Sunday Night Lights

By Justin Sondak in Arts & Entertainment on Feb 1, 2007 10:25PM

Super Bowl Sunday will be a bittersweet day for Chicago actors who happen to be Chicago Bears fans … or Bears fans that happen to be in a show. They’ve been waiting over two decades for the Bears to return to The Big Game but likely have been honing their craft even longer. That conflict was too much for the Neo-Futurists, who have cancelled Sunday night’s performance of perennial favorite Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind for only the third time in their history. Citing “the crazy joyous drunken hoopla that will be sure to follow after the Bears send the Colts back to their stables (or, the mournful drunken hoopla that would follow in the face of defeat),” they’ve thrown in the towel for the night.

Meanwhile, The House Theatre of Chicago correctly predicted that their 7 p.m. performance of The Sparrow would be a hit with football-phobic and Bear-ambivalent patrons. That show, along with the rest of their Viaduct Theater run, has sold out. Procrastinators can still reserve tickets for their extension at the Steppenwolf Garage, March 15 – April 21.

With a 5:25 kickoff, SB XLI poses virtually no conflict with the dozens of matinees around town. You can catch a 2:00 show and easily make it back home or to the bar in time for kickoff and the first round of commercials. More than a few companies are discounting tickets to lure you away from an afternoon of rehashing Rex and Peyton’s remarkable journeys.

Even a mountain of hype hasn’t affected the City’s menu of Winter Delights, and why should it? When the cleats were on the other feet, Chicagoans assured smug Packer fans our vibrant cultural attractions help us fend off mid-winter misery just fine, thank you. Artists and audiences will move forward with or without a victory parade.