Must See

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!

The Fall of Heaven can be enjoyed on several levels: it is a morality play (good vs. evil); a human comedy; and a hopeful tribute to humanity. it is also as finely constructed and stage theatrical production. Congo Square proves once more that they produce outstanding theatre. Don’t miss this unique show.

In Simon Block’s telling adaptation of Jonathan Safran For’s novel, Everything is Illuminated, a 20something American Jewish boy travels to the Ukraine with only a yellowing photograph in hand. He is Jonathan (Brad Smith) and he is in search of the woman, Augustine, who saved his grandfather form death at the hands of the invading Nazis.

In Paul Edwards’ smart, nicely paced and well acted stage adaptation, Peyton Place unfolds as a period piece of life in the repressed 1950’s small town America. We meet three women coming to terms with their sexual identities. Constance MacKenzie (Sheila Willis) is an emotionally drained woman and mother to the sensitive and precious daughter Allison (Catherine Gillespie) – am aspiring writer. Add Selena Cross (Sara Renee Gilbert), the poor girl from the ‘shacks” and we have three microcosms of the emerging women of the ’50’s.

Fox takes audiences on a sidesplitting romp which pulls the rug from underneath the stuffy denizens of a private golf country club. The 43rd annual grudge match between rival golf clubs is thrown for a loop when the best golfer switches teams on the eve of the competition. It’s a hilarious romp with classic elements like mistaken identities, huge consequences riding on the match’s outcome, marriages on the brink of disaster, and secret romantic shenanigans that recalls the Marx Brothers in their heyday. Add over-the-top characters, a furious pace, terrific physical comedy with brilliant plotting and fabulous comic touches by the expert cast and Fox is a well-oiled comic farce.

I grew up listening to Billie Holiday records so I am quite familiar with her unique blues-oriented distinct jazz singing style. I can state with absolute certainty that Alexis Rogers has Billie Holiday’s style down pat. Add her fabulously realistic acting deftly depicting the pain Billie suffered as she tried to blunt reality with heron and whiskey and Rogers combines her amazing channeling of Holiday’s singing style with a sting of personal stories about the horrors of her life.

Let’s just say then that there was something reminiscent in this production of Harold Pinter’s The Birthday Party, produced by the Steppenwolf Theater Company. The boxcar-like stage. The parallel rows of spectators. The crazy man in the middle, railing against some unperceived horrors, unable to be saved or helped. The play is set in a rundown boarding house, run by Meg and Petey Boles, in some unspecified little English town adjacent to the sea. Stanley Webber, the Boles’ tenant for the past year and a proverbial “washout,” is even at the play’s outset a rudderless boat. But things are about to change for Stanley when two strange men show up to the house looking for board. And, it would appear, looking for Stanley

Dennis Watkins is a fabulous and fearless magician as evidenced by his underwater in a locked crate Houdini trick performed in a House show a few years back. In The Magnificents, Watkins pays tribute to his grandfather, Ed Watkins, the man who taught Dennis the magic of magic. This is a warmly human story of the aging magician (played by Dennis Watkins) and his loyal wife (Tien Doman).

As the story unfolds, we see how each character’s foibles and personality traits that make them both human and unappealing as a successor to the quirky longtime mayor. After much banter and several arguments, the question of succession takes a wild turn as the 18 year old Tyler emerges as a potential candidate after Kenton bluntly states that none of his children are to his liking as mayor . Tedesco tries to “spin” why Tyler would be a viable candidate to keep the DeKoven dynasty intact.

Marriott’s lead artistic director, Aaron Thielen and Marc Robin (who holds 16 jeff Awards), both enthusiast lovers of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s music , conceived and created a most stunning and artistically stylish music revue. With a cast of 19, this ALW review has much dance including naturalistic movement and ballet styled dance to instrumental renditions of ALW music.