American Blues Theater opens a new home on Lincoln Avenue, carved from a former Walgreens

In a cheering piece of news for Chicago’s struggling theater scene, American Blues Theater will cut the ribbon Tuesday on its new, $7 million home at 5627 N. Lincoln Ave.

Aptly for a theater company that long has prided itself on its blue-collar identity, American Blues and the theater architect John Morris and Associates have adapted what had been both a Walgreens and Dollar General store into an impressive two-theater complex, replete with an elegant 137-seat mainstage. It’ll be the new home of the company’s retro seasonal attraction, “It’s a Wonderful Life: Live in Chicago!,” slated to officially open on Dec. 10. Next door is a 50-seat black box studio, where ABT plans to debut new work. There is also a small parking lot for patrons.

On Sunday, company members could be seen putting the finishing touches on the building, which has some similarities with the 2002 Raven Theatre renovation of a former Edgewater supermarket on Ashland Avenue.

ABT’s new home comes with a large lobby, a cocktail bar, a dressing room and wardrobe space, and basement scene storage. It also will house an office for the company’s full-time staff of four.

The previously mundane building, located on a stretch of Lincoln Avenue known for its low-cost motels, was purchased and turned into a theater with the help of $2.5 million in funding from the City of Chicago, which used TIF funds. According to artistic director Gwendolyn Whiteside, the remainder of the cost came from private donations and from the company’s own funds. Whiteside said there is still a capital campaign underway, but that the theater will not have a mortgage or carry debt at the end of the fiscal year.

“We bought a building we could afford as opposed to an aspirational building,” Whiteside said.

American Blues Theater’s new home is in the 40th Ward, where Ald. Andre Vasquez has long said he wants to create a Lincoln Avenue North Arts district in conjunction with the Lincoln Avenue North Streetscape project; this stretch northwest of Western Avenue has long lacked the vibrancy of the Lincoln Square business district to its south and east. Vasquez now has an operational anchor for his plans.

The new theater was delayed due to the pandemic; the idea for the TIF support originated during the Mayor Lori Lightfoot administration. Whiteside said Mayor Brandon Johnson’s administration also has been supportive of a project finally coming to fruition.

Although founded in 1985, ABT has not had a permanent home since its longtime perch at 1909 W. Byron St., which it left after an internal split in 2009 led to the creation of the separate American Theater Company, a company that had much success but later closed down. The Byron Street location is now an event space for Martyrs, the bar and music venue.

But American Blues, which has a loyal audience, has a new sign on a freshly painted building and new territory to play its trade of presenting intimate productions of American drama with a working-class tinge.

“As long as I have been artistic director,” Whiteside said, “we have been saving up for this moment.”

Chris Jones is a Tribune critic.

cjones5@chicagotribune.com