David Henry Hwang's "Chinglish" plays through July 24 at the Goodman Theatre; more information at www.goodmantheatre.org. Read the Tribune's ★★★★ REVIEW.

Leigh Silverman's production of David Henry Hwang's "Chinglish," which had its world premiere Monday night at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago, will be on Broadway this fall.

The producers are Jeffrey Richards, Jerry Frankel, Roy Gottlieb, Barry and Carole Kaye and David and Barbara Stoller in association with the Goodman. New York's Public Theatre, which initially had this show on its 2011-12 season, participated in the development of the piece.

The show, which does yet have firm dates or a specific theater, is expected to land at one of the Shubert houses. Whether the entire cast will be going to Broadway with the show has not yet been confirmed.

The announcement means that a pair of new plays that emerged from Chicago's two leading theaters will be on Broadway this fall: Lisa D'Amour's "Detroit," which premiered at Steppenwolf Theatre Company, and Hwang's "Chinglish."

Richards and Frankel are producing both shows.

Director Leigh Silverman and David Henry Hwang at a rehearsal for "Chinglish," running through July 24 at the Goodman Theatre.

At the recent Printers Row Lit Fest in June, a theater fan asked playwright David Henry Hwang to provide more details on his process of writing plays. America's foremost Asian-American writer thought about the question for a while, then said he always likes to pay stylistic homage to the style of a past work, and always likes to begin his plays with an interesting question.

In the case of “M. Butterfly,” Hwang's most famous play and the prescient story of a powerful, middle-aged French diplomat who becomes … well … compromised by this relationship with an “actress” of the Beijing Opera, an “actress” who does not immediately reveal all of her diplomat-ensnaring cards, the play in Hwang's head was Peter Shaffer's “Equus.”

The question, though, related to the hapless diplomat: “How could he not have known?”

Hwang's newest play, “Chinglish,” which premieres at the Goodman Theatre on June 26, seems, on the face of it, to have a lot in common with “M Butterfly.” It follows the misadventures of an American businessman in China — What play or movie has ever depicted an American businessman at ease in China? — and, once again, a Westerner finds himself manipulated by the wiles of the East, in this case a beautiful government official who also does not reveal all of her aces. The play, Hwang said later, was inspired by “Glengarry Glen Ross.” And the question?

“It was,” he said, “how do I feel about the rise of China?”

The Goodman Theatre has announced the cast for Robert Falls' upcoming production of John Logan's London and Broadway hit "Red."

The Washington, D.C.-based actor Edward Gero will play Mark Rothko; Patrick Andrews will play Ken. Gero was previously seen in Chicago in Falls' production of "King Lear." The show opens at the Goodman in September and then moves to Arena Stage in Washington, D.C.

Goodman Theatre artistic director Robert Falls will direct "The Jacksonian," a new play by Beth Henley at the Geffen Playhouse in early 2012. "The Jacksonian" is set in Jackson, Miss., in 1964 and takes place on the night of a murder.

THEATER REVIEW: "Stage Kiss" ★★½ Through June 5 at the Goodman Theatre, 170 N. Dearborn St.; Running time: 2 hours, 20 minutes; Tickets: $25-$78 at 312-443-3800 or www.goodmantheatre.org

In one of the best moments of Sarah Ruhl's “Stage Kiss,” a Goodman Theatre world premiere that still needs a lot more work, an actor reflects on why audiences like watching sex in the movies but barely tolerate it on stage.

The answer, says the character named He, is that people watch movies alone in the dark, whereas people in a theater are always aware of those around them. But a kiss, the actor argues, has a place in both mediums. On film, it is voyeuristically enjoyed. In the theater, it completes an idea.

And that, he argues, is why theater is always superior to film. And it's also why stage actors (as distinct from porn stars) have to be good looking. Sex is sex, but nobody wants an ugly idea.

“Stage Kiss,” then, is an exceedingly thoughtful play. This is, in essence, a riff on the ramifications of an actor being required, as a condition of employment, to kiss another actor eight times a week, or more. Regardless of the kisser's feeling for the kissee, this is problematic. As Ruhl's character She observes, you either have to kiss a stranger and make it look like you know him, or you have to kiss someone you know and make him look like a stranger. In “Stage Kiss,” wherein old flames She (Jenny Bacon) and He (Mark L. Montgomery) rekindle a passionate but dysfunctional relationship after kissing each other on stage, the latter assignment proves to be the more challenging of the two.

 
Playwright Sarah Ruhl listens as director Jessica Thebus speaks at a rehearsal for "Stage Kiss" at the Goodman Theatre.

On Tuesday night at the Oriental Theatre, I watched a seemingly hesitant young actress (too young to have her union card) be kissed, caressed and partially undressed by another young actor. In public. That's a requirement of making your living doing “Spring Awakening,” of course. These actors are professionals, playing characters. And if that rich moment of sensuality were not there and not fully expressed, the show would not work. If you're not willing to be kissed, etc., etc., you'd better not audition.

But theaters are also workplaces, and if that kind of stuff was going on in any other workplace, somebody would hopefully be on the phone to human resources.

Actors, though, have to kiss and be kissed eight times a week. Whether or not they like the kisser or the kissed. Actors Equity draws the line at actual sex acts — it's right there in the production contract — but kissing is as much a part of the actor's trade as the painter's brush or the plumber's plunger. And you can't just turn around and say that you don't much like the guy or gal with whom you must lock lips, as a condition of employment. Not the point.

“Stage Kiss,” the premiering and much-anticipated Sarah Ruhl play at the Goodman Theatre, was inspired by that fascinating conundrum.

“It really came about after being in a lot of rehearsal rooms watching actors kiss,” said Ruhl, a writer who grew up on the North Shore and has become one of America's leading and most fascinating scribes. “They'd have to kiss each other over and over again.”

Chicago's Mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel took in the Goodman Theatre's production of "God of Carnage" Saturday night. And so did Michael Shannon, the A Red Orchid Theatre ensemble member who was recently cast as the villainous Zod in the upcoming "Superman: Man of Steel" movie. They were not sitting together.

"God of Carnage," the play about parents and behaving childishly, now on the mainstage of the Goodman Theatre through April 17, is a Chicago Groupon daily deal. More and more Chicago theaters have gravitated toward Groupon as a way to sell some tickets and get a little publicity and this one has proven a popular one.

Check out Chris Jones' review here.

(Posted by Doug George)

THEATER REVIEW: "El Nogalar" ★★½ Through April 24 at the Goodman Theatre, 170 N. Dearborn St.; Running time: 1 hour, 35 minutes; Tickets: $10-$42 at 312-443-3800 or www.goodmantheatre.org

At one juncture in Tanya Saracho's “El Nogalar,” a riff on Anton Chekhov's “The Cherry Orchard” reset in northern Mexico, we hear cello music and elegiac chatter about the emotional weight of an orchard (pecans rather than Chekhovian cherries, but you get the idea). And then those regretful strings are suddenly — and mercifully — replaced by zesty and contemporary Mexican music. The sad, rich folks leave the stage and are replaced by a vibrant young character named Dunia (played, by a similarly vibrant actress named Yunuen Pardo). She's a housekeeper — and is so warm, highly intelligent and ambitious, she wants to bust out of this play.

She is, in short, precisely the kind of character to whom the gifted Saracho, who does not need to be worrying about chronicling regret or squeezing her talents onto a story first plotted by Chekhov, can really give voice. Moreover, she is the kind of character about whom we hear too little in the American theater. We've got plenty of stories about rich people with ennui and empty lives.

 
THEATER REVIEW: "God of Carnage" ★★★ Through April 17 at the Goodman Theatre, 170 N. Dearborn St.; Running time: 1 hour, 15 minutes; Tickets are $25-$78 at 312-443-3800 or www.goodmantheatre.org

Post-show dining is always tricky in Chicago, where Loop restaurants tend to close confoundingly early. But with “God of Carnage,” the new show at the Goodman Theatre with a running time of 73 minutes, you can make such reservations with impunity. And you will arrive at your eatery of choice after having enjoyed an amuse bouche with enough substance to spark conversation and yet not too much to spoil your dinner.

If every production at the Goodman Theatre fell into the category of theatrical aperitif — and had a running time shorter than the movie “Gnomeo & Juliet” — then the Chicago theater would not be the Chicago theater. Yasmina Reza's little takedown of urban child-rearing is about as a commercial a comedy as you can imagine. And, frankly, it certainly doesn't need a theater with the size or resources of the Goodman.