Theater

Making Marilyn Miller – Porchlight Music Theatre – October 10, 2025 Workshop

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I’m somewhat embarrassed to say that I’d never heard of Marilyn Miller prior to being invited to see this immersive musical workshop, this despite the fact that she was the biggest star on Broadway at one time (okay, it was the 1920s) and that Norma Jeane Mortenson’s stage name (Marilyn Monroe) had been selected, by studio executive Ben Lyon, because the name reminded him of Miller, with whom he had worked, and, according to the play, liaised, while she was still married to Mary Pickford’s brother Jack.

Before attending, I went online and was pleasantly surprised to find the songs available to listen to.

I loved what I heard, and the songs were even better in person, performed by a stellar cast, which I got to enjoy up close and personal, as opposed to from the 20th row in a 2000 seat theater. No big orchestra, just some really good piano accompaniment.

The play “follows the audition process for a modern musical based on the life of the great Music Theatre icon of the 1920s.” If that sounds a lot like the TV show Smash about the creation of a Broadway musical about Marilyn Monroe, (appropriately, I suppose, given the whole name thing), well, yes and no. Yes as to the decision-making process. No as to any backstage goings on. Yes as to the early tragic deaths of both, Miller at age 37, Monroe at age 36.

Attendees were told that they were investors in the fictional musical. They were
encouraged to move between three rehearsal rooms during the middle section of the show to view the fictional actors working on dialogue, songs and dances and to formulate opinions about casting of the Miller role from the three candidates.

At the end of the audition, attendees were given ballots to vote for which Miller candidate they would choose for the part. Sort of like Sheer Madness or The Mystery of Edwin Drood, except, in this case, no lives, or even careers, were lost.

Prior to the performance, I was pleased to speak briefly with David Bell, the author/lyricist/director of the show, who also authored Southern Gothic, the first immersive play (not a musical) I ever saw, in 2018, at the Windy City Playhouse. After the show, Bell gave a heartfelt speech about what had inspired him to do the project, as attendees and cast members, perfectly cast as themselves, mingled.

Rome Sweet Rome – Chicago Shakespeare Theater – Through October 19, 2025

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Rome Sweet Rome is a product of the Q Brothers Collective (who previously gave us hip-hop versions of A Christmas Carol and Othello: The Remix), not to be confused with the Q Continuum, an immortal group that has been represented in over 20 episodes of various Star Trek series and which, to my knowledge, has never hipped, hopped or put on any kind of musical.

I divided the show into three parts. The beginning didn’t do much for me, even though, fortunately, I had a seat with an unobstructed view of the open-captioning screen so that I could at least understand what was going on.

I loved the middle of the show. I wish I could tell you how much of the entire production that encompassed, but the program does not include any scene or song identifiers.

I can tell you that my enjoyment ratcheted up considerably upon the rendering of the song I Need a Sandwich, which played off that part of the plot that involved a ban on bread by the Roman dictator, who preferred that his subjects ate the salad named after him.

As if it were not enough to borrow from Shakespeare, the cast followed the food frenzy with a couple dance excerpts that enjoyably sounded and looked suspiciously like Monster Mash and Thriller, apropos as Julius Caesar had been told to beware, not the Ides of March, but rather Halloween.

After (spoiler alert) he brutally met his demise at the holiday party, the show went downhill for both Julius and me, for me when it got preachy near the end. I prefer subtlety. I came for entertainment, or possibly an all-powerful alien race, not a political rally.

Catch Me If You Can – Marriott Theatre – Through Oct. 19, 2025

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Catch it if you can. It’s a wonderful show. I’m a big fan of Marc Chaiman/Scott Wittman music and lyrics (who doesn’t love Hairspray, among others) and this production is just another example of why. It’s one very enjoyable song after another by a very strong cast, led by JJ Niemann as Frank Abagnale, Jr., Sean Fortunato as Frank, Sr. and Nathaniel Stampley as FBI agent Carl Hanratty, with an additional special shout out to Mariah Lyttle, as Brenda Strong, who takes full advantage of her moment in the spotlight with the ballad Fly, Fly Sway.

The plot is, of course, ridiculous, but wait, it’s the true story first brought to a lot of people’s attention by the 2002 movie of the same name. Or not. Research suggests that the supposed exploits of Frank Abagnale are greatly exaggerated.

But it’s a fun ride anyway. Suspend your disbelief for a couple hours. (I pretty much do it all the time now anyway.) Listen to the great orchestra and don’t forget to pay attention to all the design elements of the show. In that regard, don’t sleep on the visuals accompanying the song Seven Wonders.

I even got a kick out of watching the 20 cast members making their entrances and exits using the aisles in this theatre-in-the-round. I would love to see the stage manager’s prompt book detailing the stage directions for this fast-moving show. Snagglepuss saying exit stage left doesn’t work when there is no stage left.

New Faces Sing Broadway 1960 (Porchlight Music Theatre) – The Rhapsody Theater – September 30, 2025

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The government may have shut down, but I still get out and Porchlight Music Theatre still puts on entertaining shows.

It was my first time at The Rhapsody Theater (including under its previous incarnation as the Mayne Stage), although I did see the owner, Dr. Ricardo T. Rosenkranz, perform his magic act, and get called up on stage by him, in 2016 at the now-defunct Royal George Cabaret.

Michael Weber, the Porchlight Artistic Director, also calls people up to the stage, as part of the New Faces programs, to ask them often impossibly-difficult Broadway trivia questions, from which he seems to derive great satisfaction, all in good fun.

But the real entertainment comes from the performances by the young cast (introduced by long-time Chicago area performer and director Johanna McKenzie Miller, who also treated us to a song), some of whom may go on to great things in the theater, as suggested by Weber when he mentioned three recent graduates of the 10-year-old New Faces program who are now making national names for themselves.

This incarnation of New Faces took me down memory lane, as one of the featured shows, the Lucille Ball star-driven vehicle Wildcat, was inexplicably the first Broadway musical album I ever heard. As I listened to Lisa Buhelos and Kaitlin Feely sing Hey Look Me Over, I reflected on how much better singers they were than Ball.

1960 produced some memorable shows, and they were represented, but Weber also likes to extract songs from less-than-successful productions, such as Christine, which probably would have done better had it been based on the Stephen King story of the same name, rather than a book by Hilda Werhner (who?), closing after 12 performances.

The evening ended on a high note, actually two, the one concluding Somewhere from West Side Story, and the one confirming my earlier decision to park on the street, as I observed the long line of people trying to retrieve their vehicles from the valet-only, practically inaccessible, paltry parking lot.

The First Lady of Television – Northlight Theatre – Through Oct. 12, 2025

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Gertrude Berg was a television pioneer, but her accomplishments in that regard are totally overshadowed by the real story of the play, the blacklisting that took place in the entertainment industry in the 1940s and 50s.

I’ve seen several movies on the topic – The Front, The Majestic, The Way We Were, Trumbo and Good Night and Good Luck (GN&GL) immediately come to mind, but this was the first time I’ve seen a stage presentation, if you don’t count the filmed version of the recent Broadway production of GN&GL.

Though Berg is the title character, Phil Loeb, who played her husband on The Goldbergs, is the focus of attention. I’d never heard of him before, even though, I’ve now discovered, Hecky Brown, as played by Zero Mostel in The Front, was loosely based on Loeb.

The Goldbergs was a sit-com. The First Lady of Television is not, despite some amusing moments, such as the recreation of a commercial presented by Berg, humorous because it was so corny, not because it was laugh-out-loud funny like the Vitameatavegamin one presented by the second, first lady of television on I Love Lucy.

Rather, the play, as described by the director, presents themes that “are chillingly prescient and sadly so.” One only has to read the daily headlines to agree.

Hershey Felder’s Rachmaninoff and the Tsar – Writers Theatre – September 21, 2025

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The show probably should have been called Down and Out in Beverly Hills, where the less than jovial Rachmaninoff, played by Felder, recaps his life, in his garden, in 1943, shortly before his death, and less than a year after he moved there for his health.  But that title was already taken.

The Tsar in the name of the show is Nicholas II of the House of Romanov, which makes me want to sing (if not for the restraining order) – Romanov, Rachmaninoff, lets call the whole thing off.

I’ve seen several of Felder’s shows, the most recent being when he played Tchaikovsky, and his piano playing was, as always, wonderful. He delves deeply into his characters, but, I must admit that I wasn’t that interested in the long conversations he had with the Tsar about missing Russia and about the downfall of the Romanovs.

Fortunately, however, there was a fair amount of time spent discussing Nicholas’s daughter Anastasia, which allowed me to daydream about Ingrid Bergman while waiting for more music and led nicely to a more interesting discussion in the Q and A postscript.

Such sessions can often be deadly, but not with Felder. I enjoyed his lengthy, informative, detailed responses more than the brooding dialogue that preceded it.

Ashland Avenue – The Goodman – Through October 5, 2025

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Ashland Avenue has been heavily promoted as a vehicle for Jenna Fischer of The Office fame, but Francis Guinan, as her father (not a bartender on the Enterprise), is the focus and star of the show.

I’ve never seen a complete episode of The Office. Jenna could have been Bobby Fischer and I wouldn’t have known the difference, so I had no particular expectations and she was fine, if not memorable.

I have, however, had a special fondness for alliterative play titles ever since Neil Simon took us through all the B’s. Had this world premiere been called The Life and Times of a TV Salesman, I probably wouldn’t have gone.

Guinan’s character is someone you can feel for and, at the same time, want to strangle, especially since the playwright, who, by the way, is Fischer’s husband Lee Kirk (they didn’t promote that fact), decided to go for an abundance of repetition. I’m not into storming stages, so I settled instead for shaming the woman next to me into turning off her phone screen.

The first act was so-so, but the second was somewhat worth the wait, if only the wait had been shorter, with a lot of laughs; a few twists and turns; and a satisfying, unforced resolution to the play, which didn’t seem like a sure thing, until it was.

Porchlight Music Thetare’s ICONS Gala – Ritz-Carlton – September 14, 2025

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Another year, another great Porchlight season-opening event. Where to start. I was able to have a short, one-on-one conversation with the honoree, Leslie Uggams. Lovely woman, strong handshake.

For those not so lucky, local TV celebrity Paul Lisnek interviewed her from the stage. Afterward I told Paul I would mention his name. So there. I did. Paul did his usual well-prepared, informative job. And you can see more by watching his interview of Uggams on his show, Behind the Curtain.

Some tidbits. During her acceptance speech prior to the interview, Uggams gave us a little treat with her Carol Channing and Chita Rivera impressions, while recalling her interactions with them.

After seeing the tribute to her via commentary; photos; and songs performed by talented Porchlight pros Juwon Tyrel Perry, Ava Stovall, Bethany Thomas and Aerie Williams, Uggams proclaimed “Wow, I did a lot of stuff . . . and I’m still going.”

No kidding! She had a regular 20-minute act at New York’s famous Apollo Theater when she was nine years old and at 82 is appearing in movies and TV shows on regular basis, while acknowledging that ‘Everything is not a success. Every decision is not a good one.” (referencing, in particular a musical she had long wanted to appear in, only to be stuck in an awful production over a decade ago) .

The gala is, of course, a fundraiser (insert subliminal message here – “send Porchlight a donation”). This year Patrick Desmond took over auctioneer duties and, in addition to his excellent job, had, perhaps, the best joke for the day, poking good-natured fun at an earlier mispronunciation by someone else of the word philanthropy.

Also of note, the brunch provided by the Ritz-Carlton again justified my day-before starvation diet. I feel confident in this appraisal, as one of Chicago’s top chefs, sitting at my table, cleaned his plate, as did his wife.

That’s What Friends Are For: Gladys, Dionne, and Patti – Black Ensemble Theater (BET) – August 10, 2025

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Another final performance. My way of avoiding any readers saying that they relied upon my “review.”

I hadn’t been to the BET in almost 6 years, but some things never change. Though she has turned a lot of the creative work over to Daryl Brooks, who wrote and directed this production, Jackie Taylor is still the driving force behind the theater. And it was her birthday! Following the performance, the audience joined the cast in a joyful version of Happy Birthday I had never heard before. Unfortunately, no cake was served in the lobby, as had been the last time I was there, for The Other Cinderella.

There was a lot of emotion during the finale – That’s What Friends Are For – as the mature and young versions of the three leading ladies gathered together one last time. All six are good actresses, but they weren’t acting, the tears were real.

The crowd was engaged and enthusiastic throughout, including one woman in the front row doing lot of chair dancing. But the highest energy of the day was provided by Tamara Batiest, as the mature Patti Labelle, pushing both the vocal and physical edges of the envelope in her take on Labelle. Just when you thought she had taken it as far as she could, she would find another layer and milk it for all it was worth.

I won’t be waiting so long to return to the BET, going back in the fall for Blue Heaven, also written and directed by Brooks, which was on display in 2022, when a lot of people, myself included, were not yet back to normal theater-going. I’ll be going out on a limb, attending before the final performance, so I’ll have to stall writing about it for a day or two afterward.

Iraq, But Funny – Lookingglass Theatre – Final Performance July 20, 2025

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The title of this show reminded me of the pool party scene in La La Land where Emma Stone requests a song from the band. It was I Ran (but funny).

As to the play itself, I’d love to take my red pen to the script. It provides a lot of information and has quite a few funny moments, but it tries to do too much and winds up being a little inconsistent, scattered and too long for it’s own good, losing some impact along the way and drifting into nonsense near the end.

There really wasn’t a need for an out-of-place Jennifer Coolidge impression (there never is) and the penis joke scene could easily be snipped.

That said, Atra Asdou, the playwright and lead, is a force. Her character is memorable and her interaction with the audience is first rate.

There was some interesting staging, including the boxing match depicting the battle between Iraq and Iran and the British-devouring quicksand that included an allusion to Dune (also too long) Sandworms, though I thought the lightning sand from The Princess Bride might have been a better reference.

And the show made the best use of video backdrop maps since Spamalot. High praise indeed.