Newcity Stage

Theater, Dance, Comedy and Performance in Chicago

City Lit’s “Changing Channels” Finds Comedy in the Shadow of the Blacklist John Reeger’s witty new play set during the golden age of television follows a variety-show performer forced to choose between career success and political conscience.

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by Mary Wisniewski
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A person dressed as Napoleon points dramatically while another person in a lavender dress laughs heartily at a table decorated with flowers and cosmetics, on a brightly lit stage set.

City Lit’s “Changing Channels,” with Kat Evans and Orion Lay-Sleeper/Photo: Steven Townshend

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Television in the early 1950s is remembered as a golden age. The medium was new and networks were willing to try anything, from wacky variety shows to high culture.

But the Red Scare and the blacklist cast a pall over the arts. Actors and writers who had embraced liberal causes—like supporting civil rights—could be accused of Communist sympathies and thrown out of work.

“Changing Channels,” a sharply written and emotionally resonant new play by Chicago actor and playwright John Reeger, shows the perils of the era. Maggie Carlin (City Lit artistic associate Kat Evans) is a comedienne on a popular variety show. The show’s star, the brash and rotund Eddie Gillroy (Orion Lay-Sleeper), has great news—their show is so popular they’re going to a bigger network, for a lot more money.

But there’s a catch—both Maggie and her husband, radio actor Peter Bell (Skyler Tipton), are listed in “Red Channels,” a tract that accused 151 entertainment professionals of being either Communists or “fellow travelers.” This was a real list—both conductor Leonard Bernstein and folk singer Pete Seeger were on it, along with Edward G. Robinson and Orson Welles. Suddenly, Maggie’s future is in trouble, and she faces making a choice that goes against her beliefs.

Maggie is based on a real person—Pert Kelton, who played the original Alice Kramden in “The Honeymooners” with Jackie Gleason. The blacklist interrupted her career, and she was replaced by Audrey Meadows. Kelton returned to show business and is known for creating the role of Mrs. Paroo in the 1957 Broadway and 1962 movie versions of “The Music Man.”

The premise for “Changing Channels” sounds heavy, but the play isn’t. The script is drum-tight and genuinely funny. Directed by Kevin Theis, it moves fast, with great ensemble work by Evans, Lay-Sleeper and Tipton, along with Johnny Moran as Gillroy’s dour manager “Bullets” and Andrew Pappas as Kenny, the baseball-crazy stagehand.

Two men in vintage suits on stage: one stands holding a coat, looking concerned; the other sits, wide-eyed and surprised, reading a book titled Red Channel. A blue door and framed picture are behind them.

City Lit’s “Changing Channels,” with Skyler Tipton and Orion Lay-Sleeper/Photo: Steven Townshend

All the action is set in Maggie’s dressing room. The set by Joe Larkin, with props by Meg X. McGrath, is lovingly decorated to reflect the era, with a rack of bright, puffy dresses, an oval coffee table holding vintage showbiz magazines, a well-stocked liquor cart, and even a boxy wooden television set. The audience gets to hear bits from the “For Pete’s Sake” show while Maggie and Eddie are off-stage.

Lay-Sleeper does amazing work as the Gleasonesque Gillroy—he blows onto the stage like a galleon in full sail, stomach out. He does dance steps, mocks his own weight and tells ridiculous jokes, like how he got on his motorcycle with his gal Ruth and she fell off. “I rode on, ruthlessly,” he proclaims, and the audience groans. Underneath the clowning, Eddie is both a reckless alcoholic and a cool operator. He wants his big contract, and he wants everyone to fall in line.

Maggie is a red-headed corker, not afraid to take on Eddie joke for joke, or fill in his lines when he forgets them. Evans is great at portraying both Maggie’s sharp, vaudeville-seasoned humor and her sturdy intelligence when she protests the unfairness of “Red Channels.” Tipton is effective in the quieter role of her loyal husband, sad over the fading of radio and proud of whatever Maggie chooses to do.

Moran does excellent work as a little grey man with a squashed fedora and no principles, while Pappas won a spontaneous round of applause for his reenactment of how the New York Giants won the 1951 National League pennant.

This show about 1950s television plays like a classic TV comedy. The banter is rapid, the characterizations are broad and the plot’s a little corny. But it’s well done and ultimately satisfying. It’s also a reminder that as bad as things are in entertainment now—with the cancellation of “The Late Show” with Stephen Colbert, for example—they have been worse. And they could get worse again, if artists and audiences stop fighting back.

“Changing Channels” runs through April 12 at City Lit Theater, 1020 West Bryn Mawr. Tickets are $40 (with student and senior discounts), available at citylit.org.