Productions & Events featuring James Houton

Juno

book by Joseph Stein
music and lyrics by Marc Blitzstein
based on the play Juno and the Paycock by Sean O’Casey

directed by Nick Bowling

Chicago Premiere

Apr 23, 2014 - Jul 27, 2014

Originally on Broadway in 1959, this timeless musical has never been seen in Chicago, until now!

During the Irish Civil War in the 1920s, the fearless matriarch of a destitute household holds her family together in the face of her husband’s carousing. With fortunes about to turn, the family strives to rise above the political and social unrest around them. This epic, humorous and heartbreaking tale of survival is told through honest and powerful anthems such as “I Wish It So,” “We’re Alive” and “On a Day Like This.”

More about Juno
The Pitmen Painters

by Lee Hall
inspired by a book by William Feaver
directed by BJ Jones

Chicago Premiere

Sep 6, 2011 - Dec 4, 2011

Heralded in London and on Broadway, this new play by the Tony Award- winning writer of Billy Elliot is based on a triumphant true story. A group of miners in Northern England taking an art appreciation class start experimenting with painting and soon build an astonishing body of work that makes them the unlikeliest of art world sensations. An arresting and hilarious salute to the power of individual expression and the collective spirit, The Pitmen Painters is a deeply moving and timely look at art, class and politics.

More about Pitman Painters
Pravda

by Howard Brenton and David Hare
directed by Louis Contey

Chicago Premiere

Feb 8, 2005 - Mar 26, 2005

Set in the booming 1980s, PRAVDA is the hilarious battle between an unscrupulous newspaper magnate and his idealistic editor over the integrity of the press. After Lambert Le Roux buys up London’s Fleet Street papers, he uses them to serve his political and financial whims, testing Andrew May’s willpower and principles. This hard-hitting satire by two of the most provocative playwrights of our time examines the public’s hunger for sensationalism and the objectivity of our news.

More about Pravda
Not About Nightingales

by Tennessee Williams
directed by William Brown

Midwest Premiere

Oct 17, 2000 - Dec 3, 2000

More about Not About Nightingales
A Cry of Players

by William Gibson
directed by Jay Paul Skelton

Feb 29, 2000 - Apr 9, 2000

Meet the young Will Shakespeare – a strong willed, impulsive young man with a fiery tongue, an eye for the town tarts and a penchant for poaching. At 19 years old, he is struggling between his role as a husband and father and the desire to follow his dreams. Fate finds Will in the form of a roaming troupe of actors who tempt him away from his familiar security toward a destiny that will prove greater than his hopes can conceive.

More about A Cry of Players