Chicago Committee says plays not exempt from the Smoking Ban

The Chicago Sun-Times reports:

"Twelve Angry Men." "The Graduate." "Guys and Dolls." "Jersey Boys." "Chicago." "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?"

Imagine those Broadway classics -- or plays about Prohibition, organized crime or smoke-filled political rooms -- being performed in Chicago by actors who don't have cigarettes dangling from their lips or smoldering in their hands.


It could happen, now that aldermen have taken a stand that, a colleague warns, runs contrary to the First Amendment.

By a 4 to 2 vote, the City Council's Buildings Committee voted Friday not to exempt actors from Chicago's smoking ban -- not even when smoking is an "integral part of the theatrical performance."

For 16 months, actors have been defying the ban, prompting complaints from theatergoers, "strong words prior to performances" between producers and City Hall and veiled threats to stop the show.

To clear the air, downtown Ald. Burton F. Natarus (42nd) wanted his colleagues to pass an exemption. The answer was "no."

"We worked over two years trying to pass an ordinance here that prohibited people from smoking. They just passed a law 73 to 42" in the Illinois House that prohibits smoking statewide, said Health Committee Chairman Ed Smith (28th), who championed Chicago's smoking ban.

"We would be duplicitous if we ... say it's all right to allow people to smoke on the stage. ... It's an adversity to people who come to see those plays and the stagehands."

Ald. Ray Suarez (31st) agreed. "It would be hypocritical of me to vote for an ordinance that bans smoking in Chicago and now has passed statewide, then go out and say we're going to give an exemption to actors smoking on stage where the cigarettes are going to be in the air" that affects theatergoers.

Instead of exempting actors, Smith advised producers to modify the lines of the play to strike references to smoking and smoke-filled rooms.

Chicago really is an authoritarian town.Free speech isn't for everyone.