Theater

Fun Home – Porchlight Music Theatre – January 16 – March 2, 2025

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My best personal dress rehearsal story (for anther time) is a perfect example of that which was best described in Shakespeare in Love as follows:

“Allow me to explain about the theatre business. The natural condition is one of insurmountable obstacles on the road to imminent disaster.
So what do we do?
Nothing. Strangely enough, it all turns out well.
How?
I don’t know. It’s a mystery.”

Porchlight’s Fun Home dress/tech rehearsal actually went quite well. A drawer of pencils spilled on the stage (perhaps appropriately since the play is set in Pennsylvania), promptly cleaned up by one of the actors ,who of course knew better than to let them sit there for everyone to stare at and/or trip over.

I was also engaged by watching a photographer work his way around in front of the stage (as best viewed from the balcony where we sat) snapping away for promotional purposes, while the actors, professionals that they are, totally ignored him, which reminded me of the way the actors in the immersive plays I’ve been to have worked around the audience members in their midst as if they were mere apparitions.

Back a mere four days later, for the final preview, it was obvious that the cast hadn’t just been lazing around the house eating popcorn and watching football, like someone I know. The production was even sharper and my enjoyment even higher.

Fun Home is complicated. It doesn’t sugar-coat life, but it also doesn’t forget about the good things – the ending is, surprisingly, not downbeat. Despite the play’s serious themes, it uncovers plenty of humor, with the aid of some wonderful songs. Listen to the children singing Come to the Fun Home and you’ll want to.

Shucked – CIBC Theatre – January 11, 2025

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Shucked takes place in Cob County, which may or may not be in Kansas (Cobb County is in Georgia), and very well may be taking place in August, the beginning of harvest season.

The show has cornered the market on corn and corny jokes, a veritable cornucopia, a word that originally referred to the horn of a goat, an animal that fittingly was the butt of a couple jokes in the show, as are butts and most everything else you can imagine.

I would love to see the pages of one-liners that didn’t get picked because they didn’t ripen properly. The authors should write a script, about writing a script, around the discards and call it Chucked.

I’m sure I didn’t catch all the references/homages to other Broadway shows, but I sure recognized the Shucked version of Music Man’s We Got Trouble (also set in corn country), entitled Bad, complete with rapid patter and Gordy, instead of Harold Hill, standing on a platform selling his schtick to the crowd.

Independently Owned is a show stopping song and the whole cast was great, but I was particularly impressed by their ability to stay in character and not crack up at any of the rapid fire, often groan inducing or head shaking, and frequently punishing, humor, that always contained a kernel of truth.

It’s a Wonderful Life Live in Chicago – American Blues Theater – December 6, 2024

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The American Blues Theater has presented It’s a Wonderful Life as a staged radio show every year since 2002, complete with breaks for singing commercials that reminded me of my visit to the Grand Ole Opry, but this was my first time in the audience, because, well, bah humbug.

I had my reservations, both literal and figurative, but decided it was time to see what the fuss over this consistently recommended show has been about all these years.

The theater encourages you to get there early to enjoy some rowdy renditions of holiday songs by the cast to warm up the attendees coming in from the cold.

After that there’s a little too much introduction to what you’re about to witness, especially given the fact that, unlike me, a fair number of people there were annual regulars, as evidenced by some comments collected before the show and read aloud by the actors during the breaks between acts.

The play itself is true to the movie. If you’re one of those people who can’t imagine watching anyone but Jimmy Stewart as George Bailey and Lionel Barrymore as Mr. Potter, then, of course, you’ll be disappointed. But if you’re there for the material, and the enjoyment of watching a talented ensemble do their thing, with cast members instantly, audibly transforming from one character to the next, all while Michael Mahler provides background music on the piano and J.G. Smith does her thing as the resident Foley artist (which is fun not only to hear, but also to watch), the evening is a crowd pleaser.

And there were free homemade cookies in the lobby afterwards.

YIPPEE KI YAY – The Parody Celebration of DIE HARD – Broadway Playhouse at Water Tower Place – November 26, 2024

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Richard Marsh in YIPPEE KI YAY.
A one-man rhyming Die Hard play
A parody of the movie for those who know it
Created for the stage by this British poet.

Playing all of the parts, with all of the voices
While questioning some of the cinematic choices
And drawing stories from his personal life
And marriage to an equally nerdy, Die Hard fan wife.

Marsh plays Alan Rickman leading the evil guys
Relieving Nakatomi of its money supplies
Taking bearer bonds from a safe that’s not
While all around get shot at and shot

There’s a wink of the eye to the career of this plotter
And his role of a professor in a tale of a Potter
While Marsh as Willis as a barefoot McClain
Mumbles to himself as each bad guy is slain

There’s an ongoing joke about a fountain displayed
With a humorously simple visual aid
And the giant teddy bear brought as a gift
To help patch the McClain-Gennaro marital rift

Marsh mocks Alexander Godunov’s turn as Karl
For his mountain of hair that’s a very big gnarl
And monstrous weapon and angry emotions
While moving gracefully with Bolshoi balletic motions

Marsh plays Al Powell the cop and Argyle the driver
And Holly, the wife, each a movie survivor
And of course the coke-snorting, idiotic Harry
Who even March decided to bury.

Marsh is a treat, the show is a blast
From the opening lines to the very last
A Christmas story that begs one to say
Thumbs up for him and YIPPEE KI YAY.

 

 

A Beautiful Noise – Cadillac Palace – November 19, 2024

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There’s a lot to like in this show about Neil Diamond’s life. If you’re a fan of his music, as I am, there’s lots of that, with a rocking band.

And Nick Fradiana sounds just like Diamond. According to Broadway.com, Fradiani “spent a year and a half analyzing videos on YouTube and absorbing Diamond’s voice (speaking and singing), mannerisms and general aura.”

Hard work is great, but it’s not as good a story as when Stephanie J. Block won a Tony as Cher after she found her voice while wearing a teeth-whitening device,

Diamond’s first two wives play a big part in the show. Hannah Jewel Kohn as his second wife, Marcia Murphey, grabbed the spotlight with her rendition of Forever in Blue Jeans, while lighting up the stage throughout with her dancing and non-stop motor, even when she was “just” part of the outstanding chorus, which was backed by great choreography and a couple of very clever entrances that looked like magic.

I also really liked Kate Mulligan’s spirited turn as record producer Ellie Greenwich, but wouldn’t have minded a little more background on the woman who had her own impressive list of big time songwriting credits, which earned her a place in the Songwriters Hall of Fame with Jeff Barry, who also played a part in Diamond’s career, but not in the show.

The real Greenwich and Barry can be seen in Bang! The Bert Berns Story, a highly-rated documentary, promoted on IMDB as “music meets the mob,” about another character in the play who merits more attention.

The energy in the house started dragging a little at a point in the second act when the psychoanalysis that constitutes the framework of the show went on too long, while the audience craved more music.

But all was forgiven when the cast led the audience in the mandatory reprise of Sweet Caroline.

 

New Faces Sing Broadway Now – Arts Club of Chicago – Nov. 12, 2024

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It’s been four and a half years since I wrote about a Porchlight Music Theatre New Faces Sing Broadway Now event at the Arts Club. The world has taken quite a few turns since then, but one thing hasn’t changed. Once again, Artistic Director Michael Weber managed, I suspect on purpose, to pick people for the trivia contest who may have wandered into the wrong party, two of them admitting that someone else had filled out their entries, which, of course, makes it a lot more fun to watch, as audience aficionados squirm in their seats and admonish their neighbors when they anxiously start to shout out answers prematurely.

The other audience participation moments occur during the two sing-along songs, always my least favorite part of the evening, but intriguing this time as I wondered how people would handle the yodel in the song Popular, from Wicked. Fortunately, they didn’t even try to insert it, lest I find the need to insert my ever-ready ear plugs.

For the rest of the evening, the cast of 10 (plus host Adrian Aguilar, whom I singled out after the recent ICONS Gala), narrowed down from a pool of 700(!) according to Weber, showed off their skills in 18 tunes, most of which I’d never heard before, from a group of current Broadway shows, most of which I haven’t seen.

Apropos of a collection of “New Faces,” the hit of the evening probably was Lorenzo Shawn Parnell’s rousing rendition of Gotta Start Somewhere, from Back to the Future.

Some Like It Hot – Cadillac Palace – October 29, 2024

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If you go to the musical Some Like It Hot merely expecting to see a live replica of the movie with songs inserted in a perfunctory fashion, you’ll be disappointed. It’s much better than that.

As Cole Porter said in Anything Goes, “times have changed.” It was true then and it’s true now.

Thus, at a few key moments when the show veers from the original, or rather openly annotates with 21st century sensibilities, there was no shortage of appreciation from at least a portion of the audience, and no interruption of the comedic flow.

The plot is mostly the same, but the characters are much more three dimensional, or dare I say, four dimensional, given that the show is still set in 1933.

But enough of that. Go for the dancing. Casey Nicholas deservedly won the Tony for Best Choreography.  The extended, madcap, dizzying, dazzling, dance denouement alone, complete with enough entrances and exits to inhabit a dozen door farces, left me delighted and drained.

And go for the music. Marc Shaiman, as always, hits the nail on the head.

And, by the way, the cast is great. High energy, great voices, terrific timing, tap dancing the night away.

Finally, contributing to my thorough enjoyment of the evening, an usher quietly told the woman sitting in front of me to turn off the screen on her phone during the performance (which she then did). No need for Patti LuPone to appear and take the phone away.

Noises Off – Steppenwolf – October 16, 2024

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Noises Off is not the kind of show I would expect to see at Steppenwolf, but it’s also the kind of show that I have a hard time resisting, as evidenced by the fact that it’s the third different production of it I’ve seen, in addition to the two productions of the similarly insane, though more physically demanding upon the actors and set, The Play That Goes Wrong that I’ve attended.

I enjoyed this version, but I think I preferred the immersive one I saw at Windy City Playhouse, where we were right on top of the action, and which, speaking of physically demanding, featured a staircase pratfall that outdid even the one performed so well by Andrew Leeds (as Garry) in this production, though not as spectacular as the one in Death Becomes Her. I now am in search of more shows with actors careening down stairs.

For now, I’ll have to be content with checking out the two streaming seasons of The Goes Wrong Show, having already watched part of the play Peter Pan Goes Wrong, which, for my money, went wrong, but not all that amusingly.

Inherit the Wind – Goodman Theatre – September 28, 2024

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Not being a Blacklist viewer, the last time I may have seen Harry Lennix he was giving Superman a hard time when all the poor guy was trying to do was save the world from General Zod.

In Goodman Theatre’s Inherit the Wind, it is Lennix, as Henry Drummond, who is trying to save the world, from the followers of the close-minded honorary Colonel Matthew Harrison Brady, in a play that is as forceful and timely today as it was when it debuted in 1955, especially when one considers the reports that came out this past week (Banned Books Week) from the American Library Association and Pen America concerning the enormous amount of book censorship taking place across the country.

I was particularly struck by the following exchange – Brady: “I do not think about things I do not think about.” Drummond: “Do you ever think about things that you DO think about?” It reminded me of the famous 2002 Rumsfeld quote – “There are known knowns. These are things we know that we know. There are known unknowns. That is to say, there are things that we know we don’t know. But there are also unknown unknowns. There are things we don’t know we don’t know.”

The other thing that struck me was how much Brady, when addressing the town, came across as a much scarier version of Professor Harold Hill. I could almost hear him saying “We got trouble, right here in Hillsboro, and that starts with T and that rhymes with D and that stands for Darwin.”

That said, the problem with the opposite side of the argument is exemplified by people like the clearly unevolved guy sitting behind me, whose 18.5 minutes of high decibel, bag rustling, open-mouth chewing at the beginning of the show made me yearn for a Rose Mary Woods to turn off his sound.

Chicago Live – Navy Pier – September 21, 2024

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I heard that they moved the Sunday performances indoors because of the rain. I wished they had done that on Saturday because of the heat – 90 degrees and blazing sun less than 24 hours before the autumnal equinox. Don’t wait, buy your new winter getaway home in Chicago while they last.

Last year I saw a dozen different acts and planned to do much the same this time around. I wanted to see Black Ensemble Theater and Dee Alexander again and catch Second City, which I haven’t gone to in years, even though I can tell you, from personal experience, that comedy is hard and outdoor comedy in front of mobile audiences, near impossible.   

After enjoying the Porchlight Music Theatre presentation that highlighted their forthcoming 2024-25 season, I began my quest for shade, to reenergize, before my next selection. (Unlike Superman, I don’t get my strength from the sun, just my Vitamin D, and I’d already gotten my required dosage for the day, based upon the new portable body monitor I’m envisioning but haven’t yet invented.)  

Unfortunately, going inside the building that once upon a time (1945-1965) housed the University of Illinois Chicago campus (or as it was known at the time, no joke, Harvard on the rocks) brought no relief, as I was now subjected to overexposure, not to the sun, but rather to children, suburbanites and toxic aromas from fast food restaurants, more burden than anyone should have to bear. 

Same time next year.