Theater

Iceboy! – Goodman Theatre – Through Aug. 16, 2016

Posted on by admin

According to the Broadway Maven Substack, ever since Oklahoma! started the trend, 5% of  Broadway show titles have ended in an exclamation point, a custom that “has become mostly ironic.” often, according to Broadway historian Laurence Maslon, “intentionally self-referential and not meant to be [taken] seriously.”  Definitely the case with Iceboy!

Richard Kind is not in Iceboy. But he was in the audience when I went. He needs to stop following me around. Almost exactly 10 years ago he was standing in line next to me at TKTS Times Square as I scored my last-minute ticket for Something Rotten.

But before I went to court for a restraining order, I did some research and discovered that Kind is in the just-released “Heads Will Roll; Heir Apparent” with Megan Mullally on Audible, whatever that is, so he probably was at Iceboy to see her starring in the show, not to stalk me.

The play is like a collection of Mel Brooks outtakes. The 40,000 year-old Iceboy even does a dance ala the monster in Young Frankenstein, which is only fitting in this mashup, as Mullally originated the role of Elizabeth Benning (Madeline Kahn in the movie) in the original Broadway production of YF.

There are a lot of laughs, many of which are provided by Mullally’s real-life husband, Nick Offerman, who costars as Eugene O’Neal, often speaking directly to the audience as part of the convoluted plot line.

The musical melodies are forgettable, which is a shame because I sat there thinking what Cole Porter could have done with some of the ideas being conveyed. The best song lyrics are in FM, which also probably got the biggest ovation. I won’t tell you what the title stands for. You’ll have to go see twice Tony-nominated performer Sarah Stiles perform it.

Mullally is intentionally over-the-top, which is appropriate for the material, but I don’t think her voice choice did her any favors, as, interestingly, her best comedic efforts came when she hardly spoke at all.

An Enemy of the People – Time Line Theatre – June 13, 2026

Posted on by admin

Henrik Ibsen died in 1906, yet his 1882 play An Enemy of the People seems like it could have been written yesterday, maybe because the version being produced at the new TimeLine Theatre building was rewritten just a few years ago by Amy Herzog.

The disagreements between the characters reminded me in some ways of those displayed in the TimeLine production of Eureka Day, wherein, as here, protection of the health of the community was a topic of heated discussion. I liked that show better.

The lead role of Dr. Thomas Stockman was played by the understudy for this performance, which I think made a difference, but not enough to make me want to go again to see what I may have missed out on.

The issues raised in the original story were predictive of things to come, and, unfortunately, are still relevant, constantly hitting us in the face in every news cycle. Perhaps that’s why the production didn’t come across to me as particularly powerful. Truth is stranger than fiction (except, of course, science fiction). I’m jaded. I didn’t gain any new insights. Perhaps I’d just rather be distracted.

I did obtain a small tidbit of wisdom, however, though it could just as easily have come from a fortune cookie. As stated by Stockman, after being physically attacked, “When you’re fighting for truth and justice, don’t wear your good pants.”

Chicago Sings Broadway’s British Invasion – Porchlight Music Theatre at House of Blues – May 11, 2026

Posted on by admin

I’m hard pressed to come up with a logical stream of consciousness regarding this year’s Chicago Sings event, so I will just dive (or diva) into some extremely random thoughts.

I got the chance to have a nice pre-show chat with this year’s Guy Adkins Award recipient, Mark David Kaplan, whom I saw recently as Mr. Mushnik in Little Shop of Horrors. In addition to his talent, what a nice guy, but I’m afraid, a bit of a close talker.

The room wasn’t as cold as last year, but still not shorts weather.

The British Invasion, as with the Revolutionary War, apparently hasn’t been entirely successful for them, at least as far as I’m concerned. I’ve seen less than half the shows that were represented, though only one of them was totally unfamiliar.

One of the shows is coming to Broadway next year – Paddington: The Musical. Seriously?! I think I’ll take a pass, and this is coming from someone who enjoyed SpongeBob SquarePants: The Broadway Musical.

How do you put out a casting call for a singing bear? Well, if I’m reading the West End production website cast list correctly, you find one person to do voice and remote puppetry and someone else to be the on-stage bear.

I lip synched in a show one year and have worn various furry costumes in other shows, but never combined the two disciplines, or, in my case, undisciplined. So kudos to Paddington, but I still won’t see it.

All of Porchlight’s invading performers, including the band, were wonderful, as usual, even though, unlike last year, when there were three, there were no Moes in the group.

One final note – I’m embarrassed to say that I didn’t recognize Aja Alcazar, whom I just saw at Northlight Theatre in the Angel Next Door. But, in fairness to me, she was the angel next door, and the door was usually closed, so I didn’t see that much of her.

The Movement You Need: An Evening with Brendan Hunt – Steppenwolf – May 10, 2026

Posted on by admin

Once again I’ve managed to see only the final performance of a show. Such are the vagaries of not being a real critic, which its of no help to those of you who might actually be in interested in my opinion when deciding whether to see a show, why(?).  I swear I don’t do this on purpose, most of the time.

Anyway, Hunt was great. If I had seen him earlier in his run, I may well have gone back for an encore. He often displayed a rat-a-tat delivery unlike anything you’ve seen him do as Coach Beard on Ted Lasso and his timing was impeccable. Even when he spoke about serious things in his life, he didn’t dwell and found a way to create a rousing punchline without making you feel guilty about laughing, and there was a lot of laughing and smiling and head nodding and applause.

Word on the street is that the show may go to Broadway, wind up getting filmed and eventually make its way to a streaming service. I hope so.

Come Blow My Horn

Posted on by admin

It’s not a typo. I didn’t see a production of Neil Simon’s 1961 play Come Blow Your Horn. They would have to rewrite the entire script before anyone would put that play on again. Inherit the Wind it is not. 

What I did, however, was send an email to TheatreinChicago telling them that they should be ashamed of having posted links to reviews of the 2023 production of Chicago on their website as if they were reviews of the current production, a fact that I pointed out in my blog yesterday after having seen the show.  

When I checked back a few hours later, I saw that they had removed the offending links, so my very positive review from yesterday now appears to be definitive. Maybe I’m on a roll. Perhaps I should try writing some government officials. 

Fault – Chicago Shakespeare Theater – Through May 24, 2026

Posted on by admin

Fault is not as good as Proof or Doubt or any number of musicals with one word titles that I’ve seen, but it had its plusses and its moments, including comedic ones, some of which made you laugh even when it seemed inappropriate.

One of the things that originally drew me to seeing the play was to see Teri Hatcher in the role of Lucy, in retrospect perhaps hoping that she could summon Superman to save the day. Unfortunately, or perhaps not, she withdrew and was replaced by Rebecca Spence, who was excellent.

I give Spence a lot of credit for listening to Enrico Calantoni (Jerry) do his best Al Pacino screaming impression for too much of their hour and a half on stage together. His performance during quieter moments (as in his turn as Mathesar in Galaxy Quest) was much more appealing.

Note to director Jason Alexander: dialogue, just like music, doesn’t get better just by being louder.  The script itself, despite reviews that consider it to be no more than a poor man’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, isn’t too bad, except for one totally unnecessary interlude involving a four letter word, the constant use of which was supposedly a big part of Jerry’s attraction to London. Stupid.

Nick Marini did a nice job as Shaun, complete with some nice physical comedy, I couldn’t help but think that someone, ala Margo Channing, should have told him to fasten his seat belt because it was going to be a bumpy night.

Follies – Porchlight Music Theatre at Studebaker Theater – April 26, 2025

Posted on by admin

Porchlight’s Artistic Director, Michael Weber, once again put his impeccable casting abilities on display via a 21-person all-star ensemble that featured great individual performances and exquisite matching of characters, in particular the younger and not younger versions of Sally and Phyllis.

I don’t have room to mention everyone’s wonderful performance (and I do mean everyone), but if the audience reaction, in the way of loud, sustained applause and cheering, is a good measuring stick, then three solos are worth highlighting.

First, near the end of the first act, came Susie McMonagle chewing the scenery, in a good way, while belting I’m Still Here.

Next, in the second act, came Michelle Duffy’s rendition of Could I Leave You? Even as I was relishing her bravura performance, I couldn’t help but wonder whether it would be fun to then have Anthony Rapp, as her husband, enter singing If Ever I Would Leave You, from Camelot.

The third thunderous ovation came for Angela Ingersoll’s emotive performance of Losing My Mind. I was close enough to the stage to see tears coming down her cheeks, which she confirmed for me after the show.

I also would like to mention Stephen Wallem singing The God-Why-Don’t-You-Love-Me-Blues because I love the Blues, and hyphens, and because Wallem’s turn reminded me of John C. Reilly, and that’s a good thing.

Finally a shout out to Teagan Earley, whose sophisticated shoulder moves during her dancing caught my attention. It’s the little things.

Oh, and the 12-piece band was terrific.

The Angel Next Door – Northlight Theatre – Through May 10, 2026

Posted on by admin

Little did Hungarian Ferenc Molnar know in 1920, when he wrote “Játék a Kastélyba” (Play at the Castle), that it would be the basis for plays that would be making audiences laugh over 100 years later, first in P.G. Wodehouse’s 1924 adaptation, The Play’s the Thing (riffing off Shakespeare), later in Tom Stoppard’s 1984 Rough Crossing, and, most recently in Paul Slade Smith’s The Angel Next Door.

The current production is a nice, fun farewell, as Northlight’s last one before moving to its new castle in the fall. As mentioned in the dialogue, sometimes a couple hours of escapist humor is just what the doctor, or audience, ordered.

The show is a particular treat for people who enjoy theater about theater, complete with an inside joke referencing a 1920 Hungarian play (hmm) and recurring jokes about breaking the fourth wall, though not really, but also is reliant on the relationships between husband and wife playwrights, an actress and her lothario co-actor (as in Lothario, a character in Nicholas Rowe’s 1703 play The Fair Penitent) and the same actress and her would-be suitor, a novelist, whose book the playwrights have adapted for a play, not this one (that might be too much).

But, as good as all those actors were (the real ones, not the ones they were playing), the show is stolen, and at least partly handed to thanks to the script, as comedies often are, by a “secondary’ character, namely the maid, Olga, played in a tour-de-force turn by Erin Grennan, who, in real life, is married to the playwright Paul Slade Smith, which seems only right, as one of the male leads (the play’s playwright) is played by Sean Fortunato, who is married to the play’s director Linda Fortunato.

Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom – Goodman Theatre – April 11, 2026

Posted on by admin

The Goodman Theatre website contains the following Content Advisory regarding Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.

“Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom contains themes of racism and includes racial slurs (the N-word), strong profanity, acts of violence, intimate moments of kissing and discussions about sexual content.“

Spamalot, it is not. The N-word is not a reference to the Knights Who Say “Ni.” And you shouldn’t count the dismemberment of the Black Knight as violence, given that Eric Idle has credited Penn and Teller with creating that illusion for the musical.

Though Ma Rainey takes place in 1927 (1075 for Spamalot), August Wilson wrote it in 1982 (2004 for Idle), and today’s audiences (at least the one I was part of) still recognize its ongoing, harsh realities (as far as I know, the search also continues for the Holy Grail, though Indiana Jones may have had his hands on it for a moment).

I previously had seen the 2020 filmed version of Ma Rainey, starring Viola Davis and Chadwick Boseman, in his final role. The powerful cast of the Goodman production, starring E. Faye Butler and Al ‘Jaleel McGhee, need not take a back seat to that star-laden movie.

Little Shop of Horrors – Marriott Lincolnshire Theatre – March 15, 2026

Posted on by admin

The only cast member from the 2018 production of Little Shop of Horrors I saw, who also was in this year’s Marriott version, was Lorenzo Rush, Jr. Given that Lorenzo perfectly gives voice to the person-eating plant Audrey II, I’m guessing that he has a repeating gig for life, at one theater after another, if he wants it, given the everlasting popularity of this fun-loving romp.

Little Shop is in a select group of movies that have become musicals and then movie musicals. I add Hairspray and The Producers to that short, great list (but not Mean Girls, because I would never admit to seeing any version of it, as much as I love Tina Fey).

I would have loved to be in the room when Howard Ashman took a Roger Corman movie and wrote the book and lyrics for a musical version of Little Shop. He, and everyone around him, must have had a great time.

I always wonder how decisions are made regarding character names. The wonderful chorus of Crystal, Ronnette and Chiffon is obvious, but what about Audrey? When Corman picked that name, he couldn’t have known that Ashman would later rhyme it with tawdry in the lyrics of The Meek Shall Inherit. Our good fortune.

And what about Orin Scrivello, D.D.S., played to the hilt, along with several other characters, by Andrew Mueller? My rampant curiosity led me to discover that scrivello is actually a word meaning, according to Merriam-Webster, an elephant’s tusk of a small size commonly used for making billiard balls. Tusk – incisor tooth – dentist – coincidence?

There were other welcome, familiar faces in the cast, for example Jackson Evans, always a treat sharing the stage with a puppet, like the time I saw him in 2014 in Avenue Q. And Mark David Kaplan, set to receive the Guy Adkins Award from Porchlight Music Theatre in May at Chicago Sings Broadway’s British Invasion.