ROYKO: The Toughest Man in Chicago opened Friday, September 6, 2024, for a limited run through September 29, 2024, at The Chopin Theater, 1543 W. Division, Chicago. Written by and starring Mitchell Bisschop, directed by Steve Scott, the 2+ hours-long one-man show features a media backdrop, 2 stage environments including a newspaper office and tavern barstool, and a lot of verbiage. Some of the changing projections set the scene for Royko’s musings, some are footage of Chicago places and characters, and some appear like the “snow” after programming on old-fashioned television sets during the decades before the millenium, when Mike Royko was working as the best-known newspaper columnist in Chicago.
For those Chicagoans 50 and older, who were sentient beings when Royko’s columns and his seminal book BOSS about the first mayor Daley, (“Hizzoner”) Richard J. Daley filled our consciousness with his iconic, absorbing, acerbic wit, the performance was a walk down the memory lane. Swamped by Royko’s words, the audience entered a consciousness shaped by his fearless ability to see through the foibles and nonsense in his world and immediately call them out. Royko also demonstrated a commitment to his family, community, city and country that was second to none, as well as an unabashed capacity to express that love. For anyone who didn’t live, read, and become sensate to his environment in Chicago in the 1950’s-through 1990’s, the performance may have seemed out of date, old, even irrelevant, filled- as it was- with many references and diatribe that were purely Chicago-esque in nature.
What’s more, there was a howling distance between the personality of Royko and the demeanor of Bisschop as Royko; the actor was simply too restrained, too matter-of-fact in his delivery, uncranky- he just wasn’t Royko! And the decision to include Bisschop as Royko in some of the images- especially when surrounded by (and of course contrasted with) the real Royko- was simply a poor choice.
Another major problem with the selection was the overly generous series of explications de texte and harangues against Mayor Daley to the exclusion of many other issues of the day. Finally, the piece was disorganized and too long. Why leave what was supposed to be a half-hour at the end, but then extend it with what were superfluous nuances? Like many premieres, this one would’ve benefitted from a brisk editing or a scissors.
That is not to say the show’s overall content wasn’t impressive: it was jam-packed with direct quotations from Royko, charming, funny, smart. There are numerous volumes in print which contain collections of his writings, as well as a plethora of his columns maintained on certain of his former newspaper affiliate sites on the web, and it was obviously a yeoman’s task to go through them and choose what was clearly intended to be a representative sampling of his work.
Finally, it would be unfair not to point out that the segment of ROYKO that really seemed directed at us as any and all modern viewers on the verge of a very important national election was the one that complimented Chicago voters for taking the mayoralty away from “the machine” and electing Jane Byrne in April, 1979. We were exhorted to do what is right and think for ourselves- hurrah!
All photos by Sarah Larson
For tickets, go to httyps://royko.brownpapertickets.com
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