Anthony J. Mangini There’s no denying that Smokey Joe’s has immense commercial appeal. Dispensing altogether with the narrative conventions of a book musical, Smokey Joe’s is all revue, featuring near forty pop standards from the songwriting team of Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller—responsible for such leviathan-sized hits as “Hound Dog,” “Jailhouse Rock,” “Stand By Me,” and “On Broadway.”
chicago shakespeare theater
Re-imagining the world of Shakespeare’s Venetian army as that of a vast hip-hop empire, the traditional Moorish general is here recast as MC Othello (Postell Pringle), who rises up from the ghetto to reach the heights of music stardom and the full extent of the “American dream.”
Theo Ubique’s recent staging of Aspects of Love thankfully avoids the demonstrable mistake of over-producing Webber’s most “high-minded” operetta. With little more than a piano, a violin and an assortment of woodwinds in the orchestra pit, director Fred Anzevino and musical director Jeremy Ramey are eager to let this immensely talented cast of musical performers show us what cynical audiences had long thought impossible in a Lloyd Webber show—namely, nuance of character and complexity of theme. Stripped to its bare narrative bones, this is Aspects of Love in close-up. Yet while it is clear that Theo Ubique’s cast and crew are up for the challenge, one cannot help but feel that Aspects of Love itself is not
Brewed is the story of six sisters inextricably obligated to stir a magical brew in order that one of them, Babette (Stevie Chaddock Lambert), may live. Cursed by necromancer parents for her sins, Babette’s life is now bound to the perpetual motion of the brew—held in an imposing crucible in the middle of their basement. Should at any moment the stirring stop, Babette—who is already a below-knee amputee—will die. Or at least it is believed that she will die.
In short, for all its ambitions, Amleth feels confused and without a clearly articulated vision. Pushing its source material beyond all recognition, we stop to wonder at its motives for adapting such a well-known work. Indeed, “more matter with less art” might have proven a helpful maxim.
MATRYOSHKA makes its point. But occasionally at the cost of considerable tedium. For by the time we’re running close to our second hour, the whole experience starts to feel like a nonsensical blur, not quite achieving an absurdist circular structure but nonetheless going nowhere, as though slowly following a geometrical line into an infinite horizon.
Still, Vigils is prone to some heavy-handed and clichéd ruminations on the nature of love, loss and renewal. And its efforts to blend the conventions of a realist drama with more mytho-poetic diction results in several awkwardly mawkish metaphors
And director Lili-Anne Brown manages to turn See What I Wanna See’s overly plodding pacing into an otherwise brisk two hours of beautiful music and stirring performances. LaChiusa, much like Sondheim, never makes the work of the actor or director easy. Refusing the more cloying sentiments of a Rodgers and Hammerstein, his work requires constant focus and subtle emotional turns. Thankfully Bailiwick Chicago Theatre is up for the challenge!
Improbable Frequency is set during WWII—or “The Emergency” as it was then known to neutral Ireland—and recounts the adventures of Tristram Faraday (Mike Dailey)—a British code breaker, spy, and cruciverbalist (meaning one who compiles crossword puzzles). Being dispatched to Dublin in 1941 to investigate a series of implausibly portentous radio broadcasts, Faraday there encounters a colorful cast of IRA revolutionaries, mad scientists, and double agents. Infiltrating their nefarious ranks, Faraday comes face to face with an insidious scheme to…well, best not get into that now. Let’s just say that Improbable Frequency carries on in the absurdist vein (think James Bond meets early Tom Stoppard), humorously stretching the limits of plausibility as far as they can go.
From Doo Wop to Hip Hop, Black Ensemble Theater’s current confectionery treat, is so sweet it’ll cause a cavity. Executive Director Jackie Taylor and Associate Director Reuben Echoles have collaborated to bring us a remarkable showcase of some of Chicago’s biggest and brightest voices, belting through a panoply of favorites for both young and old alike.