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DAMN Yankees – Marriott Theatre – May 21, 2023

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Growing up as a White Sox fan, the concept of DAMN Yankees has always been one with which I could identify.

The only other time I’ve seen a theatrical presentation of this show was in 1996, featuring Jerry Lewis as Applegate. The only thing I remember about that production, and not as a highlight, was Lewis bringing the show to a grinding halt by totally breaking character in the second act and committing a crime against nature by going into a “comedic” monologue.

It’s unfortunate that that’s how I look back, but it’s at least partially Fortunato (Sean, that is), who is much better in the same role, letting his comedic acting speak for him, that will cause me to think back more fondly this time.

Add to that, one of my local favorites, Lorenzo Rush, Jr., as Van Buren, the team’s manager, who, as usual, was a strong presence throughout.

And then there’s a relatively new local favorite of mine, Erica Stephan, doing great work as reporter Gloria Thorpe in a role far removed from her recent tour de force as Sally Bowles at Porchlight Music Theatre.

A new face for me was Michelle Aravena, dynamic as Lola, though I will never understand how Who’s Got the Pain wound up in this show. (Apparently it “was a last-minute replacement to substitute for a weird gorilla-suit number.”) It’s much better served as “the only filmed example of Fosse and Verdon dancing together”, which I never tire of watching on YouTube.

Speaking of dancing, a shout out to Sam Linda, a ballplayer wearing number 16 and dancing in a way reminiscent of Ray Bolger.

Watching the players slide and dance across the stage kept the show moving right along, obviously another positive effect of this year’s new rules to speed up baseball games.

Ernest Shackleton Loves Me – Porchlight Music Theatre – May 11, 2023

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It’s been over 20 years since I saw the IMAX documentary Shackleton’s Antarctic Adventure, but it has remained frozen in my memory.

Molly Brown may have been unsinkable, but she couldn’t hold a candle, or, in the case of this show, a banjo, to Ernest Shackleton. Just two years after the Titanic sank, the Endurance went down in Antarctica, the beginning of an amazing story that is faithfully told through dialogue, song, and actual video from the expedition on loan from the British Natural History Museum, all in the middle of a show about a Brooklyn woman trying to make ends meet and keep her baby warm while the father tours the country with a Journey cover band.

It’s a strange combination indeed, and not your mother’s musical (you won’t walk out humming any of the songs), but one that works, in no small part thanks to the two multi-talented stars of the show, Elisa Carlson and Andrew Mueller (I have now seen all three of the Mueller siblings perform on stage), and, in the midst of a show about hope and optimism, a lot of laughs.

Museum of Contemporary Art – May 9, 2023

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My whole ignorant life I thought tepee was spelled like that, but it turns out it’s actually tipi, the conical tent that is, not the hygiene accessory used to adorn other types of abodes on Halloween.

There are no fully constructed tipis at the Duane Linklater mymothersside exhibit, but several animal pelts, plenty of poles and attractively-designed linen covers, and, for some reason (things his mother owned?), a Kenmore refrigerator, a flat screen television, and a mini Apple Mac. I guess the addition of these items qualifies the exhibit for an art, rather than natural history, museum.

The Enter the Mirror installation includes the work of 19 different artists that the curator scrapped together under one name from stuff the museum didn’t see fit to put on display before or for a really long time, sort of like what I made for dinner last night.

For me, the highlight was Sam Durant’s Partially Buried 1960s/70s Dystopia Revealed (Mick Jagger at Altamont) & Utopia Reflected (Wavy Gravy at Woodstock), a couple of piles of dirt on mirrors, simulating graves, which made me wonder, why not the appropriately-named Grateful Dead at Woodstock, especially in light of the band not making it into the movie or soundtrack album.

I can’t think of anything even remotely interesting to say about the other four exhibits, other than that Endless, gratefully, is not.

The 2023 Newberry Library Award Celebration – Venue Six10 – May 5, 2023

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Peter Coyote has been the narrator for 11 documentaries directed or produced by Ken Burns, but, it turns out, Burns can speak for himself, and did so quite eloquently in accepting the Newberry award and conversing about his career, and its genesis at Hampshire College.

But, as interesting as Burns was, the interview might have been a lot more fun if Coyote had been there for some sort of Billy Flynn/Roxie Hart “we both reached for the gun” moment.

After all, where would Burns be without Coyote? Speeding down a highway in New Mexico, unnoticed, with nothing chasing him? Regretting having chosen Gilbert Gottfried instead as his voice? Forgoing sound and following in the footsteps of 1922’s critically acclaimed silent documentary Nanook of the North? That might have worked for his film on The National Parks, but not so much for the ones on Jazz or Country Music.

The Stradivari Society Recital – A Private Club – April 26, 2023

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I slipped past the woman checking names unnoticed, which was a good thing, as there’s no telling what a background check might have revealed, and I didn’t want to miss the concert at the “private club”.

A word of explanation. According to its Social Media Policy, as stated on its website, “The Club’s name and location may not be used in post-event coverage in any format . . . whether in print, online, or in social media posts. In post-event coverage, the Club may be referred to only as “a private club.” Nothing about walking down the street shouting out its name.

While I doubt the club would have any recourse against me, a nonmember, for violating this policy, it amuses me to comply and keep the name and location a secret from my readers, who probably couldn’t care less, and, to put a spin on Groucho, probably wouldn’t want to join this club that probably wouldn’t want them as members.

That said, look for a building that is well over 100 years old, and apparently never got the memo about ventilation being important. There was none. The only oxygen in the room was provided by the spectacular 22-year-old violinist, Julian Rhee, on an instrument, the Antonio Stradivari, Cremona, 1699 “Lady Tennant,” much older even than the building, and by pianist Chelsea Wang, whose considerable talent was also on display.

The program included works by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Camille Saint-Saéns, Igor Frolov (the composer, not the road cyclist), and Howie Frazin, in the premiere of his Elegy and Rondo, which nicely held its own in this illustrious company.

UIC Wind Ensemble – Logan Center for the Arts – April 16, 2023

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The composer, Alan Theisen, did such a great job of describing what we were about to hear in the six movements of the world premiere of AMP, his piece for piano and wind ensemble, that we weren’t overly (just a little bit) distracted by what appeared to be LED running lights on his shoes.

But the shoes weren’t the main glittering attraction. Nor were the interspersed red and blue strings on the harp, which signify, respectively, C and F notes (had to look that one up). Rather it was the guest artist, piano soloist, Marianne Parker.

I’ve written glowingly about Parker’s concerts before, but this was different, another level. This commissioned piece featured not only great artistry on her instrument, her hands flying across the keys in a relentless, graceful, rhythmic manner, like a championship prizefighter pounding a speed bag into submission, but also talents not normally associated with the piano.

In one movement, per the arrangement articulated by Theisen up front, Parker led the audience in providing a finger-snapping pulse for the band, playing the piano with one hand while snapping with the other, and then switching, back and forth, forth and back, while also waving encouragement to the participating attendees, showwomanship at its height.

Leading into another movement, which was reminiscent, energy-wise, of the USC marching band performing Tusk, Parker leaned back like a drum major, and let rip a loud, pure tone on the whistle she had surreptitiously placed in her mouth during a moment when she had a hand briefly available to do so. I could only envision the Trojans running onto the field, but I could actually see the UIC band members bouncing in their seats, and, in response to Parker’s solos, wiggling their fingers and shuffling their feet as a way of saying “great job”.

Get (Green) Lit: Mini Golf, Big Vibes – American Writers Museum – April 11, 2023

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Though I recently decided to give up golf for all of eternity and beyond, and, accordingly, donated my clubs to a charity supporting the children of incarcerated white-collar criminals, an oft-overlooked, downtrodden minority, I decided, after consultation with, and advice from, numerous anonymous philosophers who are committed to agreeing with whatever I say, that it would not be in conflict with my commitment to golf celibacy if I engaged in miniature golf, an offshoot of the sacred Scottish pastime that emerged in the early 20th century and that still flourishes today, governed internationally by the World Minigolf Sport Federation (WMF).

So it was that my first time at one of the American Writers Museum’s new Get Lit series events was to tee it up with a large, joyous crowd of fellow competitors amidst the AWM exhibits and try my hand at bouncing the ball off walls, typewriters, books, and crumbled first drafts strewn on the floor around the premises while toting a drink that provided the double meaning to Get Lit and proof that bibliophiles can have as much fun as real people, and, presumably, more than even the most advanced artificial neural network (remember Lieutenant Commander Data’s travails regarding the emotion chip on Star Trek: The Next Generation).

I shot one under par for the nine-hole course, but, alas, ran out of time to meet the evening’s guest, Tom Coyne, who has written several books about golf, including one regarding his attempt to qualify for the PGA tour, though, perhaps, I would be better served by meeting Craig Bass, author of How to Quit Golf: A 12-Step Program.

The Book of Mormon – Cadillac Palace – April 5, 2023

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I try to imagine what an edited-for-TV version of The Book of Mormon might look like. I can’t. There’d be nothing left except commercials.

This is the third time I’ve seen the musical, but the first since some shut-down-for-Covid revisions were made by the authors to, according to the New York Theater Guide, “center and deepen the Uganda characters . . . clarify satirical points; and remove ‘white savoirist’ depictions of the Mormon missionaries.”

If you loved it before and haven’t seen it for a while, don’t worry, the actors work it and the dancing’s great, and either you’ll like the changes or you won’t notice them, as you’ll be too busy laughing and shaking your head in disbelief once again at the dialogue and lyrics, none of which I choose to repeat in this space. Let’s just say, somewhere, George Carlin is smiling.

I think it’s more a statement about mainstream acceptance than softening that I didn’t see anyone walk out of the theater this time, not even during Hasa Diga Eebowai, a made up phrase (which is apropos given that one of the other songs is Making Things Up Again) that accidentally translates, in a combination of Portuguese and Japanese, I am told, as the nonsensical “just tell picture ebony”, but, trust me, means something totally different in the show.

Porchlight Sings Broadway Pop – House of Blues – March 27, 2023

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In the 26-plus years of the House of Blues, I’d never before been to it for a performance, unless you count my embarrassing, enraptured, emotional reaction to the restaurant’s jalapeño cornbread at many a lunch.

My absence ended with a bang, and some fiery crab cake appetizers, as I watched Porchlight Music Theatre’s Chicago Sings Broadway Pop erupt with performances from 22 explosive singers and dancers and a rocking seven-piece band.

It was so much fun that I almost forgot about my ongoing internal struggle over whether I prefer the spelling theater over theatre.

I had the good fortune to view the show from one of the boxes, which only augmented the experience, and made me wonder why Statler and Waldorf were always so cantankerous while watching the Muppets from their box.

Then I thought about the scene in the box in Pretty Woman and was grateful that this show was about Broadway pop, not Broadway opera, which made me think that opera would be so much better with tap dancing (think Hot Mikado), though sadly there also was none on this night, its only shortcoming.

History Happy Hour Trivia – Chicago History Museum – March 22, 2023

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The term happy hour first became popular in the early 1900s, descriptive of weekly Navy shows to entertain sailors at sea. During Prohibition, it became associated with alcohol and speakeasies.

In 1989, Illinois outlawed happy hour in an effort to curb binge drinking and drunken driving.

One part of the law required that drink prices “must be the same for all customers, for all purchases for the whole day.” Liquor-license holders responded by initiating happy days, perhaps inspired by the TV show of the same name, given that the stars of the spinoff, Laverne and Shirley, worked in a brewery, albeit in Wisconsin.

The ban was ended in July 2015 and neither that, nor any of the above, has anything to do with the trivia contest at the museum, at which my ad hoc team tied for second, no thanks to my trivial contribution.

Still, I considered it a victory, as we tied a team made up of history teachers, and, by not winning, didn’t have to take home the tote bag prizes.

During the lulls between rounds, what passed for entertainment was provided by Creative Weirdo (to be fair they were hard to hear), a twosome who also are the authors of the forthcoming new musical Adventure Sandwich: A Sandwich Adventure!, which you will not see reviewed here.