Chicago Symphony Orchestra – Symphony Center – October 24, 2023

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What a great program, starting with Barber’s The School for Scandal Overture, followed by a short break to raise the grand piano to center stage from below, which for some reason I always get a kick out of. I wouldn’t mind them bringing the whole orchestra up from below, maybe with the aid of a fog machine.

We were then treated to Conrad Tao playing Gershwin’s Piano Concerto in F, which reminded me of Michelle Cann’s rendition of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue I saw a few months ago in the way that the music seems to enliven the musician. I kept envisioning a Tao bobblehead giveaway day, but the CSO failed me in that regard.

Tao started choking up before his encore when telling the audience how much he appreciated their applause, having grown up going to concerts at Symphony Center. He then favored us with his transcription of the 1953 (as opposed to 1939) Art Tatum recording of Somewhere Over the Rainbow. I love Tatum and Tao did him justice.

After all that, we were just getting started, coming back after intermission with Bernstein’s Symphonic Dances from West Side Story, complete with finger snapping, and ending with Sensemaya by Silvestre Revueltas, an enjoyable piece that was new to me.

Airplane! Behind the Scenes of a Comedy Classic – Chicago Humanities Festival – October 21, 2023

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David Zucker was the only one of the three creative forces behind Airplane! to be there is person, his brother Jerry and Jim Abrahams appearing briefly via previously recorded segments. Zucker’s remembrances about the writing and making of the movie were interesting and funny.

I never knew that it was a parody of the 1957 drama Zero Hour! (including the exclamation point in the title). Apparently, though, the Zuckers and Abrahams were told that it was closer to plagiarism than parody and had to get permission from Paramount, the studio for the original, to proceed. Now I need to find Zero Hour! and watch it.

As for funny, the biggest laugh of the program was produced by a clip of Leslie Nielsen from the movie:

Striker: “Surely you can’t be serious.”
Rumack: “I am serious … and don’t call me Shirley.”

In 2005, the American Film Institute ranked this as 79th in all-time movie quotes. Given that one of the criteria was “Cultural impact: Movie quotations that viewers use in their own lives and situations; circulating through popular culture, they become part of the national lexicon” I would have rated it higher, around 50th on the impressive list.

Nowhere on the list, although shown to attendees, was Peter Graves saying “Joey, do you like movies about gladiators?” According to Zucker, Graves originally turned down the part and had to be convinced by his wife and daughter to do it, in part because he was leery about playing what seemed to him like a leering part on the page.

A Wonderful World – Cadillac Palace – October 18, 2023

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The first big dance number gave me great hopes for this pre-Broadway show, but they were dashed.

James Monroe Iglehart does a great Louis Armstrong, though he’s the biggest seven-year-old I’ve ever seen. Dewitt Fleming, Jr. is a terrific tap dancer, whose one scene wasn’t enough. A Wonderful World is too long, too talky and has too many endings – I counted three.

I was fine with the show depicting Armstrong’s four wives, who represented different phases of his life, but did we really have to suffer through his courtships and marital spats, when all we wanted was his music. And how many times did we have to see a motion picture assistant director tell Armstrong the same thing? No times would have worked for me.

To help keep it from becoming a four hour show, Armstrong’s gangster manager goes from tough guy to wimp in about two seconds. And, thankfully, all of Armstrong’s alleged hundreds of extra-martial affairs aren’t itemized.

Despite all the problems, it might still have been an okay, if not wonderful world, if the guy sitting behind me hadn’t insisted on singing along with every song, even though his name was not in the cast list in the program.

The Lehman Trilogy – Broadway Playhouse – October 12, 2023

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I know The Lehman Trilogy won the Tony award for best play but I have a lot of problems with it. And I’m not the only one.

The Washington Post suggested that “an American playwright [the playwright was Italian], confronted on a daily basis with the economic, cultural and historical ramifications of slavery,” would not have made the same decision to remain silent on the issue.

We’ve all become somewhat inured to the cavalier insertion of historical inaccuracies for the sake of artistic license, though I, for one, believe such liberties often make the vehicle less, not more engaging. So I won’t go into great detail regarding the ironic changes in the timeline  of events in a play produced by the TimeLine Theatre Company, as admitted in the play book itself, but can’t help but object to the reiteration of the myth that there were numerous suicides on Wall Street on Black Thursday in 1929. It’s just not true.

At least the acting was good, and I didn’t have to sit though the original five hours of the play, only three, which could have been reduced even further but for the author’s or adapter’s insistence on repeatedly using repetition until that poor horse died from a concussion.

Keegan-Michael Key and Elle Key – Chicago Humanities Festival – October 5, 2023

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Before Keegan-Michael and Elle Key even stepped out on stage, we were reminded by a member of the host committee that there was still an actors strike going on, so the guests wouldn’t be able to discuss any of the TV shows or movies they had worked on.

This could have been deflating, but I looked upon it as an opportunity, given that the topic of the presentation related to their new book, The History of Sketch Comedy, and they had the chance, unfortunately not taken, to create a sketch right before our eyes wherein they portrayed two people dancing around mention of their work.

She did most of the talking at the event, and I believe, most of the writing in the book, which made me wonder whether Danny Kaye was mentioned in the book. Huh? In fact, there is the briefest of references to him as being in White Christmas. My connection is that Kaye’s wife, Sylvia Fine, wrote songs for him for at least five of his movies, the writing spouse behind the comic.

Upon request from his wife, Keegan did a mean impression of Tracy Morgan, but otherwise pretty much just sat back, smiled and enjoyed her storytelling. Clearly, the key to a happy marriage.

The Nacirema Society – Goodman Theatre – October 8, 2023

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The last time I saw E. Faye Butler she was starring as Rose in Gypsy for Porchlight Music Theatre. Her turn in The Nacirema Society as Grace DuBose Dunbar, the matriarch of quite a different family from the . . . , wait a second, do Rose and her kids even have last names in Gypsy? Unlike the real people upon whom those characters were based, I don’t think so.

Grace does.  It’s the prestigious one of an upper class family in Montgomery, Alabama in 1964, and one that she overbearingly, like Rose, wants her, in this case granddaughter, to do proud.

Instead of the part being a vehicle for Butler to highlight her substantial singing skills, it’s one for her to demonstrate her considerable comedic chops. There was great music, however, in the form of partial Motown recordings played during each scene change. I know at least one critic complained that it made the play too long. I liked it, couldn’t stop bobbing my head.

The first act brought a lot of setup and some laughs, but, more noticeable to me, were the many times that the audience reacted with something between an ooh and an oy when confronted with conversations featuring uncomfortable humor. This isn’t a criticism, just an observation of the presence of shock value. I liked it and everyone else seemed to also.

The second act brought the house down. One guffaw after another, and not just from the dialogue, as Shariba Rivers, in the role of Jessie, the maid, was given license to do a lot of upstaging, literally and figuratively, via comedic facial expressions and body language. I left with a smile on my face.

Chicago Live – Navy Pier – September 23-24, 2023

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Navy Pier, it’s not just for tourists. Well, maybe most of the time, but not at Chicago Live.

Important information I picked up.

From Theo Ubique Theatre – how they pronounce Ubique. Their presentation of Sondheim songs, including Not Getting Married Today, led me to watch again, online, the great rendition by Katie Finneran.

From the Filament Theatre two-person presentation of something (I don’t what, I was just passing by the stage when they caught my attention) that “It’s hard to balance on invisible legs.”

From the young lady at the Hot Tix booth with an acting degree who currently works as a carpenter at local theaters, that the Nacirema (Society), in the name of the current play at the Goodman, is American spelled backwards. Doh!

Also, it sounds like Hot Tix is considering a membership that would allow you to pick your seat, something I could get behind.

From the marvelous Lucy Darling, that she is going to be the emcee of the new Teatro ZinZanni show opening in October. Lucy did a standard empty bag trick, while insulting audience members in a way that would make Don Rickles proud. The contortionist, Ulzii Mergen, also appeared, being attractive, impressive and cringeworthy all at the same time.

Other stuff I saw.

Porchlight Music Theatre promoting its upcoming Cole Porter Festival, which, I am excited to say, will feature Meghan (Big Red) Murphy in the role of Reno Sweeney in Anything Goes. I have it on good information that playing this part has been on her bucket list. I liked Porchlight’s rendition of Now You Has Jazz better than Bing Crosby’s in High Society, though, I admit, having Louis Armstrong playing the trumpet did work in Crosby’s favor.

Lots of percussion – from third Coast Percussion and from a Chicago Philharmonic trio, whose sound was such that I kept waiting for dancers wearing big construction boots and carrying large trash cans to appear.

Dancers did appear for me at Culture Shock Chicago and Chicago Tap Theatre (as my readers know, you can never have enough tap).

Victor Garcia giving a master class on the use of the trumpet mute.

A DJ at a classic show tunes stage presenting a geographical music tour – I heard Kansas City (Oklahoma), Iowa Stubborn (Music Man), and Ohio (Wonderful Town).

Chronologically, the American Blues Theater’s road trip had me from the 50s opening Chuck Berry guitar riff of Johnny B. Goode (though sadly no duck-walking) and cemented my interest with the 60s CCR hit Down on the Corner (which was the song that sustained me while poring over the course catalog junior year of college looking for a new major). I’ll skip ahead to the 2000s to mention Taylor Swift’s Shake It Off because her appearance at the Bears game was apparently the biggest news in the NFL Sunday and thankfully overshadowed the high school team wearing their jerseys against Kansas City.

I love the Black Ensemble Theater but I have to say that I would have liked to hear the performance of Piece of My Heart emulate, not Janis Joplin, but rather the original Emma Franklin version.

Dee Alexander was new to me, but smooth as could be (with a great band behind her). I’ll watch for her in the future and be back at Chicago Live for more next year.

Friday Noonday Concert – Fourth Presbyterian Church – September 15, 2023

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I haven’t been bowling in many, many years, but today I went Bolling, Claude that is, the famous French pianist, composer, arranger and conductor, a couple of whose compositions made up the program presented by the Richard Sladek Trio (plus one).

Bolling’s jazz compositions have been on my radar for a while but I haven’t worked up the nerve to try to learn one of them after listening to his recordings. My fingers don’t function on that level.

Listening to Sladek at the piano seemed like a much better idea. And it paid a psychic dividend of a sort. In reading his bio in the program, I first was struck by the fact that, among his past gigs, he had been a staff accompanist for the Second City Touring Company. My kind of guy.

Reading further, skipping over all his other credits, something else caught my eye. He’d been a musical composer/conductor for 16 years with the theater troupe Wavelength. I was there when Wavelength was born, having taken improv classes with its founder, Jim Winter, with whom, and two others (one of them being Paul Raci, the Academy Award-nominated actor I wrote about two years ago), I actually sang the Banana Boat song on the Second City stage during a skit (as previously reported), which goes a long way toward explaining why I wasn’t invited to join the new group being formed at that time.

If I had only hit one or two notes correctly, who knows. But things turned out pretty well, so I was satisfied with introducing myself to Sladek after the performance and sending my regards to Jim, my long-ago friend from another life.

Bally’s Chicago Casino – September 12, 2023

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Prior to today, I had been in 5 different casinos, the most recent being in 2019 in Las Vegas. I didn’t indulge in any of the games there but spent a fair amount of time in the casino nevertheless, holding my breath every step of the way due to all the cigarette smoke, as walking through the maze of machines was the only way to get to and from my room in the hotel.

I’ve also stayed in a hotel with a casino in Santa Fe, but at least there the bulk of the gambling was done in the lower level, out of harm’s way. There was a small blackjack room on the lobby level that I entered in order to watch some friends participate, but didn’t stay long because the floor manager apparently decided I might be helping them count cards, even though they were all losing faster than I can count, and politely asked me to leave, which resulted in me and my companions instead trying to crash a wedding in the hotel, from which we also were summarily ejected.

My hotel casino trifecta started on Paradise Island in the Bahamas. I actually did play a little blackjack there, as I was young and foolish and it was back in the days when you didn’t have to mortgage your home to sit at the table. If I recall correctly, a bold assumption, I may have walked away slightly ahead.

I walked through a casino in New Orleans as a shortcut to get in out of the unbearable heat and humidity.

I once spent about 10 minutes in a riverboat casino in Dubuque. I have no idea why.

So, it was out of curiosity, and with no expectations, that I decided to enter the spanking new Bally’s Chicago casino, feeling secure by the presence of two police cars parked in front and a policeman at the door.

My stay lasted approximately five seconds. The noise wasn’t too bad, as it was 11:15 am and not crowded, at least on the first floor, but there was enough evidence to support bringing ear plugs for any return visit, though one is not likely.

The neon lights almost made me wish I had cataracts. Fortunately, I still had my sunglasses on.

The line of one person in front of me was enough to dissuade me from proceeding further, along with the thought that providing my identification would undoubtedly result in a barrage of junk mail promoting the venue and other gambling possibilities. I also managed to escape any facial recognition by pulling my baseball cap down, just like thieves do in all the tv crime shows I watch.

Printers Row Lit Fest – September 10, 2023

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Among other things, Jena Friedman has been a field producer at The Daily Show and written for Late Show with David Letterman. She was at the Fest promoting her book, Not Funny: Essays on Life, Comedy, Culture, Et Cetera.

She actually is funny, but the most interesting thing she had to say about her book was that you can find a couple publications on Amazon that appear to want to steal her thunder, including Jena Friedman: The Biography of Jena Friedman and Her Rule to Success, which was written by someone (something) named Justice Wall, who supposedly has written 107 biographies, all published in 2023, sold by Amazon Asia-Pacific Holdings Private Limited. According to Bloomberg.com, that company’s line of business includes providing computer programming services, which provides some insight into how it can be so prolific.

When it was suggested to Friedman that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, she countered that, in fact, payment is the sincerest form of flattery, and so the writers are on strike over, among other things, the threat posed by artificial intelligence.

From a discussion of AI’s potential for taking bread from writers’ mouths, I went to a program on Taking a Bite Out of the Heartland, with Monica Eng and David Hammond, (Made in Chicago: Stories Behind 30 Great Hometown Bites) and Big Jones Chef Paul Fehribach (Midwestern Food: A Chef’s Guide to the Surprising History of a Great American Cuisine, with More than 100 Tasty Recipes).

They discussed pizza, ribs, and tamales, but most importantly, when questioned about hot dogs, the chef voted for Super Dawg (also my pick).

On my way out I paid my annual visit to the popular Vintage Graphic Art vendor and did a 10-second sound bite for this week’s Get Lit Podcast, my first radio appearance in years.