Goodman Theatre: Ashland Avenue
Jenna Fischer, Francis Guinan
Goodman Theatre Presents ASHLAND AVENUE Review - Midwestern Stubbornness Runs Deep
TLDR: Set in a realistic looking TV shop that hasn’t left the 70s, Ashland Avenue explores the owner and father’s stubbornness to change with the world and relationships to those around him. There’s moments where we feel connected to these characters and other times we don’t feel they are endearing, but at the end of the day the show captures the love of Chicago.
Jenna Fischer, Chiké Johnson
Goodman Presents The Age Old Family Arguments
Remember those kooky, homemade ads from local business owners that everyone knows, loves, and can recite word for word even years after they originally aired? Playwright Lee Kirk has taken the idea of those commercials and said, what about the business behind those commercials? What does a day in their life look like? How about now when local TV is nearly obsolete and your small business is in trouble?
Come on inside Pete’s TV and Video store. He’s a local icon for his wacky ads back in the day and had a TV empire across the city of Chicago with 15 stores. Pete, played by a real life Chicago theater icon, Francis Guinan, will offer you a cup of coffee and an invitation to join him in front of the Bears game playing on one of the many TVs in his store. People loved Pete’s commercials and Pete is still living in that glow of his business’ heyday. Guinan plays Pete as nostalgic, stubborn, but ultimately has so much love for his community and the people around him.
His daughter, Sam, played by the one and only Jenna Fischer, is a peak Midwestern daughter. She’s worked at this store all her life and knows Pete wants her to take over the business one day. We feel Sam’s struggle and frustrations through Fischer as she feels stuck between wanting a change and staying close home to family. She’s accompanied by her husband played by Chiké Johnson who always means well, but at times doesn’t realize when he’s put his foot in his mouth. Together they all manage the shop day in and day out - some hoping for a reinvigoration of the business, others wondering how the business will survive without even a website.
Cordelia Dewdney, Francis Guinan
Whipped By The Blustery Chicago Winds
Everything about Ashland Avenue screams Chicago. Name dropping the popular neighborhoods, the Chicago/Midwest accent, Cubs paraphernalia everywhere, heck I’m surprised they didn’t eventually pull out a bottle of Malört.
Around the realistic set, designed by Kevin Depinet, it feels like we’re walking into any small business because there’s so much to look at that makes Pete’s TV and Video feel homey. Old signage from clearance sales hangs on the walls. Lots of plants sit on every counter. The cases holding vintage TVs and radios look like they’ve been there since the shop opened. But there’s personal mementos as well - post cards, family and celebrity photos, and a $1 bill stuck on the wall behind the cash register.
Even down to the mannerisms we feel like these people have lived in Chicago all their lives. Our actors come through the front door in long winter coats, sturdy snow shoes, and cheeks pink from the cold during these gray and cold February months. As they move around the set, it feels like this is home. They grab their favorite coffee cup to have their morning coffee. They sit in the circle of chairs around the coffee table, arranged to be like a cozy living room. It feels like they could never leave, but also that it’s a remnant of a different time.
Jenna Fischer
The After Party Thoughts
Ashland Avenue feels like an ode to Chicago, small businesses, and nostalgia. It is also supposed to be a show driven by relationship conflicts and journeys because we see how Sam and her father interact and how Pete treats his other relationships around him.
For this writer though, that relationship piece wasn’t as strong and these characters didn’t feel endearing for the majority of Ashland Avenue. The show starts strong where we understand the premise, the relationship these characters have with each other, and the conflicts, but then we drop down to a flatline throughout the middle as it feels like the characters and their problems are one note. The only time we feel emotionally connected to them again is at the end when Pete finally sees the changes around him. I will admit in those last fifteen minutes of the show, that’s when Guinan and the rest of the cast had me tearing up.
Ashland Avenue hits the marks on being a love letter to Chicago and creating a world where we get to peek behind the curtain at those infamous commercial personalities. For fans that want to see Jenna Fischer on stage and for those that like family dramas and realism plays that may bring a tear to your eye, Ashland Avenue would be a good fit for you.
AND ALSO SUPPORT SMALL BUSINESSES!
SOMEWHAT RECOMMENDED
Francis Guinan and Will Allan
When
Now through October 19, 2025
Where
Goodman Theatre
170 N. Dearborn St.
Chicago, IL 60601
Runtime: 2hrs 40min, including an intermission
Tickets
$44+
Tickets can be purchased by calling the box office at (312) 443-3800 or through the Goodman Theatre website
Photos
Todd Rosenberg
Francis Guinan, Jenna Fischer and Chiké Johnson
CAST
Will Allan (Young Man)
Cordelia Dewdney (Jess)
Jenna Fischer (Sam)
Francis Guinan (Pete)
Chiké Johnson (Mike)
Daniel Ajak (u/s Mike)
Adam Benjamin (u/s Young Man)
Maura Kidwell (u/s Sam)
Hannah Ruwe (u/s Jess)
Neil Friedman (u/s Pete)
CREATIVE
Lee Kirk (Playwright)
Susan V. Booth (Director)
Stan Brown (Vocal and Dialect Coach)
Chuck Coyl (Fight Choreographer)
Kevin Depinet (Set Designer)
Jessica Pabst (Costume Designer)
Jason Lynch (Lighting Designer)
Lindsay Jones (Sound Designer and Composer)
Malkia Stampley (Line Producer)
Lena Romano (Second Line Producer)
Michael Cotey (Assistant Director)
Emma Berry (Assistant Lighting Designer)
Aaron Woodstein (Assistant Sound Designer)
Lauren Westfahl (Script & Production Assistant)
Becca Kaufman (Jingle Vocalist)
Lauren Port, CSA (Casting)
Clara Zucker (Dramaturg)
Nikki Blue (Production Stage Manager)
Jennifer Gregory (Stage Manager)