Low Down Dirty Blues At the Northlight Theatre By Dan Zeff Skokie –
The
lights go down at the Northlight Theatre and
Sandra Reaves-Phillips enters, singing a
blues song that introduces her as Big Mama, proprietor of a South Side Chicago
blues club late one Saturday night. The
opening song sets the scene for “Low Down Dirty Blues.” The rest of the
show is about 80 minutes of uninterrupted African American blues belting by Phillips , Mississippi Charles Bevel, Gregory Porter, and Felicia Fields. The
singers provide a wide-ranging portrait of the blues—the music’s bawdy humor, defiance, pain, and guarded hope
for a better tomorrow. A few patches of dialogue inject anecdotes about the
lives of people South and North who sing the blues, the perilous state of
authentic blues today, and white usurping of the blues commercially. But
the revue is not a tutorial on the blues in its racial and musical contexts. “Low
Down Dirty Blues” is a display of singing by four people whose comfort with the
blues reveals they have been there and done that when it comes to the roots of
the music. The
show includes about two dozen blues songs, the majority likely to be unfamiliar
to a general, especially white, audience. There is a handful of such recognizable
blues standards as the Muddy Waters classic “I’ve Got My Mojo Workin’,” “Billie
Holiday’s “Good Morning Heartache,” and the Count Basie-Joe Williams anthem “Every
Day I’ve Got the Blues.” The
show gets off to a rousing start with a set of raunchy double entendre numbers,
like “Jelly Roll Baker,” “Don’t Jump My Pony,” and “My Stove’s in Good Condition.”
Nearly all these songs are performed by Fields and Reaves-Phillips, two
full-figured women with mountainous cleavage in the blues lady tradition. In
black America, the blues anticipated feminism in the rest of the country by
several generations. The women who sang the blues were no shrinking violets.
They demanded performance from their men or they moved on. Blues women could be
an intimidating lot and men hassled them at their peril. The
presentation of the show has an agreeably spontaneous feeling, thanks to the
deft and unobtrusive directing by Randal Myler. The ensemble sings the numbers
in a variety of vocal combinations. Musical accompaniment comes from a talented
trio seated at the rear of the stage. The blues club ambience is credibly
established by Jack Magaw’s set, abetted by Rachel Laritz’s costume designs,
Don Darnutzer’s lighting, and Victoria DeIorio’s sound. I
saw the revue at a Saturday matinee with an audience primarily compiled of
white patrons heavily leaning toward senior citizen demographics. The crowd
responded enthusiastically to the music but one wistfully pondered what the
reaction would have been on the South Side of Chicago. A black audience would have
whooped and hollered through the show. The white audience at the Northlight obviously
enjoyed themselves but white spectators do not come from a demonstrative cultural
tradition when it comes to this music. At
least at my performance, Philips seemed a bit uncomfortable physically, but she still held
up her end of the program. Charles Bevel looked every inch the Deep South
bluesman and sang with droll wit, ending with the plaintive ache of “Grapes of Wrath.”
Porter, a large and imposing man, captured the underlying pathos and drama of
the blues in “Born Under a Bad Sign” and was very affecting in singing of a
better day (maybe) in “Change Is Gonna Come.” For
me, the star of the show was Fields, an impressive mass of a
woman in a jet black dress. She has a big voice, wonderfully expressive eyes,
and a manner that takes a blue song by the scruff of the neck. In the show’s
one non-musical interlude, Fields worked the audience, especially an
elderly white couple, on their marital sexual habits. The bit could have been
tasteless and patronizing but it was a hoot, the kind of one-on-one comedy that
would have been a special joy in a black crowd. I
have a quibble. The musical accompaniment swung so hard that it deserved at least
one solo number, and not just the throw-away couple of choruses at the curtain
call. The show’s playing time could have been extended profitably by five
minutes to allow pianist Frank Menzies to romp through a South Side Chicago
blues stomp, Albert Ammons style. Menzies receives fine rhythm section support
from James Perkins, Jr., on guitar and Michael Mason on electric and acoustic
guitar. “Low
Down Dirty Blues” runs through July 3 at the Northlight Theatre, 9501 Skokie
Boulevard. Performances are Tuesday and Thursday at 7:30, Wednesday at 1 and
7:30 p.m., Friday at 8 p.m., Saturday at 2:30 and 8 p.m., and Sunday at 2:30
and 7 p.m. Tickets are $39 to $54. Call 847 673 6300 or visit www.northlight.org. The
show gets a rating of 3½ stars. June
2010 Contact
Dan at zeffdaniel@yahoo.com. Visit
him on Facebook.
************************** A Life At the Northlight Theatre By Dan Zeff Skokie
– The
cantankerous Desmond Drumm was a supporting character in Hugh Leonard’s popular
1978 Irish play “Da.” Two years after “Da”
opened on Broadway, Leonard moved Drumm to center stage in “A Life,” a
beautifully written play enhanced by a superbly acted revival at the Northlight
Theatre. Drumm
(John Mahoney) has about six months to live, according to the town doctor. The
man decides he needs to look back on his life, taking “an audit” to see what his
existence has amounted to. Drumm doesn’t
like what he finds. He’s spent 40 years in a civil service job he despises, supervising
colleagues he finds contemptible in their laziness and backbiting. His personal
life offers no more pleasurable vistas. As a young man Drumm lost the women he
loved to his best friend Lar, an amiable layabout, and Drumm settled for Dolly,
a timid and compliant woman he looks
down on as his inferior. Drumm
is a bully and an intimidator. He’s more educated, more intelligent, and more
articulate than most of the people around him and he funnels his advantages
into a scornful and cynical attitude that costs him friendships at work and in
his domestic life. The man doesn’t suffer fools gladly and nearly everyone he
encounters personally and professionally seems to be a fool. Near
the end of the play Drumm pronounces his credo. "I’ve never lied to or about a
man. I’ve never smiled into the face of a knave, or pretended to see virtue
where I found none. Or been a loafer or
a hanger-on, or a licker of boots.” Maybe so, but just a few minutes later
Drumm recognizes the real truth of his life beneath the arrogant facade. “Instead
of friends, I’ve had standards, and woe betide those who failed to come up to them.
Well, I failed. My contempt for the town…it was cowardice. What I called
principles was vanity. What I called friendship was malice.” Quite a shock of recognition. Leonard
tells his story in a “then and now” manner. Drumm, Dolly, Lar, and Lar’s wife Mary appear in the present
time (1977) and their younger selves take the stage as they were in 1937. The
audience recognizes in younger characters the seeds of their elders 40 years
later. Young Drumm in particular was growing into the stiff necked, humorless
man who would tyrannize over those around him for 40 years. “A
Life” sound grim and unrelenting, but this is an Irish play, which means there is
humor and warmth, and the lilting Irish brogue often elevates ordinary dialogue
into a kind of prose poetry. The shifting of the storyline between 1937 and
1977 enriches the narrative without coming across as confusing or artificial
(Leonard used a similar device in “Da”). The
performances under B. J. Jones’s insightful and understated direction suit every
character beautifully. Mahoney is a natural as Drumm, verbally cruel to those
who can’t defend themselves. Mahoney doesn’t milk the curmudgeonly Drumm for easy
laughs and his change of heart at the end isn’t overdone. Drumm is still Drumm,
sharp tongued and overbearing, but a glint of humanity finally makes its way
through the hard crust of the man’s insufferable superiority.
Brad
Armacost is wonderful as the older Lar, feckless but likeable (an Irish play in
Chicagoland theater without Armacost would be unthinkable). Linda Kimbrough is
excellent, as usual, this time as Mary, the woman Drumm should have married.
Penny Slusher is an affecting Dolly, who meekly adores Drumm in spite of
decades of verbal abuse. The
young versions of the four characters are master strokes of casting. They even eerily
resemble the oldsters physically. Melanie Keller is first among equals as Mibs
(the young Mary) but only because she has the best scenes. It’s a wonderful portrayal
of a plucky, independent young woman who may have been too much for Drumm to
handle in marriage. He’ll never know. Matt
Schwader perfectly reflects the boy who is father to the man as the young
Desmond. The character’s “before and after” transformation may remind the spectator
of how the young Ebenezer Scrooge turned into the elderly miser in “A Christmas
Carol.” Robert Belushi is just right as the happy go lucky young Lar, the butt
of Drumm’s ridicule for years but too innocent and agreeable to bear a grudge. The
action takes place within Jack Magaw’s set, a gazebo for the outdoor scenes and
arrangements of furniture for the indoor scenes. Rachel Laritz designed the
costumes, JR Lederle the lighting, and Lindsay Jones the sound. “A
Life” may seem wordy and low keyed compared to modern and more violent Irish
plays by Martin McDonagh and his generation. There isn’t much physical action in
“A Life” and occasionally the Irish accents present a problem. But the play is
rich in its character revelations and the confrontation scenes, especially in
the second act, crackle with drama. This is a fine adult play in the best sense
of that much abused term. “A
Life” runs through April 25 at the Northlight Theatre, 9501 Skokie Boulevard.
Most performances are Tuesday and Thursday at 7:30 p.m., Wednesday 1 and 7:30
p.m., Friday at 8 p.m., Saturday at 2:30 and 8 p.m., and Sunday at 2:30 and 7
p.m. Tickets are $35 to $50. Call 847 673 6300 or visit www.northlight.org. The
show gets a rating of 3 ½ stars. March 2010 Contact
Dan at zeffdaniel@yahoo.com . ************************************* At
the Northlight Theatre By Dan Zeff SKOKIE—All the
characters in “Awake and Sing!” are angry and they have a lot to be angry
about. They are living daily lives of frustration, disillusion, and
disappointment and they see no way out. It sounds like grim, hard work for the
audience but the production at the Northlight Theatre is exhilarating in its
energy, intensity, and humanity. “Awake and Sing!” was staged on Broadway in 1935, the first
major play by Clifford Odets and a work that catapulted him into the forefront
of the American theater at the age of 29. Odets’s drama is set during the Great
Depression and the economic and social anguish of the time permeates the lives
of the Berger family in their crowded fifth floor walkup apartment in the
Bronx. Director Amy Morton takes a hard look at the extended Berger
family. The Bergers are New York Jews and they speak in the rhythms and argot
of generations of Jews portrayed on the stage, on radio, and in the movies. But
Morton doesn’t permit the stereotyped kvetching that could make such characters
either endearing or sentimental. The bitterness among the Berger clan is
palpable, not comical. The play has been compared to the drama of Anton
Chekhov, and legitimately so in rendering three-dimensional men and women
trapped in an unfulfilling existence.
Awake and Sing!
The action takes play over a year’s time during the depths of
the depression. In the cramped Berger apartment three generations of the family
live and argue, the atmosphere seething with resentment and acrimony. Bessie Berger is the family matriarch, an aggressive,
bullying woman who sees herself as the bulwark again family disintegration.
Jacob, her father, is an elderly old-time socialist dreamer, rambling on about
the victimized masses and the criminal capitalists. Myron Berger is Bessie’s
ineffectual and henpecked husband. Hennie and Ralph Berger, brother and sister
in their 20’s, suffer the most in the household from the stresses of the
depression and family tensions because they are both young and both see their
lives withering away from forces they cannot control. Surrogate members of the family include Moe Axelrod, an
embittered and crippled World War I veteran who loves Hennie, Uncle Morty, a
dress manufacturer and the closest person to a success in the play, and Sam
Feinshcreiber, a pathetic immigrant conned into marrying the pregnant Hennie
who had been seduced and abandoned before the start of the play. Morton sets the tone for the drama with the opening scene, a
family dinner roiling with rancor, the people at the table shouting insults and
accusations like they couldn’t get the words out fast enough. The entire
production lasts less than two hours, partly because one intermission has been
eliminated and partly because of the fast paced overlapping dialogue.
The Northlight ensemble brings the Berger brood to vivid life
in all their unhappiness and futile hope for something better from life. Cindy
Gold is terrific as Bessie Berger, an intimidating and humorless woman whose
speeches of self-justification late in the play ring hollow to the audience.
The indispensable Mike Nussbaum, 86 years old and still in top form, is Jacob.
Keith Gallagher delivers the story’s core performance as Ralph Berger, a young
man consumed with heartbreaking yearning and helpless protest. Audrey Francis is superb as Hennie, like Ralph isolated in a
life she detests, enduring with a façade of brittle cynicism. Peter Kevoian is
a persuasive Myron, beaten down by a married lifetime of hectoring from his
wife. There is also splendid work from the three men who interact with the
family—Jay Whittaker as Moe, Loren Lazerine as Morty, and Demetrios Troy as
Sam. Tim Gittings rounds out the cast with a pair of cameo appearances as the
beleaguered apartment building janitor. John Musial’s set is a model of period detail and the
Jacqueline Firkens costumes capture the dowdy look of the depression decade.
Keith Parham designed the lighting and Mikhail Fiksel the sound. The New York
brogue sounds authentic and natural, which means dialect coach Cecilie O’Reilly
has done her job well. “Awake and Sing!” is both a play embedded in its historical
period and a show relevant to today. The agonies of economic deprivation,
clashes between parents and children, and the search for love and a better life
are timeless themes. “Awake and Sing!” spoke eloquently to its audiences in
1935 and it has much to say to viewers 75 years later, especially in this
marvelously acted and directed production. “Awake and Sing!” runs through February 28 at the Northlight
Theatre, 9501 Skokie Boulevard. Most performances are Wednesday at 1 and 7:30
p.m., Thursday at 7:30 p.m., Friday at 8 p.m., Saturday at 2:30 and 8 p.m., and
Sunday at 2:30 and 7 p.m. Tickets are $35 to $50. Call 847 673 6300 or visit www.northlight.org. The show gets a rating of 3½ stars. February 2010 ************************ Souvenir At the Northlight Theatre By Dan Zeff Skokie - Several
minutes into “Souvenir” at the Northlight Theatre, Neva Mae Powers sings her
first notes as Florence Foster
Jenkins and there won’t be a more startling, not to say shocking, moment on an
area stage this season. Mrs.
Foster Jenkins (1868-1944) was a woman who believed she had a great singing
voice and she had the time and money to carry out her dream of being a notable
concert diva. Unfortunately, the would-be diva hopeless as a singer but she was
so armed in her own delusion of greatness that she carried on her career for
decades, never recognizing she had become a cult figure for connoisseurs of appalling
singing. Stephen Temperley’s
play is a two-hander, consisting of Mrs. Foster Jenkins and her piano accompanist
Cosme McMoon. The lady’s life is fully documented. McMoon is a more shadowy
figure. Apparently he really lived but in “Souvenir” he is more of a construct
by the playwright, serving as narrator and as the audience’s eyes and ears to
Mrs. Foster Jenkins and her anti-art.
The play is most notable for what it is
not. “Souvenir” is not a farce that takes cheap shots at the expense of the
woeful singer. The woman is a ludicrous figure, but Temperley endows her with a
dignity and an artistic conviction that becomes poignant, even persuasive, as
the play goes along. Florence Foster Jenkins may be a preposterous person, but
her absolute belief in her talent, and her belief in music as art, eventually gain
the audience’s respect. As a caricature, Florence Foster Jenkins might be worth
a five-minute sketch in a Second City revue. Holding the Northlight stage for
two hours demands more dramatic heft, and we get that heft from Temperley’s
script and the performances by Powers and by Mark Anders as Cosme. Indeed,
while Mrs. Foster Jenkins obviously has the more showy role, it’s McMoon who
provides the play’s backbone. The lady is essentially a one-note character, literally
and figuratively. McMoon is the voice of reason, a disappointed composer and
musician who forms the the audience’s bridge between reality and Florence
Jenkins’ world of fantasy. Mark Anders delivers a wonderfully shaded portrait
of the pianist, from his first astonished reaction to the woman’s singing
through a growing bond of respect for the lady, for all her artistic blindness
and ineptitude. He becomes her protector right up to her Carnegie Hall recital
that was both the pinnacle and the nadir of her singing life after the capacity
crowd laughed her off the stage when she tried to sing “Ave Maria.” “Souvenir”
has its best moments in the first act as McMoon, reluctantly at first, forms
his bond with Mrs. Foster Jenkins. The second act is mostly given over to the Carnegie
Hall recital, displaying the singer in a variety of garish costumes as she
tortured one classical aria after another. By the Carnegie Hall concert scenes,
nearly all the play’s work was done. The concert just prolonged the evening,
allowing Powers to wear a delirious display of Theresa Ham’s costumes.
Near
the end of the show, after the “Ave Maria” debacle, a shaken Foster Jenkins
asks McMoon if she had been playing the fool all these years and she asks for
his honest opinion. Of course, he lies to her and convinces her she’s really a
star, before, now, and always. It’s an affecting scene but strikes a false
note. I can’t see the lady’s confidence shaken by any negative audience
reaction. Her charm for the audience is her total belief in her talent and to
her music and I doubt she would weaken,
even after the Carnegie Hall disaster. Only
a select few actresses could succeed in the role of Florence Foster Jenkins and
the Northlight nailed one of them in Neva Rae Powers. She looks the part of the7
matronly lady and her squawking, tone deaf singing is consistent in its awfulness.
To prove that Powers really can sing, at the end of the show she performs a
luminous “Ave Maria” as Florence Foster Jenkins believes she sang it. How much
of a strain the Foster Jenkins screeching has on Powers’ vocal chords only she
could say, but her dedication to the lady’s wretched vocalizing is continuously
convincing. I
left the theater full of admiration for Anders, a splendid actor and a fine
pianist who serves as our guide in the improbable Foster Jenkins saga while
delineating a full-bodied image of the disappointed artist, lonely gay man, and
improbable guardian of an impossible woman. Steve
Scott’s unobtrusive direction turns the show over to Powers and Anders,
trusting Temperley’s humorous yet compassionate script to keep the audience
engaged. Tom Burch designed the effective music room set in a plush New York
City hotel. Lee Fiskness designed the lighting and Victoria Delorio the sound. “Souvenir”
runs through December 20 at the Northlight Theatre, 9501 Skokie Boulevard. Most
performances are Wednesday at 1 and 8 p.m., Thursday at 7:30, Friday at 8 p.m.,
Saturday at 2:30 and 8 p.m., and Sunday at 2:30 and 7 p.m. Tickets are $35 to
$50. Call 847 673 6300 or visit www.northlight.org.
The
show gets a rating of 3 1/2 stars. November 2009 Contact
Dan at zeffdaniel@yahoo.com. ************************ The Marvelous Wonderettes At
the Northlight Theatre By Dan Zeff SKOKIE—We
do not lack for jukebox musicals that reprise the golden oldie songs of the
1950’s and 1960’s. Consider “Beehive,” “Forever Plaid,” and “Smokey Joe’s
Café.” In one format or another the shows all revive tunes from rock’n’roll’s
first generation that still appeal to the hearts and memories of baby boomers. “The Marvelous Wonderettes” is the latest jukebox musical to
visit our area, getting its local premiere at the Northlight Theatre. The show
was actually born in Milwaukee in 1999 and had a prosperous run in Los Angeles.
It is now entering its second year off Broadway in New York City. Who says
nostalgia isn’t what it used to be? “The Marvelous Wonderettes” offers about 30 songs assembled
by writer-director Roger Bean. The songs are weighted heavily toward white girl
soloists and singing groups of the period, though the show doesn’t make any
obvious gender or racial statements. The four-performer ensemble covers records
by Lesley Gore, Patti Page, Dusty Springfield, Connie Francis, the Chordettes,
the McGuire Sisters, and their ilk, mostly dealing with the anguished love life
of teen-age girls.
“Wonderettes” is constructed around a concert given by four
high school girls to entertain attendees of the school prom at Springfield High
School (state unidentified). That’s the first act, set in 1958. The second act
jumps to 1968. The girls return as young women, with changes of wardrobe and
attitude but still singing the popular tunes of the day. The four characters are Missy, Cindy Lou, Betty Jean, and
Suzy. They are all given personalities of a sort to distinguish them from each
other, but we are not talking Shakespearean depth of character here. The young
ladies are on stage to perform the songs. At the intermission the production was in deep trouble. The
songs were lumbered by an intolerable amount of shtick, with the girls
bickering, mugging, deliberately missing cues, and going to excessive lengths
to demonstrate that they were ditsy amateurs. I had an urge to shout out “Just
sing the song.” Director Bean has a lot to answer for in the desperate reaches
for comedy in the opening act. If Bean is unaware of the shambles, he needs to
visit the production ASAP. The second act is an improvement. There is more narrative to
give the songs some context after the bubblegum inanity of the first act. The
quartet delivers smooth Motown moves as they sing and the songs are allowed to
flourish on their own merits. Laura E. Taylor (Missy) belts out a show-stopping
rendition of the Fifth Dimension’s “Wedding Bell Blues.” Dina DiCostanzo (Cindy
Lou) leads an intense version of Dusty Springfield’s “The Leader of the
Pack.” Tempe Thomas (Betty Jean) and Cat
Davis (Suzy) also get in their big voice licks once they are liberated from all
the first act nonsense. What does shine through the evening is how well these songs
hold up, with their catchy melodies and lyrics that vary from the chirpy to the
faux serious but are always listenable. I suspect Bean could have concocted a
show harnessing 30 entirely different songs and still delivered a quality
score. It really was a golden age of popular music. Could there be a similar
show incorporating songs of the 1980’s and 1990’s? I don’t think so. The production’s designers and musical director have been
imported from the New York City staging. Michael Carnahan’s set design turns
the Northlight interior into a high school gym, with banners, streamers, and
prom decorations surrounding a basic raised platform stage holding the four
microphones. The electronic musical accompaniment is canned. It sounds good but
seems a little low rent for a theater with the credentials of the Northlight. The press night audience obviously was having a rousing time,
even in the first act. Numbers like
“Lollipop,” “Sincerely,” “Dream Lover,” and “I Only Want to Be with You”
obviously still carry plenty of emotional resonance. The show should do very
nicely at the box office has already been extended a week. But that in no way
excuses the simpering foolery of the first act. “The Marvelous Wonderettes” runs through November 1 at the
Northlight Theatre, 9501 Skokie Boulevard. Most performances are Tuesday and
Thursday at 7:30 p.m., Wednesday at 1 and 7:30 p.m., Friday at 8 p.m., Saturday
at 2:30 and 8 p.m., and Sunday at 2:30 and 7 p.m. Tickets are $39 to $54. Call
847 673 6300 or visit www.northlight.org. The show gets a rating of three stars. Sept. 2009 Contact Dan at zeffdaniel@yahoo.com.
**************************** The Lieutenant of Inishmore At
the Northlight Theatre By Dan
Zeff SKOKIE—The
characters of Martin McDonagh’s play “The Lieutenant of Inishmore” consists of
eight human beings and three cats. By the end of the show half of the humans
and two-thirds of the cats have died gruesome, bloody deaths, the humans
perishing vividly on stage. And this play won the 2003 Olivier Award as best
British comedy of the year! In spite of its gross-out violence, or maybe because of
it, “The Lieutenant of Inishmore” really
is funny in the excellent local premiere at the Northlight Theatre. It’s a
lesser play in the McDonagh canon, not on a dramatic par with “The Lonesome
West,” “The Beauty Queen of Leenane,” and “The Pillowman.” Those plays had
their share of violence, both physical and psychological, but they were made of
stronger stuff dramatically. “The Lieutenant of Inishmore” takes place in familiar
McDonagh country, an island off the coast of western Ireland. The action takes
place in and near a rural cottage (a splendid set by Todd Rosenthal).The central character is a psychopath named
Padraic who sees himself as a patriot freeing Ireland from British domination.
But Padraic is such a loose canon that his promiscuous violence has even turned
off the IRA. So Padraic formed his own “splinter group” to torture and kill for
the greater good of his country. Padraic may be a psycho, but he has a soft spot in his heart
for his pet cat Wee Thomas, the man’s only friend for 15 years. The presumed
death of the cat launches the play into its spiral of gore and death. The
satellite characters around Padraic are his father Donny, a neighbor lad named
Davey and his sister Mairead, and three hit men named Christy, Brendan, and
Joey come to the cottage to eliminate Padraic, who has become an embarrassment
to the IRA. There are lots of guns in the play and they are fired without
hesitation by several of the characters. The result is the stack of bloody
corpses in front of the audience at the end of the evening. And I do mean
bloody. The Broadway production used five gallons of fake blood for every
performance.
So, what is so comical about all this butchery? The
characters are a collection of rustic Irish Neanderthals who treat violence as
a casual feature of everyday life. What would horrify us is just a subject of
conversation to them. Even characters on their knees with their hands tied
behind their backs and ready to receive a bullet in the head chat about death
in an offhand way. The sheer incongruity of their attitudes is funny, in a
grotesque way. The characters all speak in thick Irish accents and somehow
even the most serious matters take on a light, humorous touch if discussed with
a ripe Irish brogue. Above all, the violence and torture distributed throughout
the play are so outrageous that they defy being taken seriously. There have been attempts by some critics to assign a deeper
meaning beneath McDonagh’s carnival of carnage. Some say it’s a satire. Others
call the play a cautionary statement about the excesses perpetrated by people
who get carried away in a political or religious cause. McDonagh denied any social or philosophical meaning to his
work and I take him at his word. Possibly some viewers require an underlying
significance to justify so much brutality on the stage, but I spotted no
agenda. “The Lieutenant of Inishmore” is a story about people who kill and maim
casually as a way of life. Any more profound assessment of the play is a reach.
That makes the play a comedy without much substance other than its dazzling
violence and some rich Irish blarney in the dialogue. The Northlight production under the razor sharp direction of
B. J. Jones gives the play a splendid full tilt rendering. As Padraic, Cliff Chamberlain is a madman but
a madman with a veneer of normalcy that is disconcerting. Matt DeCaro as Donny
and Jamie Abelson at Davey beautifully walk the line between caricature and
real people. Kelly O’Sullivan is marvelous as the 16-year old tomboy Mairead
ready to take her bee bee gun into the service of a free Ireland (and strike up
an unlikely romance with Padraic). John Judd (Christy), Andy Luther (Brendan),
and Keith Gallagher (Joey) make a delightfully murderous trio of IRA assassins.
Gallagher doubles as a drug dealer in the second scene suspended upside down on
a hook as the subject of Padraic’s tortures. In addition to Rosenthal’s set, there is fine design work by
Rachel Anne Healy (costumes), Chris Binder (lighting), Andre Pluess (sound),
and Nick Sandys (fights). Special mention goes to Steve Tolin for his special
effects, which consist primarily of concocting technical ways to spray blood
all over the cottage walls. His contributions to the final scene are
spectacular. It would be unfair to future audiences to say more.
Most of the opening night crowd obviously had little or no
idea of the graphic violence they would witness on the stage, in spite of
warnings and general descriptions in the theater lobby. Yet I didn’t note any
outrage in the crowd or anyone leaving the theater in disgust or nausea. Everyone
seemed to be having a grand old time. That’s a tribute to the playwright and to
the production and to the audience’s own ability to adjust to a show the likes
of which few of them had ever seen before. It may be implausible to call “The
Lieutenant of Inishmore” a fun evening, but there you are. “The Lieutenant of Inishmore” runs through June 7 at the
Northlight Theatre, 9501 Skokie Boulevard. Performances are Tuesday and
Thursday at 7:30 p.m., Wednesday at 1 and 7:30 p.m., Friday at 8 p.m., Saturday
at 2:20 and 8 p.m., and Sunday at 2:30 and 7:30 p.m. (except May 17, 31, and
June 7). Tickets are $25 to $55. Call 847 673 6300 or visit northlight.org. The show gets a rating of 31/2
stars. May 2009 Visit Dan at zeffdaniel@yahoo.com . ******************** Mauritius At
the Northlight Theatre By Dan Zeff SKOKIE—Playwright
Theresa Rebeck is probably weary of hearing her play “Mauritius”
compared to David Mamet’s “American Buffalo.”
Yet the comparisons are inevitable and by no means diminish Rebeck’s
superb drama. Both are intense, verbally and occasionally physically violent,
peppered with dark humor, and the source of dream roles for the performers. “American Buffalo” deals with three men trying to scam a
valuable coin collection. “Mauritius” is about stamp collecting, specifically
two stamps from the island of Mauritius minted in 1847 and considered one of
the Holy Grails of philately. The 2007 drama is being staged by the Northlight
Theatre in one of the best-acted productions in that theater’s long and
luminous history. “Mauritius” explores the conflict-filled rivalries among five
characters. Jackie and Mary are half sisters picking over the meager estate of
their recently deceased mother, meager except for a collection of stamps
assembled by Mary’s grandfather. The collection apparently includes the two
Mauritius stamps that are worth millions of dollars. Mary and Jackie argue over possession of the collection.
Indeed, they argue over just about everything. For reasons not entirely
clarified in the play, the two young women despise each other. Their mutual
hatred focuses on possession of the stamp album. Mary claims the collection as
hers through her grandfather. Jackie claims it’s part of their common mother’s
estate. What riles Jackie is Mary’s determination not to sell the
collection but retain it as a memorial to her grandfather. Jackie sees the
collection as her ticket to a lifetime’s economic freedom. Enter Philip,
Dennis, and Sterling.
Philip is a crusty and seedy owner of a stamp collecting shop,
an expert in historically valuable stamps. Dennis, about the age of the
sisters, attaches himself to Jackie in an attempt to broker the sale of the
collection. Sterling is a sinister and intimidating millionaire with a mania
for rare stamps who is the likely purchaser of the Mauritius gems, if Mary can
be cajoled, forced, or conned into yielding them. All three men have their own
agendas and the power centers shift among the three, and the two half sisters,
in a manner that reflects the skill of a Mamet, or a Harold Pinter. Rebeck’s play contains lots of twists and turns and some
surprises at the end, none of which should be revealed ahead of time. The negotiations between Jackie and Sterling
for the sale of the stamps occupies much of the second act and stands among the
most suspenseful and engrossing scenes performed on an area stage in a long
time. The Northlight has assembled a dream cast, one of those
ensembles that convince the spectator that this is the only way the play can be
performed. That’s a behind the scenes tribute to director Rick Snyder, who
pushes all the right theatrical and dramatic buttons to give the rising and
falling tensions perfect pitch. The cast consists of familiar local faces, none of whom has
ever acted with more depth, fervor, and credibility. It’s great to have the
veteran Gary Houston back as the grizzled and elusive Philip and Dan Kuhlman is
terrific as the insinuating Dennis, desperately trying to keep the stamp deal
afloat amid a stage full of personalities working at turbulent cross purposes. But it’s Lance Baker who grabs the show as the menacing
Sterling. His long monologue explaining to Jackie why she should accept his
suitcase full of cash in exchange for the stamps is a gem of sly, logical
explication. And Baker’s stunned silent reaction to seeing and actually
touching the fabled Mauritius stamps speaks volumes about the passion that
drives all true collectors. It’s a magnificent performance. Anne Adams and Suzanne Lang play the half sisters with a
brilliant mixture of venomous hatred and barely civilized conciliation. Their
loathing for each other is palpable and chilling, if insufficiently explained.
Adams has more stage time and her encounters both with Mary and the men in the
play allow her to display her acting chops with greater range, but that’s no
put down of Lang’s equally committed and convincing performance.
Snyder uses the Northlight turntable stage effectively to
shift the action between Philip’s stamp shop and the apartment of the deceased
mother that becomes the battleground between Jackie and Mary. Tom Burch has
designed effective sets for both locations. Nan Zabriskie designed the
costumes, Robert Christen the lighting, and Andrew Hansen the sound. Rebeck is the co-author of “Omnium Gatherum,” one of the most
important American plays of the new millennium.
If that play established Rebeck as a major writer, “Mauritius”
solidifies her position on the A list of American dramatists. We might not get
a more audience involving, and better acted, play all season. “Mauritius” runs through April 5 at the Northlight Theatre,
9501 Skokie Boulevard. Most performances are Tuesday and Thursday at 7:30 p.m.,
Wednesday at 1 and 7:30 p.m., Friday at 8 p.m., Saturday at 2:30 and 8 p.m.,
and Sunday at 2:30 and 7 p.m. Tickets are $25 to $55. Call 847 673 6300 or
visit www.northlight.org. The show gets a rating of four stars. Contact Dan at zeffdaniel@yahoo.com
. March 2009 ************************* Po Boy Tango At
the Northlight Theatre By Dan Zeff SKOKIE—Fans
of the Food Channel might find portions of “Po Boy Tango” informative and
absorbing. Patrons seeking a coherent drama with an accessible point of view
may leave the Northlight Theatre perplexed and unsatisfied. “Po Boy Tango” is receiving its world premiere at the
Northlight after the Kenneth Lin play was workshopped by the theater. On the
evidence of the current state of the show, more workshopping is in order. There are three characters in the play, a Taiwanese immigrant
named Richie Po, an African American woman named Gloria B. (why she has such a
Kafkaesque last name is never explained), and Richie’s mother, Mama Po. The
mother died in Taiwan shortly before the play’s action begins and we encounter
her through a series of videotaped monologues she left for her son. At the beginning of the play, Gloria B. visits Kenneth’s home
one dark and stormy night. We learn almost immediately that the two have a
history that goes back at least 10 years and there is a residue of hostility,
especially on the woman’s part. Richie invites Gloria to his home to help him re-create a
Grand Banquet once prepared by his late mother, a famous chef. The banquet
would be a wedding present for his daughter. Richie has Mama Po’s recipes and
notes for the banquet but lacks the culinary skills. Gloria is a cuisine cook,
at least when it comes to soul food, and Richie seeks her assistance in
preparing the banquet. Gloria, still bitter over whatever went wrong in their
relationship, refuses until Richie bribes her with a partnership in a
restaurant she would operate in exchange for her cooking services.
The first act meanders along with banter about cooking from
Richie and Gloria in America and from Mama Po, brought alive through the videos
from her home in Taiwan. It’s interesting stuff, especially if one is a
gourmet, and the Chinese reverential, almost mystical attitude toward food has
its fascination. But by the intermission I had no idea where the play was headed.
No great issues seemed unresolved and an igniting of the Richie-Gloria
relationship seemed unlikely, Richie being happily married. In the second act the emotional intensity suddenly detonates.
Richie and Gloria explode into violent verbal assaults that touch on race,
cultural gulfs, and ethnic tensions. Mama Po even gets into the recriminations
via a videotape that carries a denunciation of her son for marrying a woman
Mama Po rejects. At the end of the play Richie and Gloria reconcile and our
final view of the pair shows them silently sitting on a bench holding hands and
overcome with emotion. Nothing in the first act prepares the audience for the verbal
fury of the second act, at least nothing I could identify. I left the theater
wishing I had read the script in advance to glean any dramatic signposts that
chart the storyline from the low keyed first act to the fireworks of the second
act. I did grasp a few shards of information, like Gloria was a nurse who
helped save the life of Richie’s daughter when she was a child. And Gloria has
her own problems with a difficult college age son who struggles unsuccessfully
to become a star on the Syracuse University basketball team. The action takes place in a series of interiors in the United
States and in Taiwan, represented by kitchen counters with sink and burners
moved on and off the playing area by stagehands between scenes. Much food is prepared during the evening, all
by mime. The audience doesn’t actually see any of the dishes, like shark fin
soup or spoon bread. But the food mostly sounds tasty, though a few of the
Asian dishes sounded pretty gross in their preparation. The Northlight has imported two fine actors from California
to play Richie Po and Mama Po. Ken Narasaki and Jeanne Sakata deliver persuasive
performances embellished with humor as well as strong emotions. The fact that
both are Japanese rather than Taiwanese doesn’t matter. That reliable Chicago
actress Jacqueline Williams is outstanding as the street smart Gloria B. Chay Yew is the director. Brian Sidney Bembridge designed the
set with its all-purpose abstract geometric background, Rachel Laritz the
costumes, Keith Parham the lighting, and Andre Pleuss. “Po Boy Tango” is advertised as “a celebration of the human
spirit and the joy of cooking.” The pleasures of cooking come through
enticingly enough. The celebration of the human spirit is more elusive. The
play needs more of its dramatic heat injected into the first act so the
audience can follow a consistent arc in the action. Right now there is too
little drama in the first act and too much in the second, aggravated by
grievous gaps of information about the odd couple Richard-Gloria relationship,
then and now. “Po Boy Tango” runs through February 15 at the Northlight
Theatre, 9501 Skokie Boulevard. Most performances are Tuesday and Thursday at
7:30 p.m., Wednesday at 1 and 7:30 p.m., Friday at 8 p.m., Saturday at 2:30 and
8 p.m., and Sunday at 2:30 and 7 p.m. Tickets are $25 to $55. Call 847 673 6300
or visit www.northlight.org. The
show gets a rating of three stars. Jan. 2009 Contact
Dan at zeffdaniel@yahoo.com.
************************
Grey Gardens
At the Northlight Theatre
By Dan Zeff
SKOKIE—“Grey Gardens” is based on a 1975 documentary motion picture, which must be a first for a hit Broadway musical. The show charts the bizarre history of a mother and daughter in 1941 and 1973, much of the interest residing with their connection to the Kennedy family.
“Grey Gardens” is a coup for the Northlight Theatre. The much honored 2006 musical seems more a candidate for a downtown Chicago touring production, but the Northlight snagged the rights, rewarding the show with a superb staging.
Gray Gardens is an estate on Long Island in New York. The action takes place in the 28-room mansion inhabited by Edith Bouvier Beale and her daughter Edith (“Big Edie” and “Little Edie” in the show). Big Edie was the aunt of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and her sister Lee Radziwill and Little Edie was their cousin.
The show is really two mini musicals connected by the weird lives of the two Edies. The first act is set in 1941, on the day Little Edie’s engagement to Joseph Kennedy, Jr., is supposed to be announced. Joseph was the future president’s brother, a young man who was killed in World War II. It’s Little Edie’s day, but her mother controls the action with her huge ego and possessiveness.
By the end of the first act, Kennedy has ended the engagement out of fear that the eccentricities of Big Edie and Little Edie would impair his carefully laid out campaign for the White House. While Joseph breaks Little Edie’s heart, Big Edie receives a telegram from her husband announcing he is seeking a Mexican divorce to marry his mistress. The loss of these two men triggers the psychological spiral that ends with the horrors of their life in the mansion 32 years later.
The second act portrays Big Edie and Little Edie as little more than derelicts, living in squalor in their decayed house. The only visitor is a teen-ager who helps out with odds jobs and filches money from Big Edie’s purse.
The offbeat story is told largely through an eclectic score by Scott Frankel (music) and Michael Korie (lyrics). Doug Wright wrote the book.
Nearly all the show’s plot is concentrated in the first act. The second act is static, plot wise as the audience eavesdrops on the Edies in their squalid poverty and their life-and-death bond of dependency. Big Edie is bedridden with gout and Little Edie wanders about, nurtured by delusions that she can still make a career on the Broadway stage.
The authors don’t identify precisely why the one-time socialites plummeted to such nightmarish depths. Big Edie’s right wing father cut off financial support out of disapproval of his daughter’s bohemian ways, but that doesn’t account for why both women end up living in filth as little more than demented bag ladies. Some spectators will find the final act haunting and tragic. Others will just find it depressing.
The score touches a variety of styles, partly because many of the songs are programmed for Big Edie’s first act recital at the engagement party, allowing the composer to inject everything from opera to pseudo African American folksongs into his score. The music in the second act is more focused, taking us into the addled hearts and minds of the two women.
The first act is speculation by the show’s creators. Apparently no hard evidence exists that Little Edie was ever going to marry Joseph Kennedy. The second act is based on the movie documentary and presumably is more authentic. The two acts don’t achieve any real dramatic equilibrium.
The actresses on Broadway who played Big Edie and Little Edie both won Tony Awards and it’s easy to see why. Both are plum roles for performers who can sing and persuasively create the warped personalities of the two unstable Edies. The Northlight production gives audiences an actress who should loom large in our own awards ceremonies at the end of the season. Hollis Resnik is triumphant as the mother in act one and the daughter in act two. Resnik has always soared in larger than life ultra theatrical characters and her rendering of Big Edie in act one and Little Edie in act two is brilliant, physically and vocally. It’s a performance demanding enormous stamina as well as huge acting chops and Resnik nails it.
The six supporting performers appear primarily in the first act and make token appearances in the second act, mostly in fantasy musical numbers. Dennis Kelly is wonderful as the ultraconservative father and so is George Keating as Big Edie’s gay musical accompanist and companion in act one. Tempe Thomas delivers a terrific performance as Little Edie in act one, a young woman desperately trying to extricate herself from her mother’s smothering domination,
Patrick Sarb is every inch the patrician as Joseph Kennedy. Sean Blake makes a strong impression as the family servant in act one and a local handyman in act two. The child actresses provide nicely cameos as the young Jackie Bouvier (Grace Etzkorn) and Lee Radziwill (Arielle Dayan).
B. J. Jones does a remarkable job of directing the show through its many shifting emotional tones and dark psychological waters. He’s helped by Marla Lampert’s spare but evocative choreography.
The designers combine for one of the most effective physical productions in Northlight history. John Culbert expertly utilizes the Northlight turntable stage to expose the mansion in both its glory days and its later decay. Jacqueline Firkins designed the costumes, JR Lederle the lighting, and Cecil Averitt the sound. Doug Peck directs the excellent six piece off stage orchestra.
“Grey Gardens runs through December 28 at the Northlight Theatre, 9501 North Skokie Boulevard. Most performances are Tuesday and Thursday at 7:30 p.m., Wednesday at 1 and 7:30 p.m., Friday at 8 p.m., Saturday at 2:30 and 8 p.m., and Sunday at 2:320 and 7 p.m. Tickets are $25 to $59. Call 847 673 6300 or visit www.northlight.org.
The show gets a rating of 3 /2 stars. November 2008
Contact Dan at zeffdaniel@yahoo.com
***********************
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
At the Northlight Theatre
By Dan Zeff
SKOKIE—Jeffrey Hatcher has made a lot of choices in his dramatic adaptation of “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,” none of them to the benefit of Robert Louis Stephenson original. The dispiriting results are currently on view at the Northlight Theatre.
Stephenson wrote the short novel (the full, and appropriate, title is “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde”) in 1886. The story is a brilliant study of a split personality. In Victorian London, the eminent and well-liked Dr. Henry Jekyll develops a potion that allows him to separate the good and evil aspects of his personality, all in the name of scientific study. In his evil guise, the doctor takes the name of Edward Hyde. Gradually, Hyde takes control of Jekyll’s personality and commits murder. Jekyll eventually kills himself as he is about to be discovered and arrested.
The innumerable stage and film versions of the story run the gamut from psychological suspense to violence and horror. The best versions deal intelligently with the ethical issue of good and evil co-existing in mankind and the possibility of separating the two to disarm man’s evil nature.
The Hatcher adaptation pays almost no attention to the psychology in the Stephenson original. Jekyll does make a couple of brief statements about good and evil co-existing in man but the narrative basically is consumed with melodrama and lots of bloody killings.
Hatcher elects to have the evil Hyde played by four different actors, three men and a woman in drag at the Northlight. The various performers all take their turns at playing the character in random order. One person could have played Hyde throughout the play with just as much dramatic effect, probably more to avoid audience confusion.
Most perplexing is the adaptation’s presentation of Jekyll and Hyde as two distinct people, not one person with a split personality but two men, the decent doctor and the malignant Hyde. Setting aside the improbability of Jekyll’s potion creating a second physical being, the decision totally disarms the basic premise of the Stephenson story, built on a single individual with two contrasting personalities.
There is no love interest in the novel and no major female characters. But the adaptation places a lower class young woman named Elizabeth at the heart of the story, a woman who passionately falls in love with Hyde. What Elizabeth sees in Hyde and what Hyde sees in her is a secret between Hatcher and his word processor. In any case the female character takes up an excessive amount of stage time.
The set is dominated by a row of six large doors at the rear of the playing area that rotate to allow the actors to dash on and off stage, like they are dithering about in a French farce.
Director Jessica Thebus obviously sees broad melodramatic implications in the adaptation, and so we get swirling capes, violently contorting bodies, and flourishes with canes. If any of the actors wore mustaches, they doubtlessly would have been twirled. The melodramatic gestures brought occasional giggles from the audience, not a good sign for a play that wants to be taken seriously.
The production is short, only 1 hour and 45 minutes including an extended intermission. But there isn’t enough meaningful action to sustain even that brief measure of playing time. The second act is especially weak with the only activity being the net closing on Hyde.
The ensemble gives the script its best shot. The cast includes such Chicagoland theater notables as Patrick Clear, Thomas J. Cox, and Nick Sandys, nicely complemented by Cindy Gold, Danny McCarthy, and Cora Vander Broek. Sandys plays Jekyll throughout, and from time to time is allowed to display the urbanity and wit that have made him such a distinguished performer on the local scene.
The other five play multiple roles in addition to the four representations of Hyde, with McCarthy getting the majority of the Hyde exposure. There certainly are no complaints about the acting.
Collette Pollard designed the set, Tatjana Radisic the Victorian costumes, John Horan the lighting, and Victoria Delorio the sound.
“Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” runs through October 26 at the Northlight Theatre, at the North Shore Center for the Performing Arts, 9501 Skokie Boulevard. Most performances are Tuesday and Thursday at 7:30 p.m., Wednesday at 1 and 7:30 p.m., Friday at 8 p.m., Saturday at 2:30 and 8 p.m., and Sunday at 2:30 and 7 p.m. Tickets are $25 to $55. Call 847 673 6300 or visit www.northlight.org.
The show gets a rating of 21/2 stars. Sept. 2008
Contact Dan at zeffdaniel@yahoo.com
**********************
The Lady with All the Answers
at the Northlight Theatre
By Dan Zeff
SKOKIE—For more than 40 years, Ann Landers was the Oprah of her day, wielding tremendous influence through her syndicated daily advice column. A written word from Landers could generate hundreds of thousands of letters to Washington politicians. And the politicians listened. They had to.
Fortunately, Landers used her power for good. She wrote with intelligence, compassion, and courage. She took on the most powerful special interests groups in the country and never backed down. There may not have been a more trusted writer in American journalist during the last half of the 20th century. Landers reluctantly had to share some of the publicity spotlight with her twin sister, who published daily advice columns as Dear Abby, though Landers was by far the superior writer.
Ann Landers died in 2002 and nobody has come close to replacing her, in spite of the countless advice columns that saturate today’s newspapers. Like Mike Royko she was unique and lamentably we may never see her like again.
David Rambo has created a one-woman play based on the life
and columns of Ann Landers, giving it the clunky title of “The Lady with All
the Answers” “(Dear Ann Landers” would have been shorter and better). The play
is receiving its Midwest premiere at the Northlight Theatre.
The noted New York actress Judith Ivey takes on the daunting title role, coming close to the Landers physical look and voice. Her performance, and the play, have their effective moments, especially in the second act, but both the script and the acting turn Landers into a bit of a lightweight instead of the real-life strong, dynamic woman.
The action of the play takes place in 1975 in Landers’s sumptuous Lake Shore Drive apartment in Chicago (a superb set by Tom Burch). Most one-person plays really aren’t. Although there is only a single actor on stage, invisible characters are brought in through telephone calls and similar theatrical devices.
Rambo does insert a few phone calls, from Ann’s sister and daughter and husband, but mostly the woman talks directly to the spectators, even engaging in some audience participation. Landers/Ivey thus breaks down the wall of realism between the character and the observer, and the device works after a few opening minutes of spectator adjustment.
During the 90 minutes of playing time, Landers reads from her columns and delivers some autobiographical background. The narrative hook of the play, only hinted at until late in the first act, is that Landers’s husband is leaving her. The man has found a younger woman and after 36 years of what Ann thought was a perfect marriage, she is getting divorced, a dissolution she invariably counseled against in her columns.
Landers is distraught by her separation, mostly on a personal level, though she wonders if the divorce might end her career. After all, who needs domestic advice from a woman who can’t hold her own marriage together? The divorce, of course, didn’t lessen Landers’s popularity or influence and she kept writing right up to her death.
The play has considerable humor but it doesn’t acquire any dramatic heft until the second act, when Landers describes her visit to the American military hospitals in Vietnam (she despised the Vietnam War) and deals with painful letters from writers facing life and death problems, like the teen-page boy on the brink of suicide because he suspects he is gay. And there is the delightful account of Landers appearing on Irv Kupcinet’s late night talk show opposite film porn star Linda Lovelace.
Ivey is certainly the actress for the Landers role, though she minimized the character’s strength of character until the second act. But the play needs more dramatic substance, more about Landers and her tilting against special interests and interaction with the country’s political powers. She took on the pro-life and anti-gun control lobbies at a time when such stands were more daring than they are today. More attention to that material would give the play additional, and needed, depth.
Possibly a revision of the play could reduce or even eliminate all the angst about Landers’s divorce. It was a personal tragedy for her but it occupies too much of the play. Landers moved in the highest levels of the American establishment and took on the thorniest issues of her time. She was the confidante for millions of people who relied on her when they wouldn’t go to their parents, spouse, or clergyman. That’s the Landers who needs to control the play, elevating it from a generally pleasing entertainment to an involving drama.
“The Lady with All the Answers” runs through June 29 at the Northlight Theatre, 9501 Skokie Boulevard. Most performances are Tuesday and Thursday at 7:30 p.m., Wednesday at 1 and 7:30 p.m., Friday at 8 p.m., Saturday at 2:30 and 8 p.m., and Sunday at 2:30 and 7 p.m. Tickets are $35 to $55. Call 847 673 6300.
The show gets a rating of three stars June 2008.
For
more information, visit www.northlight.org.
Contact Dan: zeffdaniel@yahoo.com
**********************
Better Late at
the Northlight Theatre By Dan Zeff SKOKIE—“Better
Late” starts out as a sitcom riff on the Grumpy Old Men theme, then shifts into
the dysfunctional family mode, and finally slides into a romantic comedy drama.
Possibly any of the three would make a good play, but definitely not all three
together. That’s the situation facing the highly anticipated premiere
of the play co-written by Larry Gelbart and Craig Wright at the Northlight
Theatre. The script has been in development for a while and clearly needs more time
to sort itself out. Right now it’s riding on ingratiating performances by its
four-member cast and some sharp one-liners. “Better Late” brings together John Mahoney and Mike Nussbaum,
two of the most affectionately regarded actors in the Chicagoland theater
community. Mahoney plays Lee, a composer
married for 25 years to Nora, who had previously been married to Julian
(Nussbaum). Lee and Nora met at a Hollywood party and almost immediately
started an affair that led to marriage two years later, dumping Julian. That’s
the back story. Now Lee and Nora live comfortably in Los Angeles but their
outwardly serene life is about to be disrupted by the reemergence of Julian, a
houseguest (at Nora’s insistence) while he recovers from a stroke. The early scenes in this 85-minute one acter set the audience
up for a comic conflict between Julian, who still resents Lee for breaking up
his marriage, and the increasingly exasperated Lee. There are some funny
exchanges between the two, the humorous zingers presumably supplied by Gelbart,
showing his comedy chops as one of the original writers for the iconic “MASH”
TV series. Then the previously comic tensions between Lee and Julian
erupt into a full-scale marital battle, concluding with Lee walking out. There
is a resolution of sorts at the end, all touchy feelly. To flesh out the skimpy main storyline, the playwrights
inject Billy, the adult son produced by Nora and Julian. Billy has his own
marriage issues but his character is really an add-on that contributes almost
nothing to the main narrative, though it does give employment to Steve Key, one
of the area’s best younger actors. The main dramatic moments in the play are provided first by
Lee and then by Julian as they assess the psychological trauma that has endured
over the 25 years since Nora switched mates. Both men get the opportunity to
make literate and incisive speeches about guilt and marriage, all directed
toward poor Nora (Linda Kimbrough), who mostly serves as a punching bag for the
recriminations flung at her by her past and present husbands. The co-billing of Mahoney and Nussbaum teases the audience
with the promise of fine comic fireworks between the two, but the play under
uses the Nussbaum character dreadfully. It becomes Mahoney’s play as Lee duels
with Nora about her feeling of shame over abandoning Julian. Nussbaum is the
more enticing actor and the play needs him on the stage more. In addition,
Julian as written is inconsistent, starting out as a whining manipulator and
later suddenly oozing dignity and understanding. At 83, the character also
seems too geriatric to fit in with Nora and Julian, who seem to be in their
60’s. The conclusion is supposed to be poignant and heartwarming,
but it ends the play on a lame note, with Lee and Nora standing alone
illuminated by a spotlight, silently looking at each other like both performers
had forgotten their lines. The physical production is well up to the mark, especially
the slide projections and film evoking modern Los Angeles with its freeways and
foliage and architecture. The visuals bring the city alive, though the script
doesn’t make much of the LA ambience, a missed comic opportunity. B. J. Jones directs the play but he is unable to bring the
disparate emotional and narrative elements of the show into a credible and
coherent plot. Stephan Mazurek designed the projections, Jack Magaw the
all-purpose modernistic set, J.R. Lederle the lighting, Rob Milburn and Michael
Bodeen the sound and original music, and Rachel Laritz the costumes. It’s always a pleasure to enjoy the acting of seasoned pros
like Mahoney, Nussbaum, and Kimbrough, but “Better Late” in its present form
disappoints. Maybe the collaboration between Gelbart and Wright is a promising
concept that doesn’t mesh, at least not yet, on this project. Alone, Gelbart
might have created a tart adult comedy rich in verbal zingers, or Wright could
have composed one of those edgy dramas like “Orange Flower Water” that put him
on the playwriting map in American theater. But for whatever reason their
effort on “Better Late” doesn’t quite work. “Better Late” runs through May 11 at the Northlight Theatre,
9501 Skokie Boulevard. Most performances are Tuesday and Thursday at 7:30 p.m.,
Wednesday at 1 and 7:30 p.m., Friday at 8 p.m., Saturday at 2:30 and 8 p.m.,
and Sunday at 2:30 and 7 p.m. Tickets are $35 to $55. Call 847 673 6300. The show gets a rating of 2 1/2 stars. April 2008 For
more information contact: www.northlight.org Contact
Dan at:zeffdaniel@yahoo.com
***************************
Gee’s Bend
at the Northlight Theatre
By Dan Zeff
SKOKIE—Gee’s Bend is a tiny African American town in Alabama, settled by the descendents of slaves in the mid 1800’s. For generations the residents of the town labored in poverty, enduring the racial discrimination that saturated the Deep South. Gee’s Bend survived on its religious faith and its bonds of family. And its quilts.
Those quilts, created by Gee Bend women for warmth, suddenly became highly prized objects of American folk art in the late 1990’s, giving the women of the town a national celebrityhood after decades of impoverished obscurity. The quilts even became the subject of a set of postage stamps in 2006.
Inspired by the history and spirit of Gee’s Bend, playwright Elyzabeth Gregory Wilder has written an immensely entertaining and often stirring drama called “Gee’s Bend,” kind of a small-scale “The Color Purple,” now receiving its Midwest premiere in a superior production at the Northlight Theatre.
Wilder has miniaturized the story of Gee’s Bend, concentrating on a handful of characters over a period from the late 1930’s to the start of the new millennium. The core character is Sadie Pettway, who begins the story as a naïve teen-ager about 1939. She marries an older man named Macon, has eight children, gets swept up in the civil rights revolution of the mid 1960’s, buries her well meaning but abusive husband, and lives to see the quilts of the town, including her own, hanging in a major museum and getting rave reviews by the art critic of the New York Times.
The play runs an uninterrupted 90 minutes. Its many scenes are connected by bursts of gospel singing that reinforce the blackness of the story and the unifying force of faith to sustain the women against the buffeting forces of poverty and racial oppression. The heart of the evening is Sadie’s commitment to the civil rights uprising led by Martin Luther King, who once spoke at the Gee’s Bend church. Sadie joins the march on Selma in 1965, ending with a beating from the local whites and ostracism from her husband, who sees Sadie’s civil rights activism as a fatal threat to the hard worn economic stability he has sweated a lifetime to earn.
Supporting Sadie throughout the years is an extended female family represented by her salty aunt Nella and her mother Alice. In spite of the brevity of the play and the small number of characters, there is an epic sweep to “Gee’s Bend.” The grinding poverty of generations of black sharecroppers comes alive, along with the fire of the civil rights movement. The play has little physical action. The characters recount momentous events like the Selma march and racial outrages perpetrated against Gee’s Bend with a passion and immediacy that place the audience in the heart of Gee Bend’s history and culture.
Then there are the quilts, the symbol of Gee Bend’s unbreakable spirit. They were created to give warmth against the chilly winds that leaked through the holes in the town’s shacks. The women never considered the quilts more than protection against the nighttime cold. They didn’t know they had created art until someone told them. But ultimately, as Sadie proclaims near the end of the play, the quilts embodied the resilience and soul of Gee’s Bend, an ongoing history of the town’s struggles and small triumphs over adversity.
The Northlight production employs quilts made Chicagoland quilters. They were colorful enough but the show would have profited by displaying the authentic quilts of Gee’s Bend, perhaps as large colored slide projections against the back wall of the theater. There is a documentary text and photo exhibit about Gee’s Bend in the theater lobby, but the play really needs some full sized examples of the quilts to illuminate their artistic presence for the audience.
Other than that, the production is without blemish. The breakout performance of the night comes from Charlette Speigner, just five years out of the DePaul Theatre School. Speigner has acted in a number of Chicagoland theaters but her performance as Sadie should elevate her into the top tier of area actresses.
Speigner takes the audience on Sadie’s emotional journey beginning alone on the stage as the innocent girl of the Great Depression. She throws herself into the civil rights movement, battles her husband for her beliefs, and ends up alone on the stage as she began, now an elderly woman who has outlived all her peers and survived to see a better world as symbolized in her quilts. Speigner runs the changes on all the emotions that envelope Sadie during her nearly 60 years of life as interpreted by Wilder’s powerful and sympathetic script.
Speigner receives outstanding support from a pair of stalwarts of the Chicagoland acting community, Jacqueline Williams as Nella and John Steven Crowley as Macon. Penelope Walker completes the outstanding quartet in a dual role of Sadie’s mother and her daughter Asia, a member of the liberated new generation with a different mindset toward life’s possibilities for Southern blacks.
Chuck Smith directs with insight and sensitivity, keeping the pace brisk and deftly balancing the play’s rich vein of humor and its drama. In particular, Smith keeps the characters human and not just stereotype examples of the triumph of the human spirit.
The atmospheric look and sound of the production are led by the roughhewn abstract set by Richard and Jacqueline Penrod that underscores the backwoods poverty of Gee’s Bend. Keith Parham designed the lighting, Frances Maggio the costumes, and Josh Horvath and Ray Nardelli the sound.
“Gee’s Bend” runs through March 9 at the Northlight Theatre, 9501 Skokie Boulevard. Most performances are Tuesday and Thursday at 7:30 p.m., Wednesday at 1 and 7:30 p.m., Friday at 8 p.m., Saturday at 2:30 and 8 p.m., and Sunday at 2:30 and 7 p.m. Tickets are $35 to $55. Call 847 673 6300.
For more information contact: www.northlight.org
The show gets a rating of 4 stars.
Feb. 2008
Contact us : zeffdaniel@yahoo.com
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Ella
at the Northlight Theatre
By Dan Zeff
SKOKIE- The new show at the Northlight Theatre is called 'Ella,' but it might as well be called 'Faye.' The musical is based on the life and music of jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald, but the evening is really a showcase for E. Faye Butler, long one of Chicagoland theater's treasures.
'Ella' is an outgrowth of a 2005 musical called 'Ella - Off the Record.' Given a new book by playwright Jeffrey Hatcher, the show was reconceived simply as 'Ella' in 2006 and has become a hot property on the regional theater circuit. It's easy to see why. The production values are simple, a single set and a small cast and a lot of familiar music.
There are only two characters, Ella and her manager, Norman Granz, who makes a couple of cameo appearances. The on stage musical backup comes from a jazz quartet of trumpet, piano, bass, and drums. The musical's time and place are Nice, France, in 1966. Ella Fitzgerald is booked for a sold-out concert in Nice but she's just returned from attending the funeral of her beloved half sister, Frances, and the singer isn't in such good emotional shape. The first act is a rehearsal for the show. Granz tells Ella he wants some 'patter' in her performance, bits of storytelling and chat that can connect the performer to the audience.
The request for patter is just a playwright's excuse for Ella to talk to the audience about her life. The major problem, which Ella acknowledges, is that she didn't lead a particularly intriguing life, certainly nothing on the level of the traumatic existence of fellow jazz singer Billie Holiday. But playwright Hatcher manages to get some dramatic mileage out of Ella's biography, starting with her troubled childhood and sexually abusive stepfather, with Frances as her protector. Then came Ella's exposure at an amateur night at Harlem's famed Apollo Theatre, which led to an engagement as the vocalist with the popular Chic Webb band when she was just 16.
Much of the show's tension comes from Ella's difficulties with the men in her life. Ella was not a physically glamorous woman and she was grateful for any romantic attention, even if it came from sleaze ball boyfriends. Ella recounts her unsettling five-year marriage to jazz bassist Ray Brown and her troubled relationship with Ray Brown, Jr., a gift as a baby from Frances. Ella raised the child as her own, an arrangement that eventually led to the lad's alienation.
So things did happen in Ella's life, but not enough to sustain a full musical. It's the songs that make 'Ella' go. At a guess, I'd estimate there are about 20 songs in the show. Most of the Ella hits are there, including her first recording success 'A-Tisket, A-Tasket' plus romping scat versions of the swing classic 'Flying Home' and the bebop anthem 'How High the Moon.' But no 'Mack the Knife.'
Butler makes no attempt to mimic Ella's singing, though the timbre of her voice and her phrasing sometimes conjure up Fitzgerald, but there are also echoes of Sarah Vaughan. It would be hard for any female singer today to come up with a style that doesn¹t own something to those twin towers of modern jazz singing.
But mostly the evening is a celebration of E. Faye Butler singing like E. Faye Butler. The woman has a superb stage presence, terrific range (even though she occasionally sounded strained on opening night), and at least as much expressive delivery as Ella, who was known more for the purity of her style than her personal interpretation of songs. Butler belts out 'Cow Cow Boogie' and serenades us with plenty of Gershwin ballads. It's an exhausting role and one wonders how she can sustain its vocal demands for five weekend performances.
Butler also does some acting, leading up to Ella's near breakdown during the concert half of the show. Ella Fitzgerald never had much of a public personality (she died in 1996). She just seemed like a nice person who sang well. Hatcher endows her with a darker side, a woman with attitude and determination.
Surrounding Butler are her accompanists, who also exchange a few lines of dialogue along the way. They are better musicians than actors, but they swing hard: Anderson Edwards (piano), Walter Kindred (drums), John Whitfield (bass), and Ron Haynes (trumpet). David Parkes plays Norman Granz, who shaped Ella's career into the preeminent 'First Lady of Song' in modern American pop and jazz music.
The show is directed by Rob Ruggiero, who conceived of the original production with Dyke Garrison. Michael Schweikhardt designed the nightclub style set. John Lasiter designed the lighting, Alejo Viegtti the costumes, and Michael Miceli the sound.
People who care little for the songs of the Gershwins, Cole Porter, Duke Ellington and others of their ilk may not find 'Ella' very interesting. But as a display of E. Faye Butler's monumental talents as a musical comedy diva, 'Ella' has some great stuff.
Ella' is running through January 6 at the Northlight Theatre, 9501 Skokie Boulevard. Most performances are Tuesday and Thursday at 7:30 p.m., Wednesday at 1 and 7:30 p.m., Friday at 8 p.m., Saturday at 2:30 and 8 p.m., and Sunday at 2:30 and 7 p.m. Tickets are $38 to $58. Call 847 673 6300. The show gets a rating of 3 1/2 stars.
Dec. 2007
For more information contact: www.northlight.org
Contact us :zeffdaniel@yahoo.com