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Sheila Swann Marrying Terry Leaves a Sweet Taste of Love in Chicago It was a dark and stormy night - while inside the Drake Hotel a comedy of misunderstandings and love ensue. Playwright Gregg Opelka has written a charming and entertaining story about love and radiology called "Marrying Terry" that is now showing at the Victory Gardens' Greenhouse Theater. If you want a taste of Chicago in the theatre along with some lighthearted laughs, go see this play. It's New Year's Eve in Chicago and there is a blizzard. Terry, adeptly played by Ana Sferruzza, is waiting for her boyfriend of three years to fly in from Boston. While his plane is circling Chicago, Terry's friend Janet (Debbie Laumand—Blanc) talks her into putting the Drake's Presidential Suite on her credit card. Because this is the night she is absolutely positive that Jonathan, Terry's boyfriend (Paul Perroni), will propose. Meanwhile, there is a radiologist, played by Dan Rodden, just a bit north of the Drake Hotel, who has his own love story unfolding. Opelka's story does a sweet job of illustrating some of the ways that people hope for marriage- or do their best to stay away from marriage, sometimes escaping that bond and vows at the very last minute. Optimism and anticipation complete with an ominous bathrobe, and fear and dread, encompass that arena of the land of getting engaged. But what if you get wrapped up in all of the traditional expectations of getting engaged and married, the romanticized side of it all, and you end up marrying the wrong person? What if you don't follow your heart? You end up drinking shots at the bar of the Drake Hotel. That's what Rodden's character does, with a level of hilarity accompanied by Brian Simmons and Ronald Keaton. While the radiologist's new fiance, Penny (Mary Mulligan) sits in his condo waiting for him to return. Yes, the many aspects of love relationships are covered here with a sharp wit and a very capable cast. This play has so many twists that its hard to write a review without giving away all of the surprises. Suffice it to say that on the intimate stage of the Greenhouse Theater, Kevin Dole's set design successfully takes the audience to a condo in Lincoln Park, the Drake Hotel bar and the Presidential Suite during a blizzard. On that last night of the year when most people's hopes and emotions run high this comedic cast, rounded out by Steve Ruppel, Kimberly Downes, Dan Carroll and Norm Boucher, deliver a very funny story with tastes of Chicago's weather and Chicago's buses and the people that ride them. See "Marrying Terry" to find out what radiology has to do with love and how the weather in this city can change many circumstances unexpectedly including people's love lives.
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