Performance

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.

The Hip Hop Nutcracker – Cadillac Palace – Dec. 13, 2023

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While Tchaikovsky waited in the wings, and I let my mind wander, the show opened with special guest emcee Kurtis Blow doing a bit of an opening act, as if we were in Las Vegas.

Then Marissa Licata walked out, violin in hand, and got things going in a direction more to my tastes, the first act culminating, as stated in the program, when the “Nutcracker, aided by a magic pair of sneakers, defeats the Mouse King.” As Mars Blackmon told us in 1989, as if he were watching the dancing on the stage, “it’s gotta be the shoes.”

The beginning of the second act goes back in time to a nightclub, in 1984, using cool video effects that convinced me that time travel, via a very fast subway train, apparently is possible.

That setting provided the opportunity for the cast to show off their acrobatic dance skills, one-by-one, as if they were competing in an Olympics gymnastic floor exercise. I awarded each and every one of them a ten. Simone Biles would have been hard-pressed to keep up with this crew.

There were lots of moves that should be physically impossible, demonstrating remarkable strength and flexibility, all to the beat of the music, but I was most intrigued by Jessie Smith’s ability to move six or seven body parts simultaneously in different directions.

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.

Coming Attractions (or not) – September, 2023

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I was berated today for not telling people about events before they happen. So, for all of you out there who haven’t yet learned how to use your computer, and since I have a little time to kill, here are some ideas for things to do in September.

First, and foremost, and before you tire of my sarcasm, you must go to the Porchlight Music Theatre’s Icons Gala on the 8th at the Athenaeum Center. It will, as always, be a very entertaining evening and, if you buy one of the top-tier tickets, you get to mingle with me at the pre-show cocktail reception. Also, the guest of honor, Ben Vereen, will be in attendance.

As I alluded to in an earlier post, the Chicago Jazz Festival comes to town the first few days of the month. You’re on your own as to which acts might interest you. I stopped going years ago, as I tired of the modern, atonal nonsense they inappropriately call music, but there are a few acts on the calendar this year that I either have seen before and liked or am confident enough about to risk a trek down to Millennium Park or the Cultural Center for a look-see.

The Fourth Presbyterian Church takes its Noonday Concerts indoors starting this Friday, which seems premature to me, but allows them to put to use their big honking organ, though, fortunately for my tastes, not until the end of the month, so, again, why not keep things outdoors until then.

The Harris Theater for Music and Dance is celebrating its 20th Anniversary (seems like 40 years taking into account having to traverse all those stairs) on the 9th in Millennium Park. The unprecise schedule makes it hard to know when I might want to drop in, though the likelihood of families attending the afternoon sessions is fair warning to avoid those.

The Printers Row Lit Fest is that same weekend (both days). It always presents a plethora of interesting exhibitors and programs, if you can find them in the event’s labyrinth (watch out for the Minotaur).

And, not finally, but I’m tired, the American Writers Museum is hosting Get Lit: Grown-Up Book Fair on the 12th, which will feature refreshments, carnival games, and an Adult Spelling Bee, which, I assume, means either dirty words and/or easier ones than the obnoxiously well-prepared kids at the real one have to tackle.

Cirque Returns – Millennium Park – August 9, 2023

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Cirque (specifically Troupe Vertigo) returned (this year performing to classical music, not Hollywood film scores), and so did I, although this time I sat in the cheap seats (read free) as opposed to the choral balcony behind the stage where I sat last year.

Also, this time I went early to check out the Family Fun in the Chase Promenade North Tent prior to the show, where I hoped to learn, from CircEsteem, how to juggle, spin plates and do hand stands with the other children in attendance. I’m proud to say that, quick study that I am, I can now juggle one ball, with the prospect of two looming in the near future.

I don’t know if it was my new vantage point or familiarity breeding indifference, but I wasn’t as enthralled by the theatrics as I was last year, not to say that there wasn’t great skill on display. But I concentrated more on the beautiful music and also found myself mesmerized by the coordinated movements of the crew working the ropes for the aerialists. To each his own.

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.

Cirque Goes to Hollywood – Millennium Park – July 6, 2022

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Hoorah for Hollywood, whose music the Grant Park Orchestra played as the backdrop for Troupe Vertigo, a dizzying group that creates an atmosphere, its website says, “where reality bends, expectations twist and the body embraces the imagination.”

I’ve given up on reality, as I hear it’s not so great, and try not to have any expectations, so as to avoid being disappointed, but I assure you that the manner in which the cirque performers’ bodies were bent and twisted into dangerous and sometimes painful looking positions, while hanging above the stage dangling from ropes or doing handstands on gymnastic equipment, transcended anything I routinely imagine.

The feats executed during the theme from Mission Impossible fit that bill. but, when three performers came out wearing horse heads while performing to the theme from The Magnificent Seven, I thought they should have done so for the prior number, the theme from The Godfather. I wonder if they were asked to do so but found the courage to refuse.

A little over three years ago I wrote about the Chicago Philharmonic playing classical music to accompany the Cirque de la Symphonie. How many more combinations like this do I need to see to complete a full cirque[it]?

When You Have Eliminated the Impossible . . .

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As Sherlock Holmes, in his 2009 eponymous film, said to Inspector Lestrade, “we now have a firm grasp of the obvious.” Or so I think. I am referring, of course, to the most important decision facing humanity since Eve pondered the risk versus reward of taking a bite from that apple, that is, the selection of the next Jeopardy! host.

Eliciting memories of the way the examination of judicial nominations changed forever when Ronald Reagan put forth Robert Bork for the United States Supreme Court in 1987, we have seen, and continue to see, articles about one reason or another that has been, or should be, used to eliminate one candidate or another from consideration for the most important job on earth.

But I have not seen anyone, other than someone on Reddit, whatever that is, even mention the most obvious choice, the one that combines the greatest player with the cleanest background. Yes, Holmes, I mean the undefeated, irreproachable Watson, conqueror of Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter in their highly anticipated 2011 match.

Let the games begin.

Piff the Magic Dragon – North Shore Center for the Performing Arts – February 28, 2020

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For the last 12 years, John van der Put has performed as Piff the Magic Dragon. Though it pays the bills, I’d think he’d be tired of the persona by now. It only took me about ten or fifteen minutes, the time at the top of the show he boringly bantered with willing audience members in the guise of humor as he searched for his first on-stage victim.

To be fair, he is widely acclaimed, has solid magician skills, and is funny in spurts. But I wonder if he would be as popular if he weren’t wearing a cheesy Halloween costume. Or is he merely following in the hallowed footsteps of Bette Midler and her wheelchair-bound mermaid alter ego Delores Delago.

The other thing that sets his show apart is his sidekick, Mr. Piffles, the World’s First Magic Performing Chihuahua™. There was a point where I thought, and hoped, that Mr. Piffles might shuffle a deck of cards, but, alas, the height of his powers was being put into a bag with a Rubik’s Cube.

As further proof that Mr. Piffles is not all that special, Piff replaced him on short notice for a show in New Zealand with a dog that had previously starred as Bruiser in a stage production of Legally Blonde. Clearly that dog has some range.

Piff’s act also makes good use of Las Vegas comedic showgirl Jade Simone, who is not to be confused with Nina Simone, who performed in Vegas in the 1960s, or Simón Bolívar, who never made it to Vegas.

Piff has appeared on television on Penn & Teller: Fool Us and America’s Got Talent, but hasn’t made it to the list of the Top Ten Most Famous Dragons of All Time, though his almost namesake Puff comes in at number 18, which magically is part of the top ten.

 

The Mystick Krewe of Laff 28th Annual Mardi Gras Bash – Speakeasy in the Big Easy Feat – City Winery – February 22, 2020

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How ya gonna keep ’em down on the farm after they’ve seen Paree?

The Mystic Krewe of Laff’s bash is promoted as being the biggest Mardi Gras event in Chicago. I don’t know if that claim is accurate, but even if it is, I’ve seen Paree, or rather I’ve seen the Krewe du Vieux Carré in New Orleans. It was 2012 and the theme was Crimes Against Nature, and they meant it.

In New Orleans, the party was outside, where Mardi Gras parties should be, and where you don’t mind standing, unlike in the City Winery, where they oversold the event and didn’t have enough seats, though seating for all had been promised.

In New Orleans the music was better, sounded more like New Orleans, and wasn’t as hard on the ears as the piercing din at the City Winery, though fortunately I was prescient enough to bring earplugs.

In New Orleans the food was better, as City Winery was apparently promoting a bland-food diet. How do you make jambalaya tasteless?

In New Orleans the costumes were more interesting, though a lot of people, not me, tried their best at the City Winery. They just didn’t understand the difference between flapper attire and the decadence and debauchery associated with a real carnival.

In New Orleans there were mule-drawn carts with kegs of beer and other libations on them, which, I admit, might have been somewhat challenging at the City Winery and probably in violation of several laws.

At the City Winery, people were handed beads at the door. In New Orleans, you had to earn them the old-fashioned way.

Other than all that Mrs. Lincoln, I enjoyed my first visit to City Winery.