Rookie rises in the 'Rain'

Playwright Keith Huff scores top names

By GORDON COX

Huff

The stars of Broadway play "A Steady Rain," Daniel Craig and Hugh Jackman, need no introduction.

But playwright Keith Huff? He could use one.

Although the Chicago-based author of cop drama "Steady Rain" has penned a string of plays over the years, few legiters outside of the Windy City knew much about the dramatic output of a guy whose day job is managing editor of the Orthopaedic Knowledge Online database.

But a Broadway bow with not one but two marquee names has prompted a surge in interest, with the resulting opportunities looking likely to change the playwright's life pretty.

He's already set to write the screenplay adaptation of "Steady Rain," and other film and TV projects are circling. "Within the past month, now I have phone calls with people who are pitching me ideas," he says, still with some incredulity.

Major stars in limited-run plays have become increasingly common in recent years, but it's rare for big names to topline a title previously untested in New York and written by an unknown writer. More often they gravitate toward revivals of pre-approved offerings whose familiarity makes them more aud-friendly.

So Denzel Washington played in a 2005 Rialto run of Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar," and just last season Katie Holmes appeared in Arthur Miller classic "All My Sons" while Daniel Radcliffe headlined a revival of 1975 Tony winner "Equus." And although Richard Greenberg's relatively lesser-known "Three Days of Rain" was an unusual choice for Julia Roberts in 2006, it was still a Pulitzer finalist that had first bowed in New York in 1997.

"Steady Rain," which preemed in Chi in 2007 and went on to a commercial run there the next year, got to Craig through Frederick Zollo, who was given the script by his friend Raymond L. Gaspard, one of the producers of the show's 2008 Chicago commercial run.

Zollo produces the $2.5 million Rialto production of "Steady Rain" with, among others, Bond franchise kingpins Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson, who also are developing the film adaptation. Zollo had been talking to Craig about doing a new play, maybe with Cate Blanchett or Nicole Kidman, and probably in London. According to the producer, he handed "Steady Rain" to Craig without expecting anything to come of it.

It was Craig's tenacious interest in the script that got the ball on the show rolling, Zollo says. The vagaries of sked availability shifted the project to New York, where Jackman had recently moved with his family, for a late 2009 run to be helmed by John Crowley ("The Pillowman").

Jackman had been casting about for a project to bring him back to Broadway, where he won a lead actor Tony in 2004 for his flamboyant turn as Peter Allen in the musical "The Boy From Oz." Craig has had considerable stage experience in London but will be making his Broadway debut.

"Steady Rain" came together unusually quickly, which Zollo attributes to the appeal of Huff's script.

"Keith's been toiling away, writing great plays," he says. "This has happened, but it should have happened a decade ago."

A two-hander of intertwined monologues, "Steady Rain" follows a pair of Chicago beat cops whose friendship is tested by the fallout of their handling of a domestic dispute.

Several legiters refer to the script as "a great read," which helps account for the strong response from Hollywood. It also, Huff notes, embraces clear genres from the cop tale to the buddy story to the sting. (Besides the screen adaptation of "Rain," Huff has no other projects nailed down as yet, although it's said at least one may be close.)

Huff's plays have been seen in small Gotham productions over the years, and "Steady Rain" was developed in part at New York Stage and Film. But his Broadway bow will be his first run-in with major New York critics.

To some extent, it doesn't much matter what they think -- the show had raked in monster sales even before performances started Sept. 10, thanks to the draw of the two stars.

Still, Huff acknowledges, the reception of "Steady Rain" will play a factor in productions of his work down the line.

"For me, because this is my first high-profile production in New York, it's really important, because I have a lot of plays," he says. Among those are the two other parts of a loose trilogy about Chicago cops, as well as "Pursued by Happiness," a dark comedy recently developed by Steppenwolf Theater.

Although Huff, who lives in Chicago with his wife and daughter, has been present for most of the Broadway rehearsal process, he still works at, yes, Orthopaedic Knowledge Online, an information database from the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons.

He's on a leave of absence from the gig throughout September, and he'll return to work after that, with future arrangements to be determined.

For now he's enjoying the career boosts as they come.

"It's nice to have the opportunities," he says.