Theater

My Fair Lady – Broadway in Chicago – Cadillac Palace Theatre – July 2, 2022

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As noted in my last blog, I didn’t go to the show last night. But I changed my mind and went today. Sue me.

I’ve seen the movie so many times that it was very hard to disassociate the play from the film while at the theater. Nevertheless, as with the movie, I loved it, and there were some specifics worth mentioning.

First, the terrific voices. The entire cast was a listening pleasure, although I’ll admit that some of the lyrics early in the show were hard to understand due to the Cockney accents and I was thankful that I was already so familiar with them.

Second, the use of the sets, that is the way in which they were moved around and the actors moved in concert with them. For me, it was beautiful choreography.

The show, as in the movie, doesn’t have a lot of dancing, a waltz here, a gavotte there. Despite the fact that Eliza could have danced all night, she doesn’t. It isn’t like, for example, the current Broadway production of The Music Man, which has added tap dancing, because why wouldn’t you when you have Sutton Foster. The only noticeable addition to me was the drag line helping to send Alfred P. Doolittle off to get married in the morning. That was some party.

Everyone knows the music is great, so no point in lingering, other to say that, with all due respect to the great Cole Porter, my all time favorite rhyming lyric, which I sat in the audience anticipating, continues to be the pairing of Budapest and ruder pest in the song You Did It. Alan Jay Lerner really did it!

My Fair Lady – Broadway in Chicago – Cadillac Palace Theatre

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I thought that for a change of pace I would write about something I didn’t do. This won’t become a habit because, after all, I spend a lot more time not doing things than doing them, and would run out of time not to do things if I had to write about not doing them all the time.

So, first, with hard work and a little bit of luck, I had to find the right thing not to do. I opted not to go see the Broadway in Chicago production of My Fair Lady tonight. It wasn’t an easy decision. I love the movie – who doesn’t. I’ve never seen the play. The woman playing Eliza is receiving rave reviews. But . . .

The Chicago critics are somewhat split about some other aspects of the production. And it’s two hours fifty minutes long. No reclining seats at the Cadillac Palace.

A couple of the reviews I scanned focused on issues with the second act. So, I thought, as long as there were good seats available, at half price, and I know how the play ends, why not just go for the first act. Wouldn’t that be loverly?

But inertia is a cruel mistress. I’ve got two e-books currently on loan from the library, a movie I want to rent, and a reclining chair at home, so, even though the Cadillac is not that far from the street where I live, I figured my time might be better spent writing about not going. After all, I’ve grown accustomed to this pace.

Chicago Sings Stephen Sondheim – Porchlight Music Theatre, at the Museum of Contemporary Art – May 23, 2022

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Back when you were still allowed to talk about Woody Allen, people were fond of saying that they preferred his early movies, when he was funny, before Stardust Memories, though there has been good stuff after that, if not of the same madcap variety as say, Bananas.

What does this have to do with Sondheim. Well, I liked his early work better, and, dare I say it, in particular when someone else was writing the music – West Side Story and Gypsy.

But Chicago Sings was about Sondheim, so no Bernstein or Styne tunes. And, because those of us who support the theater are supposed to be aficionados, we were “treated” to a number of songs that the average Joe (not to be confused with last season’s 13-episode TV show I liked but that has not been renewed – again I’m on the wrong side) might not have picked from his other shows.

As for the performances, I will call out Laura Savage (as I have done several times before), who lights up the stage, and Mark David Kaplan, whose Pretty Little Picture as Pseudolus made me laugh (which was permitted in early Sondheim shows).

But enough about substance. The food was good. The registration line not so much. And, thankfully, no one fell down the winding staircase on their way back down to the auditorium for the show after drinking at the reception.

Spring Awakening – Porchlight Music Theatre – April 28, 2022

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This was my second opening of the week. I didn’t enjoy it as much as the first day of the new Whole Foods near me the day before.

The performances at both were fine, but, even though it’s not a classic, I prefer the song from the Whole Foods commercial, Every Beat Of My Heart, by the Du-Ettes, to anything I heard in Spring Awakening, even Totally F**ked, which mostly stood out for the impressive one-handed cartwheel one of the actors did during the “dance break.”

Spring Awakening won the 2007 Tony for Best Musical, beating out Curtains, Grey Gardens, and Mary Poppins. For my money, I would have given the award that year to the not-even-nominated Legally Blonde, which, I guess, wasn’t deep enough, but sure was a lot more entertaining.

So I had to find things other than the play’s hit-me-over-the-head messages to think about while waiting for the final curtain.

The intellectual Melchior made me yearn for Michael Fitzsimmons, the biker loner character who spouted poetry in Peggy Sue Got Married.

Melchior’s obsession with Faust reminded me that I still remember, from high school, the first eight lines, in German, of Goethe’s Prolog im Himmel, which I repeated over and over in my mind to help pass the time.

I also thought about Franz Liebkind, whose play, when put in the right hands, turned out to be a lot more fun.

And, finally, I wished, if I were going to see a musical based on a 19th century German children’s story, that it be an adaptation of the Katzenjammer Kids.

Now and Then – Oil Lamp Theater – April 17, 2022

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First, this play is not Now and Then, The Musical, and more accurately probably should be named Then and Now, though, admittedly, that doesn’t roll off the tongue as well, and Now and Then more accurately describes how often it’s produced.

The first time I attended a show at the Oil Lamp Theater, in early 2020, I saw a play with eight characters, seven of whom weren’t actually there. This time there were four characters, two of whom could only have been present if someone found a way to bend the laws of physics.

Back then, in prehistoric times, the theater had a doorman and a BYO policy. Those halcyon days are gone, but, more importantly, the free chocolate chip cookies remain a feature.

The play was solid, evidenced by the fact that I managed to stay awake despite the complete lack of ventilation, a problem I overcame by holding my breath (sort of automatic with a mask on anyway) throughout the first act and then stepping outside for some fresh air at intermission.

And, though the theater only seats 60 people, the one bathroom only accommodates one person, so my breath wasn’t the only thing I held in during the second act.

 

Moulin Rouge! The Musical – James M. Nederlander Theatre – April 7, 2022

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I’ve been to the actual Moulin Rouge, or at least to the sidewalk right in front of it. I will always have fonder memories of that moment than my time spent shivering in the Nederlander Theatre (their ventilation system definitely works), while trying to recognize all 70 of the show’s songs, credited to 161 writers, each of whom receives a royalty payment proportional to how long their song is in the show and based on a cut of the revenue. Anything to pass the time.

As my mind wandered, I also wondered how many different colors were represented in the amazing array of costumes, and wish I had thought to count them. There are currently 120 Crayola crayon colors. More colors, even, than songs in the show, in case anyone asks you.

The other thing I did a lot of was stare at Libby Lloyd, playing the part of Nini, whose dance moves, for my money, made her the star of the show, or at least the most visible star, as the musical arrangements and the orchestra’s ability to seamlessly flow from one fraction of a song to the next, were noteworthy (ergo this note).

 

Good Night, Oscar – Goodman Theatre – March 20, 2022

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Spoiler alert! In case you don’t know—I did—Sean Hayes was a musician before he was an actor or comedian, having studied piano performance in college, and working thereafter as a classical pianist. (It’s amazing the stuff you learn on the Internet when you have nothing else to do for two years.) He has musical chops.

What I didn’t know, but was glad to see, was how much time he must have spent studying all things Oscar Levant, so that he could emulate his tics and mannerisms as if they were his own. (After the performance I found and viewed on YouTube Levant’s final television appearance, as the mystery guest on What’s My Line, to confirm the accuracy of the depiction.)

Now, imagine Hayes playing Rhapsody in Blue while playing the quirky Levant at the height of his mental health issues and drug addiction. Chopsticks would be tough under those conditions.

This is the seventh Goodman show I’ve mentioned in my blog. Regulars may remember that I haven’t been too kind in regard to four of those prior productions. In my defense, they weren’t kind to me either. But this one had everything, including actual Levant insights like “There’s a fine line between genius and insanity. I have erased this line.”

The Play That Goes Wrong (Take 2) – Broadway Playhouse at Water Tower Place – February 8, 2022

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No hitches this time. (My NDA prevents me from revealing what really happened in January.)

Though some of the action in the show loses a little when you know what’s going to happen (having seen an earlier production in December 2018), the fact that the performance is all about the humor, without any unnecessary regard to plot or character development, enables the excellent physical comedy to hold up on its own (kudos to the cast, set designer, and prop maker). Moreover, on one occasion, I, and everyone else in the audience, practically jumped out of their seats in reaction to a gag, even though the underlying premise took a second to process.

The theater was about half full, heavily weighted toward the front, which enabled me to have a row to myself, as it always should be. The theater took masking seriously, with an usher holding a sign that said “keep masks up.” On one occasion, during intermission, I saw the usher approach an audience member to tell that person to lift theirs. And though the play features some audience interaction, I’m quite sure (or am I?) that this particular moment was not in the script.

Bottom line – it was great to be someplace surrounded by laughter (not caused by me having toilet paper stuck to the bottom of my shoe).

The Plans [sic] That Go Wrong – Broadway Playhouse at Water Tower Place – January 4, 2022

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A little over three years ago I wrote glowingly about The Play That Goes Wrong, a rib-tickler that leaves you with the kind of joy that everyone needs these days.

Given the latest onslaught by those nefarious people behind the Greek alphabet, I was more than ready for another dose of The Play’s theatrical hijinks, which I might describe as a Noel Coward version of Waiting for Guffman meets the Marx Brothers.

So I packed up my KN95, one approved by the Korean government and Amazon, along with proof of a lifetime worth of vaccinations, including those for shingles, just in case.

But, alas, The Play That Goes Wrong went even further wrong than originally scripted. Was the show cancelled due to an outbreak of Covid among the cast’s pets? Did I slip and fall on the icy sidewalk, tearing whatever cartilage might be left in my body, and get taken to the emergency room, where I waited for x-rays for 15 hours, writing this blog, while the staff tended to several hundred people with the sniffles? Did I go to the theater on the wrong night like I did for Ragtime in 2018? Or other, the answer most often correct on online AARP quizzes?

Just like it was every night of the 17-year-run of Shear Madness at the Blackstone Hotel, I’m going to let the viewer, in this case the reader, decide the outcome. I will only add that The Play That Goes Wrong will be here through February 13, so you may yet see a review from me that is only slightly more about the production itself.

As You Like It – Chicago Shakespeare Theater – November 30, 2021

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I’m bad with names, but better with faces. What I didn’t know until I saw Chicago Shakespeare Theater’s As You Like It last night, is that I’m good with thighs (and not just those on the Thanksgiving turkey), or rather quadriceps, as that sounds better, until I recognized the actor playing Orlando as having the same ridiculously muscular legs as I saw when he played the lead in the production of Memphis I saw three-and-a-half years ago at Porchlight Music Theatre.

I don’t go to a lot of Shakespeare, but this show is as I like it, in that it incorporates 23 Beatles songs into the script, along with some off-hand jokes that undoubtedly rile true Bard of Avon aficionados, and starts with a band and a modern-day wrestling match (more riling), even before the obsolete, often unintelligible English dialogue that is Shakespeare jumps in (wouldn’t supertitles be great?), with the match acting as a prologue and a way of entertaining those of us who get there early to avoid the proof-of-vaccination backup at the door, the sight of which made me wonder whether there were similar lines during the 1665 Great Plague of London.