On May 5, 2023, Oak Park and River Forest High School was the site of the world premiere of the musical X-Men: Mad Avenue written by Riley Thomas and directed by Michelle Bayer. It ran for two weekends and played to nearly sold-out crowds in the Little Theatre.
Thomas grew up in River Forest and performed in his first play when he was in third grade. “It was Aladdin at Village Players Theatre and my mom bribed me with a bag of candy to go audition because she thought it would be good for me to go out and do something,” he said. He continued acting while a student at Oak Park and River Forest High School and graduated in 2002. “Surprisingly, my favorite role at OPRF was Jack in Into the Woods. I say ‘surprisingly’ because that’s not who I am anymore. That role was before my growth spurt. Now I’m a pretty large man.”
Thomas attended Baldwin Wallace University and majored in music theatre but soon realized that he didn’t want to act anymore. “What I liked about acting was the storytelling. But as an actor, the only tool you have to tell a story is yourself. As a writer, you are worldbuilding and creating. Coming out of college, I realized that I wanted to be a writer.”
He returned to Chicago and one day got stuck on a subway. “It broke down and I looked around at everyone and thought, ‘They are all so different; I wonder what their stories are?’ I decided it would make a good musical.” The experience led him to write Stuck which has since become a film that premiered at the Newport Beach Film Festival in 2017. And Thomas has had other successes with a total of four off-Broadway shows.
All of which led him back to the doors of his alma mater when he contacted Bayer, the chair of the performing arts department. Thomas told her that he wanted to write something to be premiered at OPRF and wondered if she was interested. “I knew that Stuck had gotten good reception. And it would be a great opportunity for our kids. Why wouldn’t I say yes?” she said.
Once Bayer greenlit a world premiere, Thomas needed an idea. He had always wanted to write an X-Men musical. “I’m a huge Marvel nerd and I love the characters. I think it’s a great subject matter because it’s so representative of civil rights. Plus the characters are diverse, well-known, and larger-than-life.”
OPRF students perform in the premier of alum Riley Thomas’ X-Men: Mad Avenue. | PROVIDED 
Thomas was thrilled to return to his own high school for the premier of his original show. | PROVIDED 
According to Thomas, the high school students were incredibly professional as they staged the Marvel-themed musical. | PROVIDED 
He had some contacts at Disney who “agreed to look the other way” with the understanding that Thomas was interested in collaborating with them further. “They let me write the show and perform it at OPRF with certain stipulations. It’s just a three-page agreement.”
Workshopping the musical with the cast was a great experience. “I fell in love with all the kids,” said Thomas. He works a full-time job in New York as a professional puzzle designer and flew back and forth every week to attend rehearsals and then took vacation time for three weeks leading up to opening night.
“The kids were so focused and so professional and so supportive of each other. It felt like a normal rehearsal process to me,” said Thomas. “What was different was the incredibly powerful feeling of being in the same green room that I rehearsed in and the same theater that I performed in over twenty years ago. It was a nostalgic feeling that I haven’t experienced anywhere else.”
Bayer thought it was a great show for the high school with sixteen leading roles and an eight-person ensemble. “It was a young cast with mostly freshmen and sophomores and just a few juniors and so we could feature kids who haven’t been highlighted in our shows before,” she said. “Riley was editing and adding and changing all the way through rehearsals, but the kids were amazing. Stuff came to them on the fly and they just did it. In fact, we didn’t get the last song until a week before the show opened.”
“It was a great experience for the kids. One, they got to work with someone who works in the New York theater industry; two, he is an alum of their high school; and three, they got to be the first ones to have ever done something,” said Bayer. “They worked very hard to master this super dynamic script and I’m so proud of them.”
When asked about the future of the show, Thomas doesn’t harbor any delusions of grandeur. “I don’t think it’s going to Broadway. My greatest aspiration for the show is an educational license where they let the show be done in schools. I want as many people as possible to perform it. And I love the message that’s summed up in the final number ‘The Light.’”
“It’s a message that we’ve heard over and over and over again, but now it’s packaged in a nice, superhero musical. Essentially, what are the choices you’re going to make that will make the world a better place for people who are disenfranchised? It’s very timely, unfortunately, because that’s what we do as a culture. We clash with anyone who is different from us.”
