Roger Ebert

"How do you tell a story about the best storyteller you've ever met?" Richard Roeper asked regarding Roger Ebert during a packed public memorial last night for the beloved film critic who died April 4 at age 70 after a long battle with cancer. The Sun-Times columnist's question was answered emphatically over two and a half hours as Ebert's family, friends, and film industry admirers stood on the Chicago Theatre stage to fondly remember a prolific newspaperman, a champion of independent artists and marginalized voices, and a humanitarian who saw the best in people—and made others recognize their own virtues. For his part, Roeper called the the Pulitzer Prize winner "our George Bailey," saying Ebert's "was truly a wonderful life."

Titled "A Celebration of Life: With Love From Chaz," the event had as its first and final speaker Ebert's widow, who for years was never far from her husband's side, whether during hospital stays or at Lake Street Screening Room. "Roger, this is your happening and it's freaking me out," Chaz said, appropriating a line from Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, the Russ Meyer–directed film for which Ebert wrote the screenplay.

A gospel choir's celebratory hymn "Lift Him Up" led into clips of Ebert and his Tribune critic frenemy Gene Siskel verbally sparring in the various iterations of their reviews show, from the shaggy early years to some hilarious '80s outtakes of the two men taking personal shots to the pair doing a "Pease Porridge Hot" routine. The series' creator-producer Thea Flam recalled schooling Ebert in writing for television. "Only once did he grumble, 'You know, Thea, I have a Pulitzer Prize.'" Her thoughts then turned to Chaz, "his guardian angel": "He had always been a great guy. She enabled him to become a great man."

Siskel's widow Marlene Iglitzen noted that films used to screen for critics at the Chicago Theatre. A small elevator would take the journalists to one of the upper floors of the building, and she said Gene and Roger made sure they never had to ride together. Inside the theater, Iglitzen recalled, "they sat as far away as possible" from each other. Despite the good-natured rivalry, "Gene was thrilled for Roger to have an epic romance off the screen" when he met Chaz. On the last anniversary of Siskel's death, Iglitzen said Ebert wrote to her to say he had "never felt closer to a man" as he did to Siskel.

Ebert's fellow film critics heaped their praises on the master. Variety critic Scott Foundas called Ebert a "gentle giant," as opposed to the likes of Pauline Kael, who inspired in her disciples a fierce partisanship. The Hollywood Reporter's Todd McCarthy concluded his memorial tribute saying, "In film criticism for 46 years, there was Roger Ebert—and then there was the rest of us." Christie Hefner said she was mortified to recall showing Ebert film reviews she had written for her college newspaper while he was interviewing her for a story "on Hugh Hefner's daughter." She later went on to review films for the Boston Phoenix.

Joan Cusack read aloud a heartfelt letter from the Obamas. Brother John remembered a nervous first run-in with Ebert at the Carnegie Deli in New York while on the press tour for The Sure Thing. "Don't worry," Ebert whispered to the young actor. "I liked your movie." "He didn't always love your movie, but he always gave you a fair shake," John Cusack said. "His writing was often better than the writing in the film."

Several filmmakers underscored Ebert's fairness—advocating for small-budget art-house cinema alongside reviews of Hollywood blockbusters. Director Gregory Nava (El Norte) said there was a time when Ebert "was the only major critic in this country who would look at our movies," indie films telling minority stories. Michael Barker, president of Sony Pictures Classics, called Ebert "the conscience of the movie business." Filmmaker Andrew Davis—whom Ebert imagined directing "the perfect Chicago movie"—had fond remembrances of his friend, even taking the chance to read Ebert's glowing review Davis's The Fugitive.

Ebert's boozy past made a brief appearance when Old Town Ale House proprietor Bruce Elliott told a bawdy barroom tale. (Apparently, Rog had a fondness for large-breasted women.) Comedian Dick Gregory did some off-color standup before comparing Ebert to a turtle: "hard on the outside, soft in the middle and always willing to stick his neck out."

Home video clips showing Ebert doting on Chaz's grandchildren shed some light on his family life. Many of the night's remembrances, whether from critics or celebs, ended in praise of Chaz. She was commended as Ebert's true love, his selfless rock who refused to let her husband die after he was first diagnosed with cancer in 2002 and during years of treament, surgeries and the loss of his voice. During that trying time, Chaz explained, angels had whispered in her ear to assure her it wasn't Roger's time. "I knew he had much more important work ahead," she said.

In closing, Chaz took the stage with her family. Pausing a few times to compose herself—creating a charged, resonant silence in the cavernous theater—she was, as always, standing by her man.

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  Let Them Eat Chaos at the Second City

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  Let Them Eat Chaos at the Second City

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  Edgar Blackmon and Ross Bryant in Let Them Eat Chaos at the Second City

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  Edgar Blackmon and Ross Bryant in Let Them Eat Chaos at the Second City

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  Steve Waltien and Katie Rich in Let Them Eat Chaos at the Second City

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  Holly Laurent and Tawny Newsome in Let Them Eat Chaos at the Second City

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  Edgar Blackmon in Let Them Eat Chaos at the Second City

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  Ross Bryant and Holly Laurent in Let Them Eat Chaos at the Second City

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Let Them Eat Chaos at the Second City

Photo: Clayton Hauck

Bring your passport to Let Them Eat Chaos. In the Second City's 101st Mainstage revue, an ensemble consisting of veteran performers Edgar Blackmon, Holly Laurent, Katie Rich and Steve Waltien and Mainstage newcomers Ross Bryant and Tawny Newsome leaves Chicago behind in favor of a space- and time-bending revue that loops in Vienna circa 1819, the opening of the Panama Canal, the distant future and more. If Grant Achatz attends the show, it will inspire at least a dozen new menu ideas for his restaurant Next.

Let Them Eat Chaos crackles with new ideas and spirited risks. Gone is the musical number that typically opens a Mainstage revue; left in its place is a stripped-down, improvised scene in which the ensemble takes turns playing the same character. It's a simple scene and it'd be easy to call it underwhelming were it not so true to the kinds of openings encouraged by gurus like Del Close, designed to warm up an ensemble and enhance group mind at the beginning of an improv show. The nature of the opening might even change from night to night. You may have to see this show more than once.

Lots of ideas are bandied about. We are living in a very strange time, Newsome's time-traveler proclaims in an early scene. We're also living in a busy one, as demonstrated by a woman so self-absorbed she hits major milestones in life (marriage, sex, childbirth) while so consumed by text messaging she never once looks up from her phone.

It was the scenes set in distant lands that captivated the most, including a sailor answering a siren's call, a telenovela-like exchange between a Central American poet and his illegitimate daughter, and banter between an American and Scottish soldier set against a backdrop of rubble and intermittent explosions in the European Theater of World War II. I'm not sure the Mainstage has ever strayed this far from ubiquitous mayor jokes, relationship scenes between thirtysomethings and impressions of South Siders. It was a welcome departure.

The set design makes these faraway landscapes possible. A curtain, so fiery red it will burn your retinas, is the only attention grabber on an otherwise threadbare stage. But this relatively blank canvas allows director Matt Hovde and his design team to create vivid backdrops that transport the audience from the high seas to deep space to a dream version of Chicago with the push of a button.

There are plenty of moments in which each ensemble member puts his or her best self forward, but to single out one would diminish the rest; that's not how you review an ensemble-based show. Suffice it to say I liked them most when they were given new muscles to flex. In an Act II standout, for example, a group of first graders are pressed with the challenge of drawing pictures based on an audience suggestion (in this instance, popcorn). The scene was one of the evening's biggest gut-busters thanks to the original interpretations each ensemble member produced.

There were also times when the material hewed close to formula. In a musical number, Newsome and Laurent take the NRA's grating and persistent claim that more guns are the solutions to America's problems to its logical extreme. It's joyous but also familiar territory. Ditto a number between Blackmon and Bryant that illustrates the stark differences between a black and white rapper.

If Let Them Eat Chaos falls short anywhere, it's in the lack of anarchy suggested by the revue's title. "Chaos is the nature of the universe," says a character in an early scene. That might not be what the visiting masses want to hear when they visit the Second City, but I'll take it anytime.

Steppenwolf Garage

Photo: Courtesy of Steppenwolf Theatre Company

Steppenwolf Theatre Company today announced the lineup for this summer's eighth annual First Look Repertory of New Work, to be presented in its Garage theater. They include Edith Freni's family drama Buena Vista, set in an isolated Colorado cabin; Aaron Carter's The Gospel of Franklin, about a devout man who loves to witness to his factory coworkers but needs saving himself; and Janine Nabers's Annie Bosh is Missing, a portrait of a troubled young woman navigating the post-Katrina Gulf Coast in search of her estranged father.

The three plays run in rep July 29–August 25. The lineup will also include free readings of three additional works during Steppenwolf's Professionals' Weekend, August 8–11: Tempo, by Mike Batistick; Your Name Will Follow You Home, by Carlos Murillo; and Barbecue, by Robert O'Hara. Tickets go on sale Friday at 11am.

Interrobang Theatre Project, one of Chicago's most promising young theater companies, has announced plans for its fourth season, to be presented entirely at the Athenaeum Theatre. The 2013–14 slate opens with a new production of Mark O'Rowe's Terminus, a collection of interlocking monologues that was previously seen in a 2011 performance by Dublin's Abbey Theatre at the Museum of Contemporary Art. Interrobang's production will star Christina Hall, Michaela Petro and Kevin Barry Crowley (September 12–October 6).

That's followed in the new year by The Pitchfork Disney, the surreal, dark fairy tale by Mercury Fur playwright Philip Ridley that's credited with kickstarting the "in-yer-face" era of British drama. The cast is set to include Andrew Goetten, Aislinn Kerchaer, Mark Lancaster and Josh Salt (February 6–March 2). Both Terminus and The Pitchfork Disney will be directed by Jeffry Stanton. The season closes with a new adaptation of Ibsen's A Doll's House by Chicago playwright Calamity West, directed by James Yost (May 8–June 8); casting remains to be announced.