Raw, Heartbreaking & Electric: “Airline Highway” Broadway’s Next Hit Play

Airline Highway by Lisa D’Amour. Steppenwolf Theatre Company. Directed by Joe Mantello. Runtime 2 hours & 35 Minutes with one intermission.

Tuesday night, a powerhouse of a new play opened at Steppenwolf Theatre Company. The world premiere of Lisa D’Amour’s Airline Highway is a pre-Broadway engagement, and a force to be reckoned with. Chicago audiences should run, not walk as it has the makings of the next big Chicago transfer (ala August: Osage County).

Without spoiling too much, Airline Highway is about a community of misfits; the people society often ignores. They are a “glorious band of f***ups” to coin a phrase from the show. Celebrating the life of a mother figure on her death bed, one of the residents who left for a better life brings a teenager into the world of a transgender woman, a stripper, a hooker, a poet, and the world below the blue color, struggling to survive their day to day lives.

Ms. D’Amour’s script hits on something that isn’t totally new but feels eye opening. These people are not caricatures, but living, breathing, honest individuals and though their struggles may not be something the audience have experienced, we root for them to find their success, and to get out of their station. These characters wear their wounds on their sleeves and do not mince their words. The dialogue is fresh, clever and consistently funny. With a few slight trims to the run time, this play could easily be Ms. D’Amour’s second Pulitzer Prize finalist.

Leading this sensational cast is Steppenwolf company member K. Todd Freeman as the caretaking, sass talking transgender Sissy Na Na. Mr. Freeman serves as the emotional center of the piece. His energy is never ending as he continually finds ways to play our emotions from rip roaring laughter to the darkest depths of Sissy’s rough history. A transcendent performance that should continue to receive high praise when the show transfers.

Carolyn Braver plays the teenager Zoe, the outsider that gets brought to Airline Highway by her step father “Bait Boy” (Stephen Louis Grush) and is our looking glass into the world of the residents. While at first she appears stereotypical and one note, as the play develops so does Miss Braver’s acceptance and willingness to explore a different road of life. Her speech towards the end of the play is poignant and is the essence of why we spend our 2 hours here.

Caroline Neff as the stripper hit by incredibly hard times Krista is beautifully layered. Rough around the edges, sympathetic on the inside and still mourning what could have been with Stephen Louis Grush’s smooth talking, oily and regrettably likeable Bait Boy. Both actors are in excellent form.

It is impossible to point out the brilliance of each cast member without revealing too much of the plot but Kate Buddeke, Scott Jaeck, Tim Edward Rhoze, Judith Roberts and Gordon Joseph Weiss all deliver in their respective roles. In addition, Scott Pask’s stunning set makes the hummingbird hotel appear as important a character as those renting its rooms.

This is a rare production. It has the makings of a show that will carry bragging rights with it that claim “I saw it before it was a hit.” Steppenwolf Theatre continues to bring the honesty and intimacy of Chicago theatre to Broadway to inform the world on why we are such an important theatre city. Do not miss Airline Highway before it flies off to the east coast. I implore you to spend your time with these misfits, and find yourself in them. There is beauty in this rundown parking lot.

Highly Recommended

Airline Highway runs through Feb 8th. Performances are Tuesdays-Sundays. www.steppenwolf.org