With their long-running escape room The Last Defender playing downstairs, and their first show, Death and Harry Houdini being revived upstairs, The House Theatre has decisively conquered The Chopin. Both are major hits for the highly innovative company, which use non-standard storytelling techniques, and both, it so happens, force people to rely on their ingenuity to escape mortal peril. Magician Dennis Watkins stands a far better chance of prevailing than the defenders in the basement. In this latest revival, Watkins is at total ease in the role of Houdini, but Nathan Allen’s writing incorporates the escape and magic tricks into a story as exciting as it is tragic and ironic. With the addition of The House’s always evocative music, composed by Kevin O’Donnell, Death and Harry Houdini is far more than a parade of illusions; it captures the magic of theatre, as well.
Powerful story of Chicago’s infamous Haymarket massacre soars in a tuneful folk musical
If you wonder where the new voices in musicals are in America, you only have to turn to the creators of the fabulous new folk musical, Haymarket: The Anarchist’s Songbook to see evidence of talent. With Book and Lyrics by Alex Higgin-Houser and music by David Kornfeld, Haymarket is proof positive that the American musical is, indeed, in good hands!
This sparkling new chamber folk musical is featured at the new Edge Theater (5451 N. Broadway), a terrific venue. Haymarket: The Anarchist’s Songbook is a mature, polished folk musical that creatively and most effectively tells the true Chicago story of the 1886 Haymarket Affair that erupted into a bombing after a labor rally. The story is told from the point of view of Lucy Parsons (LaKecia Harris), the daughter of a slave and the widow of anarchist martyr Albert Parsons (James Smart).
Utilizing slick music direction by Robert Ollis and Tyler Merle Thompson of David Kornfeld’s richly varied score while having the cast members acting as musicians, Haymarket unfolds as a folk operetta. This wonderful score with smartly appropriate lyrics by Alec Higgin-Houser set the proper tone of labor organization, populist movements, and social unrest as Americans strive for basic worker’s rights. The roaring songs effectively captured the hope, dreams, and spirit of both immigrants and American working class. Featuring guitars, mandolin, piano, accordion, ukulele, harmonica, and trumpet, among other instruments, each played by a cast member to accompany their fine vocals, Haymarket “sings” richly as the mood and spirit of the story soars into our hearts!
The 25 song score is in fine hands here. It is amazing that the creatives at Underscore found as many excellent actors/singers/musicians as they did to tell the early labor confrontation story. Just like their terrific Borderlands, Haymarket uses the players as musicians as they strut ballads and traditional melodies to celebratory tunes to protest songs to tell the labor struggles of the 1880’s.
The artistry here is fluid; songs richly both to tell the story as well as underscore the mood and tone of events. LaKecia Harris anchors the cast with her fine acting and terrific vocals. James Smart (Albert Parsons), Mike Mazzocca (August Spies), Royen Kent (Louis Lingg), David Kaplinsky (Adolf Fisher), Tyler Merle Thompson (George Engel), each had fine moments while Summer Hofford (Nina Van Zandt Spies), Victoria Olivier (Johanna Fisher) and Khaki Pixley (Mary Engel) contributed fine solos and rich harmonies.
This two hour folk operetta grabs us from the start and carries us through the events and injustices of the Haymarket Affair.
“Give them the old razzle dazzle…razzle dazzle them”
Brassy Chicago sizzles ever more
Despite the terrific film version, Chicago on stage still reigns. As many times as I have seen Chicago razzle dazzle, this production reached me as much as any other. I think it was the flawless Bob Fosse-style dance, or maybe Kander & Ebb’s score, or maybe the vibrant orchestra, or maybe all of the above? I loved this toe-tapping, slick, sensual, erotic musical. Chicago proves that you don’t necessarily need a lavish set or flashy costumes to mount a hit musical. Rather a bouncy ’20s jazz score set to clever lyrics combined with trademark Bob Fosse-styled dances expertly performed with a variety of musical styles are all that is needed for a wonderful show. Chicago is sophisticated, stylish adult entertainment.
From the moment you hear the jazzy whining of the horns and the hypnotic rhythms of “All That Jazz” and see the boys and girls sleekly moving in unison, you know you’re in for a treat. John Kander’s music has a jazz based style with a tango, waltz, blues, and unique dance-inspiring haunting melodies that cry out for movement. Chicago is signature Bob Fosse style, sleek, sexy, smooth, swift, and sophisticated, featuring arm and leg movements that evolve into unique formations and energetic interaction among the dancers, resulting in pure erotic pulsating rhythms.
The story is about women who kill their lovers and flout justice in a Roaring ’20s satirical fable that jabs at society and the legal system. Dylis Croman is the sexy Roxie Hart and Terra C. MacLeod is Velma Kelly—both are outstanding triple threats, each can sing, are fine comic actors—and both are marvelous dancers. Croman brings cuteness to Roxie, while MacLeod is the more sensual Velma. Both land their songs and dances deftly. The show ending duets “Nowadays” and “Hot Honey Rag” danced and sang perfectly.
The ensemble was the finest I’ve seen dancing Ann Reinking-Bob Fosse style numbers. “Roxie,” “Tap Dance,” and the show stopper “Razzle Dazzle” were slick and flawless. I’ve not witnessed Fosse dances better performed. The ladies justify their crimes with the haunting “Cell Block Tango.”
John O’Hurley brings a big voice and a commanding presence to the shyster Billy Flynn. His “All I Care About” and “Razzle Dazzle” lead the way. Jessie Wildman, as Matron Morton, belted “When You’re Good to Mama” and the sarcastic “Class” with MacLeod skillfully. Paul C. Vogt wins our hearts as the loser Amos Hart as he tenderly delivers “Mister Cellophane.”
This touring production is fresh, energetic, funny, and well rehearsed, featuring an “A” list ensemble of Broadway veteran dance pros. The orchestra sounded terrific with exceptional horn work. Kander’s tuneful score is in good hands here.
If you want to see an expert Broadway musical, this production of Chicago sure qualifies. If you’ve never seen Chicago and/or you’ve only seen the film, then do get to the Cadillac Palace to witness the “real” Chicago. There is nothing like a Bob Fosse dance show. Chicago is Fosse’s best. It is thrilling and so polished. Kudos to Broadway In Chicago for bringing back this classic. It played only through May 15, 2016.
Funny contemporary old fashioned musical comedy features the Gershwin songbook and a zany book
Bill Pullinsi’s farewell production at the Theatre at the Center is, of course, a full-throttle musical comedy featuring a game cast lead by Justin Brill and Erica Stephens doing their best Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers take on the Gershwin songbook.
Set in the Roaring Twenties, Nice Work If You Can Get It is a fast-paced musical filled with exciting dance numbers, Roaring 20’s costumes, and a cute love story between newly married New York playboy Jimmy Winter (Justin Brill) and the feisty bubbly bootlegger, Billie Bendix (the lovely Erica Stephens), who melts his heart. This new Broadway musical features a book by Tony Award winner Joe DiPietro, and a treasure trove of George and Ira Gershwin’s most beloved, instantly recognizable tunes (“Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off,” “Someone to Watch Over Me”, “‘S Wonderful”).
Martha (Karen Janes Woditsch) and George (John Hoogenakker). Photos by Michael Brosilow.
Written by Tim Sniffen
Directed by Stuart Carden and Michael Halberstam
Produced by Writers Theatre, Glencoe
Huge Laughs at Old Tragedies
After opening their new building with a production of Tom Stoppard’s incredibly dense Arcadia, the staff at Writers Theatre thought audiences might be in the mood for something funnier. Do they ever deliver. In a collaboration with Second City, Death of a Streetcar Named Virginia Woolf: A Parody is now the inaugural production of the Gillian, the smaller of the playing spaces in the complex. Riffing on four of the mid-twentieth century dramas which dominate the American stage (the fourth, not included in the title, being Thornton Wilder’s Our Town), Tim Ryder and Tim Sniffen’s script is a rapid-fire homage and parody which imagines a clash of icons in sultry New Orleans.
While I personally never cared much for Little Shop Of Horrors, I must report that the creatives at American Blues Theatre, under the smart leadership of director Jonathan Berry, have mounted a slick, funny and musically interesting production of the campy classic.
Strawdog will be moving next season to a new location at 1621 West Howard Street, but for now, it’s the end of an era at their Lakeview home for twenty-six years. They picked a great way to go out, though. Though the names George Kaufman and Moss Hart are today associated most strongly with You Can’t Take it With You, a beloved, but dated and overexposed, comedy, their first collaboration, Once in a Lifetime, has a lot more satirical bite. Written in 1930, the story centers on the movie industry, one of the few financially promising fields at the time (or so many people hoped), and director Damon Kiely has found all sorts of delightful ways of bringing out the script’s humor, while making it compatible with modern tastes. It’s the perfect fusion of old and new for a long-running company undergoing a major transition.
Written and Performed by Lisa Beasley, Aasia LaShay Bullock,
Second City e.t.c.’s 40th Revue – A Red Line Runs Through It
Peter Kim, Katie Klein, Julie Marchiano, Scott Morehead
Directed by Matt Hovde
Musical Direction/Original Music/Sound Design by Jesse Case
At The Second City e.t.c., Chicago
Running Express to Entertain
If you’re looking for an entertaining show where you can eat, drink, and laugh all at the same time, then Second City e.t.c.’s 40th Revue A Red Line Runs Through It is where you should be tonight. Written and performed by some of Second City’s best, this nearly two-hour show gambols pell-mell through skits, songs, and dances that never failed to amuse with their at-times outrageous and absurd but always skillfully diverse display of comedy.
A Red Line Runs Through It features a lot of lighting and music that, far from merely complementing the skits and atmosphere, are integral to the show as a whole. For instance, the show opens with the cast riding an El-train, bored and impatient at a delay; then, inexplicably, the emergency lights go out and a black light comes on to reveal the entire cast wearing Guy Fawkes’ masks (also inexplicably) and eerily dancing. Absurd? Yes. Amusing? Inexplicably so. Some of the best skits also involve singing, such as a political rap battle, an ironic love song to Rahm Emmanuel, and an improvised song based upon an audience call-out (in this case, crazy drivers), among several others.
Besides this noteworthy inclusion of music (compliments to Jesse Case), the show features some strong collaborative moments among the cast as well as some in which individual members are allowed to shine. We see Peter Kim coach his very white friend Scott Morehead on the how-to of drag; Lisa Beasley and Aasia Lashay Bullock blithely perform some everyday “black-girl magic”; Julie Marchiano plays a humorless fitness/life guru whose existential exercises lead Beasley to commit murder; Katie Klein exposes the seedy past of the Frank Lloyd Wright Estate amidst the mundane backdrop of an architectural tour; and, at one point, the whole cast delivers different iterations of the opening segment to the 11 p.m. news, varying their approaches depending on the city.
Dazzling production with Rodger’s score never sounding better makes the Lyric’s the King and I special
All the creative assets of the Lyric Opera of Chicago, from lavish sets to large ensemble including children, to a large orchestra each contribute to a major spectacle. This wonderful production doesn’t disappoint; it is a family treat!
Considered to be Rodgers & Hammerstein’s most beloved musical, The King and I is set in Siam in the 1860s. It tells the story of Anna (Kate Baldwin), a widowed Englishwomen, who becomes a tutor to the King’s children as part of the “westernization” of Siam by the King. The King, played with simmering angst by Raolo Montalban, is torn between clinging to his ancient customs and embracing modern ways. Essentially, The King and I is a story of colliding cultures where respect, understanding, and acceptance battle with the stubbornness of two people – one a king and one a charismatic female. The musical is also a love story subtly between the King and Anna and directly between Lun Tha (Sam Simahk) and Tuptim (Ali Ewolsi). The theme of tolerance and social change is deftly presented.
This production of the Tony winning 1951 musical – The King and I. Anchored by Kate Baldwin (Anna Leonowens) and Paolo Montalban (The King), director Lee Blakley’s vivid flowing production looks splendid with a colorful array of Oriental costumes including those 1860s European hooped dress (costume design by Sue Blane). Add an evocative Far East set (by Jean-Mark Puissant) with mood enhancing lighting (by Rick Fisher) and you have a gorgeous looking production.
This musical contains one of the most loved and respected scores ever written by Rodgers & Hammerstein. Such fun songs like “I Whistle A Happy Tune” and “Getting To Know You” are implanted into minds of generations along with the beautifully enchanting ballads such as “Hello, Young Lovers,” “We Kiss In a Shadow,” and “I Have Dreamed.” The cast mostly of Asian-Americans featured strong vocals, especially from Ali Ewoldi and Sam Simahk.
The King’s wives and children evoked charm as they marched, sang, and danced. Peggy Hickey’s Oriental-like movements with the ballet scene “The Small House of Uncle Thomas” using masks and vivid costumes, highlighted act two.
Anna and the King subtly struggled with their cultural difference as both suppressed the romantic sparks that lingered. The King’s “A Puzzlement” and Anna’s “Shall I Tell You What I Think of You” both contain a subtext of romantic feelings. These feeling almost explode as they dance a polka in the thrilling “Shall We Dance.”
This spectacular, colorful, exquisitely sung production is a treat. You’d be hard pressed to see a finer production of this beloved classic. The casting was fine but I could see an older and more charismatic King, yet Montalban sure had his moments. I was most impressed with production. You’ll be entertained and you’ll live humming the fabulous R & H tunes. “Shall We Dance” is still stuck in my head – it makes me want to polka!
After 45 Years, Guare’s Comedy is Still Funny and Still Strange
In 1971, John Guare’s dark farce The House of Blue Leaves launched his career by establishing him as a writer who defies genres and has a wicked sense of humor. Now, in 2016, when the farce has receded from its once-prominent position in the theatrical landscape, Guare’s story of a husband undergoing a mid-life crises while in thrall to his mentally ill wife and a group of invasive nuns awaiting the arrival of the pope looks even stranger. But in Raven’s production, under the direction of co-artistic director JoAnn Montemurro, every cackle rings true, and the horror exposed at the heart of the genre is all the more disturbing for being buried under such a goofy exterior.
Written and Directed by Nathan Allen
By George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart
By John Guare