Gary Griffin in Chicago Shakespeare Theater's very own English pub, just off the lobby of the theater at their home on Navy Pier.
This kind of clarity and commitment is part and parcel of what makes Griffin such a natural at Sondheim’s work. Griffin becomes more of a collaborator than just someone hired to direct. Just as Steppenwolf Theatre made Sam Shepard’s True West a hit by breathing new life into what critics in 1980 considered an inferior work, it may very well be that Griffin will illuminate the yet unrefined strengths in Road Show that could indeed elevate it to a Sondheim classic. In addition to Wise Guys, the show has carried the titles, Gold! and Bounce (where it had a 2003 staging at Chicago’s Goodman Theatre), before finally getting its current title in 2008 (and earning positive reviews plus an Obie Award and Drama Desk 42•CNCJAWinter 2014
Award). Still, the show—about two 19th century brothers, Addison and Wilson Mizner, and their attempts to find fame and fortune—does not rank amongst Sondheim’s classics and still must move beyond its troubled past. And Griffin might very well be the one to do just that. He resists the title, but he truly must rank as one of Sondheim’s collaborators. He’s consistently given fresh interpretations to an impressive slate of Sondheim works throughout his career. Besides Pacific Overtures, he’s directed West Side Story (a critical and commercial hit in Stratford, Ontario in 2009), Follies and A Little Night Music, and Gypsy. (The upcoming production