Items filtered by date: November 2007

The Ballad of Lefty & Crabbe is a new musical comedy that is so good I found myself lamenting half-way through Act 1 that its run at Underscore Theatre ends July 14 – or ever!

It is hard to imagine anyone not being smitten by it; it is just the type of show that you can imagine endearing itself like Hand to God or Avenue Q to an Off-Off-Broadway audience as it works its way into the hearts of investor angels.

Smartly written and played with boundless verve, it takes us through the rocky path trod by many early 20th Century Vaudeville performers, who hoped to save their flagging careers – decimated by the talkies – by transferring themselves onto celluloid in Hollywood.

The main characters are Theodore “Lefty” Childs (Kyle Ryan) and James “Crabbe” Hathaway (Shea Pender), a pair of comedians not unlike Laurel & Hardy, whose regular performance circuit is disappearing as playhouses convert to movie houses. They board a train to Hollywood and we are introduced to other performers doing likewise. 

On their arrival, the duo quickly is told their brand of humor won’t translate to the screen, and they are cast separately. The portly Crabbe plays the butt of jokes in a series of demeaning “Fatty” movies (a likely nod to the real life Fatty Arbuckle who hailed from Kansas City where this show originated https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roscoe_Arbuckle). The more photogenic Lefty repeatedly plays the unrequited suitor in romantic films. (This character type is vaguely like Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis’s co-star.) Lefty & Crabbe are disillusioned at first, then inspired when the big fat checks arrive from the studio.

We meet so many notable characters and performers it’s hard to list them all – but megaphone-wielding movie director Mac Lloyd (he’s co-author Ben Auxier) is a blast; and blonde bombshell Lolo Carmichael (Elisabeth del Toro) delivers great singing. You will probably enjoy the Mr. Burns-like producer wraith Mr. Rocksfeld Stephanie Boyd). Directed by Rusty Sneary with choreography by JennaShoppe, this show in Underscore’s tiny storefront with just a piano (Annabelle Rivak yields an orchestra from the keyboard) and a dozen earnest players features songs, singing, dance, and performances that are positively top drawer. 

There is also a depth to the show, as the characters eventually tire of the vaporous Tinsel Town success and long for live performances before real people. Perhaps we're hearing a warning drawn from another era's experience with media transfoprmation that seems to parallel the offline longing engendered by our own digital age.

The writing team (book by Ben Auxier, Brian Huther and Seth Macci with music and lyrics by Auxier and Huther) has clearly drawn inspiration from the vaults of old time stage comics to adapt into this show’s slapstick schtick, with fast-paced dialog, smart jokes and throwaway one-liners. It is so quick, my mind did double-takes, provoking laughter sometimes mid-way into the next scene.

The Ballad of Lefty & Crabbe was originally work shopped and produced by the Living Room Theatre in Kansas City, MO, and was produced last year in a new musicals festival in Chicago. You won’t want to miss this run at Underscore Theatre – it’s highly recommended. See it through July 14 at 4609 N. Clark St. in Chicago. 

When Chicago drag performer Joan Jett Blakk ran for President in 1992 – the year Bill Clinton was nominated – it was certainly the most outré act of political insurrection Americans had seen – for those who noticed, anyway. It’s unlikely the Tribune and Sun-Times gave her candidacy much coverage.

Now Steppenwolf Theater is telling her story, in Ms. Blakk for President, timed for Gay Pride Month and the 50th Anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising.Let me tell you something: it will make you laugh and cheer.

This show is particularly special for its genesis – co-authored by Tina Landau (who directed) and Tarell McCraney. McCraney also plays Joan Jett Blakk in a shoot-for-the-stars great performance. McCraney has also had several other plays produced at Steppenwolf. Oh, and he chairs Playwriting at Yale. Oh, and he also won an Oscar for the script with Barry Jenkins for Moonlight. To put it bluntly, this is a moment in Chicago theater you will not want to miss.

The real Joan Jett Blakk, Terence Alan Smith, was a transgressive performance artist who dashed straight cultural and political norms. Smith has collaborated on this play, which finally gives him his due. Running for Mayor of Chicago against Richard M. Daley in 1990, as a black, gay, man in drag, this Queer Nation Party candidate was well ahead of her time. Then she went on to the Democratic National Convention, gaining credentials and making it to the floor. OMG!

In fact, Joan Jett Blakk actually ran twice for President of the U.S. – in 1992 and 1996 – and some of her best lines are put to the service of this show – “Lick Bush in ’92!” “If a bad actor can be elected president, why not a good drag queen?” Doesn't that convey the power of drag?

Her platforms included legalizing all drugs, and to have “dykes on bikes” secure our borders. She posed as Angela Davis in a wicker chair holding a machine gun, but turning that violent Black Panther slogan “By Any Means Necessary” to something altogether mind-bending, delivering power on another plane. That is what Joan Jett Blakk was all about.

The very subversiveness of Blakk’s drag queen candidacy by necessity is ephemeral. Seeing it staged, against the gay liberation protests and demands made at the Madison Square Garden Democrativ Convention for AIDS support and abortion choice, reminds us of not just how far society has come, but how fragile those victories remain.

Landau and Jenkins felt that a more experiential play would tell the story better. So the Steppenwolf has been converted to a drag show bar, with a runway, cocktail table seating, and familiar denizens (some look like Village People types). The audience is encouraged to dress in drag, I suspect, because many did the night I saw it. And some ask questions of the candidate in a free-flowing town hall.

Ms. Blakk for President relates basic factual aspects of the history: how Joan Jett Blakk got to New York (the Limelight Nightclub flew her); where she stayed (a former trick put her up); how she got credentials, and her path the floor of Madison Square Garden, appearing after a young Rep. Maxine Waters and Gov. Mario Cuomo gave nominating speeches. We see clips of those speakers from the real convention.

It is a great story – and Landau and McCraney give us an entertaining semblance of a drag show, with the requisite vamping, dancing, vogueing – all supporting McCraney’s high energy performance. She reveals Smith’s internal process as he changes from an ordinary black man to Joan Jett Blakk, while lying in a stall in the men’s room at Madison Square Garden. It was an almost sacramental transformation, that emancipated Smith into the powerful Joan Jett Blakk. (Smith chose not to use falsies or hide his male body; she donned gold earrings, makeup, and a tight-fitting spaghetti strap flag dress before joining the throngs on the floor). You can see photos of the real dress on the real Joan Jett Blakk in the theater lobby. 

Smith’s achievement with Joan Jett Blakk would be easy for contemporary viewers to overlook – she arrived long before characters like Ru Paul and from Queer Eye for the Straight Guy became household names. If you were around at the time and became aware of her campaigns, you were either tickled or repulsed. But there was a deadly serious element here: gay liberation was taking to the streets, and Queer Nation and ACT UP were demanding action on gay issues– which were largely disregarded by the political mainstream.

Joann Jett Blakk’s campaign brought an element of street theater to bear on pressing issues: LGBTQ Rights, gay oppression and discrimination, marriage equality, and the AIDS crisis. The establishment could only have viewed Smith’s run as an act of political insolence.

This show is good theater, and the play itself accomplishes its slapdash tale-telling, albeit with some loose threads, like the recuring wraith, dressed in popular drag roles, who gives Joan guidance at crossroads in her life. (It kinda sucks.) We do get to know Joan Jett Black, and through her, Terence Alan Smith. We get a pretty good sense of the streams of gay political movement – the more fiery queer rage and the more conciliatory gay gradualists who find drag threatening. The play is male-centric, given its drag focus, a fact that is acknowledged from the stage.

And this work is self-aware – largely a farce, and admittedly so. But it does chronicle someone who made an important contribution to our poltiics and society, by any means necessary.” Ms. Blakk for President” is lots of fun, big laughs, and will also draw you to spontaneous applause for those political statements that ring even truer today. The experience is extended with after-show talks, the DJ SLO'MO at Steppenwolf's Front Bar on Friday nights, and other events. Ms. Blakk for President  runs through July 14 at Steppenwolf Theater. 

*Extended through July 21st

The Physical Theater Festival, running through June 9 at Stage 773, is an exciting opportunity to really enjoy theater from around the world.

It overcomes the biggest barrier to shows from abroad – language – by reducing or eliminating the spoken script, subordinating it to broad movement, pantomime, facial expressions - that convey as much or more than words do. It also shows off a performance style that seems to spring from improvisational roots, while drawing the better aspects of mime.

Now in its sixth year, the Physical Theater Festival runs in tandem with workshops by these accomplished global artists,for actors interested in learning the techniques. held in the same Stage 773 location at 1225 W. Belmont. It includes performers from Brazil, India, UK, Canada, Belgium and other countries, with acts that run from 60 to 90 minutes.

We had a chance to catch two of them – Next Door, performed by Out of Balanz, a duo from Finland and Denmark; and Helga: Life of a Diva Extraordinaire, a one-woman show by the Kallo Collective of Finland, performed by Henni Kervinen, a circus artist. It is nearly wordless, and both highly entertaining, and quite distinctive. Helga is performed as a caricature, and exaggerated protrait of an apparently crabby and lonely old woman spending her days reading the paper and drinking bitter expresso. But wait - she ahd a past, a glamorous and exciting past. She dispells our prejudices about her condition by moving onto a trapeze in a spoof of a high wire act. 

Next Door was a poignant telling of the story of a man in Copenhagen, Ivan Hansen, who becomes aware, belatedly, of the death of an elderly man in a neighboring apartment. The two were in close proximity – they were separated by the wall about 18 inches thick between their domiciles – but weren’t close at all.

Ivan learns, about a month after the fact, that his elderly neighbor had collapsed and died just the other side of his bedroom wall, probably while Ivan was standing by inches away. This realization triggers an hour-long depiction of his upbringing in Copenhagen, with reenactments of his best friends enclouters, the apartment in which he was raised with his brother, times with his parents, and his youthful adventures with his buddies.

The digressions are tremendously entertaining, with brief narrative transitions (in English), as the two characters move us to insights into our individual human conditions. It was very powerful. Here's a traler to give you a sense of what a performance is like:

The Festival begain in 2014, when Alice da Cunha and Marc Frost originally launched the Chicago Physical Theater Festival through the Artistic Associate program at Links Hall. The inspiration for the Festival drew upon their combined experience in London as physical theater students at the London International School for the Performing Arts (LISPA). Moving from London to Chicago, they were inspired to start a new festival to promote a more progressive, fresh and physical approach to theater-making in Chicago. Do try to catch one or more of these shows for an exceptional experience. And mark your calendar for the next series in 2020, so you don’t miss it. www.physicalfestival.com 

The Den Theatre returns to original programming for the first time in nearly five years. Director Lia Mortensen directs their revival of the Joel Drake Johnson play ‘Four Places’. In the intimate space at the Den, ‘Four Places’ gets its first Chicago production since its premiere in 2008 at Victory Gardens. 

‘Four Places’ is a fast-paced one act about two siblings dealing with aging parents. The action is fairly simple; a car ride to lunch, the meal and the car ride back.  Warren (Bruch Reed) and Ellen (Amy Montgomery) are the disgruntled siblings. Throughout, there’s an underlying bitterness between the adult children and their mother. Peggy their mother (Meg Thalken) first appears as any other sweet old lady with a slight distance from modern life. The awkwardness seems merely like a generational gap. Once they begin the lunch, the revelations unfold and we get a glimpse into not only this specific family, but the aging process in general. 

This is a tight-knit cast and the nature of the play requires it to be so. Montgomery and Reed are convincing siblings. There’s a familiar chemistry between them adds a complicated layer to the story. They love each other, but rarely like each other. Reed is the sensitive one and Montgomery is the tough one. Good cop, bad cop. Though, it’s really Meg Thalken’s show. Lia Mortensen’s production is gritty and real. Thalken hits all the comic notes but seems more focused on authenticity. Thalken’s visible and palpable unraveling throughout the play is disturbing and achieves the play’s goal. Johnson’s play is about how uncomfortable it is to age, especially into the twilight years when control and dignity begin to slip away. 

‘Four Places’ is a very bleak dark comedy. It asks what happens when the parental/child roles reverse. Each scene is perfectly structured, the needs of the characters are so clear that the ending sneaks up on you. It is a sit-comish style play that’s easy on the ears, but Mortensen has mined the depths of the script for the universal realities. You may not cry but you’ll certainly wonder, what are we going to do about mom? 

Through June 30th at the Den Theatre. 1331 N Milwaukee. 773-697-3830

Organic Theater has done such a wonderful job in The Memo, it is hard to imagine a more perfect presentation of this play by Czech writer and statesmen, Václav Havel.

The Memo is at turns funny and unsettling. While the original The Memorandum is rooted in the totalitarian Eastern Europe, in Paul Wilson’s fresh translation as The Memo, it reads as a commentary on the increasingly overbearing pressures today to perform in professional settings. That pressure is often ratcheted up to effect performance toward ambitious goals, often harnessing social pressure and WeWork-style perks toward these ends.

Set in a mythical office (the set is all in grays is by Terrence McClellan), The Memo opens with clerks busily waltzing in a stylized manner through the office, processing manila files. This and other transition scenes are choreographed by Erica Bittner, with music by Tony Reimer. Then a derby-wearing executive arrives with a bright red folder.. When he places it in the inbox on the main desk, the movement screeches to a halt, and the action and dialog commence.

Inside that red folder is the titular memo. The Managing Director, Gross (Tricia Rogers) struggles to read what sounds like gibberish (does she have it upside down?). Soon her shark-like Assistant Director, Balas (Joel Moses) arrives, joined at the hip now by that same mysterious derby-topped exec Kubs (Subhash Thakrar). Kubs speaks only through facial expressions – Thakrar is marvelous throughout with his big face an d exaggerated mugging. 

Balas explains that this memo is written a new, language – PTYDEPE – scientifically created for precision of expression, as a means to improved efficiency. It is being rolled out in administrative offices everywhere.
And it is here where The Memo strikes a dagger in the heart of the contemporary cultural ethos: those who adopt PTYDEPE will succeed, those who don’t will fall by the wayside - not so different than office apps that come and go. We watch as the Executive Director is coaxed into signing an authorization for this roll out, which then leads to the implementation of a PTYDEPE training department, and an unfolding world where The Office comes pickled in an Orwellian brine of 1984.

For context, Havel was that rare “poet king” who helped lead his people to freedom. Before the Arab Spring there was a failed Prague Spring (1968), an effort to liberate Czechoslovakia from the Communist Block. Dissident Havel ended up in prison. As with China today and the Soviet Union back then, Czechoslovakia’s totalitarian censorship inspired a flourishing expression of dark humored workarounds, lampoons, and with Havel, absurdist plays like The Memorandum– discrete takedowns of the excesses of central control.

While the object of the humor was obvious to audiences - the government censors could not pin down objections in those subtly subversive words on the page, making the power of the works even stronger. Eventually Czechoslovakia’s Velvet Revolution (1989) precipitated the fall of the Soviet Union, and Havel became president of his now independent homeland. 

The performances and Havel’s characters are magnetic. The intellectual currency that the Organic Theater’s troupe has brought to The Memo is inestimable, informing inspired performances by supporting actors like Mary Mikva as the Director’s Assistant and Kris Downing as Translation Assistant. (Downing was awesome in Organic's production of The Melancholy Play, too.)

In particular the performance of Nick Bryant as J.V. Brown, the PTYDEPE trainer, is inspired – and a tour de force of acting as he shifts back and forth translating nonsense language to English with the passion of a revival preacher. You will love and surely recognize the many denizens of this office, incluidng Stephanie Sullivan as Kalous; Schanora Wimpie as Masat; Kate Black-Spence as Kunc; and Laura Sturm as Talaura. Don’t miss the chance to see The Memo, running at the Greenhouse Theater through June 16.

Cirque du Soleil is back in Chicago with its latest touring production, Volta. Volta’s inspiration comes from the culture of street sports and just about any acrobatics that could have originated in an urban jungle.

Written and directed by Bastien Alexandre, the theme of Volta is finding freedom from the judgment of others while finding oneself. The main character, Waz, is a young game show contestant who feels different, but thinks that fame and fortune will make him feel good about himself. Over the course of the show he discovers that love and acceptance come from being true to himself, and that his difference is what makes him extraordinary. As always the case with Cirque du Soleil shows, music accompaniment is provided by a live band; tacked behind the blinds in an enclosure at the back of the stage, it adds a rock musical element to the show. A blend of new age electronic and rock music by Anthony Gonzalez, vocals by Eric DeShan. Costumes for the show have been designed by Emmy award winner Zaldy Goco, famous for his work with Lady Gaga, Michael Jackson, Britney Spears, Gwen Stefani and RuPaul’s Drag Race.

First Act starts out with a fun and engaging Mr. Wow Show. Rope skipping performers compete for “wows” from the audience, and wows they get. Next comes visually enticing “Meeting Ela”, with colorfully dressed performers doing Precision Walk, Roller Skating and a Unicycle numbers. “Acro Lamp” is a quietly beautiful aerial performance where a street lamp suspended high from the ceiling serves as a prop. For me, the most memorable number of the first part of the show is “Rise and Shine” – a high energy trampoline-based act. The stage becomes out quipped with a contraption reminiscent of a building construction site; a dozen or so performers jump out the windows and other surfaces, bounce off a trampoline, somersault, then jump back onto the building slowing down ever so slightly before landing with breathtaking precision. It‘s like watching a high quality video game where the characters are not limited by the nature of physics or human capacity.

Second Act opens with Acrobatic Ladders [that look like fire escapes]- a number called “Leaving the City” with performers defying gravity as they swing and fly around in horizontal planes. Following it is “Urban Jungle” - a flawlessly fabulous, albeit more traditional, act of Shape Diving. And then comes magnificent “Mirage” – a hair Suspension act with a Brazilian aerialist Danila Bim suspended only by her hair pulled into a tight bun. As she’s swept up high in the air, the only thought suspended in my head is: how’s this even possible?

Comedic relief is provided by the Russian performer Andrey Kislitsin; his pantomimes are fun and superbly executed, most notably, “La Plage”, that draws lots of laughs from the audience. Volta culminates in “Momentum” – Bicycle Motorcross act. Loud and exciting, it is the perfect ending to another great show that Cirque du Soleil is known and loved for.

Volta is being performed at Soldier Field’s South Parking Lot through July 6th.

With the Cubs finally winning the World Series in 2016 after a 108-year drought, it was probably inevitable a theatrical production would be created at some point to recreate the special magic Chicagoans felt over that incredible year. And so ‘Miracle’, the new musical by William Marovitz and Julian Frazin, has arrived at Royal George Theatre smack dab in the middle of baseball season. Directed by Damon Kiely, the story centers around Maggie’s Tavern in Wrigleyville and the direct effect a winning season has on its owners, friends and patrons.

Charlie (Brandon Dahlquist) grew up at Maggie’s. It was owned by his parent’s and not long after his mother passed away, Pops (Gene Weygandt) passed the family business on to his son. Now Charlie lives upstairs with his wife Sofia (Allison Sill) and his daughter Dani (Amaris Sanchez and Elise Wolf). Everyone helps out. Larry (Johnathan Butler-Duplessis) is Charlie’s best friend and though busy with his law firm, always makes time to lend a hand. Sofia, Pops and Dani also do their part. It is a true family business. But business is slow, back taxes have piled up (thanks to an oversight by Pops) and Charlie doesn’t want his daughter’s future to be the same as his. But they are all die-hard Cubs fans and enjoy every minute of Wrigleyville tavern life. Each year opens with new enthusiasm and optimism for everyone except Charlie.

Charlie, a former college pitcher who gave up a possible Major League career to take on responsibilities at the tavern, asks himself why he and his family keep buying into the Cubs. He knows they are bound to disappoint. They are cursed. But don’t tell that to Charlie’s family or his regulars Babs (Veronica Garza) and Weslowski (Michael Kindston) – both hilarious, by the way. They just know the Cubs are destined to win the World Series.

The story evolves throughout the year, starting with an opening day win. We watch as the wins keep stacking up. A World Series win would sure do wonders for the struggling bar and no one has more faith than Dani.

Each step of the historic journey is captured as the Cubs make the post season and take out the Dodgers to play Cleveland for the World Series Championship. Images are displayed overhead as we relive those seven games that might just go down in history as the most exciting ever to have been played. Fans cheer from the audience as their Cubbies come back from the improbable 3-1 deficit only to snatch victory in an extra-innings Wild West adventure.

‘Miracle’ entertains from beginning to end. There are plenty of humorous moments, touching moments and the story flows smoothly thanks to a well-crafted script and an all-around very talented cast (Weygandt is just terrific as Pops). Even the musical numbers are catchy –Allison Sill really displays great vocal range while Dahlquist certainly holds his own.

There is really nothing to dislike in this engaging production that centers around one of Chicago’s most memorable moments. A great way to recapture the magic of 2016, ‘Miracle’ wins in every way.

Homerun!

‘Miracle’ is currently being performed at Royal George Theatre. Performance schedule for MIRACLE is Wednesdays at 7:30pm, Thursdays at 2pm and 7:30pm, Fridays at 8pm, Saturdays at 3pm and 8pm, and Sundays at 3pm. Tickets can be purchased at www.ticketmaster.com or by calling the box office at 312.988.9000.

*Extended through September 1st

Really? Another ‘Frankenstein’? The 2018/19 season was the year of ‘Frankenstein’. To celebrate the 200th anniversary of Mary Shelley’s classic gothic thriller, four theatre companies produced wildly different adaptations of the novel. If you find yourself wondering whether these companies knew of each other’s productions, they surely did. The beauty of the Chicago theatre landscape is that there’s a lot of room for good storytelling. Lookingglass Theatre wraps up their season with a bold adaptation from the same team who brought us ‘Moby Dick’ and ‘Lookingglass Alice’.

Conceived and directed by David Catlin, this take on ‘Frankenstein’ is as visually stunning as it is insightful. The in-the-round staging makes this telling feel more active, as the entire performance space is used throughout. Shifting around in your seat feels like a more engaging way to view the show. Not knowing where the monster or the next loud sound will come from, heightens the sense of terror. Catlin’s production is scary. Many of the other productions discounted that this is a horror story originally intended by Mary Shelley to scare guests at a party.

While nearly all the productions tried to weave Mary Shelley’s personal life into the retelling, Catlin’s version cuts right to the heart. In fluid transitions between Shelley’s life and ‘Frankenstein’, we get to see the range of Cordelia Dewdney’s talents as an actress. The show may be titled after the scientist, but this is a play about Mary Shelley. Dewdney’s dialogue as Mary Shelley is heartbreaking when considering her real life. Cruz Gonzalez-Cadel also turns in a strong performance in a variety of characters, all of which she plays comically large with a faux pregnancy belly.

The balance of good casting, inventive storytelling and arresting staging distinguish this production. Catlin has chosen to frame his version almost as children playing dress up while exchanging ghost stories. And since the characters are adults, there’s a simmering sexiness to this production. Sexy and ‘Frankenstein’ are two words rarely seen in the same sentence, but somehow Lookingglass achieves just that, making this a delicious evening at the theatre. Thrills, chills and titillation, the pillars of entertainment.

Even though we are now 201 years out from the original publication of ‘Frankenstein’, don’t sleep on this striking production at Lookingglass. For those with a grey memory of the novel from high school, or only familiar with the Universal-Boris-Karloff film version, Lookingglass serves up an unforgettable night of scary fun.

*Extended through September 1st

You know if a musical wins the Pulitzer, it’s going to be a sad one. Creative team Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey took home the 2010 Pulitzer for ‘Next to Normal’, an award rarely given to musical theatre. David Cromer returns to Writers Theatre to direct this highly anticipated revival. Cromer has strong roots with the Glencoe-based company and this faithful, yet distinct production contains all the hallmarks of his signature style. Cromer also directed the Tony awarded production of ‘The Band’s Visit’ which just closed on Broadway last month.

‘Next to Normal’ is a rock opera about a suburban mother and housewife dealing with bipolar disorder. Not exactly the sexiest topic for a musical, but lyricist Brian Yorkey cuts through the schmaltz with deeply effective words about the state of mental health in America.

This show relies heavily on the small cast, but probably even heavier on the actress in the lead role. Keely Vasquez is devastating as Diana Goodman. Her performance is realistic and shocking as she rapidly slips from seemingly normal mother into the depths of psychosis, while mostly in song. A tough order to fill without losing your audience. Her daughter Natalie is played by Kyrie Courter who appears to be displaying Cromer’s directorial style the strongest in this ensemble. She has a great voice that she maintains even during the most challenging moments of acting.

Writers’ remount of ‘Next to Normal’ is hardly an area premier, as the national tour starring Alice Ripley made a stop in Chicago, and a few other companies have tackled this one since. Though Writers’ production feels like a definitive regional engagement. Cromer has a knack for these hard-hitting musicals. Some may remember his gritty, raw production of ‘RENT’ at the now defunct American Theatre Company. His vision for this show is unique and tends to go for the emotional gut rather than crystal clear showtune belting. While this may irk some musical theatre purists, the visceral sounds of the cast seem more authentic than the original cast recording.

This show is more like a play in song, than a traditional musical. Its depth lies in that it’s a story about specific characters dealing with an issue that many people can see themselves in. Even if you can’t relate to the character dealing with bipolar, the plight of the characters effected is heartbreaking. ‘Next to Normal’ is a slow builder. It isn’t really until the second act that it all catches up to you and by the finale, it’s hard to find anyone not emoting. This production is well worth hopping on the Metra for. If you missed the tour or the Broadway engagement, fear not, Cromer delivers an equally satisfying product.

Through June 16 at Writers Theatre. 325 Tudor Court, Glencoe IL 847-242-6000

Goodman Theatre’s staging of The Winter’s Tale, loaded with spectacle, would have seemed ridiculous and even unanchored 20 years ago. But with the surging popularity of those magical realms in the movies of the Marvel Universe – Black Panther, Captain Marvel, Avengers: Endgame - where characters die, then return, and are repeatedly transformed – well, director Robert Fall’s almost (but not quite) overwrought effort fits our times perfectly.

The Winter’s Tale was one of Shakespeare final works, and it is a unique form (perhaps why it is produced less often), neither a comedy nor a tragedy, but devised as a romance.
Unlike the powerful plays that are channeled intellectually to our emotions through telling dialog, as in the tragic Hamlet or comic Taming of the Shrew, The Winter’s Tale was meant as a theatrical confection, and entertains us more than it sways us.

In Goodman Theatre’s magnificent production, director Robert Falls has given us spectacle – five acts delivered as a series of elegant vignettes, presenting different facets of Shakespeare’s spin on several forms: Tragedy, Greek Drama, Pastoral Romance, Comedy & Clowning. At first, I admit I was suspicious of it all, wondering whether Goodman had bankrolled an overproduced folly. But by degrees I came to appreciate Falls' vision, and fell for it.

The Winter’s Tale opens with a brewing tragedy among royals – the deeply bonded kings of Bohemia and Sicilia are like brothers, who have a falling out, leading to tragic consequences and suffering. But Shakespeare uses the stuff of this tragedy as a formula: we are meant to behold the key points of very bad things happening.

For this, Falls puts the cast in contemporary evening wear and paper crowns – suggesting through what is almost a cliché in contemporary Shakespeare style, that this is a throwaway tragedy. The cast delivers it’s Elizabethan dialog persuasively. But the rather convoluted sequence of events is more like an exaggerated operatic storyline, than compelling trough of sorrow.

In a nutshell, Leontes (Dan Donohue - he was Scar in Lion King!) King of Sicilia becomes jealous of his pregnant wife Hermione (Kate Fry) and of his dearest friend, Polixenes (Nathan Hosner), the King of Bohemia, who he deems are cheating on him. Leontes shifts with inexplicable rapidity from bosom buddy to enraged adversary, though friends and advisers try to soothe him. Hermione delivers the baby, and Leontes puts her on trial, and sends the infant girl to die in the wilderness – of Bohemia. Oh and his young son Mamillius (Charlie Herman) dies, leaving Leontes heirless.

Subsequent scenes, including the trial of Hermione, now are given the look of Greek drama, or, Game of Thrones as suggested by the costume of Leontes steward, Paulina (Christiana Clark is a dramatic force). Hermione’s fate is sealed by Leontes' edict, but an appeal is made to consult the Oracle at Delphos on whether his jealousy is misplaced.

The play transitions a more pastoral setting, in wilds of the Kingdom of Bohemia, where the baby in the basket is threatened by a bear – played with convincing ferociousness by Mark Lancaster. The baby is saved when the bear chases after someone else (“Exit, pursued by bear” is the script line).

The curtain falls. And when it rises, we are greeted by a transitional interlude, with the character Time and letting us know in metered verse the clock has moved forward 16 years. This precious scene is like an elaborate decorative embellishment in an antiquarian book, letting us know we are entering a new episode.

The next parts of the play brings us to the pastoral setting of the Kingdom of Bohemia, and Falls gives us celebratory scenes following a sheep shearing, with bales of wool stacked high, and ala Nutcracker, a giant sheep and sheers. Against the setting of plenty we meet the surviving infant, Perdita (Chloe Baldwin) now a teenaged girl, and her boyfriend, Florizel (Xavier Bluell, who brings a real freshness and spark to his role). We are greeted by delightful scenes, and eventually the play makes it’s way back to the Kingdom of Sicilia, for a magical resolution in which all is forgiven, though not all live happily ever after.

For Shakespeare fans this production of a rarity makes The Winter’s Tale must viewing. But anyone who comes will find themselves richly rewarded. It runs through June 9 at Goodman Theatre.