Any fan of uplifting sports biopics–think 42 and A League of Their Own–will find much to love in Billie Jean, Lauren Gunderson’s world-premiere play about tennis legend Billie Jean King now on court at Chicago Shakespeare Theater.
Like those two films, this play leans hard into showing how sports can help advance the cause of civil rights while holding a mirror up to society’s failings. As such, Billie Jean is a feel-good story in a decidedly feel-bad time, anchored by Chilina Kennedy’s winning portrayal of an icon who never met a societal barrier she couldn’t smash through. Truly, the only thing that could slow King down was age and a balky knee, but not before she secured 39 Grand Slam titles and quite literally changed the world.
I grew up a fan of two sports: baseball and women’s tennis. I enjoyed seeing Bjorn Borg and Jimmy Connors play, but there were too many aces in the men’s game so I gravitated to women’s tennis, where the rallies were much more plentiful. My prime viewing years came at the end of King’s career, when the main rivalry was Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova. I remained an avid fan through my 20s, only stepping back when the women’s game became as much about power as the men’s.
Even as someone with more than passing understanding of who Billie Jean King was as both a player and a groundbreaker, I was repeatedly surprised by just how far-reaching her impact was, from fighting for women to be allowed to play tournaments as pros(!), to earn equal prize money to the men, to have a league of their own as founder of the Women’s Tennis Association, and to fiercely advocate for civil rights in sports, including by championing Renée Richards as a women’s player after her transition.
After presenting herself as a straight woman for most of her career, King’s final push for equality came when she publicly celebrated the fact that she was a gay woman as well as an elite player. That only happened after she was ejected from the closet by a spurned lover, but King’s choice to demand acceptance rather than treating her outing like a scandal she should be ashamed of wrote a key chapter in the history of gay rights.
Long before Facebook, King was the poster child for the “It’s complicated” relationship status, and we get a reasonably good look at how her marriage to attorney Larry King worked in (and out) of sync with her exploration, acceptance and ultimate embrace of her attraction to women. Dan Amboyer plays Larry as the complex man he was–deeply loving and supportive of Billie Jean but also at turns controlling and passive-aggressive before ultimately understanding that she needed to move beyond their marriage to live an authentic, fulfilling life.
Like Jackie Robinson, King is truly an inspiring figure, richly deserving of a show celebrating her achievements and her innate sense of decency and fairness.
Is this a perfect play? Nope. It starts off with a series of exchanges that sound like someone reading a Successories poster. And the fact that King liked how tennis uses “love” for zero is repeated about 50 times throughout the show. It’s a fitting metaphor, but we get it already!
But aside from those forgivable faults, this is an uplifting night at the theater worthy of much more than a polite Wimbledon clap.
Billie Jean runs through August 10 at Chicago Shakespeare Theater.
For a full roundup of reviews of this show, visit Theatre in Chicago.
Photo by Justin Barbin
