Billie Jean brings Feminist Icon to Chicago Shakes

It’s a summer of athleticism and art on Navy Pier at Chicago Shakespeare’s Yard Theater: fresh on the heels of opening an Ethiopian circus  across the lobby, we can revel in the world premiere of Lauren Gunderson’s Billie Jean, which recounts the astounding life and career of Billie Jean King. 

We live in a culture that seems to ignore its own history, so folks may not be aware of how truly groundbreaking her achievements were. She shattered the mold in tennis, championed equal pay for women, broke important ground for the professionalization of women’s sport and was an early champion for LGBTQ causes. She changed the world for female athletes, and changed women’s lives.She inspired a generation, including me,with the publicity stunt contest with Bobby Riggs. 

Director Marc Bruni speeds us through her professional rise in the first act in this impressionistic play that has the feel of a devised theatre work where actors play multiple parts and move from the bleachers to encounters and exchanges and matches while Chilina Kennedy looking just like BJK hustles and fights her way to the top.  The second act finds more of the heart to her story, as it delves into the complexity of being a married-to-a-man lesbian in a world that belittled women, as well as her layered relationship with her family, with her husband and then ex husband Larry King, and then partner and eventual wife Ilana Kloss. 

As the backlash against women’s equality and rights picks up steam in our own time, Billie Jean King is once again a figure to look at and admire. There are aspects of the play that feel a bit too much like “The Inspirational Sayings of BJK”: ie “winners find a way” and “pressure is a privilege”, and perhaps finding the emotional depth before the second act would make us connect more with the protagonist, but this is a show that every young person needs to see.  We as an audience are outraged as she is winning Wimbledon and getting pocket money as a prize while men make livelihoods from their athletic talent. Women came so far before the current time began turning back the clock. 

Steph Paul’s movement direction gives the feel of hard hitting tennis, and the ensemble is a group of nimble chameleons playing believable athletes.  There is a sense of physical exhilaration watching this group literally move through history. 

It is impossible to overstate the importance of the influence and greatness of the life and career of Billie Jean King, so get to Navy Pier and see this entertaining depiction of one of America’s greatest athletes.  Billie Jean is a fairly short run, playing Tuesday through Sundays through August 10, 2025 at the Yard Theatre of Chiago Shakespeare on Navy Pier.  For tickets and information go to https://www.chicagoshakes.com/productions/2526-billie-jean/

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