Items filtered by date: November 2007

I actually started cutting my teeth as a booking agent 20 years ago. by booking my own band into nightclubs. It seemed straightforward at first, there was a contact name and number and process for submitting your band's music but then I found out each club had a huge stack of unopened music and it was difficult to get the manager on the phone. If the manager wasn't a friend or at least a friend of a friend who liked your band you may get the runaround for months or wind up being given an opening slot at 6:30 PM on a Tuesday night that you can't possibly get your fans to show up at, let alone make any money playing. After a few rounds of this time wasting futility, I learned that by booking other bands along with my own for a whole night of music or a festival, I could get a lot more respect from the club, and more control over the split of funds from the door and which band got the prime slot- mine.

 *(above) Kimberly Katz with Taylor Negron

Theatrical booking by comparison is about 100 times more selective, complex, political, and cliquish than club/musical booking.

For ease of explanation, I group theatrical bookings in three tiers, based on length of run, not size of venue. For example a Tier One booking is for one or two nights max including speaking engagements. It doesn't matter if the theater is 300 hundred seats or 3000. A Tier Two engagement is a week or longer up to two weeks max. A Tier Three is the most intensive booking logistically; it lasts for two weeks or longer and may include a run extension of several months in the same venue.

After 25 years in the New York and Chicago theater scene, I know exactly what each theater or venue is like to see a show in from top to bottom. I know what type of experience theater goers and my productions' members will have right down to the restrooms, bar area, parking options, and disabled access. I am aware of the general age and personality of the theaters' subscriber audience as a whole and I am aware of the success or failure of each of their past productions season to season.  The artistic directors and general managers who decide which productions to run, know me from reviewing their shows for Buzz and are friends from college or just respect my taste in theater and talent.

Booking a theater for a production is a lot like hosting an important party. I have to find the best room with the best vibe for that style and size party, with all the right amenities, ample parking and bar/restaurant foot traffic in the right neighborhood.  Then if there is competition for that venue, and those dates, I have to really sell my production to a number of company heads based on what I project will be it's success and get the best deal financially for my clients.

Of the three aspects, the vision, the budget and the schedule, the schedule is actually the most pivotal. The vision for a show changes and evolves. The budget or lack thereof, also changes over time and alters the execution of the vision but not necessarily in a bad way.  You may have a large budget and pump a lot of money into a play with big sets, lighting design, and costumes but it doesn't mean the show will be successful in proportion to the money you have spent. Bigger isn't always better, in fact, it may gild the lily to the point where the show is ruined.  For example, actor, writer, Jeff Garlin from Curb Your Enthusiasm did a successful two-week run at Steppenwolf this past summer with no set at all. Garlin performed his piece “No Sugar Tonight” with just an old ladder, some scaffolding strewn about and a plastic pumpkin with ladle full of water and a ukulele he said he would not play but was there for visual suspense. Garlin said he thought the ladder, etc. would indicate that this was a “work in progress” and that he did not even have a name for the show until the theater pressed him for one.

When I look at the calendar as a booking agent I see years flying by, not weeks or days because in a sense the best dates of the theatrical calendar year are already booked well before it begins.

Imagine the entire theater community on a big Monopoly board of the United States.  On the board there is a fixed number of major theaters in each of the major cities. Every agent or producer already knows which venues and which dates they need for their production’s tour schedule that year.

The in- house subscriber series are locked in a full year in advance.  Major Holidays like Christmas are always in the same place and have either a good effect on your particular show (A Christmas Carol) or a dead zone effect that you want to avoid, etc.  Booking is done as far in advance as possible to get the best slots and have ample time to promote the show and fill seats.

For more information visit www.KimberlyKatzPR.com   

When it comes to bringing Rogers and Hammerstein’s “The Sound of Music” alive on stage, of course the surrounding cast is utterly essential, but most important of all, the show would need a vibrant “Maria” who absolutely exudes true spirit and fun. Drury Lane’s Production of “The Sound of Music” has not only put together a brilliant surrounding cast from top to bottom, but has also struck gold with leads Larry Adams as “Captain Von Trapp” and Jennifer Blood as “Maria Rainer”. Not only are the two vocally right for the roles; their chemistry together is nothing short of magical, adding a very believable element to this timeless story of love for family and country.

It’s not always easy to bring classics to the stage since we already have such a preconceived notion as to what we expect from certain characters or are often saddled to such a familiarity to a particular role that we don’t want to stray away too far from what we’ve come to know. However, in this case, Drury Lane Productions has succeeded and then some.

To no lack of vocal prowess, the jury still seems to be out on Blood after her opening number, “The Sound of Music”, as it is not yet clear where this “Maria” will take us. But it doesn’t take long to find out. During her next song, “I Have Confidence”, her talents really shine at the same time her personality beams throughout the house and it is apparent she has captured the entire crowd. Each of the seven children is immediately likeable and, like the rest of the cast, more than vocally efficient. Patti Cohenour adds a tasty punch as “The Mother Abbess” boasting her incredible vocal range while Peter Kevoian is entertaining as can be as “Max Detweiler”.

The set design is stunning as the audience is taken inside the Abbey then into different areas of the Von Trapp mansion and its courtyard. One highlight has the stage transformed into the very festival in which the performing Von Trapp Singers escape from Nazi occupied Austria. So detailed is the setting that Nazi soldiers walk up and down the isle on the look out for any foul play, placing audience members into the festival itself.

Many productions of “The Sound of Music” have come and gone and some have stood out more than others. This current production is one that stands at the top. A perfect holiday treat or a family night out, “The Sound of Music” at Drury Lane in Oakbrook is a memorable experience that you can enjoy over and over again.

Though so many stories come to life via stage productions, there are just a handful that come across better than imagined. The needed ingredients to pull this off would be a strong cast – top to bottom - with dynamic leads, imaginative props to go along with a detailed set, colorful costumes and staying true to the original story. “Mary Poppins” has all of this and more.

Now playing at the Cadillac Palace through November 6^th, “Mary Poppins” is one of the biggest musical successes to emerge from London or New York in recent years. With all the songs we’ve come to know while growing up like “Practically Perfect”, “Chim Chim Cher-ee”, “A Spoonful of Sugar” and “Supercalifragilisticexpialidoious”, “Mary Poppins” is musically fun and holds several dance numbers that are as colorful as they are creative.

Of course you couldn’t have a successful run of “Mary Poppins” without the right “Mary Poppins” or “Bert”. Though there will never be another Julie Andrews or Dick Van Dyke, the production finds gold in Rachel Wallace and Nicolas Dromard, both who seem made for the roles. Dromard is charismatic as can be as the jolly, dancing chimneysweeper and Wallace brings with her every attribute necessary in playing the perfect “Mary Poppins”.

The show also has some unique visuals such as “Bert” walking up the side up the stage only to continue by walking upside down across the top. And of course the crowd is also awed when “Mary Poppins” flies overhead. “Mary Poppins” fans or not, attendees will be treated to an evening filled with stunning dance sequences, tremendous vocal display, eye-catching sets and, of course, the classic story itself.

Tickets are reasonable, starting at just $25. For more information visit www.BroadwayinChicago.com.

I only wish I had watched the film “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” the night before seeing this hilarious and touching send up because “Pussy on the House”, written by Ryan Landry, really hit the parody right on the head with huge laughs scene by scene and line for line.

In “Pussy on the House”, the failed ex-TV star Brick Pollup, and his stunningly gorgeous, sexually frustrated wife, Maggie Pollup, emotionally battle it out around the bed Maggie has dragged up to the roof where she is finally gratified when the full truth comes out about recent tragic events in the family.

Jeremy Myers in Elizabeth Taylor's role as “Maggie the Cat”, was absolutely beautiful to look at, very sexy and convincing. I loved that Jeremy achieved a strikingly natural resemblance to Taylor in his costume and makeup because his interpretation of her was as multi layered and dramatically rich as it was funny.

David Cerda as the very pregnant, money hungry sister-in-law and house-frau, Mae Pollup, was hysterical, often bringing the full house to a stop with laughter with just a single word or a smirking spot on look from under his false eyelashes.

The whole cast was dynamite and Honey West as Big Mama Pollup, “the richest, butchest lesbian in six counties who built the biggest polyester plantation the South has ever seen” gave the show some drama and weight with a rich voice and straight delivery that lifted this piece above great parody and into great melodrama.

Director Matthew Gunnels, who previously did such a smash up job directing “POSEIDON: An Upside Down Musical” stated about “Pussy on the House”, “Tennessee Williams is one of my favorite all-time playwrights and I have a special place in my heart for Cat. Mr. Landry’s play is clearly a love letter to the original material, but adds tons of campy fun and touches upon current events such as gay marriage, the effects of cancer on family members and same-sex adoption. Since being diagnosed with cancer this spring, it has changed the way I view characters in the play and has added importance and a sense of urgency to present this amazing script to Chicago.”

What I loved about this play and see in every play that David Cerda produces for his company, Hell in a Handbag, is a strong passion and devotion for keeping truly great drag alive. Great drag doesn't make fun of women, or make clowns of men, it elucidates and glamorously celebrates women’s' social condition in life and relationships.

Great drag, which Hell in a Handbag consistently delivers, makes you laugh and sympathize with grand dames like Elizabeth Taylor and Joan Crawford. A great drag performer uses humor and compassion to also celebrate the men who would like to embody great women.

“Pussy on the House” is playing at The Atheneum Theatre through October 30^th. For more information visit www.hellinahandbag.org.

Carrie Fishers' one woman show is a delightful piece of theater and makes you feel you are spending an evening with this witty, intelligent star in the cozy comfort of her own posh living room. I don't always make note of set design, but this set by David Korins, was a warmly lit, richly colorful, multidimensional representation of a southwestern styled den and screening room which really drew me in and showcased Carrie's casual, energetic style of storytelling perfectly.

When Fisher puffs on her electronic cigarette speaking excitedly about her days as cultural icon, Princess Leia, while perched on the edge of a comfy leather sofa or tiptoes right off the proscenium into the audience to hand out free drink coupons to the front row, you feel that she has actually brought her home to you. You feel that Carrie wants you to join her for some Hollywood gossip and a cup of tea - well not tea exactly, maybe some Vicodin and a tumbler of martinis.

Carrie Fisher has a laugh at her own unique childhood growing up as the daughter of stars Eddie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds. She has a fantastic line about when Elizabeth Taylor’s husband, Mike Todd, died in a plane crash, Carrie's father “Eddie rushed to Elizabeth's' side to comfort her in her grief ...and eventually worked his way around to Elizabeth Taylor's front.”

Carrie tells the younger audiences members who might not know the history of her superstar parents that the huge amount of publicity from this dramatic love triangle would be cast today with Brad Pitt, Jennifer Anniston and Angelina Jolie.

Carrie Fisher pokes fun at and tries to come to terms with the supper massive success of her character Princess Leia and the Star Wars Trilogy at age 19, describing how George Lucas convinced her not to wear a bra under her Princess costume stating that it was necessary for realism because “there is no underwear in outer space”. She also has fun onstage with some of the seemingly endless series of toys, memorabilia and merchandise that came out of the role including a life size Princess Leia' Love Doll,

a “Mr. Potato Head Princess Leia” and a PEZ dispenser. My prayer for Carrie Fisher is that she got a piece of the billion dollars in merchandising that is still being earned on all these licenses written into her contract at some point.

I remember standing in a long line to see the first Star Wars with my family as an impressionable eleven-year-old and although I had a crush on Harrison Ford, I was deeply impressed by the appearance of a feisty, brown eyed, brown-haired royal princess who was pensive instead of bubbly and a little bit smarter than she was pretty.

I think Carrie Fisher’s casting as Princess Leia back in 1976 was one of the first times I remember seeing a young, powerful woman cast as a lead in her own right and not just as the lead males' love interest. In other words Carrie Fisher's character at age 19, was written with enough meat and intelligence to be placed in the center of the giant Star Wars movie poster, not just working her cleavage “off to the left”.

I also remember first hand when Carrie Fishers' best selling book “Postcards from the Edge” came out and was made into a hit movie that Fisher also wrote the screenplay for starring Meryl Streep and Shirley Maclaine. At the time I was so inspired and influenced by her candor and acerbic wit regarding the entertainment industry at large and that she was able to parlay an acting career into a writing career with huge success.

Like Karen Carpenter who first made the disease of anorexia a household term, or Rita Hayworth, whose public illness pioneered the way for Alzheimer's patients, I also remember firsthand how important and groundbreaking it was when Carrie Fisher came out in the press about being Bi- Polar.

There is a great moment in the show when Carrie talks about the new electro shock treatment and her

“invitation” to stay in a mental hospital. She asks the audience if any of them have ever been “invited” to stay at a mental hospital, and only one brave soul raised his hand.  My grandmother Lillian was a classic Bi Polar, with very high highs and predictable plunging lows in her thinking patterns and speech.. I grew up knowing that she was undergoing the early form of electro-shock treatment, which erases several months of memory and watching her succumb in misery to the various heavy-duty drugs available at the time like Lithium. It was very difficult to witness let alone explain to my friends what she was going through partly because at that time very few public figures, if any, had spoken openly about their struggles with manic depression in the press.

Fisher has since appeared on the Senate floor to urge state legislators to increase government funding on medication for people living with mental health issues. Carrie is very courageous to have written openly about her own illness and drug dependencies because through her wonderful and witty sense of humor she has helped pave the way to removing the stigma still associated with mental illness in our society.

Of course, Carrie's show has some interesting tidbits about her marriage and divorce from singer Paul

Simon, including some of the lyrics he wrote about her describing her “cold coffee eyes” and from Hearts and Bones “One and one-half wandering Jews, (Carrie being the “half Jew”) returned to their natural coasts...to speculate who had been damaged the most.”

Carrie Fishers casting as the fictional Princess Leia in the Star Wars Trilogy may have both

“made her” and broken her at the same time, but as an activist, and an accomplished writer - a  Critics Circle' Award winning, New York Times best-selling , Grammy and Emmy nominated author in her own right, Carrie Fishers'  identity as genuine Hollywood royalty is not a work of fiction.

Abstract impressionist painter Mark Rothko is an asshole. Or at least, playwright John Logan thinks so. In his Tony-award winning play Red, currently enjoying a beautiful, if less than perfect, production at the Goodman Theatre, Rothko is a wide-bellied, self-centered rock of a man who treats his art better than his fellow human beings. He employs the youthful Ken, a fictional character, as a personal slave, calling him overeager, undereducated, and consistently wrong. Yet, for some reason, Rothko keeps him around.

Commissioned to create nine murals for the Four Seasons restaurant in New York, Rothko sets to work with his assistant. They argue about money, fame, art, history, and philosophy, but when they work, it is in silence. They take to the white canvas with raw speed, criss-crossing one another in a choreographed dance to lay a reddened brown base on the bare canvas. They finish. His assistant falls to his back to catch his breath. Rothko lights up a cigarette. Despite this visual joke, the pair never displays any sexual tension; it is a strict employer-employee bond, even though the assistant longs for Rothko to be more of father.

“To me the play is really not about art or painting at all,” Logan remarked in an interview, “it's about fathers and sons." That central relationship is brought to life by two talented men, who, like their characters, are at different ends of their careers. Edward Gero, who has spent 28 seasons with the Shakespeare Theatre Company, takes to the lofty, poetic of language of Rothko with ease. His high, wide pants, splattered with paint, cover the booming presence of a know-it-all painter who gets angry when others don’t. His counterpart, the tiny and attractive Patrick Andrews, is a bit shyer and occasionally seems too aware that his words have been poetically scripted by another. While this fictional relationship is the heart of the play, the true-life story of Rothko and the commission frame the work.

Disgusted by the clientele and prices of the Four Seasons, Rothko eventually revokes his work and returns the commission stipend. In a dramatic exchange between the pair, Rothko wonders why he took it to begin with. Prestige has clouded his judgment. Logan, who penned the screenplays for The Aviator, Gladiator, and first encountered a Rothko while in London filming Sweeney Todd, is no stranger to this tension between art and money. One must recognize art does not exist in a vacuum, but is instead created by individuals with human needs that must function in economic systems. Rothko knows this, and speaks lyrically about his struggle over a brilliantly designed score. Richard Woodbury’s original music, which appears during scene changes, combines with Logan’s language to raise the play to a place of poetry. Set designer Todd Rosenthal’s tall studio, littered with cans of paint and pigment, provides a space grand enough for Rothko to contemplate and create his works – and to contain his ego. The design elements unite to create a space of slightly heightened realism, pulsing like reds in Rothko’s work.

Close up, there are moments in Red which haunt– the fast painting scene, Rothko asking, “How do they make you feel?” as Ken stares looks at the audience imagining a wall of work - but when one stands back and shines a bright white light on the production, it has shortcomings. It can feel like a collection of moments which don’t quite build on one another brought to life by a pair of men who don’t quite have a powerful on-stage chemistry. But like a Rothko painting, Red should not be experienced from far away in bright white light, but close-up in a dimmed theater, allowing for gentle, subtle contemplation.

Red plays at the Goodman Theatre through October 30. More information at goodmantheatre.org.

I remember reading about the turn of the century medical trend that attempted to cure “hysteria” in women (and men) by stimulating them to orgasm or “paroxysm” by a doctor using manual or electrical (vibrator) stimulation and thinking that this would make a fascinating subject for film or stage. 

The reason I found this subject matter so important to explore and rediscover is because at the turn of the century the only other treatment options for mental illness, depression, and actual hysteria in women involved, toxic drugs like laudanum, the barbaric practice of partial lobotomy, ice baths, shock therapy and routine involuntary committal to an insane asylum.
Playwright, Sarah Ruhl, has brought out all of the many facets of this important subject and time period in a funny, touching, and liberating way right down to the restrictive nature of the clothes the women had to wear including bustles, steel corsets, and heavy high necked dresses tightly secured with a multitude of tiny buttons.

In the play, the appropriately named, Dr. Givings, a well to do physician in a spa town in New York, is pioneering the intimate new therapy in his home “operating theater”, which along with his parlor room has just had the magical glow of electricity installed for the first time.

Dr. Givings' young wife, Catherine, has recently given birth and is unable to nurse her own child. As she sees patient after patient leave smiling and glowing, she feels more and more lonely and neglected and becomes curious about the treatment. While her husband is at a convention watching the experimental electrocution of dogs, she secretly tries the therapy on herself with the help of a female patient, Sabrina Daldry.

Sarah Ruhl makes many wonderful feminist points in this play without ever losing the light, airy sense of humor, playfulness and poetic wonder that she is so good at infusing into her plays. 
It is interesting that even though Dr. Givings is a forward thinking pioneer, at first he refuses to give the therapy to the one person in his life who most obviously needs it, his own wife. He refuses her the treatment on the basis that it might make her “ more excitable” as he fears that this will empower her sexual nature too much. Dr Givings fears that he personally will be unable to satisfy her normal sexual urges and the resulting emotional desires once they are restored.  The first time he relents and begins applying the vibrator treatment to his wife, Catherine, she begs and cries out for him to kiss her as she builds towards “paroxysm” but he vehemently refuses, as he is unwilling to combine natural sexuality with sympathetic emotionality. Her angry response is a simple, “YOU are inadequate.”

Ruhl also brings up many fascinating points about the restorative effect of the orgasm on men and women alike in terms of releasing creativity in their lives through music and art.  The character of Leo Irving, a painter from Paris, who is experiencing depression and inability to create new art, i.e. “painters block” finds his inspiration and enthusiasm for life completely restored after just one treatment.  

Ruhl also plays up to great effect the natural improvement in one's general sense of humor and well being that having sufficient orgasmic release causes in the human nervous system. Ruhl's characters show the orgasm triggers the release of psychological repression and frustration through tears and the loud cries of the breath.  I like how Ruhl shows that this “induced release” causes increased emotional flexibility and stability in female and male conscious awareness equally.

There is also an interesting sub plot that develops between one of the patients and the doctors nurse, Annie, in the play, regarding the homo erotic feelings that may come to surface between individuals when orgasm is achieved without the additional onus or burden at the time of actual sexual contact, especially during such a repressed Victorian time period. 
There is also a very funny and poignant scene where the doctor's wife and patient are describing the sensations of an orgasm to their black nursemaid, they mention the feelings of hot coals illuminating their feet, colored light flashing behind their eyelids etc, and when the maid suggests that they are possibly describing what occurs during “relations with their husbands” they both scream in laughter and disbelief that they have never experienced anything like the miraculous sensations they experienced  in the medical treatment. One tells that she has experienced nothing but physical pain and emotional distance during relations with her husband.

In the end, the women help each other and their husbands in some degree, to rediscover the power of friendship, and the giddy joyful freedom that comes when one is enabled to rule ones own sexual life and infuse it with the romance and healthy emotions of warmth and equality.

Ruhl also does not show the cure to be a “cure all”, that is, the vibrator' assisted orgasm as the answer to all marital misunderstanding.  Instead she shows how the satisfaction of the most basic and natural urge particularly in women is a first stepping point, that leads the women and their husbands right back into touch with the blocked love and emotional needs that they are unable to satisfy in each other without first releasing their own “excess” sexual energy or “fluids”.

I must say, I have never seen so many orgasms acted out on stage with such realism and humor. 

I enjoyed the entire cast in this piece, including the very funny, Kate Fry as Catherine Givings, Patricia Kane as Nurse Annie, the poignant, Tamberla Perry as Nursemaid Elizabeth and Lawrence Grimm as the hapless husband of Sabrina Daldrey.  

Polly Noonan as the patient, Sabrina Daldry, was very funny and really embodied the process of the path from depression and over sensitivity to healthy affection for life and sex. Joel Gross as Leo Irving, the inspiration blocked artist, resembles a young Robert Downey Jr. in his energy and presentation.  Gross has a great natural stage presence and stole many of the scenes he was in. 

I highly recommend seeing Tony nominated “In the Next Room, or The Vibrator Play” as it is a funny and surprisingly important piece on a par with “The Vagina Monologues”. It includes some personally empowering messages for men and women alike in a humorous, light hearted and poetic way.

“In the Next Room” is playing at Victory Gardens Theatre through October 9th. For more information visit www.victorygardens.org.

Very rarely does an entertainer take a stage and just knock out the audience. From the moment an entertainer walks out on stage they are thinking about one thing, a great performance. The setting for this show was The Venue inside Hammond’s Horseshoe Casino. The puppet master himself, the one and only, Jeff Dunham was the Saturday night entertainment and he was hysterical.

From the time Dunham stepped on stage, the audience didn’t stand a chance. He hit them with one powerful joke after another like it was a hit from a prize fighter. First a left – then a right. Some of the audience members had a hard time breathing with all the comical hits. The audience never stood a chance; it was an unfair match up as this comic’s jokes are just too strong.

Doing two sold out evening shows back to back with his family of ventriloquist dummies; Dunham was a five alarm fire that could not be put out. His laid back approach when he first came out made someone say “how is he going to do this?”, but a book should not be judged by its cover. With a mighty power Jeff hits you with comical stories. As he starts to tell the stories, witty one-liners spawn off the story giving you a few seconds in between the laughs and building you up to the big ones.

He changed from one dummy to another during the show and went into comical interludes with his cocky arm decorations as his mouth piece. Jeff works in a way that most ventriloquists do. He lets the dummy make most of the insulting or off color jokes except Dunham goes a little further. You won’t see him do any tricks like drink a glass of water while the dummy talks. He is far beyond trying a novelty prank.

Each of his dummies has a personality that is different than the others which makes you wonder if Dunham has multiple personalities himself. Certain ones are more respectable characters and others are not. Doesn’t seem to matter who he has with him, Walter, Peanut, or Achmed, or any of the others, the show is a guarantee to be a side splitting moment. His performance had the crowd hurting because they couldn’t take any more.

The 3,400 seat theater appeared to be completely sold out and the happy feeling coming from the stage was being felt within all the seats. No where amongst the crowd could you find a person not laughing. A few young ladies in the balcony sent happy feelings back to Jeff with a “We love you!” It was a good performance.

The time came and went quickly as Dunham was already saying goodbye leaving everyone wanting more. He finished up and the lights came on. Most of the lucky individuals who saw this show were still laughing when they were getting into their cars to make the journey home. It’s not a concert they will soon forget.

Dunham has reached tremendous success with his comedy over the past few years. His most recent success places him at the number three position for top grossing comedy acts in the two previous years and looks like 2011 will be no exception. This just proves that he is more than just a flash in the pan comic. He has put smiles on the faces of so many over his time in comedy and it’s fair to say he is an expert within his craft of stand up ventriloquism.

When Jeff Dunham started to perform at The Venue inside Hammond’s Horseshoe Casino, no one really knew what to expect. No one knew this rock solid entertainer was going to hit them so hard with his comical wielding. He was more than just hysterical. He was priceless.

When Blue Man Group invaded Chicago's Briar Street Theatre some 15 or so years ago, I would say it safe to say that no one expected the show to still be running strong to this day. But here we are in 2011 and Blue Man Group is still attracting new fans just as easily as years past and is healthily bringing back previous attendees with regularity. That said, Blue Man Group is still on top of their game. 

As with many longtime running shows, Blue Man Group is guilty of reinventing itself on occasion. Their latest metamorphosis keeps the ideal of the classic Blue Man Group intact, holding onto many show staples in which fluorescent paint is splattered with a most unique display of percussion and where objects are caught in each other’s mouths across the stage then transformed into distinctive art. Now enter the digital age. In the newest version of Blue Man Group, the creators have implemented the technology of smart phones, and without giving anything away outside the fact that three gigantic cellular devices are lowered above the stage, I’ll just say that the recently added props are brilliantly used with the originality and innovation one would expect from a show known for its inventiveness.

Of course comedy is also prevalent in Blue Man Group. It’s not easy to describe how three funny subtly-expressive, blue faces who appear to be in constant discovery mode can be, so I’ll just cop out with the cliché phrase, you have to be there. Volunteers are also selected from the audience for a variety of fun skits and there is a section in the first few rows that come with a plastic poncho to each seat to protect from the splattering paint and food – yes, food. 
The show comes to a climactic end in which the audience is covered in tissue dispensed from giant rolls in the rear of the theatre before humungous balls are batted around to heavy beats and dazzling lights. 

Blue Man Group has always been a fun show that one could see over and over again, but now that show just got even better.

It’s 1959 and the house at 406 Clybourne Street boasts stained wooden columns, vaulted ceilings, three floors, and an attic full of memories. That’s precisely why Russ and Bev are leaving. Haunted by an upstairs incident and their neighbours' subsequent shunning, the middle-aged, middle-class couple have sold their home to escape northward. The neighborhood association is worried – not because they’ll miss Russ at Rotary or seeing Bev at the grocery store, but because the new tenants are black.

The issues of race and place take up residence in playwright-provocateur Bruce Norris’ newest dramatic comedy Clybourne Park, winner of this year’s Pulitzer Prize and the Steppenwolf season opener. In Act One of Amy Morton’s deftly staged production, the threat of plunging property values and white flight play out, while Act Two fast forwards 50 years to see the same home, now in a predominantly black neighborhood, being sold to white yuppies as gentrification begins. Two September afternoons, a half-century apart, reveal deep-seeded racism playing out during property negotiations. The play is also quite funny.

Karl Lindner, a man so slick his glasses slide off his face, arrives with his pregnant, deaf wife, to urge Russ not to sell. He’s just come from trying to convince the future tenants, the black Youngers family from Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun, to not move into the neighborhood. Lindner is the closest thing Norris offers to a villain. Writing on him and his deaf wife, Norris remarks, “I wanted to make the point that nobody who could hear Karl Lindner would marry him.” But Russ, who can hear, won’t listen to Lindner either. He isn’t fighting for social justice and racial equality, he’s just sending a final fuck-you to the neighbors he once called friends.

“Fuck you” might be a crass way of describing how Norris treats the audiences of his plays. Seeing society as a depraved, dead mass, Norris derives joy from denying spectators a relatable, moral character. “I think art is to society as Christmas ornaments are to a tree,” Norris told the A.V. Club. “They make the tree prettier, but it’s still a dead tree.” This attitude has gotten the former actor work. A Chicagoan of 19 years who now calls Brooklyn home, Norris has had six of his plays originated at Steppenwolf, including last season’s time-bending musing on upper-class discount A Parallelogram. His acting background, which includes stints on Broadway and feature films, heavily influences his writing method. He tells SFGate.com that “writing plays is just an elaborate form of improvisation in which I act out all of the characters in my head and simultaneously transcribe what they say.” The result in Clybourne Park is a carefully crafted collection of fourteen characters, embodied by a talented ensemble of seven performers.

Each actor plays a different character in the two time periods, demonstrating considerable range and creating thought-provoking parallels. Kirsten Fitzgerald transforms from her positive, plump Bev into a self-centered real-estate agent; John Judd switches from his brooding volcano Russ into a soft-spoken contractor; Cliff Chamberlain swaps from his sly Lindner to half of the yuppie pair about to demolish the graffiti-stained property and build their McMansion. These juxtapositions elevate the whole play, making it greater than the sum of the acts. Mundane specifics (“Monday”, “4pm”) are kept constant, as well as profound mantras: “you can’t live in a principle – you live in a house.”  In these parallels, Norris suggests that while progress has certainly been made (the black maid and her husband, silent for much of the first act, are upper-class owners of the property after intermission); true integration is still far off. Our contemporary “euphemistic tapdance” around race, as one character calls us, keeps us trapped from addressing deeper issues. But perhaps Norris’ play, a perfectly structured memory of yesterday and stark staging of today, will keep us from reverting back to the tragedies that hang in our attics.  Also, maybe we can learn to laugh at ourselves.