Bold headline first: Nick Offerman and Megan Mullally Bring Fire and Fun to Chicago with Iceboy! A Quirky World Premiere at Goodman Theatre.
News update: The new musical Iceboy! Or The Completely Untrue Story Of How Eugene O’Neill Came to Write The Iceman Cometh is headed to Chicago’s Goodman Theatre for its world premiere. The show is produced by the same team behind Urinetown and The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. It will run from June 9 to July 16 in the Albert Theatre, with Marc Bruni directing.
Casting already announced includes Offerman, best known for Parks and Recreation and Her, alongside Megan Mullally, who will play Vera Vimm. Offerman takes on the role of Eugene O’Neill. The creative team features Mark Hollmann (Urinetown) on music, Hollmann and Jay Reiss (The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee) handling the lyrics, and a book by Erin Quinn Purcell and Reiss. The premise follows Vera Vimm, a Broadway-aspiring star played by Mullally, who adopts a 40,000-year-old Neanderthal from the Arctic. The twist? He starts stealing the spotlight, sending the show’s dynamics—and Vera’s ambitions—into comic disarray.
We’re thrilled to bring the heat of our collaboration back to Chicago, a city that helped shape both of us as performers early in our careers. While we originally hoped to stage a Tennessee Williams title, city officials warned that Chicago has developed an historic aversion to catching on fire. So we’ve pivoted to Iceboy!, a lighter, uproarious new musical that still packs lots of heat.
Tickets and more information are available at the Goodman Theatre website.
Follow-up thought-provoking note: This pairing of Offerman and Mullally, familiar from other projects, underlines a bigger trend in contemporary musical theater—stars from television and film crossing into the stage with bold, original material. Do you think this crossover strengthens live theater or shifts focus away from traditional Broadway talents? Share your perspective in the comments.
