Theater, 3914 N. Clark St.; 773-769-4007: Beginning Friday, magician Sean Masterson presents an evening of prestidigitation with a cosmic dimension. He also delivers some wry storytelling as he illustrates the observations of Einstein, Galileo, T.S. Elliot and Shakespeare with a vanishing coin or a rising card.
“TE AMO,” Theatre Building Chicago, 1225 W. Belmont Ave.; 773-327-5252: Also opening Friday, this swift-moving love story is set to dance and performed by Spanish choreographer Pascual Olivera and his wife, Angela Del Moral. It celebrates in movement their struggle against obstacles of time, distance and divergent careers in order to stay together. Delia Jolly Gray directs.
“ME & AL,” Theatre Building Chicago, 1225 W. Belmont Ave.; 773-327-5252: Opening on Saturday is another Theatre Building presentation. Nothing if not bold, “Me & Al” is a musical reinterpretation of the St. Valentine’s Day massacre that focuses on Reinhart Schwimmer, the obscure optometrist and gangster groupie who perished in that Clark Street slaughter. He got too close for comfort to the bad guys he idolized.
“LINE,” Palio Productions at Heartland Studio Theater, 7016 N. Glenwood Ave.; 773-342-6735: Anthony Gaudio’s revival of Israel Horovitz’s popular one-act opens Friday. Five people waiting uncertainly in line set off the action in this explosive little work, the debut of yet another Chicago ensemble, this one named after a particularly ruthless Italian horse race.
“COYOTE PRETTY” at WNEP Theater, 3209 N. Halsted St.; 773-296-1100: Opening Saturday, this hourlong evening offers a blend of song, dance and sketch comedy.
“ROADSIDE LILYS,” Chicago Dramatists, 1105 W. Chicago Ave.; 312-633-0630: Continuing the theater’s series of Saturday showcases of staged readings of new scripts by local writers, this potential screenplay by Mia McCullough depicts a man who has left his job to drive across America. He has three meals in different diners and meets eerily similar people in each.