Category: GENRE
Review – "Much Ado About Nothing" at First Folio
by Venus Zarris
The Bard verses Nature; at First Folio it is a dead heat!
I am not an outdoorsy kind of person. Given the choice between an air-conditioned theater and a summer night outside with mosquitoes buzzing in my ear, I am inclined to choose ‘civilized shelter.’ But the sweet and talented folks at First Folio Shakespeare Festival combine impressive theatrical production with breathtaking natural setting to create a perfect evening of entertaining escape.
I say escape for three reasons. One, you are transported into the world of Shakespeare’s classic comedy by a completely engaging cast. Two, you are swept away by the natural wonders of the lovely Peabody Estate. And three, you are far from the hectic city limits.
But rest assured, if your ‘First Folio Get Away’ is anything like ours you will not only count your evening as one of the summer’s best but as one to be remembered for years to come. Pack a picnic, assemble your favorite cohorts and prepare to relax and enjoy.
Birds, Bats, Breezes, Fireflies and… a turtle?
We packed some delicious delicacies and subtle spirits. Anxious to indulge and imbibe, we planned to arrive a little early, the play starts at 8:15pm but the grounds open at 7pm. As we turned into the entrance I noticed something on the side of the access road. It was a turtle! Unable to climb the curb, he seemed destined for trouble so we parked and I picked him up. Turtles pee when they are scared and this guy was evidently terrified! But a quick trip to the lake behind the estate mansion and he was eagerly swimming back to safety.
(I add the little turtle aside because in my personal experience, turtles have been good luck charms and delightful omens. True to form, he foreshadowed a positively delightful night!)
We set up our picnic and were refreshed by subtle and unexpected spontaneous cool breezes. Birds playfully flew around the stage and as dusk set in the fireflies added delicate and restrained intermittent fireworks to the festivities. Paying close attention overhead, I noticed a pair of bats doing their part to keep the bug population at bay and add to the already enchanting atmosphere.
As the night progressed the moon slowly emerged from behind the treetops. Almost full, its beauty was easily underestimated but that night it was simply partial and premature sublime perfection. Its waxing excellence exceeded the drama of its pending fullness.
If there was one natural element that needed to be ‘toned down’ it was the boisterous crickets. Obviously unaware of Shakespeare’s impressive and historic theatrical reputation, they did their best to sing over the actors. Thankfully, a state of the art sound system thwarted their disrespectful efforts.
Shakespeare’s writing is so timeless that it can be delivered with bare bones or lavish production values and engage on either scale. But the added element of nature created a beguiling accent that almost threatened to usurp the already impressive theatrical offering.
Much Ado About A Lot
Before the play’s exposition even gets started we are warmed up by a brilliant fluffing from the antics of Verges, adorably played by Keland Scher. Scher has charm and sweetness galore as he juggles, flirts and clowns with the audience creating the perfect pre-show mood. Oftentimes, this sort of interactive audience participation can prove to be obnoxious, corny or embarrassing but Scher is brimming with playful talent and is as lovable as a cartoon bunny.
Bickering, blundering, deception, redemption and ultimately, after some bumbling and revelation, requited love are the forces at work in Much Ado About Nothing. Between the entanglements and resolution Shakespeare has created Much Ado about an awful lot and the first rate cast delivers the goods with clarity and charm.
Melissa Carlson and Nick Sandys provide the most excitement with their clever verbal jabs and retorts. Carlson’s Beatrice, the confirmed spinster, is venomously shrewd and Sandys’s Benedick, the confirmed bachelor, is lyrically adroit. They elevate the juvenile game of ‘taunt your undeclared love interest’ to a wickedly witty and articulate exchange. Rene Ruelas renders an amusingly eccentric Friar Francis to add to the fun.
Andre Pluess’s sound design and original composition add even more natural texture and subtle elegance to the production. Michael Goldberg’s straightforward direction of the excellent ensemble and gifted design team create an outstanding rendition of the classic comedy.
You decide who prevails, theater or nature. Either way, it is a WIN/WIN proposition for the audience.
Gather up your friends for a little road trip and enjoy exceptional theater in a remarkable atmosphere. First Folio Shakespeare Festival is a brilliant addition to this summer full of marvelous Shakespearean options. It is a tucked away treasure that is well worth the drive.
Rating: ««««
(“Much Ado About Nothing” runs through August 17 at First Folio Shakespeare Festival, 1717 W. 31st Street, Oak Brook. 630-986-8067)
Three Shows – One Street! Don’t miss out!
Rogers Park Theater Renaissance
By Venus Zarris
When you think of Chicago Theater your first thoughts might go to The Loop. Between The Goodman Theatre on Dearborn and the big commercial venues that produce the Broadway in Chicago product, the other options can get easily lost. Little to no advertising money makes it impossible for them to compete for visibility but that doesn’t mean that their efforts are any less impressive or important.
There is theater being produced all around the city and suburbs, some streets even have a couple options within walking distance but Rogers Park is exploding with outstanding work. Earlier this summer The Side Project saw a production of Sweet Confinement by a new company called SiNNERMAN Ensemble. They formed after training together at the School at Steppenwolf and the fledgling company created bold, provocative, glaringly intimate and urgently powerful theater in a tiny black box.
Keep an eye on this exciting new company and the other eclectic offerings at The Side Project at 1439 W. Jarvis Ave. (map).
Now Showing On Glenwood!!!
Within about a three block radius on North Glenwood, just off the Red Line Train Morse stop, there are three plays by three very different and very impressive companies.
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The Mark Of Zorro
Seldom do you ride a continual and exhilarating wave of energetic entertainment during an entire production but Lifeline Theatre’s world premier adaptation of The Mark of Zorro delivers a tsunami of charming delight!
This show has everything going for it, both creatively and technically, but the two elements that keep rising to the surface are the unbridled humor and the flawlessly swashbuckling fight scenes. It is always a treat to go to a comedy and giggle but it is an unexpected pleasure to go to an adventure tale and squeal with laughter.
Just when you have caught your breath from the whimsical comedy you are swept away by the exciting swordplay. Normally even the best staged fight scenes tend to break the suspension of disbelief. They look telegraphed, rehearsed and contrived. But Geoff Coates’s gifted and dazzling fight choreography delivers the most believable and invigorating swordplay that I have ever seen on stage, and he does it with a large cast in a relatively small space! Long hours of rehearsal dedicated exclusively to the fight scenes pay of in terms of childlike thrills for the audience. WARNING TO THE FRONT ROW: You might just soil yourselves because the action is so close and so real!
If you are looking for exciting exploits, dastardly villains and a handsome, lovable, laughable hero, run to see The Mark of Zorro!
Rating: ««««
(“The Mark of Zorro” extended through July 20 at Lifeline Theatre, 6912 N. Glenwood. 773-761-4477.)
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Jacques Brel’s Lonesome Losers Of The Night
Theater is a pretty remarkable proposition. A group of people from varied backgrounds and disciplines come together with a unified goal of presenting a piece of work. One might think that this is a recipe for chaos, and sometimes that is the case. But miraculously it is often the ingredients for something entertaining and or evocative. Occasionally it transcends the normal conventions and expectations and the synchronicity of creation lends itself to something exceptionally compelling. It taps a vein of emotions in a way that is rare and unique. This is the case with Jacques Brel’s Lonesome Losers Of The Night, produced by the award-winning theatre company Theo Ubique.
You enter the wonderfully quaint little venue of No Exit Café, far north of the hustle and bustle of the Loop and nestled next to the Red Line elevated train tracks, and are relocated to another time and another place. But the time and place are more so the setting of altered emotions and atmosphere, rather than a specific location. You are transported to comradery, inebriation, celebration, passion, longing, betrayal, loss, and melancholy.
Director Fred Anzevino and his eloquent company create a rare gift to the audience and an exceptional contribution to the exclusive theatrical choices that Chicago has to offer. Jacques Brel’s Lonesome Losers Of The Night is a lovely homage to Brel’s talent and the perfect vehicle for Theo Ubique’s incomparable imagination.
Rating: ««««
(“Jacques Brel’s Lonesome Losers Of The Night “ extended through August 30 at No Exit Café, 6970 N. Glenwood Ave. 773-743-3355.)
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Questa
People’s Theater of Chicago delivers a solid Midwest Premiere of Questa, by “NYPD Blue” writer Victor Bumbalo. The urban landscape is simply and immediately rendered by Patricia Perez’s exceptional mural design, starkly yet warmly depicting a skyline in ruins, and also by James Scalfani’s explosive interior cityscape design of color on black box walls, creating an homage to the vibrancy of New York with a black light painting on black velvet effect. The contrast of vitality and desolation evokes the city’s heartbeat as well as the contrasting emotions in the lives of Bumbalo’s characters before the play even begins. Annah Zaman’s subtly lovely original music infuses the production with an appropriately overwhelming melancholy.
Director Madrid St. Angelo works wonders with his resources. He creates as much honesty and consistency as possible with an uneven cast and an overly ambitions script. Shaun F. Conway, as Nicholas, and Cliff London, as Daniel, deliver the productions most believable and emotionally realized performances.
The convoluted script is thought provoking, albeit not completely engaging, and the overall production proves to be a strong effort by an up-and-coming company with plenty of dedication, talent and potential.
Rating: ««
(“Questa” runs through July 19 at The Heartland Studio Theatre, 7016 North Glenwood Ave. 773-371-1868.)
"Jersey Boys" – no smoking allowed!
It’s official – all smoking scenes in Chicago’s long-running Broadway hit, Jersey Boys, have been snuffed out. Chicago’s smoking ban does not offer exemptions for indoor performances, and – unlike many American cities – also does not allow for any type of substitutions, such as clove cigarettes (which is a common practice in many theatres around the country).
A theatrical telling of the rise of Frankie Valli and his singing group, it is natural that the characters would smoke in certain scenes, just as they did in real life. Unfortunately a theatre patron lodged a complaint with the city, so the smoking scenes had to be rewritten and restaged. (some people just need to have something to complain about, you know?)
The New York and London version of Jersey Boys cast will continue with the smoking scenes, as these cities have indoor smoking bans that offer exemptions for theatrical performances
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Sunday Sondheim – Betty Buckley and Harlem Boys Choir
This is an absolutely beautiful arrangement of Sondheim’s “Our Time” and “Children Will Listen” from Merrily We Roll Along and Into The Woods respectively. Enjoy
Review: "Relatively Close" at Victory Gardens
Review written by Jackie Ingram.
Victory Gardens’s Relatively Close, written by James Sherman and directed by Dennis Začek is – by all judgments – an excellent production. The theatre is beautiful, so forget about bringing your binoculars, because from any seat you have a great view of the ingenious set, designed by John Stark. Relatively Close takes us into the lives of three sisters, domineering Jan (Penny Slusher), sexy Beth (Laura T. Fisher), and shy Marlene (Wendi Weber). The sisters must decide in one week how to settle their deceased parent’s summer home. The sisters and their husbands, a doll, and what seems to be an angry teenager completes the fresh, hilarious, and very talented cast. The relationships are easy to relate to and you are slowly pulled into their web of bantering, lies, hip-hop, electrifying rhythmic poetry, Lily, and the lust for another sister’s husband. The unexpected twists and turns keep you guessing right until the end. Do yourself a favor – to get the entertainment pleasure of this show you must see it for yourself. It is funny and heartwarming and you might just see a little bit of your own family on stage. This show is truly a must see event.
Rating: ««««
| Production | Relatively Close |
| Producers: | Victory Gardens |
| Playwright | James Sherman |
| Directed By: | Dennis Zacek |
| Starring: | Usman Ally (Yousef), Daniel Cantor (Ron), Laura T. Fisher (Beth), David Gonzales (Dylan), Penny Slusher, (Jan), Wendi Weber (Marlene), Dexter Zollicoffer (Arthur) |
| Set Design: | John Stark |
| Costumes: | Christine Pascual |
| Lighting: | Julie Mack |
| Sound: | Andre Pluess |
| Stage Manager: | Tina M. Jach |
| More information: | www.victorygardens.org |
ComedySportz – free tickets for service members
On July 3rd and 4th, ComedySportz Theatre, located at 929 Belmont, just east of the Belmont red-line stop, is offering free admission to active and veteran service members including police, firefighters, and government officials, to honor their service to their country. Service men and women can call ComedySportz’s box office and reserve one free ticket to see their current main stage show “ComedySportz.” To commemorate the event, cast member Sara Wolfson will be singing the national anthem before every show and a portion of the proceeds from these shows will be donated to the North Chicago VA Medical Center.
ComedySportz Schedule
July 3rd – 8pm
July 4th – 8 and 10pm
For more information, contact the ComedySportz box-office at 773-549-8080, or go to www.comedysportzchicago.com.
"Beggars" extended thru July 6th
Due to high demand, Mary Arrchie Theatre’s excellent production of Beggars in The House of Plenty has extended their run thru July 6th. Beggars, by the Tony and Pulitzer Prize winning John Patrick Shanley, is a deeply autobiographical work – a surreal comedy, packed with the wit, insight, confusion, laughter and pain that only family can bring. At once vulgar, poetic and brutally honest, the play leads us on a journey through Shanley’s childhood in the Bronx of the mid-1950′s to the turbulent late 60′s and finally the perspective of adulthood.
Nina Metz, of the Chicago Tribune, offered these praises:
“the performances here are worth seeing, particularly Daniel Behrendt as Joey, a swaggering, unpredictable force who is charming and dicey and ultimately crushed by forces that Shanley (Carlo Lorenzo Garcia, tender and rough around the edges) was better equipped to escape. Mary Jo Bolduc plays Ma, and she has just the right flat accent and abrasiveness.”
And ChicagoCritic.com added:
“…Carlo Lorenzo Garcia, Karl Potthoff and Daniel Behrendt anchor the excellent ensemble. This play will shake your world.”
More information can be found at the Mary-Arrchie Theatre website.
Also, check out this week’s Talk! TheatreInChicago podcast for an interview regarding ‘Beggars’!
Steppenwolf’s "AOC" – National Tour planned
The producers of the Purlitzer Prize winning, 7-time Tony-nominated August: Osage County, written by Chicago playwright Tracy Letts (and directed by Steppenwolf’s Anne D. Shapiro), have just announced that they will be mounting a national tour of the play in 2009,
The tour’s first stop will be San Francisco’s Curran Theatre, August 11th-September 6th, 2009. Subsequent 2009 engagements have yet to be announced.
Although August premiered here in Chicago, and enjoyed a sold-out extended run at Steppenwolf Theatre, I’m hoping that the tour will make a pit stop back in the Windy City. I would definitely love to see it again!
August: Osage County can currently be seen on Broadway at The Music Box Theatre on 45th Street. More info is available here.
For WGN Radio – My summer picks…
For Kids and Families:
- Lyle, Lyle, the Crocodile, Lifeline Theatre
- June 13th -July 13th; Friday-Sunday at 1pm
- Tickets: $10
- Cirque Shanghai: Gold ; Navy Pier outdoor theater
- Runs all summer through Sept. 1st
- Performed at outdoor theater at Navy Pier (just east of Ferris Wheel), so take in the show, then experience the huge fireworks display every Wednesday and Saturday evening.
- Tickets: $12.50-$30
- Willy Wonka, Chicago Shakespeare at Navy Pier
- July 8th – August 17th
- Tickets: $18-$23
- Blue Man Group, Briar Street Theatre
- Super-fun for kids of all ages
- Tickets: $49-$59 (box office: 773-348-4000)
For Teens (and the young-at-heart):
- Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind, Neo-Futurists
- Experience Chicago’s longest running play – 20 years and counting!
- Days/Times: Friday-Saturday, 11pm, Sunday 7pm
- Price: $6 plus the roll of a dice (so $7-$12 – is that cool or what?!?)
- That’s Weird Grandma, Barrel of Monkeys
- Monday nights, 8pm
- Adults: $9 // Kids: $4
Broadway In Chicago (the big downtown shows):
- Wicked, Ford Center for the Performing Arts (Oriental Theatre)
- After 4 super-successful years,Wicked, has announced that it will officially close in January 2009. So catch it while you can!
- Ticket Price: $30-$95 (Box Office: 312-902-1400)
- Jersey Boys, Bank of America Theatre (formerly Schubert Theatre)
- Open run
- Ticket Price: $30-$95 (Box Office: 312-902-1400)
- Shout!, Drury Lane Watertower
- Through July 20th
- Tickets: $45-$55 (Box Office: 312-902-1400)
For Date Night:
- Jacques Brel’s “Lonesome Losers of the Night”, Theo Ubique Theatre
- runs through July 20th
- Tickets: $10-$20 (Box Office: 773-743-3355)
My two-pennies worth:
You haven’t experienced Chicago until you’ve ventured north to The Heartland Cafe in East Rogers Park. First opened in the 1970′s, this earthy restaurant and bar jettisons you back to the late 1960′s and early 70′s (in a granola and incense kind-of-way). The musical review, Lonesome Losers of the Night, is performed in an intimate coffee house down the street from Heartland, so first grab a bite to eat at Heartland, walk down the block to the performance, then mosey back down to The Heartland for drinks and nightly live music.
Comedy
- Campaign Super Nova: or How Many Democrats Does It Take To Lose An Election?
- Second City’s newest review
- Open run, tickets: $19-$25 (Box Office: 312-337-3992)
- Dead Man’s Cell Phone, Steppenwolf Theatre
- runs through July 27
- Tickets: $20-$68 (Box Office: 312-335-1650)
- Co-Ed Prison Sluts, Annoyance Theatre
- Annoyance Theatre brings back their raunchy long-running hit of the 80′s and 90′s.
- Runs July 4th – August 29th
- Tickets: $15 (Box Office: 773-561-4665)
- Comedy Sportz – Comedy Sportz Theatre, Belmont and Clark
- audience-interactive comedy competition between two teams of improv comedians, who perform a series of scenes and songs, all based on suggestions from the audience
- Open run, now in their 21st year
- Ticket prices vary, (Box Office: 773-549-8080)
Drama
- A Steady Rain, Royal George Theatre
- extended through Oct 5 (then on to Broadway?)
- Tickets: $50 (box office: 312-988-9000)
- Taste of Honey, Shattered Globe Theatre Ensemble
- runs through July 5th
- Tickets: $15-$35, (box office: 773-871-3000)
- Hizzoner, Prop Thtr (performed at Beverly Arts Center)
- Running for over 2-years, this play eerily depicts the infamous Mayor Richard J. Daley and inner-workings of “The Machine”
- runs through July 29th
- tickets: $40
Musicals:
- Fiorello, Timeline Theatre
- runs through July 20th
- Tickets: $15-$30 (Box Office: 773-281-8463)
- Ain’t Misbehavin’, Goodman Theatre
- running June 21st – July 27th
- Tickets: not yet announced (Box Office: 312-443-3800)
- Jekyll & Hyde, Bohemian Theatre Ensemble
- through July 20th
- Tickets: $20-$27 (Box Office: 773-327-5252)
- Hunchback of Notre Dame, Bailiwick Repertory
- composed by Dennis DeYoung of the band “Styx
- runs through July 6t
- Tickets: $25-$45 (Box Office: 773-883-1090)
- Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story, Drury Lane Theatre, Oakbrook Terrace
- runs through July 27th
- tickets: $28-$33
Goodman announces cast for “Ain’t Misbehavin”
The Goodman Theatre has just announced the casting for there summer production of Ain’s Misbehavin’, directed by Chuck Smith. The cast will include five of Chicago’s foremost musical theatre names – E. Faye Butler (Purlie), John Steven Crowley (Crowns), Alexis Rogers (Black Nativity), Parrish Collier and Lina Kernan. Additionally, Linda Buchanan has been hired as set designer, who reportedly will transform the 856-seat Albert Ivar Goodman Theatre into a grandiose period concert hall, featuring an eight-piece band led by music director Malcolm Ruhl.
The band will include Peter Benson (piano), Larry Bowen (trumpet), Y.L. Douglas (drums) Anderson Edwards (bass), T.S. Galoway (trombone), Jarrard Harris (tenor sax/clarinet), Stephen Leinheiser (alto sax/clarinet) and Malcolm Ruhl (guitar and conductor).
The design team and additional artists for Ain’t Misbehavin’ include Birgit Rattenborg Wise (costumes), Robert Christen (lighting), Josh Horvath and Ray Nardelli (sound) and Lisa Willingham-Johnson (choreographer).
Ain’t Misbehavin’ opened first as a cabaret act, quickly followed by a Broadway run of over 1,600 performances and numerous awards, including the Tony Award for Best Musical.
From the Goodman Theatre:
“Born in Harlem in 1904, Thomas ‘Fats’ Waller remains one of the most influential stride piano players, having written more than 450 songs and recorded over 500 sides during his career. He wrote his first composition at age 14, and became a professional pianist the very next year – playing with legendary artists such as Fletcher Henderson and Jack Teagarden, Alberta Hunter and Bessie Smith. He became famous performing a combination of his own music and music written by others. After Waller’s death in 1943, his influence waned and his legacy faded into the historical background for over three decades. In 1978, theatre artists Murray Horwitz and Richard Maltby, Jr., generated renewed attention and interest in Waller with their creation Ain’t Misbehavin’, through which they paid tribute to Waller’s contributions to American music and highlighted the best aspects of the Harlem nightclub revues of the 1920s and ’30s.”
Ain’s Misbehavin’ will run this summer at Goodman’s Albert Ivar Theatre from June 21st through July 27th. For more information, go to Goodman’s website.
(Hat tip to Playbill.com)
