Superior? Nah, but still pretty great.

It isn’t really fair to call Steppenwolf’s 2008 Tracy Letts season-closer, Superior Donuts, a follow-up to the company’s 2007 Tracy Letts season-closer August: Osage County; Donuts was announced as part of Steppenwolf’s lineup months before August opened, let alone before it became the theatrical event of Chicago’s summer, got picked up by commercial producers for a Broadway run and eventually won just about every award on offer, up to and including the Pulitzer and, just two weeks ago, five Tonys.

Of course that same series of events also makes it nearly impossible to avoid reading Donuts as August’s follow-up; as if in anticipation of that fact, Letts has helpfully written a play so different in style, tone and sensibility from August: Osage County as to be literally incomparable. Superior Donuts isn’t destined for major awards or the Great White Way, but it is a very funny, thoroughly enjoyable populist sitcom with terrific leading turns from Michael McKean and Jon Michael Hill, as different from August as August was from Man from Nebraska, Bug and Killer Joe. While it may be hard to talk about Tracy's new play without bringing up "expectations," it seems the one thing we can count on with Tracy is not knowing what to expect. Read Christopher Piatt’s full review for more.