TheatreIn Chicago – Chicago Theater and Arts

Annie a hopeful message

Annie

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

“Annie” by Music Theater Works at North Shore Center for the Performing Arts in Skokie offers a message of hope during desperate times that has an eerie relationship to the present.

The popular musical with music by Charles Strouse, lyrics by Martin Charnin and book by Thomas Meehan, is based on an equally popular 1885 poem “Little Orphan Annie” by James Witcomb Riley and a subsequent comic strip of the same name. The comic strip debuted in 1924 in the New York Daily News (owned by the Chicago Tribune), then ran in various newspapers for the next 86 years.

The uplifting story of a distinctively red haired, hopelessly optimistic, depression era orphan named Annie keeps the story firmly rooted in the early 1930s where the stark contrast between the haves and have-nots was plainly evident everywhere. This was especially true in urban centers like New York City where fortunes large and small were lost in the 1929 stock market crash.

Masses of people were reduced to selling apples or pencils on the street and living in improvised shanties nicknamed Hoovervilles, a portmanteau designed as a dig against outgoing President Herbert Hoover whom many considered responsible for the current conditions.

In the meantime, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt struggled to cobble together a number of relief initiatives that would become “The New Deal” including the Works Projects Administration (WPA) and Social Security for the elderly.

This version of the stage play begins with projected depression era images during the overture played by the MTW 16 piece pit orchestra led by Linda Madonia to set the mood and feeling of the time.

The opening lament, “Maybe” sets up the problem and introduces us to the eponymous orphan, Annie (Elin Joy Seiler) who dreams of reuniting with her parents and muses about what they might be like. Reality soon emerges with the orphan girls explaining their dismal lot singing, “Hard Knock Life.”

This is a showstopper as an assortment of exceptionally talented girls sing and dancd with expert precision led by choreographer Maryanne Nunn and music director Michael McBride.

Each of the girls show their individuality with none of them mugging for attention. However, the diminutive Molly (Audrey Bucholtz) is a scene stealer throughout the production, through no fault of her own.

Annie manages to briefly escape the orphanage rescuing stray dog “Sandy” along the way and singing, perhaps the best-known song from this play, “Tomorrow.”

Film actor W.C. Fields is often credited with saying, “Never work with dogs or children.” In this case, Seiler demonstrates her ultimate professionalism and comfort on stage as she manages to contain the loosely leashed and somewhat distracted Sandy (Nosi) while delivering her big number.

Back at the orphanage, boozy proprietress Miss Hannigan (Sarah Smith) opines her total contempt of the children in the comically mean spirited, “Little Girls.”

Smith finds a perfect balance of comic evil that is distinctively her own and not overly derivative of other well-known performers of this role.

Annie is returned to the orphanage about the same time Grace Farrell (Desiree Gonzalez) appears, looking to invite an orphan to spend the Christmas holiday with her employer Oliver “Daddy” Warbucks (Michael Metcalf). Annie is of course chosen.

This begins the relationship between the poor parentless child and the billionaire financier, setting up an opportunity to appreciate the stark contrast between those who are suffering and those with excessive wealth and privilege.

Metcalf is perfect in this iconic role. His well-modulated speaking and singing voice as well as his physical stature is commanding and authoritative shifting to a more sensitive demeanor when necessary and his suit fits impeccably.

I am a fan of Chicago area costume designer Rachel Sypniewski. She did a stellar job paying attention to each performer from the orphan girls and Warbucks’ household staff through to Annie’s make over and iconic final dress reminiscent of her comic-strip persona. Sypniewski understands that Warbucks and Annie as well as PA Farrell can’t look like they shop off-the rack so the tailoring is superb.

When Annie arrives at the Warbucks estate she asks if this is where he lives or is it a train station. The scenic design team of Jacqueline and Richard Penrod achieve an over-the-top impression with cartoon inspired scenic projections that decorate the background and flood the proscenium arch, creating an illusion of immersive opulence in which Annie sings, “I Think I’m Gonna Like It Here.”

Another big number in Act I, “Easy Street,” introduces us to Miss Hannigan’s equally despicable brother Rooster (David Geinosky) and his female accomplice Lily St. Regis (Emily Holland). Geinosky employs a particularly gracefully exaggerated comic-like physicality.

In Act II Annie’s hope of finding her parents aided by Warbucks with the help of President Roosevelt (Bob Sanders) is nearly dashed by the “Easy Street” trio but ultimately comes to a satisfactory conclusion.

This is a comic come-to-life, and though there are some serious aspects to the message it is easily consumable by all ages. I was surrounded by a number of children between 5 and 10 years old who seemed absolutely captivated and not the least bit bored throughout the entire production.

Director Kyle Dougan-Leblanc kept the pacing quick with captivating projections accompanied by Madonia’s orchestral incidental music during scene changes, keeping the audience involved and focused.

This company always does a great job but this production is perfection.

“Annie” by Music Theater Works at The North Shore Center for the Performing Arts, 9501 Skokie Blvd., Skokie, IL through January 4, 2026. Running time about 2 hours and a half with one 15-minute intermission. For tickets and information visit musictheaterworks.com or call (847) 673-6300.

Reviewer: Reno Lovison

For more reviews visit Theatre in Chicago

Joseph struts his dreamcoat at Cahn Auditorium

Joseph at Music Theater Works. (Brett Beiner photo)

3 stars

“Joseph’s Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” is the 2019 holiday fashion choice for Music Theater Works in Evanston and swan song of retiring stage director Rudy Hogenmiller.

The upbeat Vegas style variety show extravaganza commonly known as “Joseph” is – and in my mind – the least refined of the blockbuster musicals of composer Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyricist Tim Rice.

None-the-less, it enjoys wide acclaim and provides an evening’s worth of solid cheerful entertainment.

Continue reading “Joseph struts his dreamcoat at Cahn Auditorium”

‘You Are Happy’ will leave you smiling

Michelle Mary Schaefer and Brendan Connell in You are Happy. (Photo by Matthew Freer)

4 stars

If you agree that in an opera or ballet the storyline is incidental to the performance you will understand my reaction to “You Are Happy,” an interesting, innovative and thoroughly enjoyable production co-directed by Aaron Sawyer and Mary Kate Ashe at the Red Theater. It leaves you wanting more – but in a good way.

For the record, Bridget who ironically claims to find happiness in her own company and solitude, wants her suicidal brother, Jeremy, to find happiness with a true love.

Continue reading “‘You Are Happy’ will leave you smiling”

Open a book and oneself to a new adventure

David Payne as C.S. Lewis at Broadway Playhouse. (Production photos from Aneesa Muhammad (MKI)

4 stars

In the 1960s, C.S. Lewis was a well-known British author whose collected works made him one of the most famous literary writers of the 20^th century. Lewis died over 50 years ago.

David Payne, another Brit was an actor and playwright who hoped he would get a minor role in a previous play about C.S. Lewis. Instead, Payne got the lead role of C.S. Lewis, launching a terrific acting career.

When many audience members saw David Payne playing that lead role, they felt that they had discovered the real C.S. Lewis!

David Payne had read quite a lot of C.S. Lewis’s writing—even Lewis’s personal diary. And Payne was always asked many questions about Lewis. One day, Payne decided it would be fun if he could be Lewis himself and could answer these questions. That’s why Payne wrote, directed, and stars in “An Evening with C.S. Lewis,” a wonderful play which is now being shown at Chicago’s Broadway Playhouse.

In Act I, Payne plays the author sitting in Lewis’s living room and hosting a group of American writers in his home near Oxford. Lewis recalls the many events that affect his life and his large number of close friends, including J.R.R. Tolkien, an English author and poet.

In Act II, Payne playing Lewis says he eventually believes in Christianity. He also tells how he just met a divorced woman by the name of Joy who decides to come from the United States and live in London.

It reminds her so much of New York City where she had lived with her previous husband and family. Although Lewis describes London as “noise and chaos.”

He marries Joy who eventually lives with him in his house. Lewis goes on to say how their relationship turned his life upside down.

DETAILS: “An Evening with C.S. Lewis” is at the Broadway Playhouse at 175 E. Chestnut St., Chicago, through Nov. 3, 2019. Running time: 90 minutes, with one intermission. For tickets and other information, call (800) 775-2000, or visit BroadwayInChicago.

Francine Pappadis Friedman

For more shows visit Theatre in Chicago

An unusual motherhood challenge

‘Mother of the Maid’

2 1/2 stars

The story of Joan of Arc, spelled in her home country of France as Jeanne d’Arc and also called “The Maid of d’Orléans,” has inspired numerous sculptures, musical works, books and films. Among the best plays is George Bernard Shaw’s classic “Saint Joan” which premiered in 1923, three years after the Roman Catholic Church canonized her.

A age 19, she was burned at the stake for heresy stake in 1431 after continuing to claim visions of Saint Catherine of Alexandria (and other saints). Her successes in leading French troops against the English during the Lancastrian phase of the Hundred Years’ War had worried powerful people in the government and church so when captured by a French faction friendly to the English she was put on trial by Pierre Cauchon, a pro-English bishop.

What playwright Jane Anderson has done in “Mother of the Maid,” now playing at Northlight Theatre in Skokie, is zoom in on Joan’s mother, Isabelle Romée. Born in a peasant family of northeastern France, Joan’s name comes from her father, Jacques d’Arc.

The idea of examining how her family reacted to her visions and particularly how her mother worried and coped with unusual challenges may arguably form the basis of a fine play.

However, the work on stage at Northlight has contrived dialogue infused with current language trends and moves from one stilted scene to another.

DETAILS: “The Mother of the Maid” is at Northlight Theatre in the North Shore Center for the Performing Arts, 9501 Skokie Blvd, Skokie, through Oct. 20, 2019. Running time: about 2 hours with one intermission. For tickets and other information call (847) 676-6300 or visit Northlight.

Jodie Jacobs

For more shows visit Theatre in Chicago

Members of an Exclusive Club

‘Five Presidents’

3 stars

Rick Cleveland’s fictionalized docudrama, which is generously laced with comic zingers and one-liners that lighten the subject, imagines a 90-minute get-together between past presidents Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, George H.W. Bush, Ronald Reagan, and the current “Leader of the Free World”, Bill Clinton.

The year is 1994 and the setting is a gathering room in the Nixon Library in Yorba Linda, CA, tastefully designed by Grant Sabin and nicely lit by Alexander Ridgers.

The occasion for this meeting is the funeral of President Richard Nixon. Even though these five men would’ve greeted each other on this occasion, it’s unlikely that they spent an hour and a half talking together about so many different topics.

For most of the play, the five living members of this exclusive club banter about each other’s faults and failings and recite the various foreign and domestic policies that each President passed while in office.

The one plot point that runs throughout the play is that President Ford has decided he no longer wants to deliver his portion of Nixon’s eulogy but the other four try to convince him otherwise.

President Regan keeps offering to come to the rescue by volunteering to speak extemporaneously. However, the other men are aware that Reagan is in the onset of Alzheimer’s and understand how disastrous his eulogy might be.

Continue reading “Members of an Exclusive Club”

Be careful what you wish for

Cast of Into the Woods at Writers Theatre. (Michael Brosilow photo)

3 ½ stars

In Act II of Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s “Into the Woods,” the Baker and Cinderella, two of four main fairy-tale characters who survive the whole, Hamlet-like second act (Little Red and Jack (of beanstalk fame are the other two), explain that choices have consequences and everyone is connected in “No One Is Alone.”

It the characters sound like those folks encountered during childhood bedtime stories they may possibly come to life for some audience members during Act I. but that familiarity ends when Sondheim who composed the music and lyrics and Lapine who wrote the book, offers a scathing reality check in Act II.

The musical, garnering several Tony Awards including Best Score and Best Book when premiering on Broadway in 1987, pulls a moralistic, anti-happily after plot from stories primarily conceived or popularized by 17^th century French fairy-tale founder Charles Perraultan (“Cinderella,” Little Red Riding Hood”) and 19^th century German folklore authors and collectors, the Brothers Grimm (Rapunzel, Snow White). “Jack and the Beanstalk” is an English Fairy tale popularized by Joseph Jacobs started out n 1734 as “The Story of Jack Spriggins and the Enchanted Bean.”

It all starts with “Rapunzel” when a husband steals veggies called rampion or rapunzel from the garden of a next-door neighboring witch to make his pregnant wife happy. The witch catches him and makes a deal to leave the couple alone if they will give her theirthe baby to raise. This story is uncovered when that man’s son, the Baker, and his wife are lonely without children and learn it’s because of the witch’s curse.

And so the musical is about what people wish for and their journey to achieve it. The witch tells them the curse will be removed if the couple brings her a “cow as white as milk, cape as red as blood, hair as yellow as corn and slipper as pure as gold” in three days.

Continue reading “Be careful what you wish for”

Perfect Junie B Jones timing: How to overcome school problems

Cast of Junie B Jones at Marriott Theatre. (Photo courtesy of Marriott)

3 stars

In her Junie B Jones stories, children’s author Barbara Park found interesting solutions to problems youngsters face at school. Which means that “Junie B. Jones, The Musical,” put together by the “Dear Edwina” team of Marcy Heisler and Zina Goldrich, is perfect for youngsters to see right before school starts this fall.

Now at Marriott Theatre in Lincolnshire just through Aug. 11, 2019, the show is for all elementary-middle school youngsters.

On the first day of school, Junie B encounters problems right away on the bus when her best friend from last year now has two other best friends so won’t sit with her.

Once at school, Junie B doesn’t understand why she can’t read words on the board. She’ll have to wear glasses but what will her classmates think and say.

And the problems keep happening.

Elizabeth Telfore is a terrific Junie B. Adam LaSalle is great as her piano-playing day (and teacher Mr. Scary and others). Rashada Dawan is perfect as mom, (and the cafeteria cook and others).

Marriott shows, whether for a general or young audience, always have excellent voices and choreography. “Junie B” is no exception.

But the reason to take youngsters to the show is for them to see that there are ways to work through things that sometimes go wrong at school.

DETAILS: “Junie b. Jones, the Musical,” is at Marriott Theatre, 10 Marriott Drive, Lincolnshire. Running time: 1 hour. For tickets and other information call (847) 634-0200 or visit Marriott Theatre.

Jodie Jacobs

For more shows visit Theatre in Chicago

When comedy expresses pain at ‘International Falls’

Sean Higgins and Marie Weigle ( Pphoto by Katie Reynolds)

4 stars

Set in a Holiday Inn hotel room in International Falls, Minnesota, traveling comedian Tim has come to the end of the road while front desk clerk Dee wants to escape her life. Together they explore the use of comedy to mask their sadness and express their pain.

Tim (Sean Higgins) shares his unsuccessful quest to find his own unique voice and urges Dee (Marie Weigle) to find hers, stressing that honesty and authenticity is what is important.

In “International Falls,” playwright Thomas Ward evidently understands that struggle and has clearly met the challenge writing some of the most authentic and honest dialogue I have ever heard on stage.

Presented by by the Agency Theater Collective in partnership with End of the Line Production, Ward’s brilliant dialogue comes to life as spoken by Higgins and Weigle. You feel like you are sitting in their hotel room witnessing the events unfold.

Higgins’ cringingly awkward stand-up asides are perfectly painful and his obvious discomfort with himself combined with false bravado is portrayed with appropriate nuance.

Weigle’s pent up frustration, emerging confidence and vulnerability is palpable but never goes over the top.

The blocking was seamless and meaningful.

The naturalness of the actors can only be achieved when they have a critical eye assuring them that what they are doing is right.

Director Cody Lucas clearly gets credit for pulling this small ensemble together into a beautiful unified performance. Orchestrating the emotional level with symphonic accuracy, Lucas dials up the emotions to peak levels that never gets shrill, then dials them back down to create a needed contrast that keeps the audience engaged and caring about the characters.

This voyeuristic experience is further enhanced by the intimate setting of the Nox Arca Theatre which is actually a small industrial space on the 5^th floor of a concrete loft building on the corner of Irving Park in the Ravenswood corridor. Scenic Designer Soli Eisenberg has done a brilliant job of incorporating the natural elements of the room to create the effect.

By the way the music mix before the show began was awesome.

DETAILS: “International Falls” is at Nox Arca Theatre, 4001 N. Ravenswood Ave, #405. Chicago, through August 31, 2019. Running time is 90 minutes with no intermission. For tickets and information visit We Are the Agency.

Reno Lovison

For more shows visit Theatre in Chicago