Review published in Chicago Reader

by Brian Nemtusak

It's 1989, the year Harry Carey was finally elected to baseball's Hall of Fame, and disaffected Wrigleyville bar-keep Rush is grappling with a ne'-er-do-well brother, eviction from an apartment gone condo, and the transformation of his hole-in-the-wall into sports bar. Into all this strides the legendary broadcaster, waiting on the pivotal yea or nay from Cooperstown.

The loose conversational montage that makes up Vincent Burckert's new comedy skips from Carey to Rush and his brother, Keith, or "Blaze" to the ladies - to a suspiciously bossy new waitress. Though occasionally this approach to action threatens the momentum, in the hands of director Lila M. Stromer it's remarkably well-suited to elucidating the play's loopy dualism: old economy vs. new economy; the sharp, acerbic Carey vs. his devolved cuddly Cubby self; Old Style vs. the Bud Man's Saint Louis brew. A running joke considers whether the gentrifying neighborhood shold be called Lakeview or Near or North Lincoln Park; Keith discovers a crook shares his nickname, then impersonates an armed robber himself.

There's a sly beauty to all the doublings; fortunately "Drinking" is also gently funny. The stellar cast is led by Larry Neumann, Jr. as Keith, Steven M. Schine as Rush, and Gary Brichetto as a suave, stylized Carey. The ending is syrupy as it is tidy; but as an idiot sentimentality informs all things Cub, it rolls off your back as surely as any other late-inning collapse.