Overview

• The touring production of AVA: The Secret Conversations is running at the Studebaker Theater in Chicago through October 12.
• Elizabeth McGovern adapted and stars in the two-hander drawn from Peter Evans’s 2013 book compiled from late-1980s interviews after Gardner fired him.
• Critics emphasize the focus on the ethics and commercial pressures of a tell-all, with the narrative centering on biographer Peter Evans rather than new revelations about Gardner’s artistry.
• Aaron Costa Ganis plays Evans as well as Gardner’s husbands—Mickey Rooney, Artie Shaw and Frank Sinatra—with reviewers frequently citing him as a standout.
• Local notices diverge: Newcity Stage hails McGovern’s transformation, the Chicago Sun-Times labels the show “bio-lite,” and the Chicago Reader finds the device partially successful under Moritz von Stuelpnagel’s direction, aided by projections and an offstage agent voice.