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The Mystery of Edwin Drood – St. Sebastian Players – November 9, 2018

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How ironic that the same week that I missed seeing Betty Buckley in Hello Dolly because she was sick, I saw The Mystery of Edwin Drood for the first time, given that Buckley was one of the stars of the original Broadway production in 1985, playing Drood, and, perhaps needless to say, I missed seeing her again, as she isn’t a member of the St. Sebastian Players.

Actually, only three of the 20 cast members of Drood are St. Sebastian Theater company members, including one whom I have seen before and who. as the program correctly suggests, has the “creepy parts cornered.”

The rest are all ringers, so why not Betty Buckley? That would have brought some heat to the drafty church basement theater.

That said, the show is unsophisticated fun and young Sarah Myers (new to Chicago), as Drood, showed me enough that I expect to see a lot more of her in productions around town.

But the real ringer is Darryl Maximilian Robinson, as the Chairman of the Music Hall Royale. It’s a huge part that demands not just talent, but also charm during his frequent interactions with the audience in a show that looks for a joke at every turn and has no respect for the fourth wall.

It didn’t surprise me to learn that Robinson is “best known for his original one-man show of Shakespeare and time-travel comedy” called A Bit of the Bard, which I find all the more significant now that it has been suggested that Stephen Hawking, in his final book, has allowed for the possibility of time travel, in contradiction to his earlier “chronology protection conjecture,” in which “the laws of physics do not allow time machines,” thus keeping “the world safe for historians.”

Of course, with time travel, I might have opted to see Buckley in Drood in 1985, and then not bothered to see this production or think about, or use, time travel, and then we’re right back to where we started.

 

Hello Dolly – Oriental Theater – November 6, 2018

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So excited to see Betty Buckley as Dolly. She had a cold on opening night, but the reviews of the show were glowing nonetheless. I waited two weeks to let her recover, which was perfect timing as I could then not be in front of a television watching election pundits drone on for hours about things that either were obvious, irrelevant, undecided, or wrong. I prefer to just see the results the next day.

But, in the immortal words of Robbie Burns, “The best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men / Gang aft a-gley.” And so, upon arriving at the theater, I learned that Buckley would not be appearing, due to illness, replaced by her understudy Jessica Sheridan.

Based upon conversations around me, I wasn’t the only one initially disappointed, but Sheridan won us over with her singing, dancing, and acting. In particular, her performance during the courtroom dining scene brought howls of laughter from the audience, which led me to a website discussing what Carol Channing and Bette Midler were actually eating in that scene in Broadway productions.

The second best ovation may have been when the train between Yonkers and New York City rolled onto the stage. Just one of many impressive costume and set design elements of the show that presented a cornucopia of colors.

The dancing waiters also were a crowd pleaser, though I was struck not so much by their considerable terpsichorean skills, but rather by the grace of one waiter who elegantly reached down in mid-routine to grab something that had been dropped on the stage and toss it into the wings, without missing a beat in his choreographed movements.

All in all an enjoyable evening, capped off by listening to Buckley show off some of her skills in the hysterical Hymm to Her when I got home.

1968: Song by Song – Chicago Humanities Festival – November 5, 2018

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The good news – the program featured great performances by the singers and musicians and, for those of us who were of a certain age in 1968, was a very nostalgic evening, complete with covers and quotes from The Chicago Seed, the underground newspaper of the day, which was edited by Abe Peck (who was in attendance), the father of Doug Peck, the musical director of the program. They even added an Aretha Franklin tribute at the end that extended the program well past its scheduled finish time, to the delight of the audience.

The bad news – what the hell were they thinking by including MacArthur Park as the song representing August, 1968?! Miami Herald readers polled by Dave Barry in 1992 voted the 1968 recording as the worst song of all time. The only redeeming thing about it is the instrumental interlude. If not for all the horrible things that happened in 1968, Richard Harris’s singing and the nonsensical lyrics of this song would take the cake, whether or not it was left out in the rain.

A much better choice would have been People Got to be Free by The Rascals, which was a chart topper that August and was a far more representative song of the feeling of the times that this program was trying to convey.

But if MacArthur Park it had to be in some fashion, why not Al Yankovic’s 1983 parody of it, with his far better lyrics, which included, “Jurassic Park is frightening in the dark/All the dinosaurs are running wild/Someone shut the fence off in the rain/I admit it’s kind of eerie/But this proves my chaos theory.”

After all, chaos abounded in 1968.

 

Tom Hanks – Uncommon Type – Chicago Humanities Festival – November 2, 2018

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My guess is that a majority of the audience at the Harris Theater came not to hear about Hanks’ book, Uncommon Type, which includes, often very minimally, mention of a typewriter in each short story, but rather because Hanks is their type of guy.

He didn’t disappoint. When asked by interviewer Peter Sagal about all the real life people he’s played, many of them heroes, Hanks told of how, when meeting Chesley Sullenberger, James Lovell, and Richard Phillips, he said to each of them in regard to his portrayal: “I’m going to say things you didn’t say, go places you’ve never been, and do things you’ve never done – live with it.”

In particular, he recounted Sullenberger telling him that his instrument panel went dead before landing his plane on the Hudson River and Hanks replying that a blank panel wasn’t dramatic enough, so in the movie it would instead act “like this”, which Hanks then demonstrated by flailing his hands to simulate the needles out of control. Sagal suggested that using those hand gestures in the movie would have been a crowd pleaser, as it was to this audience.

After Hanks mentioned a new movie coming out, Greyhound, where he plays the captain of a ship in World War II, Sagal noted that Sullenberger, Lovell, Phillips and John Miller in Saving Private Ryan all were captains, and suggested that Hanks couldn’t seem to get a promotion. Hanks added that Greyhound would forever be known as the movie where he doesn’t play Mr. Rogers (given the great anticipation of the release of that movie).

Hanks then responded to several questions submitted by the audience prior to the program, the final one of which inexplicably asked Hanks what his favorite sandwich is. Hanks went into a long, amusing explanation of his dietary restrictions, though clearly the perfect answer to close the program would have been “a hero.”

Hamilton – CIBC Theater – October 31, 2018

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I still haven’t seen Gone With the Wind, but I broke down and saw Hamilton (in a good seat at a reasonable price), despite a case of something akin to cleithrophobia, the fear of being trapped, as it relates to being in the ridiculously small lobby at the CIBC Theater at the same time as more than one other person, which is likely when attending a show there, given that the theater seats 1800.

I read a detailed synopsis of the play ahead of time so that I could follow the songs and action, as there’s a lot going on, but despite all the hype about the show, there’s an absence of live farm animals, rotating disco balls, and full frontal nudity.

There is, however, a very small intentional fire on stage, which, given the lobby, seems problematic. But they did tell us twice before the show started to see where our closest exits were.

There also was a crowd-pleasing understudy, Tomarr Wilson, as Marquis de Lafayette and Thomas Jefferson. I wonder if he had friends in the audience who came because they knew he’d be on, as he seemed to milk his performance, in an entertaining way, even past what I might have expected for his rock-star character.

Everyone in the show was great, but the other real crowd favorite was Andrew Call as King George, who easily could have gotten, not just the other actors, but also the audience to sing the chorus of You’ll Be Back along with him, had he been so inclined, when he shouts out “Everybody” near the end of the song.

Finally, a shout out for Hope Endrenyi, one of the universal swings in the show, because learning a thousand parts is impressive, and because she helped clean up Washington Square Park on Earth Day, and it’s not what you know but who you know.

 

 

Doris Kearns Goodwin – Leadership in Turbulent Times – Chicago Humanities Festival – October 30, 2018

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When they came around with index cards for submitting questions before the program started, I thought about asking Goodwin something about her beloved Red Sox, for whose games she has held season tickets for 35 years.

I hesitated and lost my opportunity, but it didn’t matter because the interviewer read my mind and led with that topic, right after she introduced Goodwin as a Pulitzer Prize winner, which the transcription on the overhead monitor interpreted as a pug prize winner. They must have been using the same app that my iPhone voice mail uses.

Goodwin said her love of history came from her father teaching her how to keep score while listening to Brooklyn Dodger games on the radio, so that she could record and recount the history for him when he came home from work.

Moving from her own motivation to become an historian to that of the subjects of her new book, Theodore and Franklin Roosevelt, Lincoln, and Lyndon Johnson to become politicians, she suggested that Lincoln was searching for esteem, Teddy Roosevelt for adventure, and Lyndon Johnson for power. Like with everything else, my motivation would be for the story value.

In discussing the Presidents’ leadership styles, Goodwin emphasized the importance of FDR’s fireside chats on the radio. The story goes, “you could walk along a line of parked cars in Chicago and keep hearing his voice because everybody was listening.” Much the same was true of Firesign Theater broadcasts in my college dorm.

Goodwin also mentioned Harry Hopkins, FDR’s most-trusted advisor, who was summoned by Roosevelt to the White House in 1939, and who then wound up living there for three and a half years. Interestingly, the Kaufman and Hart play, The Man Who Came to Dinner, also premiered in 1939, though it only ran a little over two years, truth being stranger than fiction, as further evidenced by the fact that in the movie Man of the Year, the Robin Williams character, TV host Tom Dobbs, does not wind up being President.

The Science Behind Pixar – Museum of Science and Industry – October 25, 2018

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As promised, after seeing the robot exhibit in January, I came back to the museum for The Science Behind Pixar. If you go in the afternoon it’s less crowded, because the school field trips are finishing up, and, after all, your competition to get into the exhibit is children of a lesser age.

Each of the nine elements of the Pixar Production Pipeline – story and art, modeling, rigging, surfaces, sets and cameras, animation, simulation, lighting, and rendering – has its own section where you can play at the process and hear from people at Pixar who do the jobs associated with that specialty. I now want to be one of them, although I have absolutely no knowledge in any of the areas.

The company says it employs between 500 and 1000 people. That’s a little vague considering their technical expertise. Perhaps job security, except at the top of the food chain, isn’t so great. But, given that I’m already retired, that’s not a deterrent.

Their website lists, as qualifications for an internship, “enrollment in an undergraduate or graduate program, or have graduated within one year from start of internship” That might be a problem. But what if I went back to school?

The element of rendering holds some promise. In computing it’s defined as “the processing of an outline image using color and shading to make it appear solid and three-dimensional.” Apparently I’ve been rendering my personality for years, without the aid of a computer.

And there’s a current opening for Vice President, Renderman. It’s always been my understanding that vice presidents don’t have to know or do much.

While at the museum I also went through the mirror maze in the Numbers in Nature exhibit. It’s also advantageous to see this exhibit in the afternoon, as a day’s worth of fingerprints on the mirrors helps you navigate, and, if you get lost, staff probably will rescue you before closing time.

 

Chicago Cabaret Professionals Gala – Park West – October 21, 2018

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The show opened with a parody of Cabaret from the Boomer Babes, Pam Peterson and Jan Slavin, whom I mention because I know Pam and she asked me to mention them.

Liberace would have fit right in. There was more glitter on stage and in the audience than at a sixth century Mayan temple.

There are some important things to know about glitter.

It’s not allowed in jail. Apparently it can be used to smuggle in Suboxone, which is a drug, not a deli sandwich.

Glitter never goes away. I can vouch for that, as I’m still having nightmares about it days after the event.

You can unstick glitter on your body with oil and a cotton ball. But then how do you get rid of the oil on your body? You could try in situ burning. But that seems like a bad idea on your skin.

Glitter is used on fishing lures because fish also like shiny things. I felt a little like a fish out of water at the event in my non-sparkly blue jeans, but my personality was luminous and the Park West had no problem accepting my charge card.

The show was long, in part because the organizers apparently felt the need to give everyone their moment on stage. And not all the performances were glittering. They ranged from hysterical to let’s talk about something us.

I was happy to see Anne and Mark Burnell perform, having enjoyed them at a Fourth Presbyterian Church noon hour concert over the summer.

But the highlights were Hilary Ann Feldman, Cynthia Clarey, and Caryn Caffarelli singing about their longing to eat cake instead of salad, while eating cake, and Jeff Dean telling us about the travails of a young caveman whose predilections didn’t fit in among his contemporaries.

 

John Scalzi – The Consuming Fire – American Writers Museum – October 22, 2018

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John Scalzi is one sharp, wacky dude.

He’s won two Hugo awards, and even his cat has a blog, which Scalzi says has 14,000 followers. Another 13,961 and I’ll catch up.

Scalzi rolls a ten-sided die at the beginning of each speaking engagement to decide what to talk about, so that it’s not the same every time and he doesn’t get bored.

Number 1 came up – “Read from an upcoming work.” He read from School for Hostages.

Number 5 came up -“Speak authoritatively and persuasively for several moments on a topic chosen by the audience (even if I don’t know anything about that topic).” Scalzi refers to this as improv mansplaining. Audience members raise their hands as soon as they decide that he’s full of BS. When a majority of the audience has their hands raised, he stops. However, the audience loved his BS so much that they kept their hands down long after he had lost all credibility discussing wombats.

Number 8 came up – “Give a Mini-Clinic on how to write a novel in just (mumble mumble) weeks!” Scalzi wrote The Consuming Fire (80,000 words) in two weeks (though the story was floating around in his head before that), necessitated by his mistake about the manuscript’s due date. He said he locked himself in a room, put a block on social media and the internet, and asked his wife to slip food under the door, but relented to his wife’s demand that he leave the room to use the bathroom when he needed to relieve himself.

Scalzi didn’t say whether the room had a window, but downplayed the saying that a writer is working when he’s staring out the window. He suggested that sometimes he’s just looking at squirrels.

I was hoping zero would come up – “Reveal the Meaning of Life.” I may have to follow his book tour around the country to get that insight.

Gypsy – Porchlight Music Theater – October 20, 2018

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I saw a production of Gypsy years ago where, among other offbeat casting decisions, a 13-year-old boy played the role of Mr. Goldstone. The Porchlight production was appreciably better, with special acknowledgement of the great E. Faye Butler and the strippers who brought the house down with their rendition of You Gotta Get a Gimmick.

The actors also lent their skills to rapid-fire set changes that reminded me of the Keystone Kops in their helter skelter, yet precision ballet that barely avoids collisions, though there was one moment when someone moving the proscenium arch representing the theaters Lousie played in knocked it into a dress rack that then almost went flying into the wings, without, however, anyone missing a beat. Live theater at its best.

Gypsy has an animal slant, what with a dancing cow, Rose’s dog and the song Little Lamb. Parts of the cow spend a lot of time on stage, which may have led to the guy sitting behind me snorting throughout the second act as if he were a bull in heat. Or, he just may have had a nasal problem.

This was the third show I’ve seen in the last few weeks that featured a dog on stage, the others being Legally Blonde and Nell Gwynn. And The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time also is playing in town. So, for now, you don’t have to go to Broadway to make a living as a canine actor. But after Illinois banned circus elephants, can dogs be far behind?

Or children.  Like many states, Illinois has laws regarding minors employed in entertainment-related performances.  The kids in the Porchlight production were great, although, unfortunately, they weren’t around for the curtain call (presumably home in bed) to get their due.  I only wish the kid I saw play Mr. Goldstone, way back when, had been denied a work permit.