Race, violence and misunderstanding are part of Chicago's civic shame. The tragic spectacle now ensnares a theater critic while underscoring tricky issues of cultural and media diversity.

To slightly mangle Hamilton, the Chicago Sun-Times might shout out, "I'm not throwing away my critic." That's after it devoted its entire editorial page Sunday to support Hedy Weiss, its own longtime theater and dance critic, after outrage sparked by her review of the esteemed Steppenwolf Theatre's new play, Pass Over, which is Antoinette Nwandu's redrafting of Waiting for Godot.

Here are the lines that infuriated people:

“To be sure, no one can argue with the fact that this city (and many others throughout the country) has a problem with the use of deadly police force against African-Americans. But, for all the many and varied causes we know so well, much of the lion’s share of the violence is perpetrated within the community itself. "

Weiss continued, "Nwandu’s simplistic, wholly generic characterization of a racist White cop (clearly meant to indict all White cops) is wrong-headed and self-defeating. Just look at news reports about recent shootings (on the lakefront, on the new River Walk, in Woodlawn) and you will see the look of relief when the police arrive on the scene. And the playwright’s final scenes — including a speech by the clueless White aristocrat who appears earlier in the story — and who could not be more condescending to Steppenwolf’s largely White ‘liberal’ audience — further rob the play of its potential impact.’’

There was a petition signed by around 3,500 people to bar Weiss from reviewing shows and declarations from some that announced they'd do just that. (Chicago Tribune) And then came a statement from Steppenwolf, whose laundry list of alums includes John Malkovich, William Petersen, Jeff Perry, Gary Sinise, Joan Allen, Glenn Headley and Gary Cole:

"Particularly egregious are the comments from Sun-Times critic Hedy Weiss, whose critical contribution has, once again, revealed a deep-seated bigotry and a painful lack of understanding of this country’s historic racism."

While conceding the need for more diversity among the ranks of critics, her paper asked, "Could Hedy have been more nuanced in her comments? Should her review of Pass Over' been edited better? Was it tone-deaf? We are all free to complain, defend and debate. But Hedy Weiss is a theater critic of integrity who writes from a place of honest good faith. Nothing she wrote comes close to what Steppenwolf assessed as 'deep-seated bigotry.'"

Geoffrey Stone, a prominent University of Chicago law professor, hadn't been aware of the flap. When I passed along the editorial, he said, "The Sun-Times response sounds eminently sensible. The critic is free to offer her opinion, others are free to criticize her, and the Sun-Times is free to defend her. The only unfortunate thing is the threat no longer to treat her equally with other theater critics in terms of free tickets, but they are free to do that, even though they're wrong to do so."

And then there's Harvey Young, a dramatist and a theater and African-American Studies scholar at Northwestern University, who notes that this sort of backlash tends to be more common in film criticism. "Longtime reviewers are called out for being unable to appreciate and understand the significance of new artistic works."

Slowly, he said, theater is getting more diverse. "August Wilson was the most produced playwright on regional stages last year. Ayad Akhtar was the most produced playwright in the previous year. Lauren Yee was the most recommended playwright for this year’s Kilroy’s list."