{"id":25437,"date":"2025-07-26T12:07:09","date_gmt":"2025-07-26T12:07:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/25437\/"},"modified":"2025-07-26T12:07:09","modified_gmt":"2025-07-26T12:07:09","slug":"review-billie-jean-tells-a-powerful-rousing-story-of-tennis-icon-billie-jean-king-in-warp-speed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/25437\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: \u2018Billie Jean\u2019 tells a powerful, rousing story of tennis icon Billie Jean King in warp speed"},"content":{"rendered":"

Playwright Lauren M. Gunderson has been among the most produced playwrights in the country for a decade now. That\u2019s due in part to her work on the \u201cChristmas at Pemberley\u201d plays, a trilogy of staged Jane Austen fan fiction \u2014 in the best sense of that phrase \u2014 filled with joyful wit and reverence for the original.<\/p>\n

Now she has written \u201cBillie Jean,\u201d<\/a> receiving its premiere at Chicago Shakespeare Theater<\/a> with a director (Marc Bruni) and a cast heavy on Broadway credentials. You might call it \u201cfan fact,\u201d bursting as it is with affection and admiration for Billie Jean King, who won 39 Grand Slam titles, effectively created professional women\u2019s tennis and became an inspirational voice and embodiment of female empowerment.<\/p>\n

This is a powerful show, but not really in the emotional sense. It has its rousing and feel-good moments, some of them on the sappy side, but it\u2019s also an expression of female physical power. In a compelling performance, Chilina Kennedy brings a convincing muscularity to the role and also captures the power of King\u2019s personality, expressing a relentless dynamism that not only explains Billie Jean\u2019s competitiveness but also make her a convincingly natural leader.<\/p>\n

There is a mini grass tennis court on Wilson Chin\u2019s set, but instead of racquets and balls, the tennis scenes involve hitting at air to represent serves and volleys. This is where Bruni and the ensemble theatricalize strength and determination as well as tennis. The swings are performed with sharp force and attitude and confidence, with Steph Paul\u2019s movement direction punctuated by Jane Shaw\u2019s sound effects that need to be, and are, exceptionally well-timed.<\/p>\n

The production moves very quickly, both because it has a full biography to cover and because there\u2019s clearly a desire to represent propulsion \u2014 the sense of time, and women\u2019s rights, moving forward.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s an ensemble chorus of mostly women who share the narrating in a staccato rhythm, repeating some of King\u2019s most famous phrases, such as \u201cPressure is a privilege,\u201d throughout.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Chilina<\/p>\n

Actor Chilina Kennedy portrays the titular role in the new play \u201cBillie Jean\u201d at Chicago Shakespeare Theater. <\/p>\n

Anthony Vazquez\/Chicago Sun-Times<\/p>\n

The speed may have a purpose, but it also emphasizes a weakness, which is the narrative sprawl.<\/p>\n

Gunderson resists the frequent choice of narrowing in on a particular moment in a bio-play, opting instead to go for the epic sweep. I get it: the \u201cBattle of the Sexes\u201d match between King and Bobby Riggs has come to define her life too much. It was a peak cultural moment \u2014 90 million viewers in 1973! \u2014 and has been the subject of at least two star-cast movies (Holly Hunter in one, Emma Stone in the other) where Riggs\u2019 outrageous performative chauvinism and parasitic publicity-seeking makes him the showier role.<\/p>\n

Gunderson, however, decides not to even give Riggs a presence on stage at all, which says a lot as it\u2019s clearly so purposeful. But she never finds something else that can serve as a narrative focus, so the play comes across a bit like a Wikipedia entry invested with occasional, stirring moments of triumph. We move from Billie Jean as a young teen taking up tennis (a humorously insistent Julia Antonelli) in Long Beach, California, battling from the start against the expectations of being properly \u201clady-like\u201d when the point is to win.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Chilina<\/p>\n

Chilina Kennedy stars as Billie Jean King and Callie Rachelle Johnson portrays Ilana Kloss in Chicago Shakespeare\u2019s world premiere production of \u201cBillie Jean.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kennedy, who played more than 1,000 Broadway performances as another King, as in Carole, in the Bruni-directed \u201cBeautiful,\u201d takes over the Billie Jean role from then on, showing us King winning the doubles championship at Wimbledon at just 17 years old. Then she goes to college, meets her husband Larry King (Dan Amboyer, pulling off a tricky part), becomes the No. 1 women\u2019s tennis player in the world, beats Riggs, and fights, for the next decades, for women\u2019s equality and respect and then, less intentionally, for gay rights as she deals with being outed as a lesbian.<\/p>\n

There are complications and tensions, particularly her marriage and her fear of losing her ability to be an effective change agent if her sexuality is exposed, but the whizzing pace makes them feel superficial.<\/p>\n

Even King\u2019s role in founding the Women\u2019s Tennis Association has several interesting, even dramatic, details that are rushed through in a way that makes them a check mark on a long list of accomplishments.<\/p>\n

In the end, what\u2019s on stage feels highly polished and energetic, and does inspire cheers from the audience, but it also feels lacking. It\u2019s all drive and energy, when a bit more thoughtfulness and a few more theatrical surprises would help it cohere into something more.<\/p>\n

Then again, maybe that\u2019s the point, another means of reflecting a boundary-breaking athlete constantly on hyperdrive.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah,\u201d says King at one point when called out for always being \u201con,\u201d \u201cI really only have one setting.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Playwright Lauren M. Gunderson has been among the most produced playwrights in the country for a decade now.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25438,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[49,48,82,593],"class_list":{"0":"post-25437","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-tennis"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25437","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25437"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25437\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25438"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25437"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25437"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25437"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}