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Sweet Bird of Youth plays at the Goodman Theatre through October 24. "Once you work on Williams, other things seem very pedestrian. —DAVID CROMER " GARY GRIFFIN, PLEASE TELL US.... Where do you talk shop with cast or colleagues? The bar at Riva on Navy Pier—good wine and seafood appetizers. Do you attend opening- night parties? I love the Chicago Shakespeare Theater opening parties. The board and supporters feel like family. unique poetry of mood and language that defined the world as he saw it. Kitchen-sink drama it ain't. But as Cromer observes, "Despite the extremity of her circumstances, her conversa- tions with Chance are about very basic, very recognizable things. She's had a professional fail- ure and freaked out. She drinks. She wants sex." As for Williams's language, which can be extreme in its elegance, Cromer asks, "What's the alternative? The alternative is everything small and manageable. Everything beige. Once you work on Williams, other things seem very pedestrian. This is like driving a racecar." Gary Griffin is so active locally—as associate artistic director at Chicago Shakespeare Theater he's worked just about everywhere, from the Court Theatre to Drury Lane Oakbrook—it's easy to overlook the fact that his Broadway bona fides include The Color Purple, and that his rendi- tion of Stephen Sondheim's Pacific Overtures at London's Donmar Warehouse garnered the Olivier Award for Outstanding Musical Production. In fact, Sondheim is a favorite of this Rockford boy. His current project, Sondheim's Sunday in the Park with George, Chicago Shakespeare Theater. A Sunday on La Grande Jatte—a painting that is arguably the Art d'oeuvre—Sondheim's richly layered, dreamlike creation conjures the creative psyche of the just opened at Most underrated American playwright's work you'd like to see produced more: There are so many emerging playwrights I hope we hear more from, like Sarah Treem, A. Rey Pamatmat, and Tanya Barfield. What shows are you looking forward to seeing this season? Equivocation by Bill Cain at Victory Gardens Theater, and Kinky Boots at the Bank of America Theatre. Diane Lane plays troubled film star Alexandra Del Lago in Sweet Bird of Youth. don't believe he had any choice." Musicals aren't everyone's cup of Best piece of professional advice you were ever given: Always do plays that are beyond you. tea. Even Griffin didn't take to them until he saw Sondheim's Sweeney Todd. "It's the specificity in his work that makes it so special," he says. "When he writes about presidential assassins, he writes differently than when he writes about marriage in 1970. He really creates a form for each show he does." Cromer and Griffin both appreciate the unset- tling subtext in the plays they're taking on, the shadow of mortality that falls over the action. "I think this show is about our time here," observes Griffin, "the fact that we are passing through. Pointillist painter and the price he paid (sacrific- ing love) to pursue his passion. Griffin, who has directed the show previously, notes, "It offers a window into what it's like to be that kind of art- ist—not tortured, but one who had a calling and for whom there was no option. The personal pain Seurat experienced would not have hap- pened if he had been untrue to his mission. Yet I Inspired by Georges Seurat's classic painting Works of art are ways to say, 'We were here.'" As for Cromer, that unassailable fact is always allur- ing. "I am attracted to things that have to do with the fact that time marches inexorably. Our Town is certainly about that. Sweet Bird is certainly about that. In any great piece of writing, some- one is saying, 'Gosh, it just keeps going.'" Sweet Bird of Youth runs September 14 through October 25 at the Goodman Theatre, 170 N. Dearborn St., 312- 443-3800; Institute of Chicago's chef goodmantheatre.org. Sunday in the Park with George runs September 26 through November 4 at Chicago Shakespeare Theater, 800 E. Grand Ave., 312-595-5600 MA MICHIGANAVEMAG.COM 67 DAVID CROMER, WE'RE CURIOUS.... What show got you hooked on theater? Alice in Wonderland; I was in it in the fourth grade. Which is the tougher audience, New York or Chicago? Every audience, every night, everywhere is pretty tough. You have to start fresh each time. In the guilty pleasure department, what's a bad (or mediocre) play that you actually love? Les Misérables. But is Les Misérables really bad or mediocre? Or do I just think so because it's popular? Worst bit of professional advice ever given: How about the best professional piece of advice I ever got: "David, it's just money." PHOTOGRAPHY BY FRAZER HARRISON/GETTY IMAGES (LANE) ; PETER BOSY (GRIFFIN)