Archive for June, 2010
REVIEW: Steel Magnolias (Hubris Productions)
Hubris production could use a touch-up
| Hubris Productions present |
| Steel Magnolias |
| Written by Robert Harling Directed by Lavina Jadhwani At Greenhouse Theater Center, 2257 N. Lincoln (map) Through July 31 | tickets: $25 | more info |
Reviewed by Oliver Sava
The 1989 film version of Robert Harling’s Steel Magnolias is one of the definitive chick flicks of all time: empowering, hilarious, emotionally devastating, and featuring one of the best female ensembles ever assembled on screen. Harling’s characters are southern women bursting at the seams with charisma, and they require the larger-than-life personalities of a Dolly Parton or Shirley Maclaine to make their struggles spectacular. Directed by Lavina Jadhwani, the actors of Hubris’s Steel Magnolias lack the energy that makes these characters enthralling, resulting in a plodding production that never makes it to the emotional heights that the script has become known for.
Harling’s play depicts the key moments of diabetic Shelby’s (Sara Pavlak) adulthood – her wedding, pregnancy, motherhood, etc. – and how these events affect her mother M’Lynn (Stephanie Wooten-Austin) and other women of Chinquapin, Louisiana: salon owner Truvy (Calidonia Olivares), sardonic widow Clairee (Sharon Roseri), eccentric curmudgeon Ouiser (Lorraine Freund), and new girl Annelle (Jessica Maynard). In Truvy’s salon, these six women argue about wedding colors, gossip about local ladies, and experience the occasional breakdown in an environment free of testosterone. On paper, the generations-spanning assortment of personalities should be quite entertaining, but the potential of the characters isn’t reached by the ensemble.
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From the very opening scene it is obvious that Steel Magnolias needs a lot of fine-tuning: the actors stumble over lines, the comedy revolves too heavily on gags (Annelle drops things! A lot!), and Truvy’s hair is way too flat. That last one is just mind-boggling, as big hair should be at the top of any designer’s checklist for this show. As the production continues, the lack of chemistry between the actors makes it apparent that there is still much character work to be done, starting with a much needed jolt of electricity to the dull performances.
| Rating:★★ |
Theater Thursday: The Tallest Man – Artistic Home
Thursday, July 1st
The Tallest Man by Jim Lynch
The Artistic Home, 3914 N. Clark (map)
Come before the show to enjoy a pint of Murphy’s Stout and live Irish music with playwright Jim Lynch. Then stay for the show the Sun-Times has called "forged in the tradition of such grand Irish writers as Synge and O’Casey" and the Tribune called "delivered with such a wry topspin" and the Reader said was delivered with "raucous zeal". After the show, stay for an opportunity to chat with the playwright, director John Mossman, and actors about the world premiere of this charming play.
The Tallest Man (our review ★★★) is a wildly hilarious celebration of perseverance in turn of the century Ireland. It begins as a ghost story, but draws its power from the very real problems of the living. Culled from a childhood nourished by tales of Irish fantasy, this world premiere tells of hardscrabble survivors in County Mayo, a high-spirited young tinker struggling to stay one step ahead of the English landlords, and corrupt clergy and vengeful locals filled with prejudice and superstition. A charming and delightful classic, told for the very first time!
Event begins at 6:30 p.m. Show begins at 7:30 p.m.
Tickets: $25
For reservations call 866-811-4111
REVIEW: Mami, Where’d My O Go? (at Lifeline Theatre)
Pull Your Sexuality Out of the Swamp in One Easy Spell
| t & t Productions presents |
| Mami, Where’d My O Go? |
| Written and Performed by Tosha Fowler Directed by Victoria (toy) Delorio at Lifeline Theatre, 6912 N. Glenwood (map) through July 21st | tickets: $13-$18 | more info |
reviewed by Paige Listerud
Tosha Fowler’s autobiographical one-woman show, Mami, Where’d My O Go?, is billed as a saucy, heaping helping of Southern decadence—sexy and supernatural, as in the mode of “True Blood” and touchingly, inoffensively feminist, just like “Steel 
Magnolias.” But one wonders if this style of advertising might just do t & t Productions’ offering at Lifeline Theatre a tremendous disservice.
Yes, it’s a comedy about a young, modern Southern woman trying to get back life’s zest, lost with her inability to orgasm for four years. Now, after failed attempts in therapy, getting her O back requires invoking the African Goddess Mami Wata back at her family home in the swamp where she grew up. Nevertheless, Fowler roots her comedy in pains that run deeper than anything “True Blood” or “Steel Magnolias” ever touches. More than sexiness or spells, this is what defines Fowler’s work and makes it a far gutsier emotional sojourn for the proper Southern lady.
Directed by Victoria (toy) Delorio, Mami, Where’d My O Go? is about loss–and we’re not just talking the pleasures of the bedroom here. Caroline, a successful young Southerner, has pulled herself out of poverty and ignorance and moved on, at least physically, from her fractured family past. However, the loss of Grandma, who raised her, unanswered questions about her father, the crucifying sadness of her mother’s unloved existence—as well as Mom’s drug-induced death–pulls Caroline back to the pain she thought she could leave behind. Fowler diffuses the heaviness of Caroline’s losses by generously buffeting them with jokes about the old Piggly Wiggly, describing her former O’s as “bustin’ can o’ bisquits orgasms,” and sagely timed humor like, “Orgasms and daddies have nothing to do with each other—or, that’s been illegal in Georgia for quite some time now.”
The psychological bones of Fowler’s work are solid and her emotional depth in performance simply goes balls to the wall. Her invocation of Mami Wata as part of Caroline’s emotional/sexual healing is nothing less than inspired. Fowler morphs quickly and easily between Caroline, her mother, and Irma DeVoe, the neighborhood priestess who guides the proceedings, giving a variety of voices to Southern women’s experience.
All this charmingly funny, fantastically trippy one-act needs now is a strong editorial hand. Moving from character to character, from past shame to present day emotional need, still gets a little rambling and out of control. Also, at her mother’s funeral, Caroline tries to pour her cremated ashes into the swamp, managing only to get the ash all over her and the other family mourners. While this moment may indeed be autobiographical it is also, unfortunately, one that has been beaten to death in movies and late night comedy sketches. It should either be revamped for greater originality or discarded altogether.
Fowler’s play is like many from a new generation of Southern writers: crawling tooth and nail out of dire straits, cleaning oneself up to look like the rest of us shiny, happy Americans, yet still feeling tied to the old folks at home—the old folks with all their homey, backward, cherished and toxically shameful ways. Unfortunately one really can’t go home again, especially Caroline. But hopefully some pulled chicken, greens, creamed corn, and peach ambrosia will bring on the Goddess who can both hurt and heal you.
| Rating: ★★½ |
REVIEW: F**king Men (Bailiwick Chicago Theatre)
The Circle of Gay Life
| Bailiwick Chicago presents |
| F**king Men |
| Written by Joe DiPietro Directed by Tom Mullen at Theatre Building Chicago, 1225 W. Belmont (map) through July 25th | tickets: $25 | more info |
reviewed by Keith Ecker
I don’t know if you read the papers, but us gay guys get a pretty bad rap. If we’re not contributing to the downfall of society, we’re made out to be self-loathing, sex-crazed loveless loners.
But the truth is, gay men—just like all human beings—are capable of love, and in fact, spend much of their lives, as everyone does, looking for it. And it is this search for 
meaning, connection and kindness in a sea of sex that playwright Joe DiPietro attempts to illuminate in his cyclical play Fucking Men.
Fucking Men is a loose adaptation of the 19th century play La Ronde in which pairings of characters are featured in scenes preceding and succeeding sexual encounters. It’s an interesting structure—often employed as an improv comedy exercise—that lends itself to strong characterizations and oodles of dramatic irony.
The play begins and ends with John (Arthur Luis Soria), a young lovelorn prostitute. John is about to turn a trick. The trick’s name is Steve (Cameron Harms), a closeted military man who wants to receive oral sex from a man, you know, just to test it out. After the deed is done, Steve freaks out and beats up John.
Next is a silent scene in which Steve is in the gym sauna opposite Marco (Armand Fields). Steve touches his chest, signaling to Marco that he’s interested. Without saying a word, the two men fool around. Afterward, Marco continues his locker room routine: change out of clothes, pack up his bag, etc., while the closeted Steve rambles on about his sexuality and his encounter with John.
Naturally, the next scene depicts Armand with yet another character (this one a wisecracking, pot-smoking college student). And the domino effect of the La Ronde continues from there.
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The overarching theme of the play seems to be the need to inject kindness into our relationships, no matter how fleeting. It is all too easy to take advantage of others to fulfill our own selfish sexual and emotional desires. But if you come at sex with a sense of empathy, then you can be sure to limit the amount of pain you spread throughout the world and increase the love. Think of it like paying it forward…only sexually.
Some of the scenes really capture this idea. When the older and partnered Leo (Thad Anzur) enters the college dorm of Kyle (Cameron Johnson) for a random sexual encounter, he gets cold feet. Leo wants to know Kyle, to have some emotional connection prior to the physical connection. Youthful Kyle just wants sex and makes it clear that if Leo isn’t going to give it up then he can easily get it elsewhere. The two end up chatting and finding some common ground to connect on. Leo gets the emotional connection he’s been seeking, and Kyle gets the sex.
Other scenes, however, are less believable. The opening scene in particular falls flat. When the closeted Steve gushes about his self-doubt and sexual confusion to the prostitute, I had to roll my eyes. The scene just doesn’t seem grounded in reality. A prostitute is going to know not to take on a buff, aggressive client who is deeply self-hating and fearful of gays. It’s a safety precaution. And the closeted Steve’s dialogue is riddled with more clichés than a Lifetime movie.
The other major flaw of the play is the music. Laurence Mark Wythe composed original instrumentals for Fucking Men that play as transitions between scenes as set pieces are moved and altered to create the various settings. And although the music itself is just fine, it undercuts the dramatic tension of the scenes when it is used underneath the dialogue. I’m assuming this was a decision made by director Mullen, and I would hope it is relegated only to scene transitions in future performances.
Overall, Fucking Men strikes at the core of what motivates gay men—and quite possibly everyone else too—to have sex. And although there are some weaknesses with a few of the characters whose behaviors just are beyond believable, it’s pretty easy to find traces of yourself in most of them.
| Rating: ★★★ |
Cast of “F**king Men”, including Director Tom Mullen and Playwright Joe DiPietro.
Broadway-in-Chicago free concert in Grant Park – June 28
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Free Broadway in Chicago concert at
Monday, June 28th, at 6pm
Petrillo Music Shell, Grant Park (235 S. Columbus)
Come enjoy the best of Broadway FREE on Monday, June 28th, including performances from Billy Elliot the Musical, Shrek the Musical, Rock of Ages, Disney’s Lion King, Traces, Wicked, working, Hair, and Million Dollar Quartet.
Plus, a special onstage appearance of the Stanley Cup!
Broadway In Chicago , in partnership with the City of Chicago and hosted by ABC7’s Janet Davies, is pleased to present the annual BROADWAY IN CHICAGO CONCERT AT TASTE OF CHICAGO, a fantastic, FREE event, featuring some of Broadway’s hottest shows during the city’s legendary Taste of Chicago festival and continues the celebration of Broadway In Chicago ’s 10 Year Anniversary.
For more information about the BROADWAY IN CHICAGO CONCERT AT TASTE, visit www.BroadwayInChicago.com.
REVIEW: Cherrywood (Mary-Arrchie Theatre)
Party on, Dude!
| Mary-Arrchie Theatre presents |
| Cherrywood: The Modern Day Comparable |
| Written by Kirk Lynn Directed by David Cromer at Angel Island Theatre, 735 W. Sheridan (map) through August 8th | tickets: $13-$22 | more info |
reviewed by Katy Walsh
Fliers announce ‘Party Tonite for anyone who wants a change.’ Mary-Arrchie Theatre presents the Midwest premiere of Cherrywood: The Modern Day Comparable. A foursome decides to host a party. They have three kinds of chips, an array of music, bottles of booze and a shots of… milk? In response to their fliers, the guests arrive and fill up the house. The usual party suspects are all present. Free loading crashers. Whiny girl. Depressed divorced guy. Unwanted neighbor. Gaggle of gals in bathroom line. P.D.A. couple on the dance floor. Hot shirtless guy. Person continually announcing ‘I’m wasted.’ Sporadic drunken wrestling. It feels, looks and sounds familiar except with a couple of twists: Somebody brought a gun. Everybody has been drinking wild wolves’ milk. People are opening boxes of their secret desires. Cherrywood: The Modern Day Comparable is a virtual reality party experience without the pressure to mingle or the aid of a cocktail.
In a large living-room-like space, the audience seats encircle the action. Closely matched in numbers, the 50+ wallflowers watch the 49 performers party. It’s such a tight fit that I needed to move my purse before a guy sat on it. Director David Cromer has gone fire-code-capacity to create an authentic party.
The proximity blurs the fourth wall completely in deciphering between the party gawkers versus goers. I consciously refrain from shouting out an answer to ‘name a good band that starts with the letter ‘A’.’ It seems like a jumbling of improv mixed in with scripted lines. Crediting playwright Kirk Lynn with some of the best lines, it’s existentialism goes rave with the ongoing philosophy ‘if you want something different, ask for it.’ Lynn writes dialogue describing cocktail banter as ‘question-answer-it-doesn’t-always-happen-like-that’ mockery. One character describes herself with ‘everything I do is a form of nodding. I want to break my neck to stop nodding.’ In a heated exchange, the neighbor jabs, ‘you remember the world? It’s the room outside the door.’ It’s genuine party chatter. Some conversations are playful. Some are deep. Some just don’t make any sense. Clusters of people are sharing philosophical drunken babble throughout the room. A gunshot brings the house of strangers together in a communal bonding alliance.
For the theatre goer looking for a break from classic plot driven shows, Cherrywood: The Modern Day Comparable is performance art. It is a ‘Party Tonite for anyone who wants a change.’ For those who wonder what Chicago actors and designers do off-season, this is an opportunity to fly-on-the-wall it. If you’ve anticipated they hang out together and party, this would be your imagined drunken haze. The who’s who of storefront theater is boozing it up. It’s a Steep, Lifeline, Dog & Pony, House, Griffin, etc. reunion bash, and man do they know how to party!
| Rating: ★★★ |
Running Time: Ninety minutes with no intermission
REVIEW: Lookingglass Alice (Lookingglass Theatre)
A vaudeville-circus-magic-show-theater extravaganza!
| Lookingglass Theatre and The Actors Gymnasium present |
| Lookingglass Alice |
| Adapted and directed by David Catlin Adapted from the stories of Lewis Carroll at Water Tower Works, 821 N. Michigan (map) through August 1st | tickets: $32-$64 | more info |
reviewed by Katy Walsh
Shoes drop, floors open, balls fly, it’s a typical vaudeville-circus-magic show-theatrical extravaganza.
Lookingglass Theatre presents Lookingglass Alice, the adaption of the classic fairytales that also gave birth to the theatre company’s name and mission – Lewis Carroll’s “Alice’s Adventure in Wonderland” and “Through the Looking Glass”. Alice swallows a ‘Drink Me’ potion that sends her on a fantasy journey. She interacts with 
nonsensical characters like the Red Queen, Cheshire Cat, and Mad Hatter. Unlike most childhood fable storylines, Alice isn’t looking to be rescued by a prince. She wants to experience life, meet interesting people/talking animals and become queen. Lookingglass Alice is the perfect illustration of independent thinking for the next generation. Lookingglass Theatre imagines Alice’s adventures as a whimsical array of slapstick, aerial, hocus-pocus and dramatic spectacle.
The drama starts preshow. Upon entering the theatre, the room has been divided with a black curtain. In the middle of the curtain, it looks like a framed mirror. Upon inspection, it’s determined to be actually a window to the audience on the other side. Each side experiences a preliminary scene with either Alice or Charles Dodgson aka Lewis Carroll. The emersion of experiences happens in a black silk rippling flourish. Adaptor and director David Catlin uses multiple visual techniques to give the story a deserved quirky manifestation. Performers switch characters. Picnic baskets become doors. The audience joins the action. It’s all mirrors and illusions.
In the lead, Lauren Hirte (Alice) is petite. Hirte is believable as the precarious and defiant young girl standing up to the queen. Her childlike demeanor goes away as she balances a man on her knees and then tumbles into a series of stand-up somersaults. Knowing Hirte is actually not a kid helps when she goes aerial with some ‘does your mother know what you’re doing?’ stunts.
The entire ensemble is in sync with comedy and physicality. Molly Brennan (Red Queen and others) cuts off Alice’s “I mean to say” with a hilarious delivered, “I don’t think it’s mean to say- maybe 
rude. Off with her head.” Even draped in various vibrant costumes, Brennan’s facial expressions steal the comic focal point. Her interactions with Kevin Douglas (Mad Hatter and others) and Anthony Fleming (Cheshire Cat and Others) are synchronization fascination. Whether they are running across chairs or jumping on each other, their high jinx exploit the funny side of gymnastics.
Lookingglass Alice is Lookingglass Theatre’s loving, frolicking tribute to a father they never met. How inspired that it should be actualized as a family-focused showcase! The production kicks up the familiar story with imagination realization and spikes it with comedy. I prescribe that all families should swallow the ‘Drink Me’ potion and go on the fantasy journey together!
| Rating: ★★★½ |
Running Time: Ninety minutes with no intermission
REVIEW: Suicide, Incorporated (Gift Theatre)
Working 9 to 5 – for an Easier Way Out
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| Gift Theatre presents |
| Suicide, Incorporated |
| Written by Andrew Hinderaker Directed by Jonathan Berry at Gift Theatre, 4802 N. Milwaukee (map) through July 25th | tickets: $25 | more info |
reviewed by Paige Listerud
Gift Theatre’s tightly woven cast make the most of Andrew Hinderaker’s world premiere one-act, Suicide, Incorporated. Directed by Jonathan Berry, the play cleverly provides them with a lot of most to make. First, it features a business whose mission is to mold a suicide’s dead-end perspective into a skillfully crafted final farewell letter; second, the play depicts the general corporate tendency to reframe life’s tragedies into manageable chunks of reality that will yield to its scripted dialogues and flowcharts. Scott, owner and founder of the business, is played with sharp, savage and mercenary relish by Ed Flynn. Yet even he is just using the tools he’s learned in business school to create order against the inexorable pull of suicide’s black hole. Too bad he cannot avoid creating new victims, like his manically kiss-ass assistant, Perry (Jay Worthington).
We find his new employee, Jason (Joshua Rollins), a writer of former Hallmark Card fame, already well down that rabbit hole—conversing with shadowy figures like his younger brother Tommy (Mike Harvey) and last-chance customers like wheelchair-bound Norm (Michael Patrick Thornton). The spookiness of Jason’s conversations with his brother doesn’t become apparent until midpoint through the play’s progress–this is perhaps the biggest flaw of Gift Theatre’s production or Hinderaker’s play. Stronger foreshadowing of Jason’s true relationship with Tommy is necessary for greater impact. Also, a clearer sense of Jason’s edginess would also lend veracity to his final intentions in the play’s last 15 minutes.
But, as a general rule, Suicide, Incorporated is not about family bonds—it’s about life under a business model, wherein the company of men becomes your real family, whether you want it to or not. All work and no play, that’s the quintessence of Jason’s character—stereotypically forming stronger bonds with the people he works with, or serves at work, rather than with his own flesh and blood. Lucky for the audience, Jason’s growing relationship with new customer Norm makes for the real backbone of the show.
Thornton’s performance as Norm is immaculate; every tic and pause perfectly timed—an actor’s showcase of steady, low-key, precise technique. Such an accurate portrayal makes Norm’s confession about how he ruined the love 
of his life simultaneously bizarre and eerily truthful. “How did I become one of those guys?” Norm asks; the lone guy you thought could never hurt a fly, the lone guy who loses his newlywed wife by stalking her. It’s a masterpiece of characterization.
All these lonely men—where do they all come from? That was the question I was forced to ask myself at the close of Suicide, Incorporated. If Hindraker’s play holds any water, then it seems that they all come from business school or from workplaces that barely feed their souls or even lets them know that they have souls to feed–or lives worth living outside the workplace. It’s only a one-act, but what goes missing the most from the play is the acknowledgement that these male characters were never encouraged to be whole to begin with. Once they have lost someone vitally important to them, yet existing outside the business model, will they ever get a real chance to be whole again?
| Rating: ★★★ |
Showtimes are Thursdays and Fridays, and Saturdays at 7:30pm with Sunday matinees at 2:30.
Featuring Gift Artistic Director and ABC’s Private Practice’s Michael Patrick Thornton with guest artists Josh Rollins, Mike Harvey, Ed Flynn, Jay Worthington and Jim Farruggio.
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REVIEW: 40 Whacks (Annoyance Theatre)
Rich Girl Gone Bad—Really, Really Bad
| Annoyance Theatre presents |
| 40 Whacks |
| Book/Lyrics by Aggie Hewitt Music/Lyrics by Lisa McQueen Directed by Irene Marquette at Annoyance Theatre, 4830 N. Broadway (map) through August 6 | tickets: $15 | more info |
reviewed by Paige Listerud (and, after the break, Barry Eitel)
Just who is Lizzie Borden to the average person today—a reclaimed feminist icon from the 19th-century or a poor little rich girl gone really, really bad? Lisa McQueen (music and lyrics) and Aggie Hewitt (book and lyrics) get to have it both ways with their masterful musical comedy 40 Whacks, now playing Fridays at the Annoyance Theatre. Truth to tell, Lizzie (Ellen Stoneking) wins audience applause at the end of 
the show because – after a wild ride of mayhem and mistrial – she gets away with it all.
Irene Marquette directs a cunning comidic cast, who lay it all on the line about the good ol’, bad ol’ days surrounding this murder, America’s sordid Gilded Age. Even if Lizzie is no feminist heroine—largely because the glass ceiling she bumps into is about sharing part of her inheritance with her stepmother, Abby (Jennifer Estlin)—the show is, nevertheless, very conscious about the limitations women faced in the 1892, in and out of marriage. Lizzie’s father, Andrew Borden (Noah Gregoropolous), gets thoroughly hosed in the script as the Borden family’s patriarchal douche bag. But Gregoropolous’s dry, deadpan pronouncements on women’s menstrual cycles and mental states make us wish he wasn’t off to see his maker so quickly.
What amazes most about this production is its restraint. Marquette has adhered to a little more class and period consciousness than one usually sees in Annoyance productions. Higher production values in scenic design and costuming, coupled with hints of ragtime in McQueen’s musical score, give the audience a stronger sense of old-timey mass murder–all the better with which to sail into the production’s more off-the-wall, anachronistic moments. After a steady diet of arsenic poisoning and a failed attempt at getting medical help, Abby starts to make Uncle John’s (Mike Maltz) bed on the second floor. We know that her mortal comeuppance at Lizzie’s hands is imminent. However, Abby still gets a glorious swansong before her demise, covering the Carpenters’ 1972 hit “I’ll say goodbye to love.”
That’s not the end to this show’s imaginative flights of fancy. The cast knows how to pour it on for Lizzie’s trial, which Lizzie gets to observe through nothing less than a court-ordered morphine haze. Maltz is charming as Uncle John Morse–what with his little crush on the family Irish maid Bridget (Chelsea Farmer)–but he really excels at delivering the trippy, whacked out opening remarks as the prosecuting attorney. Cristin McAlister, demurely spoiled and vindictive as Lizzie’s sister Emma, really gets to step out and shake it as Lizzie’s defense. Sherman Edwards, as the casual and celebrity conscious judge overseeing trial proceedings, seals the circus for what it is. “Will you be dignified and respectful of the court system?” he mildly asks of the audience before Lizzie arrives. His understated delivery already informs us we need not be.
What seals the deal for this show is its excellent music. There are times when the score strays into operetta territory and that’s when I begin to ask whether the producers have created something a little beyond Annoyance’s typical schlock comedy fare. 40 Whacks definitely delivers more sophistication, while keeping a light, crude touch to get across Lizzie’s overwhelming sense of entitlement. I, of course, am screaming for more and I hope Annoyance’s audiences will too.
| Rating: ★★★½ |
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* Review #2 after the fold * |
REVIEW: Sweet and Hot (Theo Ubique Cabaret Theatre)
Sweet, Hot, and Effective
| Theo Ubique Cabaret Theatre presents |
| Sweet and Hot: Songs of Harold Arlen |
| Adapted by Julianne Boyd Directed by Fred Anzevino at No Exit Café, 6970 N. Glenwood (map) through August 8th | tickets: $25- $45 | more info |
reviewed by Barry Eitel
Director Fred Anzevino and his Theo Ubique Cabaret Theatre work best when they keep things simple. Evita and Chess succeeded so well because they masterfully pared down these sprawling musicals to fit in their beloved No Exit Café. Sweet and Hot is driven by a much more minimal concept—the revue involves a sextet of crooners belting out the greatest hits collection of songsmith Harold Arlen. While Anzevino’s production lacks depth, the tunes are beautifully sung and concisely delivered. Even in a room full of theatre critics on a hot June evening, the romance in the candlelit Rogers Park storefront was palpable.
Sweet and Hot is Theo Ubique’s most recent addition to a long line of revues focusing on a single composer (past honorees include Kurt Weill and Jacques Brel). Instead of piecing together his own collage of songs, Anzevino relies on a prefabricated set-list gathered by Julianne Boyd. It sounds like an opened time capsule revealing some of the best compositions of the first half of the 20th Century. The talented cast pipes out numbers like “Blues in the Night” and “I’ve Got the World on a String” with a refreshing amount of energy, blowing off any dust these famous melodies have gathered.
To ratchet up the intimacy, Anzevino tosses out most of the band, saving only the piano. Musical director Steve Carson rearranges the pieces to accommodate. The result is delightfully straightforward, imparting the cozy, informal feeling of a couple of friends singing around an upright.
Decked in ‘40s attire, the cast of six all have distinguishable takes on their pieces. The highlight here is Bethany Thomas, who crams the tiny space with passion and bravado during the slow-burning “Stormy Weather” and “The Man That Got Away.” She is joined by the glamorously blonde Stephanie Herman and the adorable Sarah Hayes. The Gentleman Trio comprises of (usually) gloomy Kristofer Simmons, dashing Eric Martin, and the boyish Eric Lindahl. One of the most interesting aspects of the production is that the over-the-top optimistic numbers (“Happy As the Day is Long,” “Get Happy”) all have a tinge of delusion here, giving them a heftier dramatic weight. It isn’t completely nailed down, but it gives them a little subtext. However, the portrayals overall are pretty shallow and mostly rely on jazz club-ish charisma and emotional stakes. There isn’t really any through-line or character in the piece; the cast sort of musters up whatever mood the songs require. A little more dramatic cohesion would make the show feel less like a recital and more like poignant, vibrant theatre.
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Along with lyricists such as E.Y. Harburg, Johnny Mercer, and Ira Gershwin, Arlen (best known for penning the melodies of “The Wizard of Oz”) created a songbook with pieces ranging from the bizarrely comic to the downright tragic. The cast can reach into both reservoirs. For example, Simmons’ rendition of “Lydia the Tattooed Lady” (a Groucho Marx stand-by) is droll and goofy, while his “One For My Baby (And One More for the Road)” is heartrending. Carson even gets his own moment to shine with the charming “This Time the Dream’s On Me.”
Anzevino’s staging occasionally comes off as having actors move just to have actors move, and “Over the Rainbow,” which receives a mention on the poster, could have received a lot more attention. Fortunately, David Heimann’s choreography always infuses energy into the songs. I’m not usually a fan of musical revues. Most of the time, they seem to me like live compilation albums meant to score a few more dollars from deceased songwriters. But with Theo Ubique’s focus on intimacy and simply presenting songs the whole team obviously loves, they come up with a show that has a tangible effect on the audience. This Sweet and Hot is a living experience.
| Rating: ★★★ |
