Hedy Weiss: Theater Reviews
Remembering Rich Hein, Master Chicago Theater Photographer

Just a day before an extraordinary amount of political theater took place on Inauguration Day in Washington, D.C., a heartbreaking and wholly unexpected drama of a very different kind played out in Chicago. It was the news that the city lost Rich Hein, an intensely gifted photographer who spent four decades working at the Chicago Sun-Times.
Hein’s thousands of photos captured the drama in daily news. But he also did a superb job of capturing vivid images of many of the Chicago theater productions at the Goodman Theatre, Lookingglass and others, all of which have left a profound mark on the city’s cultural life.
Hein, who recently turned 70, was a notable master of capturing the city’s exceptional theater productions (always using the name of his daughter, Liz Lauren, in the credit line). Following his retirement from the Sun-Times, where he spent decades as its top photographer, Hein became an intensely busy freelancer. He died suddenly of a heart attack Sunday after feeling some pain and driving himself to a hospital.
An extremely modest but intensely focused man, Hein was a master of capturing a notable moment of emotional intensity. His photos clearly suggested the distinctive personalities and energy of a show’s actors as they embodied their characters. And he tapped into the energy of formidable movers and shows’ professional dancers as if he were moving with them.
(Left to right) Gilbert Domally (Clifford Bradshaw) and Erica Stephan (Sally Bowles) in “Cabaret” from Porchlight Music Theatre. (Photographed by Rich Hein under the name Liz Lauren)
At many times over the years, I watched how he worked at final dress rehearsals. Pacing quickly up and down the side aisles of a theater, as the lights in the audience were off and the stage was fully alive, Hein captured the body language, emotion and sheer energy of the cast that was at work. And he never “staged” a photo, but rather caught a moment of action, interaction or dead silence with what might very well be described as the intuition of a director or choreographer. He moved quietly but very quickly, always intensely focused on the energy and emotion he could capture on film.
And I have said this a number of times: Hein moved like a dancer. Watching him deftly walk down the aisles of a theater to get just the right angle was fascinating.
“I always insisted on having Rich photograph the shows I was directing,” said Mary Zimmerman, who has staged countless shows for the Goodman Theatre, Lookingglass and others throughout her career. “He just had such an eye. And we had a very strong collaboration.”
“I would always wonder if Rich would like some particular moment in a show,” Zimmerman said. “He captured faces with such feeling (and charged me for nothing other than the film he used). I really wanted to do a book with him that would have his photo of a show on one page and a little essay of mine on another.”
(This writer hopes that will eventually be done by Zimmerman.)
The cast of “Anything Goes” from Porchlight Music Theatre. (Photographed by Rich Hein under the name Liz Lauren)
“Rich’s death is not really real to me,” Zimmerman continued. “And I keep thinking back many years to one of the first pictures he took for a production of ‘Metamorphosis’ I directed — a scene in which a girl is holding a lantern and searching for her husband along the shore. It was so emotional. And I also remember a brilliant photo he took from a theater balcony that captured a moment in a production of ‘Treasure Island.’ What I hope will be done some day is that there will be a wonderful exhibition of his work.”
As Denise Schneider, chief communication officer at the Goodman, observed: “What I always saw in Rich was his grace, his sense of respect, his undivided attention, and how seriously he took everything. And watching him at work was like seeing poetry in motion.”
The last show Hein photographed was “Fat Ham” at the Goodman Theatre.
Alexis J. Roston in the Mercury Theater Chicago production of “Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill.” (Photographed by Rich Hein under the name Liz Lauren)
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