Presented in a storefront on the sixth floor of Water Tower Place, Stage Left Theatre’s premiere of The Distrikt of Lake Michigun by Stephanie Murphy presents the story of Chicago legend George “Cap” Streeter. When his steamboat beached on a sandbar 450 feet off Lake Michigan in 1886, he claimed it as an “independent district,” which later evolved into the present-day neighborhood of Streeterville. Unfortunately, the play’s antics get in the way of storytelling. Seth Wilson’s direction makes the most out of the space’s depth (for the record, it was an American Eagle), and the cast, featuring Andrew Pond as Streeter, Jessika Cutts and Jennifer Mohr as his wives, and a nimble ensemble, struts its stuff in raucous musical and dance interludes.
The Distrikt of Lake Michigun: A Most Lamentable Comedy and Most Ridiculous Tragedy (and also completely factual and also true)
Through 4/27: Fri–Sat 7:30 PM, Sun 3 PM; also Thu 4/17 7:30 PM, no show Sun 4/20; a vaudeville “curtain raiser” takes place a half hour before each performance; Water Tower Place, 835 N. Michigan, Ste. 7080 (6th floor), stagelefttheatre.com, $40
Yet there’s a sense that the horseplay comes at the expense of plot, and the play ends without revealing much about its subject. Per a cursory Wikipedia search, some of the play’s information about Streeter is simply untrue. Murphy’s script is full of solid metaphors about power and the manufactured American Dream, and when the play serves as satire and not just a container for silliness, The Distrikt of Lake Michigun has a lot of promise. Streeter, a huckster and a fabulist, is an excellent stand-in for any number of corrupt American politicians, so it’s too bad that the show’s message is drowned out by bits. It’s a good time, but in sacrificing plot for hijinks, it runs aground.
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