The tiny, yet formidable Barbara Flynn Currie shimmying across a stage in an electric blue feather boa. A bring-down-the house riff on Del Shannon’s “Runaway” the year Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley forced the closing of Meigs Field Airport. A still-poignant “Wizard of Oz” theme. And, yes, a lot of pinot grigio.
Want to reminisce more? Check out the 2007 Capitol Capers performance in full here.
At a time before a rancorous partisan divide gripped Illinois and the nation at large, and a pay-to-play corruption probe led to the downfall of some of the state’s biggest power players, a bipartisan women’s group was responsible for bringing Democrats and Republicans together through legislation, advocacy, and hearty laughs at their bi-annual Capitol Capers performance.
The Conference of Women Legislators was formed in 1979 to advance the interests of women at a time when just 27 of them were members of the General Assembly. By 2000, that number had increased to 45 women. Today, it stands at 73, slightly down from an all-time high of 78 during the 102nd General Assembly of 2021-22, records show.
* We clipped one of the skits, a super-cringey ode to ComEd. Woof…
