Buzz Center Stage

This My Fair Lady trades nostalgia for nuance, giving Eliza a transformation that finally feels like her own. Overshadowed Theatrical Productions brings surprising warmth, wit, and intention to a beloved musical.

A Thoughtful Evolution of Her Own Making: Overshadowed Theatrical Productions’ My Fair Lady Overshadowed Theatre Productions brings fresh energy to one of musical theatre’s most enduring classics, offering a spirited and thoughtful take on My Fair Lady. This production leans into the story’s sharp contrasts - class and aspiration, control and independence - and invites audiences to see...

Everything starts somewhere.

Steppenwolf Theatre Company's beginnings are rooted in a North Shore spark that ignited long before the company became a Chicago institution. In early 1974, Highland Park classmates Rick Argosh and Leslie Wilson approached Gary Sinise about staging Paul Zindel’s And Miss Reardon Drinks a Little. Sinise brought in Jeff Perry, who was studying at Illinois State University alongside Terry Kinney, and the group began shaping what would become their first season. Through a family friend, Sinise secured the North Shore Unitarian Church on Half Day Road in Deerfield, where Argosh suggested the name Steppenwolf after the Hermann Hesse novel he was reading. That inaugural production set the foundation for a young ensemble that quickly expanded, with Perry and Kinney joining Sinise for their third show, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead.

By 1976, Steppenwolf had established a makeshift theater in the 88-seat basement of Immaculate Conception Catholic Church and School in Highland Park. This is where their physical, actor driven style solidified and where future core ensemble members like Laurie Metcalf and John Malkovich officially cemented their places in the company. After four years of building momentum in the suburbs, Steppenwolf made its first move into Chicago in 1980, taking up residence in a 134-seat space at the Jane Addams Hull House Center on Broadway Avenue. Two years later, in early fall of 1982, the company relocated to the 211-seat former St. Nicholas Theater at 2851 N. Halsted, a space that marked the beginning of their rise into national prominence. What started as a group of determined young artists performing in borrowed church rooms grew into one of the most influential theatre ensembles in the world.