The Eternal Optimist: Candide

The Eternal Optimist: Candide
The Eternal Optimist: Candide

The Eternal Optimist: Candide

WBEZ brings you fact-based news and information. Sign up for our newsletters to stay up to date on the stories that matter.

It’s a story as old as time: Star-crossed lovers kept apart by distance and circumstances. But that doesn’t equal tragedy in a new play on stage at the Goodman Theatre.

That’s because the title character – Candide –  has an optimism that just won’t quit. His joie de vivre is at the heart of Mary Zimmerman’s adaption of Candide, the Voltaire literary classic turned Leonard Bernstein Broadway musical. The Tony Award winner says the level of people’s familiarity with Candide was a challenge to her usual adeptness in adaptation.