Goodman Theatre’s Iceboy! should be a slam dunk. The Chicago theater’s centennial season closer is a world premiere starring two real-life married Emmy winners and creatives from The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee and Urinetown. Even the premise is hilarious: what if a defrosted Neanderthal was the inspiration behind one of American theater’s best-regarded plays?
“Should” is the operative word. Iceboy! has all the ingredients for a hit. Still, even Megan Mullally and Nick Offerman can’t save a forgettable score by Mark Hollmann and Jay Reiss, or Erin Quinn Purcell and Reiss’ half-baked script—a series of gags held together by the thinnest of threads.
A caveman, a diva, and a very bad case of writer’s block
“I am a world-class alcoholic, a tragedy magnet, and by all accounts, the last person on earth you’d want as your birth doula,” confesses celebrated playwright Eugene O’Neill (Parks and Recreation’s Offerman), who also serves as the show’s narrator. It’s 1939, and abandoned orphan-turned-celebrated Broadway diva Vera Vimm (Mullally, Will & Grace) drains her bank accounts to purchase a recently unearthed caveman (Grey Henson, Bigfoot! The Musical).
Iceboy soon thaws and Vera embraces life as a working mother. But when Vera’s latest starring role receives horrid reviews, and Iceboy displays a natural talent for acting, Vera vows revenge. Meanwhile, O’Neill witnesses Iceboy in the barely-unfrozen flesh, and finds an unlikely muse to cure his writers’ block.
It wants better content.
Subtitled The Completely Untrue Story of How Eugene O’Neill Came to Write “The Iceman Cometh”, the show has the bones of a campy hit. Instead, genuinely funny bits—Vera longing for ‘wine o’clock’ mere hours into motherhood, O’Neill scoring inspiration from vagrants and sex workers—get buried under dreary tunes and an overplayed bit about housemaid Lambert’s (Sarah Stiles) early-onset menopause.
Iceboy!’s best moments come when Mullally and Offerman share the stage, their natural chemistry and fantastic timing on display in “What Do You Say, Eugene?” when Vera’s failed seduction leads to the drunken idea for a brand-new play (set at a bar, naturally).
Overall, however, the material feels mismatched with the Goodman mainstage and its two big stars, and more like an entertaining-enough Fringe show. There may be a hit hiding in here somewhere. Right now it’s still defrosting.
Is ‘Iceboy!’ worth seeing?
Iceboy! has Megan Mullally, Nick Offerman, a defrosted caveman, and Eugene O’Neill—and somehow squanders all of it on a forgettable score and a script that never evolves past its own elevator pitch.
- Goodman Theatre, 170 N Dearborn Street, Chicago
- Notable performers: Megan Mullally, Nick Offerman, Grey Henson, Sarah Stiles, Cedric Yarbrough
- Running time: Two hours and 15 minutes, including one intermission
- Performances through August 9, 2026
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TheatreFan77
It’s interesting to hear that even with Offerman and Mullally, the show’s production felt a little stiff. I appreciate you highlighting that aspect of the review.