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Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil – Goodman Theatre – July 3, 2024

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This will be a two-part blog, the second half of which will come after I attend the discussion next week at the American Writers Museum by the author of the book, John Berendt, and the author of the stage adaptation, Taylor Mac.

Part of my reason to delay is that, although I’ve seen the movie, I’ve never read the book, and I think that the musical needs some adjustments to better serve those who have done neither. I’ll be interested in hearing what they have to say about that and whether they will discuss any possible changes before looking towards Broadway.

On a general note, let me say that I’ve been to Savannah, and, though I walked around town quite a bit, I didn’t meet anyone interesting there, only lawyers.

Also, I’m a fan of Jason Robert Brown, who wrote the music and lyrics for this show, and also for Parade and Honeymoon in Vegas (which I liked very much despite its lack of success). I haven’t seen any of his other work, including The Bridges of Madison County, which is, dare I say, a bridge too far for me.

For now, I will leave on a positive note. J. Harrison Ghee, Tony award-winner for Some Like It Hot, is a force, worth the price of admission. And the audience was ready, giving them a raucous welcome the second they walked onto the stage, reminding me of the greeting Michelle Williams received at first sight in Death Becomes Her. In a moment predictive of the rest of the evening, Ghee looked out into the audience and said “wait until I earn it.”

Charlie Musselwhite and Ivan Singh- Millennium Park Summer Music Series – July 1, 2024

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Argentinian guitarist Ivan Singh (before you ask – his great grandfather was from India), who came to Chicago only a couple years ago, was a very loud opening act. I should have brought my ear plugs. Once I found a place to hang out suitably far away from the stage, I was able to enjoy his music.

But I wasn’t there for him, so I was happy to hear him fire up Sweet Home Chicago, which, predictably, meant he was closing his act.

After a break, blues legend Charlie Musselwhite entered the stage, harmonica in hand. I don’t think I was the only one there for him.

A fair number of people in the park rose to their feet to start dancing as soon as he raised his instrument. And I’m talking young people, though the older generation, folks who knew of him from way back when, some of whom didn’t see to have changed their wardrobe since, were plentiful throughout the crowded lawn.

Musselwhite, who did not disappoint, came to Chicago in 1962, and has played with all the local greats. He told a Sonny Boy Williamson story that must have been funny – the people in the first few rows laughed – but I couldn’t hear the details, even though I had by then moved closer, relieved by the fact that he and his excellent backup band maintained an acceptable decibel level.

Richès Dayiti: Rediscovered Haitian Piano Treasures with Marianne Parker – Harold Washington Library – June 29, 2024

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This was Marianne Parker’s final performance on behalf of Crossing Borders Music, so I won’t have to renew my passport after all. It’s the third time I’ve seen her give a concert of beautiful Haitian compositions, in three different venues, not to mention, though I will, that I also have her CD of the same genre, Pages intimes,

What can I say. She was flawless, and entertaining, as always. So let’s move on to the venue. I go to a lot of concerts at (Jay) Pritzker Pavillon in Millennium Park, but this may have been my first time hearing music at (Cindy) Pritzker Hall at the Harold Washington Library. Wonderful place. Comfortable seats, lots of leg room, good sight lines, excellent acoustics, nicely temperature controlled (i.e. not over air conditioned) on a hot day, working drinking fountains, clean bathrooms and an escalator in lieu of stairs. I may move in.

Chicago Style: Mike Royko and Windy City Journalism – The Newberry – June 25, 2024

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I was an avid reader of Mike Royko, whose influence on me may be somewhat evident in my own irreverent style.

Though I don’t think we exchanged any pleasantries, I was present at his August 15, 1971 penny-pitching contest in the Chicago Daily News parking lot, the famous large photo of which adorns the exhibit. Unfortunately I’m not captured in the shot.

Royko won the 1972 Pulitzer Prize for Commentary. If I hope to follow in his footsteps, I may need to make some adjustments.

The exhibit includes four typed pages, with handwritten edits, from Royko’s book Boss. Perhaps I should start showing all my tracked changes in my blog, though doing so would break the illusion I hoped to create that my prose just comes gushing out of me fully-formed,

Then there was the matter of Royko’s “fictional neighborhood-guy everyman” Slats Grobnik. Do I need my own alter ego? (Then I wouldn’t have to write “I” so much.) What would he be like?

Finally, there’s all the good contacts he had (and I don’t). His rolodex (what’s that?) was on display, open to the card for Studs Terkel. I sat next to Terkel at a restaurant once, but no contact information was exchanged. I need to find my own names to drop, which means I might have to interact with people.

To that end, and further inspired by the display of some of Royko’s press passes, I have located the page on the United States Press Agency website with information regarding press passes for bloggers. Also, now that the Democratic National Convention Committee has announced that it will allow social media content creators to apply for credentials to cover the 2024 convention in Chicago (that’s going to be interesting), that could be my ticket to fame and fortune, and my own exhibit at The Newberry.

Georgia O’Keeffe: “My New Yorks” Member Reception – Chicago Art Institute – June 24, 2024

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Note to self – next time you go to an event at the Art Institute that features “light bites,” skip everything but the chocolate banana bread.

It stands to reason that trained experts know a lot more than I do about their chosen fields, but that doesn’t mean that all the opinions they serve are easily digested. So, when curator Annie Morse told us that she viewed Georgia O’Keeffe’s Black Cross as, in a way, a self portrait, I had to take it with more than a grain of salt to make it appealing to my uneducated palate. (No amount of salt could have helped the quiche.)

That said, Morse gave an interesting, educational presentation in a nice half-hour package that included, not only photographs of New York from her husband Alfred Stieglitz, but also some mention of and visuals from other artists who Morse saw as influenced by O’Keeffe, including Roger Brown and his famous Leaning Tower of Touhy, housed at the Art Institute.

As for the exhibit itself, it was crowded, so I’ll have to go back to spend more time with it. It’s probably good, so I’ll give it a provisional four brushes for now and salt it away for future reference.

The Enigmatist – Chicago Shakespeare Theater – June 23, 2024

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I have seen, in person, an actual enigma machine, at the terrific Spy Museum, in Washington D.C. This has absolutely nothing to do with The Enigmatist, though I suspect that Alan Turing and all the other codebreakers at Bletchley Park would have been fun people to have in the audience at this show.

Even without them, this was a nerd-filled group, which I say with great admiration and respect. I was in my element, but humbled, though I managed to have my two seconds in the limelight when I shouted out the correct answer to the first clue in a giant crossword puzzle.

David Kwong, the Enigmatist, is a Harvard graduate and veteran cruciverbalist, and a talented, charming entertainer, who bills his show as an immersive evening of puzzles, cryptology and illusions, during which he employs playing cards, dollar bills, a locked box, a cell phone, and a kiwi in a series of tricks that come together in unexpected ways.

Kwong demonstrated rapid processing skills, fueled by an impressive memory and an encyclopedic knowledge of words. But, even as he was throwing out definitions of words he was using in a Scrabble trick, it seemed like he was making them up. Not exactly everyday vocabulary.

I had a similar reaction to his crossword puzzle construction, which incorporated some rather esoteric answers. I prefer clever, but I’m just nitpicking about a fun show.

Make Music Chicago – Washington Square Park – June 21, 2024

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Less than 24 hours after the summer solstice and I’m already depressed, as the day seems so much shorter than yesterday. But I press ahead and make my annual footslog to the Make Music Chicago celebration.

This year, in conjunction with The Newberry’s A Night at Mr. Kelly’s exhibit, Washington Square Park presented, I think, the jazz group, the Marshall Vente Trio (Vente is a keyboard player, but Jeremy Kahn was tickling the plastics on the digital piano, and I wasn’t paying attention to all the introductions, so I don’t know), with Greta Pope, and the blues group Mississippi Heat, whom I saw at the same event two years ago and was prepared for this time, remembering to bring my ear plugs, which was not a reflection on their quality, but rather their volume.

As entertaining as the bands were, and as beautiful as the 80-degree day was, I couldn’t help but imagine the chill in the air from the autumn breeze that will be here in a day less than three months. Nevertheless, I was heartened by the fact that, despite the complaining I hear from my suburban friends, there wasn’t a cicada to be seen or heard.

007 Science: Inventing the World of James Bond – Museum of Science and Industry – June 18, 2024

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It’s never too late for a new career, so why not secret agent, although, with James Bond, there never was anything secret about who he was (even repeating his last name to make sure everyone knew) or who employed him. His idea of a disguise was putting on a pair of glasses in Her Majesty’s Secret Service.

Nevertheless, after gazing bleary-eyed at the massive amount of information about, and science behind, Bond’s gadgets, I tried the interactive, computerized, disguise station at the exhibit. I failed miserably, most notably in how well I would have blended into my environment (not at all).

Moving on, I killed myself multiple times attempting to recreate stunts from Goldeneye, The Man with the Golden Gun and Casino Royale (the remake).

What was left of the car from the CR stunt was present, looking exactly as battered as it appeared post stunt in the movie after rolling over seven times. Intact vehicles, however, abounded throughout the exhibit: cars, submarines, submarine cars, flying cars, motorcycles, boats, snowmobiles, jetpacks, etc.

My talents for a field assignment were further dashed by one look at Hang Time, which I skipped after reading the sign that said “ For your safety, do not use Hang Time if you have hand, knee, back, neck, or shoulder problems.” The only thing was missing was my picture.

I also wasn’t great at hiding listening and viewing devices, so a Q position is probably not in the offing.

Finally, I gave myself some hope with success at the decoding station. So perhaps a desk job with MI6, although I’m certainly not prepared for the British equivalent of a Three Days of the Condor adventure.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Grant Park Music Festival – Millennium Park – June 14, 2024

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I don’t bother writing about all my trips to the Grant Park Music Festival as it becomes boring to comment on one pleasurable evening after another and my grasp of the English language (even my native Mid-American version thereof) is such that I eventually run out of adjectives and/or the strength to defend my use of them.

But, I would be remiss if I didn’t relate my new experience this week, that is having something resembling a conversation with the festival’s chorus director, Christopher Bell, or, as he introduced himself to me prior to the June 14th concert, Chris, which, may I add, resulted in my new acquaintance taking my suggestion regarding the need for a jazzier pre-show 10-minute chime warning for those of us hanging out in the tent, usurping the chimes and mallet and playing a little ditty himself for the nearby patrons.

The interaction is noteworthy on two counts. First, that it happened at all, which can be solely attributed to Chris’s friendliness, his need to stand somewhere to eat his turkey pinwheel and there being such an available “where” right next to me.

Second, as he seemed like a nice guy, I restrained myself and didn’t mention that I hate choral performances (don’t tell him) and had no intention for staying past intermission to hear The Cloud Messenger (after thoroughly enjoying Christian Tetzlaff playing Elgar’s Violin Concerto in B Minor in the first half of the concert).

One final note. The mere title, The Cloud Messenger, is a turnoff for me. I’ve never seen a movie I liked with the word cloud in the title, including the critically-acclaimed, but not by me, Cloud Atlas.

I will admit, however, to liking Chicago’s Cloud Gate and the songs Get Off of My Cloud and Cloud Nine, though I’m still confused as to how one can look at clouds from both sides.

Jersey Boys – Mercury Theater – June 9, 2024

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I won’t start the review tritely with “Oh, what a night,” not because I didn’t like the show (I did), and certainly not out of any literary integrity, but rather because I went to a matinee.

I hadn’t seen the show in over 16 years, but surprisingly, since I have no idea what I had for breakfast, I remembered it very well, which is actually the bad news, as the backstory of The Four Seasons, as told in the show, held no surprises for me, as it had the first time.

That missing intrigue didn’t stop me from enjoying the strong singing, dancing and acting performances or the classic music and choreography, or from appreciating seeing the play in a more intimate theater than before, but it did keep me from being as over-the-top excited as those in the audience, perhaps seeing it for the first time, seemed to be, appropriately so.

Afterward I was interested in any updates on the lives of the “boys.” Most significantly, Frankie Valli, at age 90, is still performing out on the road, but I would bet someone else’s good money that he can’t hit the high notes anymore.

And, according to news reports, Valli got a restraining order against one of his sons about a month ago. Perhaps a sequel is in order.