Billie Jean nets a WIN for Chicago Shakes!
REVIEW BY:
Paul Lisnek, Behind the Curtain, WGN+ and WGNRadio.com
****/4
One might think that a play called Billie Jean will be little more than a biography of the legendary tennis player who turned the tennis world on its head to achieve equal pay and equal respect for women in the sport. You’d be wrong. The story goes well beyond weaving the moments of King’s life that helped shape her to what almost amounts as a self-help course designed to help everyone find their inner strength, one step at a time.
The word Love of course is the term used to reference that moment in tennis before anything has been scored or earned. But in this play, Love is far more than a tennis scoring term. It is the emotion that propels Billy Jean King through her relationships with others, but most significantly with tennis.
Chilina Kennedy truly embodies the spirit of King and with wig and costuming that helps create a powerful illusion that you are watching Ms. King herself move thru her life. It connects…it works.
The supporting cast is all strong and fill a variety of roles (including I might add, a score board which almost takes on the role of a character in and of itself for the information conveyed and the emotional videos that empower the play’s final moments which reminds us that even in the face of victory, the battle goes on.
For members of the LGBTQ+ community, the impact of the show is especially powerful. From unaccepting parents who must choose to love… or not…. their child for who they are, from complex professional pressures, to the pull of an orientation at a time when society was less accepting. Indeed, it’s hard to watch this play and not think of the struggles of the trans community which is the latest target of inexplicable bigotry.
The play is powerful…the performances are all way above the net and hitting their marks….and the message of acceptance and personal strength resonates as powerful today as it did thru the decades in which King pursued her goal to be the absolute best.
Billie Jean is not to be missed…..you’ll leave the theater feeling empowered to be the best you can be….and most importantly, to live the life you are meant to live.
It’s Game…. Set … and Match for Billie Jean…and us!
“Billie Jean” will continue thru August 10th with performances as follows:
Tuesdays 7:30pmShow Type: Drama
Box Office: 312-595-5600
To see what others are saying, visit www.theatreinchicago.com, go to Review Round-Up and click at “Billie Jean”
Billie Jean
****
Reviewed by Mark Reinecke
This astonishing American story transcends politics and sports. It is about how power and money were wielded in a blatantly discriminatory fashion on and off the tennis courts during a time of social upheaval two generations ago.
Billie Jean, a new work that recently debuted at the Chicago Shakespeare Theater, shows us firsthand the painful eternal conflict between public life and private emotion. This poignant diary of a gay, world-class athlete is the backdrop for dealing with that conflict and the mixed blessing of overnight fame. And ultimately this play, written by Lauren M. Gunderson, enriches the national narrative at a period when we continue to search for the soul of this country and our better selves.
Billie Jean King (“nailed it” by Chilina Kennedy) is destined through her grit, determination and sheer talent to be an iconic activist and a world-class athlete. It was her generation of Baby Boomers that fought for racial discrimination, grew the environmental movement, bolstered feminism and gay rights, and helped to shepherd along giant technological advances. There were many significant victories along the way. This play encourages us to recall Billie Jean King’s powerful voice and influence – a woman driven by honesty, integrity and principle – as America today tumbles deeper into the political rancor over DEI and the morass of misinformation and discrimination. This production only implies what she is likely thinking today, as past human rights victories continue to be overturned long after her trailblazing years and advocacy.
Under the accomplished direction of Marc Bruni, we begin with the formative years of Billie Jean Moffitt (Julia Antonelli), a precocious pre-teen with enormous aspirations and physical ability, a budding sense of humor and mental toughness, and a naivete (or perhaps confusion) about the lack of opportunities and the strict gender norms expected of women. From a very young age, Billie Jean did not understand why a child of color, for example, couldn’t go to school with white kids. She commits herself at this young age to the fight for equality for the rest of her life.
We watch a fast-paced life biography, well-written and comprehensive like a Wikipedia template covering year by year, decade by decade. The audience responded throughout as if they were watching a star athlete actually compete on the (rotating) court, rising to international stardom before their eyes. As a young college student, Billie Jean marries Larry King (a moving performance by Dan Amboyer). King is a law student who has tremendous influence on her and underscores the ultra-radical notion that men and women are equal, that she should pursue tennis as a career, and to fight for what is owed to her.
We are reminded of King’s long string of victories and awards punctuated by physical injuries, being outed under the threat of legal extortion, and subsequently losing sponsorship deals as a result. After telling the truth and in partnership with her husband, she establishes the Women’s Tennis Association in 1973 to address the gender pay gap in sports and to promote gender equality in all of its permutations. This is the same year she roundly defeats the rude and sexist Bobby Riggs in the “Battle of the Sexes” tennis match.
The enormous power and true emotional impact of this play come in the second act. We get a deeper glimpse of King’s highly personal journey off of the courts. Those quiet, rare, reflective moments when King’s energizer battery slows down just enough to have that unbearably moving conversation with her loving parents, who came of age in a very different time. And her honest and open discussions with her husband, who is both understanding and kind of a typical dismissive dude. As she becomes increasingly aware of her growing attraction to women, she believes in being forthright and open about this with her husband. I was inspired and excited to learn more about Billie Jean’s remarkable and authentic life from Gunderson’s compelling script and to know, ultimately, she finds her life partner, fellow advocate, and wife, Ilana Kloss.
Patrons of Chicago Shakespeare Theater have come to expect slick, highly produced, well-written, brilliantly acted, and visually stimulating performances. Billie Jean will not disappoint. Chilina Kennedy steps out on to the stage and the audience roars seeing this uncanny image of Billie Jean as we remembered her from decades ago. This deserves a shout out to Tom Watson (Hair & Makeup Designer), Linda Cho and Herin Kaputkin (Costume Designer and Associate Costume Designer respectively). Soon, we are watching women’s doubles – beautiful as a turbulent Swan Lake – with naturalistic lighting (Jen Schriever) and sound effects (Jane Shaw) simulating whooshing balls and the crack of rackets returning shots. The choreography (Steph Paul, Movement Director) is demanding, seamless and athletic. You won’t see a racket or ball on the court, until the next generation comes to fore and the racket becomes a metaphor for the women’s torch to be passed. We easily track the dialogue and have up-to-date scorecards throughout (David Bengali, Video & Projections Designer).
Billie Jean King’s accomplishments in the world of tennis are many and well known. This thoughtful, beautiful, at times stimulating and heartbreaking production reminds us that through her stardom, Billie Jean King has tossed aside the stuffy conventions of tradition and brought forward hot-button issues like equal pay and gender equality. In turn, this has served to elevated the self-esteem of girls and women through her life-long struggle and unabashed advocacy. Her lasting legacy is the multitude of ways in which she has helped to make our country a more fair, just society and the many ways she created social change.
Billie Jean King said in a speech several years ago to graduates at Northwestern University, “Freedom is never really won. You earn it and you win it in every generation. Today, it’s time for your generation to win these freedoms and shape the future.”
King is a national treasure and her story told at Chicago Shakespeare Theater is both timely and urgent.
“Billie Jean” will run thru August 10th with performances as follows:
Show Type: Drama
Box Office: 312-595-5600
The performance runs 2 hours, 10 minutes including intermission.
More information at www.chicagoshakes.com/billiejean or on social media at @chicagoshakes.
To see what others are saying, visit www.theatreinchicago.com, go to Review Round-Up and click “Billie Jean”.
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