Vicki Quade had a new show opening at the Royal George Theatre the weekend of March 15, 2020. Quade, coauthor and producer of the long-running comedy show Late Nite Catechism, was appearing herself in some performances of this new spin-off, Easter Bunny Bingo, as former nun Mrs. Mary Margaret O’Brien. The show played for just two performances before it was shut down by COVID.
Otherwise, like almost the entire Chicago theater community, the nuns have been sidelined—interrupting a nearly 28-year Chicago run for the original show. Late Nite Catechism launched in 1993 at Live Bait Theater, spawned productions all over the country (among them, a seven-year off-Broadway run), and survived some nasty court battles among its creators, including coauthor Maripat Donovan. After a nomadic start, moving from Live Bait to the Organic, Zebra Crossing, and the Ivanhoe, the Chicago production’s been at home in the Royal George for the last 20 years. Quade hopes they’ll be back there, even if distanced and masked, as soon as next fall.
Quade’s planning to adapt some of these stories for the theater after live performances resume, possibly as soon as Labor Day, “if enough people get vaccinated; my arm is ready.”
