(left to right) Patrick Mulvey and Chaon Cross in Greenhouse Theater Center and Proxy Theatre production of Midsummer, a pay with songs. (Photo by Michael Brosilow)
3.5 Stars
Helena (Chaon Cross), an attorney, and Bob (Parick Mulvey), a petty thief, are not exactly a perfect match but they find themselves thrown together out of desperation and convenience.
When confronted with an opportunity to have an exhilarating once-in-a-lifetime night of excess and revelry, they both decide to take a chance. It ultimately leads to a deeper attraction and unforgettable “Midsummer” romance.
Billed as “A Play With Songs” and produced by Proxy Theatre with the Greenhouse Theater Center, the unusual construction of this romantic dramedy has the two actors playing multiple roles.
They do so while periodically performing musical numbers (with guitar, ukulele, and piano) whilst alternately narrating the story-line in third person between spats of dialogue and soliloquy. Continue reading “‘Midsummer’ romance”
Nicole (Tara Bouldrey) in ‘Shadows of Birds’. (Mike Hari @ fadeout foto)
4 stars
Glass Apple Theatre is presenting the world premiere of “Shadows of Birds” written by Richard James Zieman and Joel Z. Cornfield.
It focuses on a young adult woman, Nicole (Tara Bouldrey), who’s been in rehab for months because of her addiction to drugs. But now Nicole’s counselor, Jennifer (Sydney Genco), feels Nicole is ready to return home and live with her mother, Barbara (Elizabeth Rude).
Her mother also has an older adult son, Kyle (Bobby Bowman). Neither Kyle nor Nicole knew their father because he left when their mother was pregnant.
Because of Nicole’s many years of mixed messages from her mother and brother, she was very insecure and became a drug addict. Now Nicole isn’t sure that she could live with her mother again.
The high-flying cast of “Newsies” now playing at Paramount Theatre in Aurora. (Photo by Liz Lauren)
4 stars
The mean streets of New York City at the turn of the 20th Century were dotted with children, mostly poor immigrants and orphans, struggling to eke out a survival living by selling newspapers. They were the “newsies” who sold the “papes.”
When greedy publishers began squeezing them for pennies by raising the wholesale price of their papers, the newsies rebelled–and won.
It’s a serious chapter in labor history, but one transformed into a warmhearted musical, “Newsies,” now playing at Paramount Theatre in Aurora.
The story is based on both the 1992 Disney film of the same name and the real-life Newsboys Strike of 1899 in NYC. The theatrical version culminates with a message of cross-cultural unity that resonates today.
Glenn Obero shines as street basketball player, Manford, in ‘The Great Leap’ at Steppenworlf. (Michael Brosilow photo)
4 stars
‘The Great Leap’
In the first act of playwright Lauren Lee’s “The Great Leap,” James Seol as Wen Chang, interpreter for an American college basketball coach who is visiting China, somewhat humorously observes Charles Dicken’s “It was the best of times” and goes on to say how it was the worst of times.
But as with “Tale of Two Cities” the famed quote was appropriate for the play’s setting, primarily Beijing 1971 and 18 years later Beijing 1989.
Because in 1971 the play’s action starts during China’s Cultural Revolution, basically 1966 to 1976. Chang notes that nothing is done without Party approval.
In Beijing, 18 years later, the American college coach is bringing his team to China. Chang is now coach of an impressive Chinese basketball team and both Chang and China have changed.
But the play isn’t just about China, even though Chang says basketball has forever changed the culture.
“The Great Leap” is a fast-paced, energy-charged, witty play performed by an exceptional cast under the direction of Jesca Prudencio, known internationally for handling shows that incorporate a high-level of physicality.
James Seol (Wen Chang) left and Keith Kupfere (Saul) right, in ‘The Great Leap’ at Steppenworlf. (Michael Brosilow photo)
Based on Lee’s actual family experience with her father, Larry Lee, a legendary San Francisco street basketball player, the play centers on how talented point guard, Manford Lum, played with extraordinary agility and know-how by Glenn Obrero, talked himself onto the 1989 San Francisco college team that was gong to China. , Obrero, a Chicago and TV actor is a former street basketball player.
Connecting all the parts from China in 1971 to San Francisco in May 1989 then China in June 1989 with heart and bravado is veteran film, TV and Chicago (Steppenwolf, Goodman, Rivendellactor Keith Kupfere, actor Keith Kupfere, playing Saul, a San Francisco university basketball coach.
The fourth actor in the well-chosen cast is Deanne Myers, Manford’s “cousin” Connie, who keeps abreast of what is going on in China and worries about Manford. Also a veteran of Chicago stage, Myers is the voice of reason and could arguably be a stand-in for the playwright.
The show is more than a chance to pick up some world-of-basketball knowledge. It is an opportunity to enjoy really fine performances and directing.
DETAILS: “The Great Leap” is at Steppenwolf, 1650 N. Halsted St., Chicago through Oct. 20. Running time: 2 hours with one intermission. For tickets and other information call (312) 335-1650 or visit Steppenwolf.
Cast of George Washington’s Teeth at Peninsula Players. (Photo by Len Villano)
‘George Washington’s Teeth’
3 stars
Certainly while in NYC it’s great to fit in a Broadway production but it can also be interesting, fun and rewarding to see a show while vacationing in other destination towns. In August, I visited Spring Green, WI to see “Book of Will” by the fine contemporary playwright, Lauren Gunderson as performed by American Players Theatre.
Then, while visiting Door County, WI, this past weekend, I went to Peninsula Players, a longtime, professional resident theater, to see “George Washington’s Teeth,” a new comedy by Mark St. Germain who typically chooses historic subjects.
Germain penned “Freud’s Last Session,” a brilliant play I saw at Chicago’s Mercury Theatre in 2012 that depicts what could have been debated on the existence of God and other deep subjects during a visit by C. S. Lewis to Sigmund Freud’s London home.
Although not in the same excellent-play category as Peninsula Players’ August offering of “Silent Sky,” a serious, “Hidden Figures” type of revealing-history play by Gunderson, or the fascinating “Freud’s Last Session” by Germain, “George Washington’s Teeth” worked on a couple of levels – humorous and satirical.
It’s a hilarious spoof about how self-importantly historical societies and town’s founding residents take themselves and the falsehoods that are sometimes believed and promoted.
Because the New Bunion Historical Society’s museum is in financial trouble, it needs an item or couple of exhibits to draw attendance or for use in a tour.
Thus, the desire to obtain a set of G. W’s teeth supposedly owned by a resident. BTW George Washington’s false teeth are a reality. He did have at least four sets of dentures, none of wood as some rumors said, but of ivory, other materials and human teeth.
Directed by Greg Vinkler and performed by equity actors who have often been seen in top Chicago area venues, the action includes Pythonesque absurdities such as historical society member, Edie, delightfully interpreted by the talented Penny Slusher, dressing as the Liberty Bell so she could help hold off the “British” during a re-enactment of the American Revolution’s non-existent, Battle of New Bunion.
Other absurdities include such museum treasures as a giant hairball and the actions of the museum’s newest member, Jess (Emma Rosenthal), a young kleptomaniac who sees the society as a way to do community service according to her probation terms.
Chicago stage veteran Ora Jones plays the serious Louisa, a black resident who not only has the famed teeth, but also corrects the starchy historical society president, Hester Bunion (Carmen Roman), on several points.
Rounding out the cast is Katherine Keberlein as Ann, a trophy wife who used to be an art restorer and ends up helping Louisa with an exhibit supposedly going to the Smithsonian along with the teeth.
The stage is set with a perfect re-creation of a historical museum room by J Branson and believable and comic costuming by Kyle Pingel.
Nice contemporary touches include asking Siri for certain music and information.
About the venue, at age 84, Peninsula Players is the country’s oldest professional summer resident theater. The campus spreads across 16 acres along Green Bay in Wisconsin’s Door County.
DETAILS: “George Washington’s Teeth” is at Peninsula Players, 4351 Peninsula Players Rd., Fish Creek, WI, through Oct. 20, 2019. Running time: 80 minutes. For tickets and other information call (920) 868-3287 or visit Peninsula Players.
Fantasticks at Skokie Theatre. (Photo by Graham Todd)
‘The Fantasticks’
3 stars
The second offering of a four-show series by MadKap Productions at the Skokie Theatre is “The Fantasticks,” a theatrical classic that holds the record as the longest running off-Broadway musical when it closed in 2002 after 17,162 performances over 42 years.
The story is about innocence and experience. Matt (Graham Todd) and Luisa (Jessica Surprenant) learn that life can be messy and cruel but as the song goes “without a hurt the heart is hollow.”
At the beginning the young lovers revel in the danger of their forbidden romance but come to learn that their fathers had actually erected a wall between their two properties to draw the two together.
Company of The Bands Visit at Cadillac Palace Theatre. (Photo by Matthew Murphy)
4 stars
The curtain at the Cadillac Palace Theatre reads “Turn off your cell phone” in English and in Arabic and in Hebrew.
And so begins “The Band’s Visit,” the multi-Tony Award winning musical that stunned Broadway and premiered off-Broadway in 2016.
Based on an Israeli film in 2007, the show quietly but beautifully depicts what happens when the eight-man Alexandria Ceremonial Police Orchestra arrives in Israel from Egypt then takes a bus from the airport to a town whose name sounds similar to Petah Tikva, where they are supposed to be playing a concert, but turns out to be Beit Hatikva, small, fictional, somewhat desolate place in the Negev Desert.
Having recently seen “Come From Away” that showed how the small town of Gander, Newfoundland, took care of hundreds of passengers from different countries stranded by the closing of U.S. airspace on 9-11, I expected to see more cultural differences such as food, show up during the band’s overnight stay. (They were able to take another bus out to their destination the next day.)
But this show, a comedy-drama with music and lyrics by David Yazbek and book by Itamar Moses is more how music is an international language that speaks to many different situations from soothing a crying baby to bringing lonely people together.
The band is led by Tewfiq, interpreted with careful reserve that later dissolves by Sasson Gabay, a leading Israeli actor who starred in the movie. Opposite him is Dina, a lovely café owner who feels stranded in Beit Hatikva, played with superb emotional vibes by Chilina Kennedy who starred as Carol King in “Beautiful.,” on Broadway.
The rest of the cast is also terrific. It is easy to fall in love with the band members as they skillfully play their instruments. But a special shout-out has to go to Joe Joseph who as Haled, is the band member who brings people together often asking if they like the song, “My Funny Valentine.”
DETAILS: “The Band’s Visit” is presented by Broadway in Chicago at the Cadillac Palace Theatre, 151 W. Randolph St., Chicago, through Sept. 15, 2019. Running time: 90 minutes. For tickets and other information visit Broadway in Chicago.
Cast of Howard’s End, a Remy Bumppo production at Theater Wit
4 stars
E.M. Forster’s 1910 literary classic is a sprawling novel about rank, morals and love among three English families from different social classes
His novel offered an insightful portrait of England at the height of its imperial world influence just prior to World War I. Through the lives of three diverse families, he showed how fast progress was happening and shaping Edwardian England.
In light of the sweeping changes taking place, Forster seemed to ask who would eventually inherit England? Which class would ultimately define this powerful nation?
Through this tale, we come to know the wealthy, capitalist Wilcox dynasty, the idealistic, intellectual upper middle class Schlegel sisters and the ever struggling, financially impoverished lower class Leonard and Jacky Bast.
Douglas Post’s faithful theatrical adaptation is truly eloquent and makes E.M. Forster’s novel accessible in a two-and-a-half hour production. This is a beautiful, carefully constructed play commissioned by Remy Bumppo Theatre, and currently enjoying its world premiere at Theater Wit.
Sons and Lovers at Greenhouse Theater. (photo courtesy of On the spot Theatre Company)
2 1/2 stars
It’s true that the very best writers use experiences from their own lives to inspire their writing. English author D.H. Lawrence, whose early twentieth century novels like Lady Chatterley’s Lover, Women in Love, Mr. Noon and The Rainbow shocked and entertained readers during this “Age of Innocence.” It’s also true that his stories are all very intimately bound up with his own life. But none of his novels is more autobiographical than Sons and Lovers.
This is Lawrence writing about his life and recreating scenes from his own experience, but fictionalizing it. He began writing the book in 1910, finishing the novel two years later.
The story underwent lots of revisions, including the title, and was influenced by many personal crises that occurred during this period. Lawrence ended a long relationship with Jesse Chambers (who’d serve as the model for his character, Miriam Leivers).
He became engaged to, and then broke up with Louie Burrows (who would be the inspiration for the character of Clara Dawes). He lost his mother to cancer, became seriously ill with pneumonia, gave up teaching and moved away from his birthplace. But this is a story that’s derived from the author’s own Oedipus complex.
When Lydia was a young woman, she lost her first love to another woman. She settled for Walter Morel, a boorish, yet passionate lower class man who worked long hours down in the Midland mines.
As sons William and Paul grew up, Lydia doted on them to the point where Walter is brow-beaten and practically ignored and she redirects all of her ardor and passion to her sons. They, in turn, become her lovers and as they grow to manhood they aren’t able to love any other women because their mother’s hold over them is so strong.
Casa Valentina a Pride Films and Plays at Broadway Theatre. (Photo by Cody Jolly)
3 1/2 stars
As part of Pride Films & Plays’ exploration of all things gender related, we travel back to the Chevalier d’Eon Resort in the Catskill Mountains. It’s 1962, and a secret world is revealed to 21st century audiences that actually existed during those more innocent, post-war years.
For at least one weekend during the late Spring, a group of happily married men with families, highly-respected in their chosen, white-collar professions, gather in this secluded Garden of Eden to express their alter-egos.
These men are not homosexuals, nor do they harbor a hidden desire to undergo surgery in order to become full-time women. They’re cross-dressers who, in private, simply enjoy (sometimes) being a girl.
In this remote setting, several longtime friends and a couple of new acquaintances, are provided the freedom to express themselves as feminine, girly girls in their own private, woman’s world.
