Scene change // Goodman breaks ground on new digs

Wearing white hardhats and wielding gilded shovels, Mayor Daleyand members of the Goodman Theatre board and artistic staff dug upthe first clumps of earth during the groundbreaking Tuesday for thenew Goodman Theatre at Randolph and Dearborn.

They heralded the arrival of another cornerstone in theredevelopment of the North Loop as a center for theater andnightlife.

"This groundbreaking really represents the past, present andfuture of our city," Daley said. "We are rebuilding Chicago throughits schools and its cultural institutions, and the Goodman Theatretruly represents this city's cultural history. An investment in acultural institution is one of the best investments we can make."The new Goodman Theatre, more than a decade in the planning, isa $44 million complex that will include an 800-seat mainstagetheater, a 400-seat studio, rehearsal space and administrativeoffices, plus a restaurant and retail component encased in anattention-getting glass structure on the corner site. The theater isscheduled to open in fall, 2000.Plans for the restaurant component will be announced in June."It's not just the Goodman Theatre," said Lewis Manilow,honorary president of the Goodman/Chicago Theatre Group Board and oneof the prime movers behind the project. "It's the whole downtownthat's being transformed into a cultural and educational campus -from the Lakefront Garden plan and the nearly completed MuseumCampus, to the restoration of the Oriental Theatre, and theconstruction of the Palace Theatre, and the linking of theAuditorium, Shubert and Chicago theaters."This is bringing thousands of people back to the city."Robert Falls, artistic director of the Goodman Theatre, paidtribute to the many local artists whose talents have graced the stageof the "old" Goodman at 200 S. Columbus."We are blessed to have such extraordinary artists working inthis city," said Falls, who singled out actors William Warfield, DelClose and Kevin Anderson in the crowd. Asked what he has in mind asthe opening production at the new Goodman, Falls said he was stillconsidering ideas."I think I'd prefer to do a new work to symbolize the newbuilding and our interest in new writers," he said. "Buthistorically, works commissioned for new buildings have tended to bedisasters. They seem to be overpowered by the building. A newmusical, a new play is one idea. But then sometimes I think it needsto be a `Hamlet' for the millennium."