During troubled economic times, perhaps few might imagine having the luxury of choosing between a passion, such as music, over earning a practical living, but Metropolis Performing Arts Centre is offering a play this spring about a man who does just that.

Side Man, which will open to the public March 14 at the Arlington Heights-based center and will run through April 18, tells the story of how Gene Glimmer’s family must live with the consequences of his choice, his passion—jazz.

The play by Warren Leight earned the Tony Award for Best Play in 1999 and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

Leight described a side man in his author’s note: “On any given night, a true side man can step forward and play a solo that will break your heart, or leave you breathless. Then he’ll sit back down, and blend in so well with the band, that no one but the other musicians will even remember his name. For a side man, the possibility of that solo, of that night, made everything else bearable.”

A memory play, Side Man spans 32 years from 1953 to 1985 in New York City, and is narrated by Glimmer’s son, Clifford, as he weaves in and out of stories about his youth and struggling family life with an absent, trumpet-playing father and alcoholic mother.

Side Man hits on the decline of jazz in popular culture as rock and roll arrives on the scene.

“You could even say the mid-60s would be the most accurate,” said Daniel Melnick, programs manager of the Jazz Institute of Chicago—a nonprofit in support of jazz performance and education.

“Jazz was less of a popular music,” Melnick said. “It becomes sort of its own niche. Around then too, you start seeing jazz and rock fusion groups popping up.”

As jazz audiences declined, opportunities for musicians did as well, he added.

“[It was] a time when many great musicians cobbled together a mix of club dates, unemployment checks, and cash gigs in order to make a living,” Leight said. “It is about the sacrifices the musicians and their families made in service to the sidemen’s passion for music.”

Music plays a unique role in the play, not only because of its importance in the plot, but also because it airs during the play.

Director and Buffalo Grove resident Lauren Rawitz called music the play’s “eighth character.”

“For sure, there’s a strong voice in the play and it’s music,” Rawitz said. “This is what keeps Gene going, and on the other side of it, the music destroyed his family life because he was so involved in being a musician that he neglected his wife and his child.

“The dialogue is written in a rhythm that’s similar to jazz,” she added. “Even so, where each of the characters has that moment that’s their solo.”

The play has modern applications, according to actress Michelle Weissgerber, who plays Terry—Gene’s wife—in the show.

“I think that anybody can relate to picking their career over their family,” Weissgerber said. “I think that any artist or anybody with a passion can easily neglect the people in their life for their art and passion. It’s a nice reminder to go home and tell your family that you love them.”

Metropolis Artistic Director/Director of Production and Grayslake resident Robin Hughes agreed the show has elements that a modern audience will recognize.

“It’s truly gritty, [a] hard-hitting family drama similar to how Tennessee Williams or Eugene O’Neill would visit family relationships,” Hughes said. “[Audience members] grew up in the same era, they knew or know or are those people that are in the show…This show is about all those behind the scenes family issues we deal [with] and what makes us become who we are, as Clifford did.”

Tickets for Side Man cost between $27 and $43 and can be bought online at www.metropolisarts.com or by calling the Box Office at 847-577-2121. Metropolis Performing Arts Centre is located at 111 West Campbell Street, Arlington Heights.

—By Blair Chavis|Triblocal.com reporter

Photos submitted by Brad Dunn.