Equity Jeff nominations set up an impossible contest of excellence in Chicago theater
Scan the list of the season's just announced Jeff Awards Equity nominations - honoring excellence in productions that opened between Aug. 1, 2014 and July 31, 2015 - and there can be only one conclusion. It is this: In Chicago, a city whose theaters continue to create one astonishing work after another - of every type, and on every scale - any sense of a "contest" should begin and end with the nominations list. The p…