Items filtered by date: November 2007

Many operas are funny, but laugh out loud funny is harder to achieve. Lyric Opera opens the season with the ever-crowd pleasing commedia “The Barber of Seville”. Tara Faircloth directs this revival which first appeared at Lyric in the 2013/14 season. This production’s humor comes from an all-star cast of world renown voices and actors.

“The Barber of Seville” is an Italian opera by Gioachino Rossini with a libretto by Cesare Sterbini, from the original play by Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais. In it, Count Almaviva falls for a Doctor’s young ward, Rosina. Doctor Bartolo plans to marry Rosina himself in order to gain her dowry. Through a series of goofy antics, Count Almaviva proves his love for Rosina and gains her love in return. With the help of a charming barber Figaro (yes, that Figaro! Figaro! Figaro!), the two trick Dr Bartolo in order to end up together.

Premiering in 1816 in Rome, “The Barber of Seville” was an instant classic. It remains one of the world’s most endearing operas and with this Lyric production it’s not hard to see why. Full of soaring orchestration and lighthearted arias, “The Barber of Seville” is a delightful romantic comedy.  Theatre director Rob Ashford was tapped to create this production for Lyric in 2013. His Broadway background lends a more traditional theatrical style to the performances, putting an emphasis on the physical comedy of the opera.

In the role of Rosina, Lyric welcomes back Marianne Crebassa who was last seen in the Mozart comedy “Cosi fan tutte” in 2018. If one had to sum up her entire performance in a single gesture, it would be a wiggling foot while being passionately kissed by Count Almafina. A knack for well-executed and unexpected physical comedy seems to be her second strongest suit. The first would be the incredible mezzo-soprano voice. The stage brightens when she enters a scene. There are fewer female voices in this opera, but Mathilda Edge as Berta also has great comedic timing and an impressive soprano voice.

The male ensemble is just as humorous. Adam Plachetka as Figaro has all the cartoonish machismo one would expect of the character, but a voice that backs it up. Though most of the laughs came from the deceived Dr. Bartolo played by Alessandro Corbelli. Lyric’s “Barber of Seville” makes for a lovely evening at the opera. Sumptuous costumes and staging are a feast for the senses, but it’s the Rossini music that really shines. It’s always a treat in any opera when there’s a large chorus on stage (and a real measure of an opera company’s financial standing). Lyric underdoes nothing. From the pit to the upper balconies, "The Barber of Seville" fills the theater with enchantment.

Through October 27th at Lyric Opera Chicago. 20 N Wacker Drive. 312-827-5600

Booming thunder unleashed by a violent storm marks a scene change in King Hedley II, the sound and fury expressing the clash of deep emotional confrontations playing out as the stage goes to black.

Under the direction of Ron OJ Parson, Court Theatre gives us what is surely a definitive rendition of August Wilson’s 2000 play.

Wilson gives vivid voice to the life of his African American characters, showing them hemmed in and struggling for opportunity accorded readily to others. In King Hedley’s 1980s setting, amid trickle down economics, Americans saw greater divides between rich and poor, and rising mass incarceration. And against this backdrop, Wilson’s characters live life – with all its glory, and all its monumental tragedy, which abounds in the play.

In King Hedley II, the action takes place in 1985 in the backyards of two modest brick homes. Following five years in prison, Hedley (Kelvin Roston Jr.) returns to the home where his aunt raised him, optimistic, and aiming to rebuild his life. He plans to marry Tonya (Kierra Bunch). His aunt died while he was away, and his birth mother Ruby (actress Taylar) is now living in the house.

Hedley plants flower seeds, a perfect metaphor for his aspirations to reclaim his life, then struggles to stop others from trampling his young plants, and dragging him down with pessimism. His mother warns him the soil is too weak. Tonya, already a single mom, rebuffs Hedley’s overtures.

“I got to make it whatever way I can,” says Hedley (Kelvin Roston Jr.). “I look around and say 'Where's the barbed wire?”
“You could cut through barbed wire,” says Mister (Donald L. Conner). “But you can’t cut through not having a job.”

The ninth in Wilson’s ten-part Pittsburgh Cycle, each play takes place in that city, and each in a different decade. A Pulitzer finalist, it earned Viola Davis a Tony in its original Broadway run. I had the chance to see it in 2001 at Goodman Theatre, and barely understood what I watched then.

But at Court I threw down my program and leapt to my feet to cheer and applaud, like the rest of the audience, even before the final spotlight ended. It is that good, and hopefully we the people are better audiences for Wilson than 20 years ago. 

Though August's womenfolk are more guarded than optimistic, there is a hopefulness brought to Hedley by his buddy Mister, who works in a nail factory. Characteristically, Mister is hoping for a raise, that never materializes, even though business is booming. Hedley is in line to work on a demolition job for the City of Pittsburgh, but his employer (presumed to be African American) was denied the contract because the bid was too low, and the city doubted his capabilities.

Hedley and Mister devise side jobs, including re-selling refrigerators and, as opportunities narrow, plan a heist at a jewelry store. The plan and execution will remind you of  David Mamet's American Buffalo.

Into this intriguing setting come two even more powerful dramatis personae: the neighbor Stool Pigeon (Dexter Zollicoffer), a quirky person who is a hoarder, and delivers thundering prophecies drawn in ominous tones from long Bible passages. 

The other arrival is Elmore (A.C. Smith), hoping to recapture his lost love Ruby, and aiming to unburden himself of a secret that Ruby wanted both of them to take to her grave. (No spoiler here.) 

Smith tears up the stage with his larger than life Elmore. But then so does Zollicoffer as Stool Pigeon, a haunting character impossible to forget. And Taylar, Conner and Bunch all deliver remarkably good performances. And Roston gives us a complex, and nuanced portrait of Hedley.  

Wilson, who died in 2005, loads his plays with high-octane dialog. These can be challenging to deliver, or watch – with extra hurdles in understanding the overtones for white people like me. Parsons, working with this great cast, keeps each performance in balance with the others.

This is no small achievement when you realize that any of these characters could be the main protagonist in any other play. And indeed some recur in other works in the Pittsburgh Cycle. Act I of King Hedley II runs 80 minutes; after a 10 minute intermission Act II runs 70 minutes. You will be amazed at how quickly the time passes. Highly recommended for those who like great performances, staging, and a complex play. See King Hedley II through October 13 at Court Theatre in Chicago.

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If you haven’t already made plans to see 'Hello Again' at Theo Ubique Cabaret Theatre, don’t wait another minute! Director/Choreographer Brenda Didlier’s reimagination of this 1993 off-Broadway musical.

The story is composed of 10 interwoven vignettes focusing on 10 love affairs portrayed in a frolicking, whimsical, lighthearted tone and yet layered in the heaviness of sadness, loneliness, and emotional emptiness.

Performed in the intimate cabaret setting where the cast and audience were close enough to touch added another layer of depth to the characters as they were able to perform in normal voice levels and eye level, making the connection between the characters and the audience members more real, intimate, and believable.

The love affairs take place throughout the 20th century, so the scenes and the musical numbers cover 100 year of musical styles, wardrobes and fashion, and historical events and lifestyles. Music Director/Conductor Jeremy Ramey and the orchestra produced the perfect mood as he helped us travel from New York City in 1900 to present with stop offs in a 1930’s movie house, a 1970’s disco, and even a stop on a luxury liner in 1912. The five-piece orchestra produced a full sound to fill the room when required but never drew us away from the characters. Costumes and sets were fast-changing and minimalist, but eye catching and definitely transformative with the changing timeline.

As for the stars of the show, I was delighted that the entire cast are the stars together. While each brought their strengths to their characters, they all complemented each other perfectly and each of the love affairs played an equally important part in the overarching story. Neala Barron’s (The Actress) and Christopher Ratiff’s (The Soldier), both Jeff Award nominees for 110 in the Shade (Boho), lend their strong vocals and acting skills to a very talented cast.

I certainly felt an emotional connection to several of the characters, specifically the Husband (Royen Kent), the Writer (Max J. Cervantes) and the Senator (Courtney Jones). All of the characters were very honest and relatable.

While all the scenes and numbers were exceptional as well, a couple of my favorites include the opening number “Hello Again” featuring the Whore (Megan Elk) and the Soldier (Ratliff), “The One I love” featuring the Young Thing (Marco Tzunux) and the Writer (Cervantes)and “The Bed Was Not My Own” featuring the Senator (Jones) and the Whore (Elk).

'Hello Again' continues at Theo Ubique through November 3, 2019. This is an excellent show which I highly recommend.

The immensely entertaining and surprisingly complex Bernhardt/Hamlet is a must-see at the Goodman Theatre. A hit at New York's Roundabout Theatre on Broadway last year, it’s very on-trend for contemporary feminist dramas playing out in sports, the workplace, and the arts.

It is also a rather delicious backstage drama, like The Dresser or Noises Off, but has more in common with Kiss Me Kate - another work that used Shakespeare as a plot point. In this case playwright Theresa Rebeck tells the story of Sarah Bernhardt (Terri McMahon) in her quest to play Hamlet – working against the odds, gender, and the advice of critics and colleagues.

"You cannot play Hamlet as an act of ego," says her paramour and devotee, playwright Edmond Rostand (John Tufts.) "All of theater is an act of ego," Bernhard counters, and the audience roars at the delivery and the truth of it. 

"A woman who does nothing is considered worthless," Bernhardt says at another point. "A man who does nothing is Hamlet!." 

And it's a true story that Rebeck makes gripping and fun. (Rebeck also wrote Seminar, a similarly language- and thought-centered work which I had the good fortune of seeing with Alan Rickman.)

In Bernhardt/Hamlet, director Donna Feore uses Rebeck’s script to show actors at work, mining Shakespeare for clues to character, struggling with motivation, and working assiduously to meet the demands of cadence and pace.

Much of the action takes place in Bernhardt’s Paris boudoir, where this attractive woman was waited upon by a coterie of fauning men. But the playful and exuberant Bernhardt never lets the under-fulfilled romance bother her, and Rebeck fends off melodrama by dropping in witty laugh bombs left and right.

"You've decided whether you'll like even before you have seen it," Rostand tells a theater reviewer, Louis Lamercier (William Dick). "Of course! I'm a critic!" Lamercier responds. More laughter. 

The Bernhardt character also takes men to task who would put her on a pedestal, but not really egage her mind. She excoriates playwright Rostand for writing the play, Cyrano de Bergerac, modeling his love interest Roxanne after Bernhardt. "How can you put all your genius into Cyrano and make Roxanne an empty vessel?" she asks. 

One also expects that a play about actors playing Hamlet might have some breakthrough moments of great Shakespeare. Be assured. Wise casting brings us two intensely good, full-fledged Shakespearean performers – as Sarah Bernhardt, Terri McMahon brings a bedrock of 23 years of performances at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, but has all the range for this dual role.

Larry Yando, in the role of Constant Coquelin, is that world-weary trouper who has played Hamlet four times, but has now aged into the roles of Polonius and Hamlet’s father – and imparts acting advice to the less experienced players. When he turns on the power, it is electrifying. The cast is so good, the production values so high, and the play so entertaining there is only one thing to say: go see it.

Bernhardt/Hamlet is also a familiar story of actresses everywhere, who lose their grasp on major roles for stage or screen as their youth fades. These days actresses like Nicole Kidman, Selma Hayek, and Emma Thompson are defying this by successfully producing projects or scripts themselves.

And so did Sarah Bernhardt, and she did it way back in 1896. One of the first international celebrities, she achieved her global fame in analog: acting on stage, celebrated in newspapers, and promoted by posters and by word of mouth.

She was also the most prominent serious actor, among a handful, who successfully took her stage skills to the new medium of film, in 1900. That’s where the collective memory of my generation picks up on her. During her last quarter century and after, the term “Sarah Bernhardt” suggested a cross between an immensely talented stage beauty, who was also a diva – in other words, she knows her power, and how to use it. 

This is the character we meet in Rebeck's play. As she hit fifty, Bernhardt tired of playing Camille, her signature role – and she knew she was too old for the part, so she decided to try Hamlet. A master of her own fate, in 1893 Bernhardt became the manager of the Théâtre de la Renaissance, and in 1899 she relocated to the former Théâtre des Nations, which she renamed the Théâtre Sarah Bernhardt and managed until her death in 1923. 

"I am not a tragic figure," Rebeck's Bernhardt asserts. "I do not play Hamlet as a woman. I play him as myself." And you can see Bernhardt/Hamlet through October 20 at Goodman Theatre.

In Delicate Tears of the Waning Moon, dolorous music accompanies the opening scene: a clearly debilitated woman is wheeled into her apartment, where she is eased into a bed in her main room. This is Paulina (Rebeca Alemán), and we see she is weak and tired.

Helping her is Rodrigo (Ramon Cámin) – we learn later he is a poet – and he methodically cares for her needs, clearly familiar with the routine tasks. Is she a stroke victim? We are not sure. He helps her practice her letters, then words and then pictures. The one-act play shows scene after scene, compressing an interval of two months into 90 minutes, as Paulina gradually recovers her ability to communicate, and more importantly, to understand, and the audience learns gradually with her as she recovers.

Paulina, it turns out, has suffered a traumatic head injury, blocking her memory. We discover she is a crusading journalist, spotlighting the heinous crimes of drug cartels that terrorize areas of Mexico. For this she was targeted for punishment. Steadfast Rodrigo is helping her regain her faculties, relating her past as she recovers her memory. We also have scenes in which multimedia presents memories from her daily life. 

The play is inspired by the true story of journalist Miroslava Breach Velducea, shot eight times and killed in Chihuahua, Mexico in 2017 as she was leaving home in her car, accompanied by one of her children. Breach covered politics and crime. A note found at the scene of the murder read: "For being a snitch. You're next, governor.--The 80,” the pseudonym of Arturo Quintana, who allegedly leads a criminal gang associated with the organized crime syndicate known as La Línea in the area. 

Aleman, an Argentine-born actor, delivers an exceptional performance...showing us with a seamless gradualness the recovery of a wounded individual. We also ponder the tragic agony of a recovery that brings with a punishing awareness – in the play, it takes weeks for Paulina to realize that she does not know where her mother and daughter are. These are powerful moments onstage.

We also share a wonderful opportunity to witness the universal nature of good acting, a craft that transcends cultural and language barriers. The Delicate Tears of the Waning Moon, playing at Steppenwolf Theatre 1700, is directed by Iraida Tapias, and is being presented by Chicago Latino Theater Alliance as part of Destinos, the 3rd Chicago International Latino Theater Festival.

While Delicate Tears of the Waning Moon has political currency, it is also moving on a level of human drama. Alemán’s performance is exceptional – she also teaches acting through the Chicago-and-Caracas-based Water People Theater group. But the play itself suffers from requiring so much exposition to tell the story points, a drudgery that falls mostly to Rodrigo’s character. To make the play reach more audiences, it is delivered at the 1700 in English with Spanish supertitles – which is helpful even for English speakers. But it takes some unraveling for English speakers, anyway, to unravel what is happening on stage.

The Water People Theater relocated to Chicago from New York in 2012, though it continues working in Venezuela. Last year it received eight Chicago ALTA Awards nominations in 2018. In 2018, it presented MUSES, a fictional and extraordinary encounter between Mexican painter Frida Kahlo and American poet Sylvia Plath. Delicate Tears of the Waning Moon runs through October 13 at the Steppenwolf Theatre 1700 in Chicago.

Drury Lane brings Alice Walker’ 1982 novel ‘The Color Purple’, which found major success as a film in 1985, to the stage in what is sure to be a memorable experience for theatre goers. After its opening night performance, many who had seen either the Broadway run or national touring version of the classic story, emphatically stated that Drury Lane’s production is the best they have ever seen. That’s saying something.

 
The story takes place in the early 1900’s and continues through about halfway through the century. Following the journey of Celie, an African American woman in the American South, we get a story of heartbreak, unspeakable atrocities and more importantly that of hope and perseverance. Still a child, Celie has two children by the age of fourteen – both by her father, Alphonso. Not long after her second child is born; her father tells Celie he is going to get rid of the child just like he did with the first. Celie’s only comfort is in spending time with her slightly older sister Nettie and the two vow to never leave each other’s side. 

But four years later, a local farmer, Albert “Mister” Johnson asks Alphonso to have Nettie’s hand in marriage. Alphonso refuses, but offers up Celie instead, who is constantly referred to as “ugly”. Mister doesn’t bite but finally accepts when Alphonso throws in a cow. Mister, who had helped Nettie pursue her dream of becoming a teacher, also takes Nettie in shortly after she pleaded to stay with him and her sister alleging Alphonso is mistreating her. Mister accommodates Nettie, but always having eyes for her, attacks her one day and when she fights back is sent away along with the promise the two sisters will never see each other again. Once again, Celie finds herself in what turns out to be abusive relationship with a much older man.

It seems hopeless for Celie until a racy lounge singer comes into their lives – Shug Avery.

From there the story takes on many directions and we wonder if Celie will ever see her sister again or be released from the clutches of Mister.

 
With an already powerful book by Marsha Norman and music and lyrics by Brenda Russell, Allee Willis and Stephen Bray, the direction by Lili-Anne Brown and gifted cast assembled puts this production over the top. Eben K. Logan is stupendous as Celie in every way as we are hopelessly drawn into her character one moment and marveling at her vocal ability the next. Logan is a true find and leads this amazing cast that also features Sydney Charles who brightly shines as Shug Avery, Nicole Michelle Haskins whose moving portrayal of Sofia truly resonates and Melvin Abston who is nothing short of commanding as Mister. The cast rounds out with an incredibly skilled ensemble that features Drury veterans Adhana Reid and Lorenzo Rush Jr. along with Camille Robinson, Jos N. Banks and a host of other talents. Kyrie Courter is just wonderful as Nettie while Gilbert Domally’s Harpo couldn’t be better. 

Besides a powerful story that is sure to move its audience members, it contains one enjoyable musical number after another from its title song “The Color Purple” to touching numbers like “What About Love” and “Somebody Gonna Love you”.
Drury Lane’s ‘The Color Purple’ is engaging from beginning to end as it retells a classic story of strong will and courage.

Highly recommended.

‘The Color Purple’ is being performed at Drury Lane Theatre in Oakbrook through November 3rd. For tickets and/or more information, visit www.drurylanetheatre.com.  
 

Chicago is a blue-collar town that loves its blue-collar music. Blues, jazz, soul, punk, heavy metal, and hip hop. Each of these genres has been taken to new heights by legendary Chicagoans but were ultimately borrowed from their originators. That all changed in the early ’80s, from the underground came a sound we now know as House music. A bricolage of high diva vocals, Italo disco, turntables, and a 909-beat machine. The musical golden child of Chicago is an unorthodox sound that’s injected euphoria into the ears of listeners around the world. A sound that’s been studied, experimented and replicated by the most popular DJs of our time and can still be heard on the Billboard Hot 100 today. 'Revolution Chicago' is the play that steps up to the task of telling the story of House music’s creation and rise. It wants you to leave the building pumping your fist high in the air but instead leaves you wondering if that story was even told.

'Revolution Chicago' is the story of Chicago’s very own Mickey “Mixin” Oliver and his rise as a celebrated DJ. Beginning with Mickey Oliver getting ready to play the biggest show of his life in Las Vegas then goes into a long flashback of Mickey’s humble beginnings, his troubles at home and how it inspired his approach to music. The story then gives us the tale of Chicago’s WBMX radio and how it struggled to compete with the other popular, well-funded radio stations. WBMX radio program director Lee Michaels has an epiphany that tells him to recruit the hottest DJ’s in town and broadcast their talents to revitalize the program. The star DJ being, of course, Mickey Oliver.

From there, it’s hard to explain where the play takes you. You get moments of the actors dancing to house music to attempts of sketch-like comedy to attempts of a heartfelt musical number. Eventually, the play goes back to the main story and tops it off with the success of House music and Mickey Oliver and then the end.

Mickey Oliver’s 'Revolution Chicago'; written, directed and music by Mickey Oliver, calls itself a lighthearted musical with a comedy twist. The play achieves its light-heartedness by not taking itself too seriously except for that one scene where Mickey learns of House Music pioneer Freddie Knuckles death. That scene is then followed by a sad musical number that leaves you wondering if Freddie Knuckles was ever mentioned earlier in the play.

Unfortunately, Revolution falls flat on almost every aspect it tries to achieve. As a comedy, the jokes the characters tell one another are cheesy and forced. The comedic characters come off as awkward and out of place. It wants to be a musical, but the numbers are not there to move the story along nor do they enhance the story in any way. Their musical pieces inserted in between scenes to showcase Mickey Oliver’s earlier work.

However, Revolution’s young cast does well in showcasing their talents on a very intimate stage. They carry the task to sing, dance, and move props on and off the stage. They do it all with ample energy, but their performances suffer because the material they have to work with is very, very dry. The play wants you to feel for Mickey Oliver’s character. They want you to laugh at, laugh with, and care for him (and only him). Instead, the play will have you scratching your head from beginning to end.

The beginnings of House music, those who started the movement, and its impact is a story that needs to be told. 'Revolution Chicago' wants to provide that story but loses its way in wanting to be multiple things at the same time and loses its audience by being unsuccessful in all of them.

Through September 29 at Stage 773.

In its opening scene, Blue Stockings sets us in a bustling 19th century train station, the crowd swirling quickly by, then shifting to slo-mo – just like a digital film – highlighting characters who soon become principal players in the action.

That cinematic touch seems to be used more frequently on stage, and underscores the growing crossover of film and stage. In fact, Blue Stockings - the true story of the struggle by 19th century British women for access to college degrees - is now being adapted for a television series by Jessica Swale from her 2013 script, which won a Most Promising Playwright award when it debuted at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre.

So this is a wonderful opportunity to see a significant work by a rising writer (Swale has two other movies in development). It is very well directed and produced by Spenser Davis for Promethean Theatre Ensemble (at the Den Theatre through October 13).

Following that opening scene, we quickly cut (movie style) to a foretaste of a future scene, where guest lecturer Dr. Maudsley (Jared Dennis) is holding forth:
“Except if theywith to sacrifice themselves, the higher education of women may be detrimental to their physiology,” he posits, noting the women who pursue education are of four types: scientists, mathematicians, writers, and “wealthy dilettantes” the latter known at the time as “Blue Stockings.”

When he reappears, Dr. Maudsley will also lecture on hysteria, “rooted in the Greek for ‘uterus’” he reminds the students. As preposterous as such assertions sound today, it was in fact exactly the type of “scientifically grounded” basis on which men objected to equality for women. “These are not opinions,” Dr. Maudsley says, “they are facts of nature proven by science.” And this sets the basis for the tension and drama that follow.

Girton College was founded in 1869 as the first of Cambridge University’s 31 colleges to admit women. By 1896, when Blue Stockings takes place, women also began agitating to vote – then restricted to males, just like the U.S. You may not need to know all the background to appreciate the play, but it helps – since Swale confronts us with the unbelievably bald misogyny of the period. These sentiments still infiltrate current debates, so revisiting them in Blue Stockings is instructive.

Girton’s headmistress, Elizabeth Welsh (Jamie Bragg), has been working steadfastly for decades to raise the stature of women’s education, arguing for the right to award degrees. Blue Stockings follows the action culminating in an 1896 vote by the all-male Oxford University Senate. But the men on campus, students and professors, found the prospect of women earning degrees just like men but threatening and perverse.

Promethean Theatre has developed a wonderful “Appreciation Guide” to provide background for the play. And I must admit, watching it with no with no factual context made me think of it more as a PBS-style costume drama, like Dowton Abbey – interesting, but not gripping. Being reminded that the Cambridge Senate voted down the degrees measure, and women were not awarded Cambridge degrees until 1948 (!) makes it matter much more.

Swale gives us another mark of a good playwright, with a host of distinct and memorable characters, and an entertaining story line, too. Girton lecturer Mr. Banks (Patrick Blashill) is that inspiring and nurturant educator who helps reorder the women students’ thinking. He has them dress in bloomers (those billowy 19th century pants) and teaches them to ride a bicycle, astride no less. (In real life, this happened, and the male students protesting women’s degrees burned in effigy a woman on a bicycle.)

With 19th century co-education comes the first challenges of keeping the young men and women safely separated, and all the efforts college students engineer to circumvent that control. Swale Tess (Heather Kae Smith) plays an everywoman student, a gifted mathematician and astrophysicist. The women student performances overall were far stronger than their male counterparts. For the first time society proffers a choice for her between romantic love and the life of a mind.

Swale shows this up to be a false choice from a male-dominated society. With the right man, she can have both. Among noteworthy performances are Jamie Bragg as schoolmistress Elizabeth Welsh; Cameron Feagin as Miss Blake, a lecturer and active suffragist; Patrick Blashill as Mr. Banks and Jared Dennis as Dr. Maudsley. Blue Stockings runs through October 13 at The Den Theatre in Chicago.

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,” repeats James Seol in Lauren Yee’s new play “The Great Leap” now playing at Steppenwolf Theatre. Jesca Prudcencio directs this modern twist on the Dickens classic “A Tale of Two Cities”, which divides its action between 1980s San Francisco and Beijing. 

“The Great Leap” refers to a period of social revolution in China beginning in the 1950s that spilled over into chaos by the late 1980s. Yee’s play is based on a series of real life basketball games in which her father played on behalf of America in Beijing during the 80s. Her father, much like the main character Manford, was a basketball star of San Francisco’s Chinatown. From this bit of personal history, Yee creates a fictional friendship match between USF and Beijing which culminates in the height of the Tiananmen Square protests.

Manford, played by the indefatigable Glenn Obrero is a fast-talking basketball wunderkind from the streets of Chinatown. He convinces down-on-his-luck coach Saul Slezac (Keith Kupferer) to bring him to Beijing for a high-profile rematch between the two countries. Slezac is the standard cocky American who credits himself for bringing basketball to China eighteen years prior when he trained the Republic of China coach, Wen Chang (James Seol). Though the game is coined a friendship match, the stakes are high for both coaches as well as Manford who has limited post-high school options. 

For many theater-goers, plays about sports can be a snooze, but Yee’s play is rarely just about basketball. “The Great Leap” is a history lesson about a revolution in China that failed. Many of today’s teenagers are entirely unaware of the Tiananmen Square Massacre and the famous image of the man with bags in front of a tank. The playwright uses basketball as an allegory for the communist party’s tension with the west. 

Performances and production run strong here. Those with only a lukewarm interest in sports will be dazzled by the theatrical vision Jesca Prudencio has for this show. The basketball choreography creates a sense of excitement in the brightly lit set by Justin Humphres. It’s not often that a major house has an entirely Asian American cast (with the exception of Keith Kupferer). It is on the stellar and inspiring performances by James Seol, Glenn Obrero and Deanna Myers that this play hinges. Though Kupferer gets most of the laughs as the crass American coach through which Yee pokes fun at her own Asian American heritage. James Seol establishes himself as the main character with a performance that is as humorous as it is heartfelt. 

“The Great Leap” comes at a relevant time in history. As we observe the 30th anniversary of the June 4 protests, Yee asks us if diplomatic relations have improved or degraded. An ongoing trade war between the two nations as well as uprisings in Hong Kong are food for thought. As complex as the social revolution was, Yee’s play uses hindsight to suggest it was a simpler time, or at the very least a time of great hope. 

Through October 20 at Steppenwolf Theatre. 1650 N Halsted. 312-335-1650

The inimitable Doris Day played the lead in the film version of Pajama Game after the hit musical ran on Broadway for three years and won a Tony. I enjoyed this production of The Pajama Game at Theatre at the Center so much from beginning to end that I am surprised it is not produced more often. 

Although there is a relevant plotline about the workers of a pajama factory who are trying to get a seven and one-half cent raise by organizing a union strike, the real story that affects all of the couples in the show is about love. 

Filled with delightful and memorable classic songs like “Hey There", "I'll Never Be Jealous Again", "Fernando's Hideaway" and "Steam Heat", I was taken back in time to the 1950's and swept up in each characters struggle to make a successful and lasting connection with the apple of their eye. 

Curtis Bannister plays Sid, the new boss over grievance committee leader Babe Williams (played by Elizabeth Telford), and even though they fall in love at first sight, Telford goes on to triumphantly sing "I’m Not at All in Love!" to her fellow girlfriends/workers and Sid. The handsome but insecure new man in town belts out a really moving rendition of "Hey There": 

"Hey there, you with the stars in your eyes Love never made a fool of you

You used to be too wise

Hey there, you on that high-flying cloud

Though she won't throw a crumb to you

You think someday she'll come to you

Better forget her

Her with her nose in the air

She has dancing on a string

Break it and she won't care."

Newcomer Bannister's voice is outstanding, the whole audience took notice of his skills from the very first notes to the last. 

Bannister and Telford are both perfectly cast, each has the right amount of clean-cut earnest passion to help others while helping each other and both have the singing and acting chops to wow the audience in number after number. 

Sierra Schnack plays Babe's best friend in the factory and deserves a special mention for her great comedic timing and her knockout dancing in the sexy tuxedo and top hat dance and song number "Steam Heat". Another great comedic actress/dancer played Gladys the sexy company secretary (Kelly Fethous).

Linda Fortunato directed this piece at the perfect pace and makes the audience wish there was an encore after the final number, the show is that much fun to watch. 

I highly recommend seeing this show, every number in it is filled with joy, love, humor, and insight about the conditions required to fall in love and stay in love.  

We all play the "pajama game" at some time in our lives and this play makes you want to run out and buy new pajamas! 

For tickets and/or more information visit https://www.theatreatthecenter.com/.