Our Great Tchaikovsky – Steppenwolf Theater – May 5, 2018

Hershey Felder has made a career out of doing one-man shows about famous composers – Gershwin, Berlin, Chopin, Liszt, Beethoven, Bernstein, and Tchaikovsky. Always informative, always entertaining, as actor and musician, he immerses himself in the character’s story.

For me, the most revelatory fact that Felder imparted was Tchaikovsky’s supposed disdain for two of his most popular pieces, the 1812 Overture and the Nutcracker Suite, both of which were clear favorites of the audience. Afterward, I wished I had asked Felder whether he shared Tchaikovsky’s opinion.

Felder played portions of almost all Tchaikovsky’s best known pieces. He didn’t play Marche Slav (a childhood favorite of mine – it was a dark time). He also didn’t play anything from Eugene Onegin (not to be confused with Eugene, Oregon), though he did vocalize a short passage (vocalize is the best description I could find for something that’s not singing, scatting, humming, or mumbling).

In regard to Tchaikovsky’s youth, I remember Victor Borge saying that “Pete” was born in Votkinsk, May 7 1840, but never played out in the streets of Votkinsk like the other little children of Votkinsk because when he was one month old his parents moved to St. Petersburg (it’s funnier when you hear Borge say it, but I couldn’t find an online recording). Actually, as Felder noted, Tchaikovsky was eight years old when his family moved (thereby crushing my adoration of Borge).

Felder joked during the Q and A session at the end of the show that the average audience members were in their 20’s. Maybe 120’s. Okay, not really, as the oldest person alive today is said to be only 117. The audience probably didn’t average a day over 85, the new 84. As the youngsters in the audience, we took the stairs down from the third floor theater after the show, as most of the others circled the two small elevators like piranha.

Macbeth – Chicago Shakespeare Theater – April 28, 2018

I have waived my no Shakespeare rule a few times over the years. The rule arises from the fact that, when viewing Shakespeare, I want to have an annotation with me to follow the dialogue (too dark in the theater, flashlights frowned upon) or ask the performers to pause so that I can figure out what they just said (also frowned upon in most theaters).

The waivers typically relate to theatrical productions that aren’t straight Shakespeare. So, in 1983, I saw The Flying Karamazov Brothers juggle their way through The Comedy of Errors. In 2004, I saw The Second City’s Romeo and Juliet Musical: The People vs. Friar Laurence, the Man Who Killed Romeo and Juliet. In 2016, I saw Othello: The Remix, the Q Brothers hip hop version of the play, with Othello as a rapper; and Celebrity One-Man Hamlet, a show where David Carl portrayed Gary Busey as Hamlet (as strange as it sounds). Tangentially, I’ve seen Something Rotten twice (one of my all-time favorite shows).

My direct route to this production of Macbeth started in 2015, when I saw The Tempest, for which I waived the rule because it was co-directed by Teller, of Penn and Teller, and he brought his personal touch to the show, including the incorporation of card tricks.

Teller’s influence on this production of Macbeth, where he is again the co-director, was obvious in scenes involving the Weird Sisters and various ghosts, though, unfortunately, none of the murders are accomplished by sawing someone in half.

By the way, the acting was superb. And theater has officially entered a new generation, as six of the cast members include either Chicago P.D. (4) or Chicago Fire (2) in their credits. The Chicago shows have replaced the Law and Order shows (only one actor had that credit) in that regard. One Dick Wolf franchise replaces another.

Hay Fever – Ruth Page Theater – April 23, 2018

“Even a cuckoo has charm, in moderation.” So wrote Noel Coward in his play Hay Fever. That’s sort of the way I feel about British accents and the reason I don’t watch the BBC. But I had no trouble understanding what the actors in Hay Fever were saying, even if I occasionally didn’t understand what they were saying. (I managed to figure out that when two characters left the house to go punting, they were riding on a boat, not playing American football.)

Produced by ShawChicago, this was a concert reading, which apparently is defined as a little more in depth, and with a little more movement, than a stage reading. (http://southernwritersproject.net/?p=570)

In that vein, the cast wore costumes, with changes between acts. But, in the first act, and only the first act, those members of the cast who weren’t in the scene sat in seats upstage, even while theoretically offstage in the play. I’m not sure why it was staged that way, but I’m glad it was as some of the actors tried desperately and ineffectively to hide their amusement at others’ dialogue, which added to my amusement. It was unintentional (I think) and unprofessional, but fun. And at least they were only grinning, not scratching their private parts.

All the actors were otherwise excellent. Though Mary Michell had the juiciest role as the matriarch of the family, I will give a special shoutout to Callie Johnson, whose vacant stare while portraying a particularly simpleminded character brought repeated laughter from the audience.

I also took particular interest in the dance of the nine music stands the actors used to hold their scripts, as each time an actor went to a different stand they adjusted its height based on theirs. Their differences in heights made this a wonderful ballet for me, as I am easily amused, just as the actors were in the first act.

Memphis – Porchlight Theater – April 22, 2018

I first saw Memphis in 2011 when it came to Broadway in Chicago at the Cadillac Palace Theater. I remembered it as a high energy show (with a message), and so it is again at the Porchlight Theater, whose intimacy makes it all the more electric (though, as noted below, I might have preferred more acoustic).

Because the show was still in previews, we received an audience response form encouraging us to give the Artistic Director our suggestions and constructive criticisms about the performance. With apologies to The Rolling Stones, I said I know it’s only rock ’n’ roll (and I like it), but please turn down the volume. The four of us who went together to the show were in agreement that the music was almost painfully loud in spots and that it would be nice to be able to hear all the lyrics.

A detail I had forgotten about the show is its amusing snipe at Perry Como, which is consistent with the opinion of my recent Newberry Library music class instructor (see post on Adult Seminars), who made a special point of telling us how mundane he thought Como’s singing style was and then played one of his records to prove it. (Como fairs somewhat better in the movie Blast from the Past, where Brendan Fraser’s character fawns over Como’s rendition of Round and Round to the amazement of Alicia Silverstone’s character.)

Because it was my first time in the balcony at Porchlight, I was relieved to discover that its front row had plenty of leg room and was far enough back from the railing that my fear of heights was not triggered. It’s easier to enjoy a show when your only concern is permanent hearing loss.

A Taste of Things to Come – Broadway Playhouse Theater – April 14, 2018

A Taste of Things to Come wasn’t highly recommended, but the reviews were in positive agreement on two things – the cast was great and the songs were fun. (I also agree. In particular, Marissa Rosen’s physical comedy elicited a lot of laughs.) Combine those things with reduced-price tickets on Goldstar (which wound up being sixth row center!) and a nearby venue, and I was sold.

According to the program, cast member Linedy Genao originated the role of Rachel in On Your Feet. Cindy and I saw On Your Feet last week (see earlier blog) and neither of us could remember a character named Rachel, so we looked it up online during intermission. (What did people do during intermission before smart phones? Did they have to talk to each other? Or were the lines for the bathroom longer in those days?)

There was no character named Rachel in the online cast list for the current Chicago production of On Your Feet, which put off thoughts of senility for at least one more day, and which also got me to thinking about ensemble members and whether the actors give them names even if those names don’t appear in the program.

I found an interesting website called Theatrefolk (the drama teacher resource company). It has a page that discusses ensemble members who aren’t named in the script creating names and backstories for their characters (https://www.theatrefolk.com/blog/creating-a-strong-ensemble/). Apparently even ensemble members need to know their motivation.

Then I found the original Broadway cast list for On Your Feet and sure enough, there’s Genao, playing an ensemble member named Rachel (https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-production/on-your-feet-497820). Perhaps the character should have gotten identity theft protection when the show went on the road.

On Your Feet (The Emilio & Gloria Estefan Broadway Musical) – Cadillac Palace Theater – April 7, 2018

The one time I don’t sit on the aisle at a play, the cast comes dancing down both middle aisles right before intermission, interacting with the audience, even inviting a few of the patrons sitting on the aisles to stand up and join in the fun. Thus I miss my chance to make a complete fool of myself in front of hundreds of people.  Darn.

The audience was ready to party from the start of the show, including the six young women who sat in the row in front of us, exuding excitement. As they funneled in, Cindy said they looked as if they were sisters. Good call. They turned out to be four sisters and two sisters-in-law, which caused Cindy to make some reference to the Duggar family, apparently a reality tv show family with 19 children, of which I was unaware, and so I kept asking Cindy to repeat what she was saying, thinking that she was saying Donner family and wondering why she was comparing this innocent looking group of young ladies, out to have a good time, to a group of cannibals.

Until we cleared up that confusion at intermission, I kept my eyes on the ladies, just in case. Also, at intermission, half the audience pulled out their smart phones and started searching online for information on Gloria Estefan’s mother, who, we were told in the show, had been offered, but had declined, prior to her daughter’s birth, the chance to leave Cuba to go to Hollywood to dub Shirley Temple’s singing voice in Spanish.

I was just as interested in the actress playing the mother, whose name looked familiar. Looking at her credits in the program, I probably have seen her before, but I think the reason her name looked familiar is, I discovered, that she is the sister of the woman who played Melina in Total Recall. So, close but no cigar, Cuban or otherwise.

Plantation! – Lookingglass Theater – March 25, 2018

The Lookingglass Theater has accurately promoted Plantation! as being FUN-comfortable. The audience laughed a lot, even while occasionally squirming in their seats at the subject matter, though the squirming at the end of the play (spoiler alert) was more in response to the need for something, anything, to happen on stage.

In honor of Plantation! director David Schwimmer, the young girl sitting next to me was wearing a Friends t-shirt. Schwimmer was in attendance, hiding in plain sight with a baseball cap pulled down to partially conceal that part of his face that wasn’t covered by two weeks of neatly trimmed beard.

Based on past experience, I probably wouldn’t have spotted Schwimmer, even without the cap and beard, if not alerted by the girl sitting next to me’s father (I once failed to recognize a sports and television celebrity sitting naked next to me on a health club locker room bench, or so I was later told).

Other than me, I think everyone noticed Schwimmer right away as he made his way to the back of the house to watch the play, but I sensed from his appearance that he wanted you to pretend not to recognize him (ergo pseudo incognito), at least until after the show, when I saw him shaking hands with patrons. (David, if you’re reading this, please tell the author that I have a better idea for the ending of the play.)

I love the flexibility of the Lookingglass Theater space. It’s a chameleon, constantly changing the dimensions and positioning of the stage and modifying the seating arrangement, never appearing the same way twice. On other occasions I’ve ridden on the Pequod, sat on both sides of Alice’s lookingglass, and been in the middle of the Chicago fire. If the space were sitting naked next to me on a locker room bench, I probably wouldn’t recognize it.

They’re Playing Our Song – Porchlight Theater – March 7, 2018

The online Urban Dictionary defines porch light as “someone who attracts trouble, or crazy people. Like a porch light attracts bugs and unwanted pests, i.e. mosquitoes.” Unlike Sheldon Cooper in The Big Bang Theory, my mother never had me tested. Nevertheless, I don’t think I’m crazy (who ever does), and the rest of the audience, on this and other nights at the Porchlight Theater, seemed perfectly sane to me.

The only trouble I have encountered at the theater is that Michael Weber, the theater’s Artistic Director, sometimes goes into a little too much detail when giving his pre show history lessons on Porchlight Revisits nights like this. So, while it’s interesting to see pictures of all the actors who starred in the 1,082 performances of the Broadway run of They’re Playing Our Song, did I really need to know that lyricist Carole Bayer Sager has several dogs that sleep in her bed with her and her current husband?

As for the show itself, I read a review of a 2010 Los Angeles production that said the show “doesn’t have the weight to require a 2 ½-hour running time” and “would have been much more enjoyable with a loss of 20 minutes.” Porchlight lost more than that (and it wasn’t even Daylight Saving yet – don’t forget to reset your clocks this weekend). It did the show in one hour and forty minutes.

In addition to the stars, Lorenzo Rush, Jr. and Sharriesse Hamilton, both of whom I saw in the theater’s 2014 production of Ain’t Misbehavin, there are six performers who act as their inner voices, singing backup, dancing, and inspiring the emotions and mimicking the movements of the leads. Great stuff. Wouldn’t everything be more fun if we had a few inner voices following us around, singing and dancing? Hopefully that wouldn’t require everyone getting tested.

Bunny Bunny: Gilda Radner, A Sort of Love Story – Mercury Theater – March 4, 2018

I hadn’t seen a show at the Mercury Theater in over 2 years (Ring of Fire: The Music of Johnny Cash) before seeing Bunny Bunny (bad title). I was elated to see that the Dairy Queen is still there, less than a block from the theater.

By the time you read this blog, our Uber driver, I hope, will have returned to bartending full time. He had no idea where he was going and caused me to fear for my life a couple times, not counting his moment of uncertainty about whether he should drive the car into Lake Michigan. He said that he had been an Uber driver for only two weeks and was starting it think it wasn’t for him. I couldn’t agree more.

Fortunately, we somehow arrived at the theater in time and alive, though they probably would have held the curtain for us (if late, but probably not if dead), as the theater, which isn’t that big to begin with (290 seats), was half empty.

The show was okay, amusing in spots. The woman playing Gilda was a force (Dana Tretter – upon looking her up, I realized that I saw her perform in the 2006 White Horse Theater Company production of “I Sing!”, along with a friend’s son, who won a Jefferson Award for his performance in that show). I now wish I had found the time to see “In the Next Room or The Vibrator Play” (great title), in which she performed, at the Timeline Theater the end of last year.

In addition to Dana, a lot of our attention was paid to a fake tree, which was heavily referenced in the opening dialogue, and which the crew kept moving around the stage during the frequent scene changes, making it seem like a rather stilted member of the cast (though not credited in the program).

Merrily We Roll Along – Porchlight Theater – February 24, 2018

Though I have enjoyed many Porchlight shows, I skipped the recent production of Billy Elliot. Having seen the Broadway in Chicago production in 2010, I wasn’t interested in seeing another version of this cross between Rocky (if he were an 11-year-old who quit boxing to become a dancer despite his father’s fear that people would think he was gay) and The Full Monty (if the men were 11-year-olds who kept their clothes on but wore cod pieces).

I was happy, however, to see Merrily We Roll Along (though now I can’t get the tune to Old Friends out of my head). While not near the top of Sondheim hit shows, the current version (revised in 1994) is said to be far superior to the original 1981 Broadway production, a flop that had 52 previews, but only 16 performances, which isn’t even close to a record. The 1965 musical, Kelly, closed after one performance (which made me think of The Producers, though I’m not suggesting any financial irregularities).

Speaking of financial irregularities (and remember I wasn’t), at dinner after the show (at Hash House a Go Go), the conversation turned to the FBI report on the latest NCAA basketball recruiting scandal, and in particular to the Wichita State University Shockers. This led Cindy, a former Kansas resident, to inform me that the team’s mascot is a shock of wheat named WuShock. As I have never lived on a farm (though I could smell some from my dorm room in Urbana), Cindy also explained to me what a shock of wheat is, which led me to think of Groot in Guardians of the Galaxy (technically an extraterrestial, sentient, tree-like creature), and led the restaurant manager to tell me that, in nice weather, when they have the sliding windows open, birds fly in to peck at the shocks of wheat on display in the restaurant. As far as I know, this is not a recruiting violation (though the NCAA rules are rather arcane), and the birds maintain their eligibility, which is more than I can say for current high-profile college players implicated in the recruiting scandal, some of whom, like Kelly, may soon be one and done.