Reviews – Page 29 – Chicago Theater and Arts

Around Town: Mid May has treats for the senses

Yummy sweets at Long Grove’s Chocolate Fest, fine art visual treasures of antiques and art at a Merchandise Mart show and fascinating sounds of Finnish music at Symphony Center are all on tap this weekend in the Chicago area.

Long Grove Chocolate Fest

From balsamics and bacon to popcorn and zucchini bread, just about everything imaginable that can infused, covered by or adorned with chocolate can be sampled and bought at the historic village of Long Grove May 17-19, 2019. Bands will also be playing throughout the event.

Details: Long Grove is near Routes 83 and Old Route 53 (about 35 miles northwest of Chicago). The festival is in the business district at the intersection of Old McHenry and Robert Parker Coffin Roads. Admission is $5 over age 12 per day, kids 12 and under free. Tickets can be purchased there or ahead of time by clicking HERE. However, parking is at a premium so there is a 2 for 1 admission discount up to 2 people who rideshare with uber/ lyft) and dropped at the Archer & Robert Parker Coffin Gate. Discount admission applies when upon showing the rideshare receipt at the gate. Hours May 17 are noon to11 p.m., May 18 from 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. and May 19 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

For more information and the band schedule visit Long Grove/Chocolate-Fest.

Chicago Antiques + Art + Design

Explore the 7^th floor of the Merchandise Mart where 75 national and international exhibitors have brought fine art, antiques and unusual design elements. The show runs May 17-19, 2019 but there is also a first-look preview Northwestern Memorial Hospital benefit on May 16.

Details: The Merchandise Mart is on the north side of the Chicago River at 222 Merchandise Plaza, bounded by Orleans and Kinzie. For tickets and hours visit ChicagoAntiquestArtDesign.

Finnish Masterwoks at Symphony Center

A mostly Finnish program that includes violinish Hilary Hahn playing Jean Sibelius’ Violin Concerto, Einojuhani Rautavaara’s “A Requiem in Our Time” will by played by the Chicago Symphony Orchesra led by Mikko Franck, May 16, 17, 18 and 21 of 2019. Also on the program is Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Symphony No. 2. The progam is part of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association’s season of “A time for reflection-A Message of Peace.”

Details: Hours are May 16 – 18 at 8 p.m., May 21 at 7:30 p.m. Symphony Center is at 220 S. Michigan Ave., Chicago. For tickets and other information visit CSO

Jodie Jacobs

Maurice Jones extraordinary as Hamlet

Maurice Jones as Hamlet at Chicago Shakespeare Theater. (Liz Lauren photo)

3 ½ stars

Audiences hardly need to be reminded that William Shakespeare had a phrase, soliloquy or advice for almost every conceivable motivation, experience or outlook.

But when Broadway actor Maurice Jones, Chicago Shakespeare’s Hamlet, considers life’s unfairness and contemplates death in the famed “To be, or not to be, that is the question,” soliloquy, he is so natural in his musing that he could be any being who grieves for a murdered loved one instead of an actor playing one of the theater’s most famous roles.

And that is the strength of Artistic Director Barbara Gaines simple, but masterfully presented “The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark.”

Even when Polonius, Shakespeare’s overly verbose, elderly advisor to the Danish court, tells son Laertes “to thine own self be true, (and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man”) ” a contradiction to everyone’s actions, stage veteran Larry Yando nicely throws out the lines as if they were simply fatherly advice instead of among the Bard’s very famous quotes.

Polonius (Larry Yando, at center) reveals to King Claudius (Tim Decker) and Queen Gertrude (Karen Aldridge) the contents of Hamlet’s letter to Ophelia in Chicago Shakespeare Theater’s production of Hamlet, (Photo by Liz Lauren)

The production really succeeds because Jones is so good at Hamlet, he’s fine in modern dress rather than period costume as he sincerely becomes a distressed son whose father is killed by a brother and whose mother then marries, possibly unknowingly, her husband’s murderer.

Scott Davis’ minimal scenic design and Robert Wierzel’s lighting focus the action where it should be, on the players, rather than offering the trappings of a castle in Denmark. Booming sound design by Lindsay Jones portends tragedy waiting.

A nice touch is having long-time beloved Chicago and New York theater actor Mike Nussbaum play a comic gravedigger along side Greg Vinkler who is also the king with the players who come to court to perform.

The rest of the cast is fine, although not at the same level of Jones’ delivery. It’s likely audiences will be talking about this Hamlet for quite awhile.

“Hamlet” is at Chicago Shakespeare Theater, 800 E. Grand Ave. on Navy Pier, Chicago, through June 9, 2019. Running time: 2 hours, 45 minutes with one intermission. For tickets and other information call (312) 595-5600) and visit Chicago Shakes.

Jodie Jacobs

For more shows visit Theatre in Chicago

‘Chicago’ the musical in its namesake town

Chicago the musical is at the Cadillac Palace Theatre. (Photo by Catherine Ashmore)

3 stars

”Chicago,” the sardonic, jazzy, vaudeville-style musical written by lyricist Fred Ebb, composer John Kander with book by Ebb an Bob Fosse, is in its namesake town for just a week as it continues to make the rounds.

Fosse’s choreography in conjunction with Ann Reinking’s choreography in Fosse’s style for the 1997 New York production are skillfully performed by the company and the two female leads, Dylis Croman as Roxie Hart and Lana Gordon as Velma Kelly.

The Fosse style, Croman’s big number “Roxie” plus “When You’re Good to Mama,” sung by Jennifer Fouché and “Mister Cellophane” sung by Paul Vogt as Amos Hart make the current touring show worth seeing.

Just don’t expect quite the high level of razzle-dazzle of the original 1975 show or the 1996 revival or the 2002 film version that won the Academy Award for Best Picture.

Eddie George who has moved from the NFL to acting in Nashville companies, is an OK Billy Flynn but not in the same personality category as Richard Gere in the movie or at the song and dance guy level of Jerry Orbach in the Broadway production.

This version needs to turn up the heat on its famed “Cell Block Tango” which seemed a bit going-through- the-motions tired.

However, the show is fun to watch. The orchestra, conducted by Andrew Bryan, is still on stage as the main set-design element and its vaudeville-style, bring-them-on performances across the front of the stage is still entertaining.

“Chicag0” is at the Cadillac Palace Theatre, 151 W. Randolph St., Chicago through May 12, 2019. Running time: 2 hours, 30 minutes with one intermission. For tickets and other information visit Broadway In Chicago.

Jodie Jacobs

For more shows visit Theatre in Chicago

‘Dames at Sea’ is campy fun

(left to right) Sam Shankman (Lucky), Sierra Schnack (Joan), Kelly Felthous (Ruby) and Todd Aulwurm (Dick) at Theatre at the Center, (Photo by Brett Beiner)

3 stars

What’s not to love about a show that opens with a rousing tap number? Nothing, it turns out. “Dames at Sea,” the newest production at the Theatre at the Center in Munster, IN, is pure campy fun, from the first minute to the last.

It follows the story of Ruby. She’s fresh off the bus from Utah and in search of a career as a dancer on Broadway. She hasn’t eaten in three days, forgets her suitcase on the bus in her rush to get a job as a dancer, falls into a job dancing on a chorus line in a Broadway production, and catches the eye of a sailor who pledges his love for her — all in the delightful course of her first day in New York.

“Dames at Sea” is a long-running, Off Broadway hit that made Bernadette Peters a star in 1969. Kelly Felthous, the tiny blond firecracker who plays Ruby, channels her inner Bernadette Peters in this production, complete with spunky tapping, high-pitched voice and impish smile. (Ashley Lanyon takes over the role of Ruby from May 22-June 2.)

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A beauty of a ballet

It was impressive that the young dancers onstage for A&A Ballet’s May 4th performance of“Sleeping Beauty” were not thrown off by a cell phone ringing throughout the first half.

A stage manager solved that problem after intermission by asking audience members to turn off their phones completely, not just set them to silent. That was because the cell phones were interfering with the wireless systems in the Studebaker Theater, he said.

Whether that was true or not, it resolved the issue of the rude audience member so the rest of us were able to fully focus on the beauty onstage.

The matinee performance of the A&A Ballet featured a multi-cultural and multi-generational cast of impressive ballerinas, including some tiny tots who couldn’t have been cuter in their sheep costumes.

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‘West Side Story’ still carries a message

Mikaela Bennett and Corey Cott in West Side Story at Lyric Opera. (Photo by Todd Rosenberg)

3 1/2 stars

If you go to see “West Side Story,” now at the Lyric Opera through June 2, 2019, you are likely to think about how culture clashes have changed or not since Leonard Bernstein wrote the show’s dramatically descriptive music, Stephen Sondheim did the very memorable lyrics, Arthur Laurents penned the book based on William Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” and Jerome Robbins directed and choreographed it.

When West Side Story opened as a Broadway musical in 1957 it received six Tony nominations including Best Musical but a feel good show, “Music Man,” won the Tony Award for Best Musical. “West Side Story” was not meant to make audiences happy. Even the show’s single funny scene/song “Gee, Officer Krupke” sung by the Jets pinpoints societal problems.

Anyone who reads Shakespeare’s tragedies, knows the Bard is very good at portraying motivations and clashes.

If you know your Shakespeare, you will find some similarities between the “Romeo and Juliet “ of the 1590’s and Broadway musical of the 1950s.

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Around Town – Two arts festivals

Arts and Crafts Adventure in Park Ridge. (Photo courtesy of American Society of Artists)

Two festivals open the spring/summer arts season, one downtown Chicago, the other in Park Ridge. They are the second weekend of May so let’s hope our rainy/snowy April won’t extend into May.

Manifest Urban Arts Festival

Held by Columbia College, long known for its arts programs and degrees the festival is a day-long, free arts celebration//demonstration May 10 from noon to 9 p.m. along the Wabash Arts Corridor May 10 from 9^th to 11 Streets.

The festival features bands, fashion and art exhibitions, dance and theatre performances and hip-hop star Kweku Collins, For time and specific location of each highlight visit Manifest Urban Arts Festival. As an example “Documenting Truth in an Era of “Fake News” features photographs and film trailers from noon to 9 p.m. at 1104 S. Wabash Ave. 8^th floor. Animation Showcase is in the same location from 4 to 7 p.m.

Arts & Crafts Adventure

Presented by the American Society of Artists, the show feature paintings, photography, jewelry, glass, wood and other hand-made items and some artists demonstrations. Look for it on May 11 in Hodges Park, 101 S. Courland near Prospect and Vine across from Park Ridge City Hall. It is near the uptown Park Ridge Train Station. Hours: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Free admission. For more information visit Arts & Crafts Adventure call (847) 991-4748 or visit Arts & Crafts Adventure.

Jodie Jacobs

Philosophy and passion clash in ‘Hannah and Martin’

Christina Gorman and Lawrence Grimm in Shattered Globe Theatre’s production of Hannah and Martin. (Photo by Michael Brosilow)

4 Stars

Can a brilliant Jewish philosopher and her celebrated German professor, turned lover, exist on two opposite tracts? The answer, of course, is no.

But the production of “Hannah and Martin” by Shattered Globe Theatre takes the audience through an ideological and moralistic journey with deep, thought-provoking, dialogue.

Written by Kate Fodor, the play is based on the clandestine love affair between German-Jewish political theorist Hannah Arendt and her teacher, the well-known German philosopher Martin Heidegger. After the war, Arendt was considered one of the most important political philosophers of the twentieth century.

On a collision course with politics and destiny, this powerful drama takes place in Germany from 1924 – 1946. Disappointment looms when Arendt discovers that her beloved Heidegger is working to promote the goals of the Nazis.

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Visit the War Years in Sentimental Journey

Ross Lehman with pianist Chuck Larkin n Sentimental Journey at Citadel Theatre. (Photo by North Shore Camera Club)

3.5 stars

If you see “Sentimental Journey: A Musical Tale of Love and War” at Citadel Theatre, you may want to ask you parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles about their lives during WWII or Vietnam.

The show is actor Ross “Robbie” Lehman’s ode to his parents, Katey and Ross Lehman.

By telling their story through such 1940’s songs as “I May Be Wrong (But I Think You’re Wonderful),” “I Wonder Who’s Kissing Her Now,” “Sentimental Journey” and “We’ll Meet Again” with some Irish roots thrown in with “Molly Malone” and “Danny ‘Boy,” and by reading their letters in the voice of the writer, you learn about their meeting, dating and enduring the uncertainties and traumatic emotional and physical toll of war.

Lehman, whom theater goers know from seeing him at Chicago Shakespeare, Steppenwolf and Goodman, easily adopts the voices and mannerisms of Katey, a writer with a cigarette in one hand and a drink nearby, and Ross, a pipe (later cigar) smoker who loved to sing and was often chosen as an event’s emcee.

The first act, about 55 minutes, is filled with charming stories..The second act of about 35 minutes, turns emotional as you learn about his father’s horrific war experiences.

He takes his father’s bomber jacket out of its frame on the set to show the holes made by German flak and in a video close-up you see the medals, including the Purple Heart, that are also framed.

Ross Lehman in sentimental Journey at Citadel Theatre. (Photo by North Shore Camera Club) — Ross Lehman in Sentimental Journey at Citadel Theatre. (Photo by North Shore Camera Club)

The frames are on a wall that even with a video screen on one side showing parents, family members and bombers, gives the set created by Timoth Mann, an intimate feeling. To one side is the piano played for some shows by co-musical director Chuck Larkin and other times by co-musical director Mark Weston.

Lehman credits his granddaughter Carlyn Hudson with the choreography (also shown in a video) so you know that the love of music and performance is passing down to another generation. BTW, Lehman is a faculty member at Loyola University and has taught acting, musical theatre and Shakespeare at DePaul and Northwestern Universities.

Directed by Mark Lococo who knows the Lehman family, the play is a way to better understand the War Years.

“Sentimental Journey: A Musical Tale of Love and War” is at Citadel Theatre, 300 S. Waukegan Rd., Lake Forest, through May 26. Run time: 100 minutes including one intermission. For tickets and other information call (847) 735-8554 and visit Citadel Theatre.

Jodie Jacobs

For more shows visit Theatre in Chicago

City Lit Slides Home With A Theatrical Double Header

Nate Strain. "The Devil and Daniel Webster," one-half of Two Days in court. (Photo by Steve Graue) — Nate Strain. “The Devil and Daniel Webster,” one-half of Two Days in court. (Photo by Steve Graue)

3 Stars

As the baseball season begins, City Lit is ending their 39^th theatrical season with “Two Days in Court: A Double-Header of Classic One Acts.”

The two plays are “The Devil and Daniel Webster” by Stephen Vincent Benet, and the farcical Gilbert & Sullivan operetta “Trial by Jury.”

In “The Devil and Daniel Webster” a young farmer turned senator Jabez Stone (Nate Strain) has literally sold his soul to The Devil “Scratch” (Lee Wichman) in exchange for his success. The agreement comes due coincidentally at midnight on the day of his wedding to Mary Stone (Laura Resinger).

Luckily for the Stones one of their wedding guests is the famed orator of-the-day and prominent attorney Daniel Webster (Bill Chamberlain) who agrees to represent Jabez against Scratch in front of a “jury of the damned” to get the young Senator released from this most egregious contract.

Webster reminds the jury who have each sold their soul for advantage over others and short term gain, that they have sacrificed the simple pleasures of life.

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