IS O'NEILL FORGOTTEN? AND SIX OTHER RUMINATIONS ON THE EVER-REGENERATING GENRE OF THE MUSICAL
The hard part of having an aging legacy as a playwright is “being forgotten,” confesses Eugene O’Neill in the Goodman Theatre’s new musical Iceboy!, Or The Completely Untrue Story of How Eugene O’Neill Came to Write ‘The Iceman Cometh.’ The O’Neill character in the Goodman’s outlandish screwball comedy, played by TV’s Nick Offerman ("Parks and Recreation"), ought to know if he’s being forgotten. He begins each act with a survey of the audience: “How many of you have heard of me?” (The results are divided. The upper balcony has largely not heard of Eugene O’Neill; the main floor largely has.) “Boo yourselves if you’ve never heard of my play The Iceman Cometh .” (Lots of hearty boos.) Iceboy! is one of seven musicals spanning quite a cross-section of the history of the genre that I happened to see in this strangely musical July. Iceboy! is not the best of them, and in many ways is the worst, but it’s the most interesting place to start. Together the musicals show the art f...