Theatre reviews

Author: Tom Williams

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Tom Williams

King Lear at Chicago Shakespeare Theater

With the exception of the extraordinary staging of one of the most memorable ever speeches, Lear’s ‘Blow wind and crack your cheeks..’ being shouted by him with his back to the audience, the production’s modern dress style was filled with engaging movement and visually skillful staging. The attention never wavered, even though it was like watching a foreign language play at times.This reviewer was seated at the extreme right of the thrust stage. Perhaps because of this, most of the language was unintelligible, with actors facing away. Added to this this was the indistinct delivery of the text, with actors allowed, or directed, to speak with great speed, as they would a Mamet text, often with poor enunciation and vocal projection.

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Tom Williams

Remembering Bernie Yvon

Bernie Yvon had just recently celebrated his 50th birthday when he was killed by a Semi truck driving to rehearsal. He was scheduled to play a taxi driver in the musical “Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown” at Theatre at the Center in Munster, Indiana. George Andrew Wolff will assume the role and the production will now open on September 21, with a tribute to Bernie planned following the show. Yvon was fortunate to be a working actor, and it was abundantly clear that he loved what he did as much as audiences loved watching him.

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Tom Williams

Jane Eyre

I can say that I had some issues with the highly theatrical take on the 19th Century Gothic novel. While the color-blind inter-racial casting works fine, the use of such accurate RP British accents was so dominate that the cast got so overwhelmed with their sounds that their characters came off as period-dressed costumes living in their RP speech at the expense of being believable real characters. Add much screaming and, at times, rapid-fire talking and many important plot details got lost in the over emotional over-the-top performances.

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Tom Williams

Death Tax

Death Tax suffers from a too extreme plot that necessitates us believing that nurses are easily corrupted and that nursing home can keep an unhealthy patient alive for more than twenty years. Also, no one seems willing to consider that Maxine’s paranoia is a delusion. Since Maxine is so nasty,I couldn’t care what happens to her. Death Tax is simply to contrived. The performances were terrific, especially from Deanna Dunagan and J. Nicole Brooks.

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Tom Williams

The Midnight City

This show is wildly entertaining as Tony explains how important painting birds has been to him. He quotes Wallace Stevens’ poem “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird, ” a meaningful poem to Tony. To visit several artists and urban personalities to get an unique view of their take on Chicago, birds and, of course, artistic mentors. Tony and Stan are folks worth getting to know. Their honesty, outspokenness and talent shines in this special show that easily makes us laugh and appreciate these characters. I guess Tony will always be a “Chicago legend” even if he leaves for the Big Easy.

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Tom Williams

CATS – Paramount Theater

CATS has a small story, but wonderful messages within many of its songs, and the creative brilliance of Paramount’s show makes it a must see. With CATS, all the superb singing and exciting dancing plays out the characteristics of different cats, which parallel people you probably know. And which cat do you most closely resemble? Find out with this breathtaking production at the Paramount Theatre only now through October 12, 2014.

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Tom Williams

Isaac’s Eye

We learn about the nerdy, deep-thinks twenty-five year old Isaac Newton (Jurgen Hooper) as he is committed to becoming famous as a innovative scientist in the mid 1600’s in England. Told in contemporary language in modern cloths, Lucas Hnath engages us into the thinking-man’s world of science and philosophy or “natural philosopher” as it was known then, the physicist and mathematician Issac Newton became known as one of the greatest “thinkers” of all-time. Hnath playfully creates the young, ambitious world of Isaac as he believes that his ideas came directly from God despite his challenging revisionist Christian beliefs.

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Tom Williams

The Coward

Set in the 1790’s, Lucidus Culling (terrific performance by Brian Plocharcyzk) is a cowardly young gentleman who hate violence as he just wants to study bugs and butterflies to his father’s dismay. Nathaniel Culling (the intense Stephan Walker) demands that his son protect the family honor by dueling with anyone who insults the family. So when the hapless Lucidus initiates a duel, father is pleased but Lucidua is terrified at the thought. His foppish pals, Gavin (Ian McLaren) and Robert (Spenser Davis) understand Lucidus’ fear. Robert suggest that he hires a common criminal to fight the duel in his place.

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