Comedienne Julia Sweeney headlining April opening of new theater project
March 13 , 2007
BY PHILIP POTEMPA
SNL Alum Alert
Julia Sweeney, the funny cherub-faced comedienne and actress who will forever be associated with her mysterious gender-lacking alter ego "Saturday Night Live" character "Pat," is making a rare visit to Chicago next month.
Sweeney, 47, is bringing her stage monologue show "Letting Go of God" to The Lakeshore Theater, 3175 N. Broadway, in Chicago for two nights, April 13 and 14.
Sweeney's show dates were just released Monday as part of a major announcement for a new direction for The Lakeshore Theater, which in recent years, has gone from movie theater to a live theater performance venue and now it's latest incarnation: a marquee for the latest in live comedy.
Monday's press statement, which included the Sweeney show info, began with the words: "It's not just about Second City in Chicago anymore." Paul Provenza, who directed the 2005 film "The Aristocrats," featuring a legendary comedy who's who ranging from Jon Stewart, Trey Parker and Matt Stone to Robin Williams, Chris Rock and Howie Mandell, among others, will serve as the theater's adviser and Chris Ritter will be the artistic director.
The press statement describes The Lakeshore Theater as "going in a new direction, featuring the country's top, edgy comedians, with initial engagements including Sweeney, Doug Stanhope, Mike Birbiglia, Maria Bamford and Scott Capurro.
"We wanted to provide a venue in Chicago for the edgiest, most challenging, rule-breaking comics working today," Ritter said.
"Instead of the more mainstream fare found at other local theaters and clubs, The Lakeshore Theater will offer programming you won't see anywhere else in Chicago. We also hope to introduce some new artists and their work to the Chicago audience, and make The Lakeshore Theater the place to see smart, adventurous comedy presented as art by genuine artists."
As for Sweeney, the show she is bringing to Chicago examines her devout Catholic childhood and how the personal twists and turns in her life caused her to question her entire religious foundation and even the existence of God.
Just as Sweeney was ending her run as part of the cast of "Saturday Night Live" in 1993, she and her actor/writer husband Stephen Hibbert divorced. Then, in 1994, as she was completing her first big screen movie project "It's Pat," her brother Michael developed lymphoma and she devoted all her time to helping her family as they tried to help him through the health crisis. Just after his death, also in 1995, Sweeney was diagnosed with cervical cancer.
Not only did she beat the cancer before it spread, she spent much of her time during her recovery writing about her experiences with personal tragedy and adapting the writings into a successful monologue she debuted in San Francisco in 1995 and took to Broadway that same year as a one-woman show called "God Said, Ha!" The CD version of the show even earned her a Grammy nomination.
She has continued her stage work to complete two other shows, which she says completes "the trilogy for this chapter of her life." Before this current show she's bringing to Chicago next month, which debuted in 2004, her 2003 one-woman show "In the Family Way" describes her experiences adopting a daughter as a single parent.
And while she admits she's most famous for playing "Pat" for Lorne Michaels during her SNL days, she also parodied a number of famous celebs including Katharine Hepburn, Ethel Merman, Jane Pauley, Lonnie Anderson, Shirley Jones, Nancy Sinatra and Naomi Judd.
Among her many SNL impersonations, Sweeney holds the dubious distinction of having upset then-First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton in 1993 during an show opening skit.
Sweeney was portraying a then-13-year-old Chelsea Clinton seated next to Jan Hooks as an "angry" Hillary watching the late Phil Hartman as a philandering President Bill Clinton in their theater box flirting with Madonna, who was singing a Marilyn Monroe-style "Happy Birthday Mr. President" salute.
Hillary made headlines when she sent an irate letter to the head of NBC, criticizing the inclusion of Sweeney-as-Chelsea as part of the skit.
Lakeshore Theater is located at 3175 N. Broadway, Chicago. Ticket price is $15. Tickets are available at (773) 472-3492 or online by clicking here.
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