Based on the novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett
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Bat Boy Musical – A Dark Comedy with a Cult Following
As someone who is not often partial to comedies or musicals, Bat Boy: The Musical found a willing and entertained viewer in me. Though I imagine its humor is especially suited to Millennials and younger generations, I think fans of musical theatre in general could find something to enjoy in this show, provided they are amenable to camp humor.
Thaddeus and Slocum: A Vaudeville Adventure
By Kevin Douglas
Directed by J. Nichole Brooks and Krissy Vanderwarker
Produced by Lookingglass Theatre Company
The Charm and Problems of Vaudeville Revisited
Representation of minorities is one of the most-discussed issues among actors and theatre artists today. Besides that actors of color complain of seldom finding interesting characters with significant stage/screen time to play, offensive practices and stereotypes which Chicagoans may have thought died out decades ago still exist and come up with surprising frequency. Thaddeus and Slocum: A Vaudeville Adventure’s writer, Kevin Douglas, and directors, J. Nicole Brooks and Krissy Vanderwarker, are believers in the Ghanian concept of sankofa, the idea that people have to return to the past to move forward. In a world-premiere drama featuring a plethora of signature Lookingglass acrobatics and early twentieth century vaudeville acts, Douglas and the cast explore the psychological impact of blackface on the white and black performers who used it, the politics of access, and the way racial disparity can taint even the closest relationships.
Hauptmann
By John Logan
Directed by Terry McCabe
Produced by City Lit Theater, Chicago
Hauptmann’s Case Still Fascinating
Before he wrote the Tony Award-winning Red and the screenplays of The Aviator, The Last Samurai, and Gladiator, John Logan was fascinated by courtroom dramas. His early play Never the Sinner, about Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb, played in Victory Gardens last year, and now, City Lit Theater is reviving Hauptmann for that play’s thirtieth anniversary. Artistic director Terry McCabe, who also directed Hauptmann’s world premiere at Stormfield Theatre, and has directed it several times since, including at Victory Gardens, calls it his favorite play.
Nathan Allen Podcast
Jacob Davis interviews The House Theatre of Chicago Artistic Director and co-founder Nathan Allen about Death and Harry Houdini and The Last Defender.
The Cure
Directed by Kendra Miller
Movement Direction by Thom Pasculli
Created by Walkabout Theater Company
Produced in Association with DCASE
Old Library Makes Existential Struggle a Spectacle
If you’ve ever seen The Seagull, and wondered what Konstantin’s decadent dramatic experiment on the subject of matter and energy would look like as a complete production, Walkabout’s The Cure may be about as close as you’re going to get. Part promenade and part performance art, this meditation on death, medicine, and spirituality, with a commissioned text by Emma Stanton, is a dizzying display of symbols and archetypes whose meaning is highly subjective. But though the work is confusing and often frustrating, it is an interesting use of the Chicago Cultural Center’s strange architecture, and contains athletic, daring choreography by Thom Pasculli.
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Tom Williams & Jacob Davis
The Sound of Music 2016 National Tour
Music by Richard Rodgers
Lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II
Book by Howard Lindsay and Russell Crouse
Directed by Jack O’ Brien
Musical Direction by Andy Einhorn
Choreography by Danny Mefford
Produced by Broadway In Chicago
At The Palace Theatre, Chicago
Wonderful young spirited actress leads sweet production of iconic musical
One of the all-time great musicals, The Sound of Music, contains one of the finest musical scores and is the ultimate “feel-good” Broadway musical. Director Jack O’Brien has mounted a fine Equity National Tour production filled with talented performers, including a darling group of children.
The Sound of Music is set in Austria in 1938 and is the story of Maria (Kerstin Anderson), a loving novitiate who is sent to be the governess to the seven van Trapp children. She teaches the kids to sing and wins their hearts with her unconditionally loving spirit and energy. Maria also falls for the Captain (Ben Davis). The family is forced to flee the Nazis before the Captain is forced to join the German navy. Based on a true story, The Sound of Music is a charming, heartwarming musical treat containing some of the best known show tunes and filled with enough goodness and purity to entertain all ages.
Kerstin Anderson is a wonderful Maria, as she is instantly likable with an innocence and bubbling energy and an outstanding voice. Ben Davis is commanding as the stern naval Captain. Terry Hansen and Merwin Foard effectively land “How Can Love Survive” and “No Way To Stop It.” Melody Betts’s stirring “Climb Ev’ry Mountain” soared.
The seven children were marvelous. Paige Silvester as Lisel and Dan Tracy as Rolf sang nicely, danced, and flirted in “Sixteen Going on Seventeen.” The children were charming, well rehearsed and landed their songs and movements with precision. The “Do-Re-Me” song, led my Anderson’s Maria was special. These kids were so lovable.
The Sound of Music is so sweet, so pure that it can’t help but please. This is solid family entertainment. This National Tour is charming and well executed; it is a star-making role for Kerstin Anderson, still a college student. She anchors a wonderful production. Hurry, you only have through Sunday, June 12.
Northanger Abbey The Musical
Based on the novel by Jane Austen
Book by Robert Kauzlaric
Music and Lyrics by George Howe
Directed by Elise Kauzlarik
Jane Austen is Alive and Thriving in Roger’s Park
“I’d rather be reading Jane Austen,” my bumper sticker proclaims. Now, after seeing the opening night of Lifeline’s brilliant world premiere musical adaptation of Northanger Abbey, I need a matching sticker: “I’d rather be seeing Jane Austen.”
A master of the “show don’t tell” school of writers, Austen is a perfect novelist for adapter Robert Kauzlaric as, right from the opening scene, he dramatizes the heroine’s thoughts as well as her actions.
We are in a gloomy, high-ceilinged room with arched windows which reveal flashes of lightning to accompany crashing thunder. A gossamer-clad damsel, surrounded by mysterious masked figures and clutching a book, is obviously in distress. Are we in the right play? This is not a Gothic novel — it is supposed to be the antithesis — shining daylight on this dark genre so often filled with unlikely plot twists, overly dramatic emotions and terrifying supernatural elements.
Our maiden — novel-lover Catherine Moorland, (Stephanie Stockstill) — is immersed in the written word until interrupted by her mother’s voice. She slams the book shut, the masked figures vanish, and the Gothic world gives way to ordinary, everyday life.
This clever technique — moving between the fantastic and the mundane — is effectively repeated each time highly imaginative Catherine opens a book, calling forth masked figures reminiscent of a Greek Chorus. Each time she closes the book, we return to the actual world around her.
Catherine, a naive, romantic 17-year old, is in “training for a heroine.” Opportunity arises when she leaves her country home to accompany Mrs. Allen (Jenifer Tyler), a wealthy neighbor, to the city of Bath — a popular English resort providing an equivalent of today’s singles’ scene where couples met ostensibly to taste the restorative waters but actually to find mates via the pleasures of ballroom and theater.
There, she meets two important brother and sister pairs: beautiful and selfish Isabella Thorpe (Lydia Hiller) and her vain, feckless brother John (Andres Enriquez), and — in contrast — charming Henry Tinsley (Javier Ferreira) and his sweet sister Eleanor (Shelby Lynn Bias). Clue as to the outcome: in addition to being a braggart and a bore, John is a non-reader while Henry is familiar with the Isabelle’s favorite novels. In addition, there is also just the right chemistry.
Two other important siblings add to the mix: Catherine’s brother, honest and true James Moorland (Chris Ballou) who loves Isabel and Henry’s sexy, smarmy brother Frederik Tinsley (Denzel Tsopnang) who becomes his rival.
Bath is only Catherine’s first adventure, taking up Act I and setting the scene for what ensues. The Second act heightens plot and suspense when Catherine accompanies the Tinsley family, including General Tinsley (Peter Greenberg), their harsh, mysterious father, back to the family home — a genuine Abbey!
From her vast reading, Catherine expects the Abbey to be frightening and exotic. Indeed, it does turn out to include a mysterious suite of forbidden rooms — where Mrs. Tinsley had died nine years earlier. While she fails to find what she expected, Catherine matures to discover something far more important — herself — a real heroine, as she learns from her mistakes (and that things are not always what they seem), leaves fiction and enters reality.
High praise to adapter Kauzlaric both for what he adds and for what he cuts from the novel as he tightens the story for dramatic effect. Nothing essential is lost from the original. George Howe is also to be praised for what he adds in music and lyrics. Eleven songs are interspersed in the first act and nine in the second — each smoothly weaving into the story, and sung by the strong voices of the fine cast. In “A woman’s reputation,” Mrs. Allen directs Catherine in the proper comportment of a lady. Another delightful moment is when Isabella, John, Henry and Eleanor join voices for “A Carriage Ride to Bristol,” where a reluctant Catherine is carried off by John when she was supposed to be out walking with the Tinsleys. Kudos also to choreographer Todd Rhodes especially for the dance in a musical number aptly titled “Torment” for the sensuality depicted in the love triangle as Isabella is torn between Frederik and James while Catherine looks on helplessly.”
A Small Oak Tree Runs Red
By Lekethia Dalcoe
Directed by Harry Lennix
Produced by Congo Square Theatre
Playing at the Athenaeum Theatre, Chicago
There are some images that will never leave your mind, if Lekethia Dalcoe has anything to say about it. The latest product of Congo Square’s August Wilson New Play initiative, Dalcoe’s A Small Oak Tree Runs Red puts a horrifying twist on the concept of a memory play, with the ghosts of three historical lynching victims struggling to remember and come to terms with their experiences.