For Robert Falls, one stage door closes and another opens

The name Robert Falls is almost as synonymous with The Goodman as it is with Chicago theater. Before stepping down in 2022, Falls creatively steered the Goodman as artistic director for 35 years. Under his guidance, the theater reached national prominence, transferred numerous shows to Broadway, won a Tony and moved into its current location in the heart of the Loop’s theater district.

Nearly three years later, Falls has returned. But this time the 71-year-old is sitting inside the closest thing the theater world has to a cross-town rival: the Steppenwolf complex along North Halsted Street.

Since shedding the artistic director title, one of the first things Falls does is warn people not to use the “R-word” – that is, retired – when discussing his career.

“In that two year period,” he points out, “I actually directed two plays.” The Evanston resident is referring to “The Cherry Orchard” and “Swing State,” which he helmed at the Goodman in 2023 and 2022, respectively, after Susan V. Booth stepped in to succeed him as the historic theater's artistic director.

In the posh quiet study at Steppenwolf, the white haired, white bearded artist is anything but retired. In fact, the 2015 Theater Hall of Fame inductee appears excited to wear a new hat in his career as a freelancer.

“I'm in a very, very happy place right now,” he says. “I feel a little odd. But in a way there's a sort of freedom in freelancing. It's like, I don't have to be getting up every day of my life and going to work and directing plays, even though it's the thing I enjoy most.

As a freelancer, Falls doesn’t have to select seasons or worry about balanced budgets on top of the creative work of staging a play. And he can take opportunities as they come along, even at a theater with a touch of classic rivalry.

“Steppenwolf and the Goodman, there’s no doubt, have been the two leading theaters for the past half century in Chicago,” he says. “There’s been, I would say, a wonderful friendly rivalry between these two theaters, which, to me, has kept both of us doing fantastic work.”

The theme of rivalry lingers in the ethos, as he directs for Steppenwolf the classic play “Amadeus,” penned in the 1970s by English playwright Peter Shaffer, about a fictionalized rivalry between established composer Antonio Salieri and hot-shot up and comer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

Originally, “Amadeus” was set to be directed by former Steppenwolf artistic director Anna D. Shapiro. The production is a key part of the theater’s celebratory 50th season, which finds it showcasing notable names from its own past and present. After Shapiro stepped away from the show due to health reasons, Falls got the call.

“I have always looked at Steppenwolf as one of the great theaters in the United States and probably one of the greatest, if not the greatest, theater devoted to acting. So I was delighted to receive the phone call to work here,” he says.

By the time Falls stepped in to helm the show, most of the cast had been assembled, including Ian Barford, an ensemble member since 2007. He portrays Antonio Salieri, the play's narrator and an established composer reflecting on his relationship with Mozart. “I remember Larry Bird talking one time about [Michael] Jordan,” says Barford, “and he said, ‘that wasn't Jordan playing, that was God.’ That's kind of how Salieri feels about Mozart.”

Describing the staging of the production, Barford says, “This is a huge play. It's a huge cast. It's very operatic in its conception. God is a character in it.”

The big cast of 20 actors requires more than 60 costumes. Such theatrical feats aren’t daunting to Falls, who brings the experience of working with years of Goodman musicals with plenty of people on its mainstage. But Steppenwolf has thrown him a different curveball. He’ll attempt to present this large production in Steppenwolf’s upstairs theater, which is not only smaller than the mainstage, but a theater in the round with audiences on all sides. For a director, that means having to imagine action in a full 360 degrees.

“I think that with all those technical challenges, and all the different transitions, Bob can handle all of it,” Barford says. “It's a real feast for the eyes to get to see all those people on stage, and there are scenes where people are dancing and moving, and then we get to hear this extraordinary music of Mozart's.”

For Falls, this production represents the next phase of his career.

“I feel very lucky that I can be selective,” he says. “One of the things about a freelance life that I do not admire is they have to do 10 plays a year just in order to pay the rent. I actually don't have to do that. I could pick and choose.”

“And what I really want to do is work with the people who I've known, who I admire, as well as working with theaters that are theaters that I find exciting. I just want to continue to work on exciting projects,” Falls says. ”At Steppenwolf, “Amadeus” is really the first of what I hope will be many in the future.”

Mike Davis is a theater reporter who covers stages across Chicago.