Austrian conductor Andreas Mitisek’s boldly conceived staging of Astor Piazzolla and Horacio Ferrer’s tango operita, Maria de Buenos Aires—now playing at the Harris Theater—lands like a phantom fist to the gut. Set to the sultry fluidity of the tango nuevo, this free-form adaptation of the original is a fierce piece of social realism which at once aspires to the dimensions of an expressionist myth.
In some ways, I think, it was an overly ambitious program that might have benefited in terms of consistency by being shorter and/or more focused. The rarely-played but engaging late Beethoven overture that opened the program, The Consecration of the House, gave some suggestions of being under-rehearsed:
It has been years since I’ve been able to enjoy this classic Broadway musical, Anything Goes. With all the blandly inept new musicals coming to Chicago over the last few years, it is a pleasure to see the National Tour of Roundabout Theatre Company’s Anything Goes. This toe-tapping nicely goofy show has all the elements of a wonderful musical.
It’s hard to imagine, but the Rodgers and Hart musical Pal Joey—now being given a lively production by Porchlight Music Theatre—is over seventy-years-old. In other words, as much time now stands between us and Pal Joey’s debut 1940 production as stood between it and Gilbert and Sullivan’s earliest collaborations. And the fact that Porchlight has even secured exclusive rights from the Rodgers and Hammerstein Organization to produce the original version almost begs the question: What, after all this time, does Pal Joey continue to offer?
A grand romp through the trials and tribulations of love that updates an ancient fable with modern foibles.
She teamed up with Hershey Felder who adapted and direct Mona Golabek’s one woman show, The Pianist of Willesden Lane, that utilizes Felder’s combination of storytelling with piano music. In this case, the story told by Golabek is the true story of her mother’s flight from Austria to England and eventually to the USA
One cannot help but be tickled pink by this at first, though it is questionable whether it has the lasting power of a 2 and a half hour opera. No orchestra here, just a string quartet, and pianist playing the orchestral reduction; but this actually substitutes rather well. And the company clearly has the voices to put on a greatly scaled down version of the opera. The staging, costuming, and choreography, I’m afraid to say, is another matter.
Was a Marine brig as nasty and torturous as that depicted in Kenneth H. Brown’s play? Brown spent 30 days in the brig for going AWOL so maybe his memory was a tad tainted? However, as depicted in the Mary-Arrchie production, The Brig surly was hell on earth. The inmates here constantly screamed at (there was so much shouting, I’d advise bring ear plugs). This play features dedicated work from the entire cast.
We meet Franklin as she enlisted in the Union Army just before the first major battle as a man – the persona that she adapted earlier to both escape her abusive father and to find employment as a traveling book salesman. She had plenty of practice living as a man show fooling her fellow soldiers wasn’t very hard for her especially when physical exams were not given in those days. We see how Franklin was just one of the “boys.” among the soldiers of the Michigan regiment. She bravely served and was well liked by her mates.
Alice Still is an important and most pertinent drama that presents the lingering effects of Alzheimer’s on a family, especially a 50something person in their prime of life. It is filled with compassion, humor and humanity with razor-sharp clarity. How the disease affects each family member is plausibly presented