The Fox on the Fairway
At the Theatre at the Center
By Dan Zeff
Munster, Indiana – “The Fox on the Fairway” is best suited to audiences with a bottomless tolerance for silliness on the stage. All other patrons will have to be content with a couple of bright comic performances and an occasional witty line of dialogue.
The Theatre at the Center is presenting the Chicago area premiere of “Fox.” The playwright is Ken Ludwig, who wrote another farce, called “Lend Me a Tenor,” which opened in 1986 and has since made the man a great deal of money. The “Fox on the Fairway” director is William Pullinsi, the artistic director of Theatre at the Center and an old hand at staging farces.
“The
Fox on the Fairway” is about golf, specifically about a tournament between two
rival country clubs. The club directors make a wager on the outcome, leading to
manic confusion. There are six characters, three men and three women. By the
time the dust has settled, there have been two cases of spouse swapping and an
engagement between a pair of young employees at Bingham’s country club.
Photo credit: Peter Coombs
But all of this happy romantic rearrangement comes after the characters endure a good deal of emotional and physical abuse. They all go through much dashing about through swinging doors, pratfall at a moment’s notice, and even belt each other around from time to time. There is also a bit of saucy sexual innuendo, but nothing to elevate the show beyond a PG-13 rating.
Like all farces, “Fox” is all plot and no character depth. As for social significance, don’t be ridiculous. The dialogue is in the service of propelling the narrative forward at breakneck and illogical speed. But give Ludwig credit. He does dash off a few droll lines, most of them from the mouth of Henry Bingham, the director of the Briar Ridge Country Club in Schererville, Indiana. As played by Lance Baker, Bingham suffers slow burns, indignities, and panic attacks, but when the playwright gives him a juicy line, Baker runs with it handsomely.
Bingham’s adversary is Dickie Bell (Norm Boucher), the director of the rival country club. While Baker is willowy and astringent, Boucher is portly and blustery. Their contrasting physiques and personalities spark most of the legitimate humor in the play. Linda Gillum, one of the area’s most resourceful actresses, plays Bell’s wife as a one-note early middle-aged sexpot. Gillum does what she can with the single dimension role, recognizing that she’s not dealing with a Noel Coward exercise in comic urbanity.
The remaining characters are Bingham’s harridan wife (Laura Freeman), and the two young lovers (Michael Mahler and Kate Bergeron) who are menial employees of Bingham’s club. The youngsters run through an abundance of low comedy exercises that fair set my teeth on edge but elicited a storm of giggles from the opening night crowd, who seemed to be lapping up the entire show.
Photo credit: Peter Coombs
“The Fox on the Fairway” is obviously intended to be a lark. It runs under two hours, including an intermission that divides the four scenes. The third scene contains virtually no dramatic substance, but the last scene wraps up the whole shebang in a rising tide of inanity. Just to flesh out the playing time, the entire cast runs through a reprise of the entire storyline that is by far the cleverest bit in the play.
The action takes place on a fine set designed by Ann Davis that realistically replicates the club tap room and patio and even a bit of the golf course, leaving sufficient room for the characters to tumble about in the welter of misunderstandings and desperation that motors the narrative. Brenda Winstead deigned the costumes, including some delightfully outlandish sweaters for the young man and Dickie. Denise Karczewski designed the lighting and Barry G. Funderburg designed the sound, including, I presume, the fine selection of recorded music played between scenes.
Farce is the most difficult type of play to stage. I have seen only two masterpieces of the genre in my play going lifetime, “Charley’s Aunt” and “Noises Off.” “The Fox on the Fairway” isn’t in their class but people in the theater seemed to connect with its nonsense and physical shtick.
Finally, I have no idea why “Fox” is in the play’s title. But in the final analysis, who cares? The play does not invite rigorous analysis.
“The Fox on the Fairway” runs through March 24 at the Theatre at the Center, 1040 Ridge Road. Performances are Wednesday and Thursday at 2 p.m., Friday at 8 p.m., Saturday at 2:30 or 4 p.m. and 8 p.m., and Sunday at 2:30 p.m. Tickets are $38 to $42. Call 219 836 3255 or 800 511 1552 or visit TheatreAtTheCenter.com.
The show gets a rating of 2½ stars. February 2013
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Little Shop of Horrors
At the Theatre at the Center
By Dan Zeff
Munster, Indiana – Back in 1985, Bill Pullinsi staged a satirical musical called “Little Shop of Horrors” at his Candlelight Dinner Playhouse in Summit that was one of the joyous entertainments of the decade.
In spite of the show’s certified hit status (it ran for more than five years in New York City), “Little Shop of Horrors” has virtually disappeared from area stages, probably because of its technical challenges. Now Pullinsi is reviving the musical at the Theatre at the Centre and it’s almost like the good old days of 1985. The Munster revival doesn’t quite reach the high bar set by the Candlelight presentation but it’s still plenty good enough to give audiences two hours of quality summertime pleasure.
“Little Shop of Horrors” is based on a cheapie horror film directed by Roger Corman (reportedly filmed in three days in 1960). Corman has become a cult figure for his schlock B horror films of the 1950’s and 1960’s and the musical is an admiring spoof of his work. The spectator needn’t be acquainted with the Corman original or the whole genre of tacky horror films of the 1950’s and 1960’s. But some familiarity would deepen the viewer’s appreciation of how much creators Howard Ashman and Alan Menken accomplished with Ashman’s hip dialogue and lyrics combined with Menken’s delightful score.
The musical, like the film, is a science fiction tale about a plant that needs human blood and flesh to grow. The setting is a florist shop on Skid Row in New York City. Proprietor Mr. Mushnik is ready the close the shop for lack of business when his nerdy young assistant Seymour Krelbourn brings in a mysterious little plant he found after a total eclipse. Seymour soon discovers that the plant survives on blood, with Seymour initially as the only donor. A passerby spots the plant through the shop window, admires its strangeness, and buys $100 worth of roses. The novelty of the plant rapidly turns Mushnik’s shop into a financial bonanza.
Seymour loves Audrey, the shop’s ditsy salesgirl, from afar and names the plant Audrey II in her honor. But there is a dark side to the shop’s success. Audrey II continues to grow and its demand for food is insatiable. A few pinpricks of blood from Seymour’s fingers no longer keep Audrey II happy. The last act of the show turns into a grotesque flesh eating fest that puts one in mind of “Sweeney Todd.”
The show is filled with in jokes and nostalgia references (Levittown, Donna Reed, Jack Paar). The songs are witty and droll, and the visual humor is clever, especially as Audrey II grows larger and more gleefully menacing. The plant speaks in the voice of a jive inner city male to further embellish the show’s offbeat humor.
The show features a trio of black female do wop singers, logically named Chiffon, Crystal, and Ronette, who weave in and out of the action and provide vocal commentary like a Soul Train Greek chorus. The only major outside character is Audrey’s boyfriend, a sadistic leather-clad biker dentist named Orin (played in the movie by a then unknown Jack Nicholson) who achieves one of the funnier and more unlikely deaths in modern musical comedy history.
Pullinsi assigned Stacey Flaster to direct and choreograph the production and he chose wisely. There is a temptation to camp up the staging, but the characters need to play their roles straight, however laughable the audience finds them. Flaster maintains the performances on a mock realistic level while keeping the action lively, with copious use of the theater aisles for entrances and exists. This isn’t really a dancing show but there is some choreographed movement that fits neatly into the comic ambience of the production.
Jonathan Lee Cunningham makes an endearing Seymour, one of life’s wallflowers who yearns for Audrey and finally wins her, if only temporarily. Cunningham endows Seymour with genuine emotion, converting a cartoon character into a real person without disturbing the comic surface of the show.
Peter Kevoian is just right as the irascible Mr. Mushnik. Tiffany Trainer is properly vacuous as Audrey but Hollis Resnik’s definitive performance at the Candlelight still lingers. But the young lady certainly has a large voice and her passionate duet with Seymour in the second act was the musical highlight of the night.
Rod Thomas plays the mad dentist and a bunch of cameo rolls. Thomas is one of Chicagoland theater’s best song and dance men and has leading man looks, but broad comedy isn’t his strength and he doesn’t get maximum comic mileage out of the detestable Orin. I have nothing but admiration for the ladies in the do wop trio—Chadae McAlister as Chiffon, Reneisha Jenkins as Ronette, and Eva Ruwe (who has the makings of another Felicia Fields) as Crystal. Stanley White has a lip smacking and blood curdling good time as the voice of Audrey II. Puppeteer Scott Stratton superbly operates Audrey II, a very weird and complicated critter with its tentacles and an orifice right out of “Jaws.”
The design credits are first rate—scenery by Bill Bartelt, costumes by Brenda Winstead, lighting by Tim Fandrei, and sound by Barry Funderburg. William Underwood directs the excellent five-piece offstage small orchestra.
“Little Shop of Horrors” runs through August 19 at the Theatre at the Center, 1040 Ridge Road. Performances are Wednesday and Thursday at 2 p.m., Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m., and Sunday at 2:30 p.m. There are also some Thursday evening and Sunday matinee performances. Tickets are $38 to $42. Call 219 836.3255 or visit TheatreAtTheCenter.com.
The show gets a rating of 31/2 stars.
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Guys and Dolls
At the Theatre at the Center
By Dan Zeff
Munster, Indiana – Having read the invitation incorrectly, I arrived late on the opening night of the Theatre at the Center revival of “Guys and Dolls.” But even after missing the first two scenes I recognized that director William Pullinsi had staged a clear, well sung production with a couple of special performances.
“Guys and Dolls” is a world class musical, especially if the director avoids any unorthodox concepts in the mistaken idea that the musical needs freshening up. The show is just fine as written more than 60 years. A Broadway staging visited Chicago a few years ago drenched in Day Glo décor and it was a horror. Leave the original alone to strut its stuff and everything will be just fine, a credo Pullinsi follows very agreeably.
As any theatergoer knows, “Guys and Dolls” is based on Broadway characters created by Damon Runyon, chorus girls and gamblers and seedy men and women who live on the legal fringes of New York City. There are two intertwined love stories, one involving gambler Sky Masterson and Sarah Brown, who works in an organization that’s a stand-in for the Salvation Army. The other follows the up-and-down romance between nightclub chanteuse Miss Adelaide and gambler Nathan Detroit.
The score by Frank Loesser contains one gem after another, the most familiar being “A Bushel and a Peck,” “I’ve Never Been in Love Before,” “If I Were a Bell,” and “Luck be a Lady Tonight.” Everything is sung, and danced, in that special Damon Runyon territory in and around Times Square.
If a revival has a good Miss Adelaide and a good Nicely-Nicely John, it’s halfway home, and the Theatre at the Center staging has both. Angie Stemberg is a delicious Miss Adelaide, brassy with her New York City twang, owning a fine singing voice and a strong comic stage presence that’s good enough to carry the production numbers at the Hot Box nightclub to very satisfactory heights.
Nicely-Nicely Johnson is one of Runyan’s more colorful denizens of Broadway after dark. The character’s big responsibility is belting out “Sit Down, You’re Rockin’ the Boat,” one of the great show stoppers in American music theater. Stubby Kaye immortalized the role in the original production, and set the tradition that calls for an actor who is short and broad for the role. Enter J. Chris Baum, who is as wide as he is high. He is also a very funny comic actor and doesn’t disappoint in his big song near the end of the show.
Stemberg and Baum aren’t the only performers to provide meritorious service in the ensemble. Norm Boucher is excellent as Nathan Detroit. Jim Sherman plays the elderly mission worker Arvide Abernathy, who gets to sing one of the most affecting ballads every sung on the Broadway stage, “More I Cannot Wish You,” and he nails it. As Sarah Brown and Sky Masterson, Caroline Kobylarz and Robert Hunt are better singers than actors but they deliver a soaring duet on “I’ve Never Been in Love Before.” Some actors are content to talk their way through Sky Masterson’s songs. Hunt delivers them with almost operatic power.
The cast numbers more than two dozen performers, all dressed in gaudy Times Square style by costume designer Brenda Winstead. Jack Magaw has created a fine neon-filled set that replicates Times Square once the sun goes down. Denise Karczewski designed the lighting and Rick Sims the sound. William Underwood directs the very able small off stage orchestra. Linda Fortunato’s choreography is lively, atmospheric, and nicely matches the skills of the dancing chorus.
We don’t lack for revivals of “Guys and Dolls,” but there is always room for one more solid staging of this classic. Fans of the show are advised to check it out in Munster, especially to add Angie Stemberg to their collection of notable Miss Adelaides.
“Guys and Dolls” runs through October 16 at the Theatre at the Center, 1040 Ridge Road. Performances are Wednesday and Thursday at 2 p.m., Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m., and Sunday at 2:30 p.m., with selected Thursday evening and Saturday matinee performances. Tickets are $36 to $40. Call 219 836 3255 or visit TheatreAtTheCenter.com.
The show gets a rating of 3 ½ stars. Sept. 2011
Contact Dan at zeffdaniel@yahoo.com.
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The Wiz
At the Theatre at the Center
By Dan Zeff
Munster, Ind. – It’s been so long since a revival of “The Wiz” has played in Chicagoland that local audiences may have forgotten what a delightful and entertaining musical it is. The sassy and well-cast staging at the Theatre at the Center is an exuberant reminder that “The Wiz” is one of the fun shows in modern musical theater.
“The Wiz” is an all-black version of the iconic “The Wizard of Oz,” which began as L. Frank Baum’s children’s book classic in 1900 and became an icon of American pop culture with the motion picture adaptation in 1939. In 1975, Charlie Smalls (music and lyrics) and William Brown (book) adapted the story into the all-black “The Wiz,” which ran on Broadway for four years and criss crossed the country with two road companies.
The original concept of “The Wiz” relied heavily on spectacle, the kind of visual technology beyond the capacity of the Theatre at the Center’s limited stage facilities. But director/choreographer Stacey Flaster and her team of designers have made a virtue of necessity, relying on an endless wardrobe of wild costumes and a spirited ensemble, led by a strong-singing group of front line performers. The result is a hoot of an evening.
The show isn’t just all black as a gimmick, like the all black “Hello, Dolly!” of many years ago (there are two white performers in the Centre production). It’s drenched in urban black culture. The munchkins in the opening scenes are young normal-sized men and women from the ‘hood’. The good witch Addaperle is a distillation of inner city hip. The first words uttered by the Scarecrow hanging on his pole are “Do y’all have any spare change.” The score is a foot-tapping blend rhythm and blues and Motown with a tinge of gospel and jazz, and the dancing is funky and Soul Train.
The story follows the movie fairly closely, with young Dorothy blown from her home in Kansas to the mythical land of Oz. There she hooks up with the Tinman, the Scarecrow, and the Cowardly Lion to walk to the magical city of Oz to plead with the ruling Wizard for favors (courage for the Lion, a heart for the Tinman, brains for the Scarecrow, and a return to Kansas for Dorothy). It all works out in the end with a syrupy helping of moralizing about believing in oneself and there’s no place like home.
The Centre production foregoes the massive Broadway ensemble, making do very nicely with a dozen high energy and highly skilled chorus backing up the principals. Flaster stages the opening tornado scene with a man in a business suit and tie swirling Dorothy around as members of the chorus dash about replicating the tornado’s fury.
A few local references are injected into the dialogue and some scenes seemed different from the original. I don’t recall two mice from a “Mice Squad” busting the Lion after he was caught in the poppy field.
The nominal star of the revival is Felicia Fields, though she doesn’t appear until the second act as Evillene and then primarily in one number, “No Bad News.” Fields stops the show with the song, portraying a particularly nasty wicked witch. But the headliners are really Adrianna Parson as Dorothy, Darius Colquitt as the Scarecrow, Jesse Dean Stanford as the Tinman, and James Earl Jones II as the Cowardly Lion. And Dwelvan David gets a surprising amount of emotion and realism out of the fraudulent Wiz. David makes a terrific entrance in a Superfly outfit and he has a great belting voice. His “Y’all Got It” was my favorite number of the evening.
Parsons may be a bit old for Dorothy but she’s a fine singer, dancer, and actress and brings an innocence and presence to her role that provides the spine of the narrative. Colquitt and Stanford are both deliciously broad and Jones, who is having a monster season in area theater, displays the best voice of the ensemble (along with David). Alexis J. Rogers struts her way through Addaperle as a kind of in-your-face bag lady who sets the perfect tone for this neverland of urban black life.
There are a few nits to pick. The show ends a little limply. It could have been improved with a more whiz-bang finale. The battle in Kalidah Country is so perfunctory it makes no impact on the action. I don’t recall the first scenes having so little text to advance the story. At the Centre it’s just one rapid-fire number after another until the characters start easing down that yellow brick road. Still, doubtless everyone in the audience knew the basic storyline and could fill in the blanks.
Costume designer Brenda Winstead must have had a ball creating the countless costumes that outfitted the denizens of Oz. The clothing is colorful, witty, and oh so far out. Bill Bartelt’s multi-level set replicates a grungy inner city backdrop, and the sometimes startling sound design (Barry Funderburg) and lighting design (Tim Fandrei) contributed greatly to the atmosphere of urban fantasy. A five piece electrified band delivers the jazzy/soulful score with drive and sizzle.
“The Wiz” runs through August 7 at the Theatre at the Centre, 1040 Ridge Road. Most performances are Wednesday and Thursday at 2 p.m., Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m., and Sunday at 2:30 p.m. Tickets are $36 to $40. Call 219 836 3255 visit TheatreAtTheCenter.com.
The show gets a rating of 31/2 stars.
Contact Dan at zeffdaniel@yahoo.com July 2011
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Sleuth
At the Theatre at the Center
By Dan Zeff
Munster, Indiana – “Sleuth” became one of the biggest international hits of the 1970’s, and it also started a temporary vogue for mystery and suspense plays with shocking plot twists.
“Sleuth” was not only the first of these surprise thrillers, it was the most literate. Playwright Anthony Shaffer’s dialogue was witty and adult in the best sense of the word. The play won praise as a great entertainment but also for injecting a bit of social observation about the class system in England and the clash between a snobbish old order and the brash younger generation challenging its urbane but eroding elders.
The play, at least in its early years, was famous for its surprise plotting, and audiences were urged, almost threatened, not to reveal the convolutions in the narrative and thus spoil the surprise for newcomers to the show. But how does “Sleuth” hold up four decades after it exploded in London and on Broadway? On the evidence of the revival at the Theater at the Center, the answer is “very well indeed” with some qualifications that apply to the play itself than the fine TATC production.
The play takes place in the country house of a successful middle-aged British mystery story author named Andrew Wyke. The author writes puzzle novels out of the Golden Age of mystery fiction in the 1920’s and 1930’s—fiction typified by the plot-heavy writings of Dame Agatha Christie in England and S. S. Van Dine in the United States. Shaffer takes plenty of satirical jabs at this style of mystery and detective story, eventually blown away by the gritty hard-boiled realism of Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler. But devotees of the Golden Age will enjoy the in-jokes about mystery fiction that come out of Wyke’s urbane and sneering dialogue.
The other major character in the play is Milo Tindle, a young lower middle class travel agent who is invited to Wyke’s home for an evening’s chat. Tindle has been having an affair with Wyke’s wife and Wyke wants to talk about it. That meeting develops into a series of life-or-death games played between the two men. Beyond that I can say no more in the spirit of fair play.
The TATC production is adorned by Larry Yando’s performance as Andrew Wyke. Every theatergoer in the Chicago metropolitan area knows that Yando is perhaps the best actor we have in his age group, especially when he plays super-civilized characters who do not suffer fools gladly. Yando has a fine old time with Shaffer’s plumy English dialogue, yet in those moments when Wyke exposes his nasty side, Yando shifts gears to neatly reveal the swine lurking beneath the superficial hail-fellow glad-handing.
Yando’s co-star is Lance Baker, who plays the working class and somewhat charmless Milo. It’s a thankless role for much of the play, with Wyke/Yando dealing out all the juicy lines and controlling the storyline. But Baker/Milo has his day, especially in the second act. Spectators who think the play is over after the opening act are advised to keep an open mind. The big narrative swings lie ahead.
I must admit that “Sleuth” today seems a little slick and mechanical. Possibly that reaction comes from my familiarity with the show after several viewings. But the story really is preposterous, and even a little silly, for all its moments of high tension. I was continually aware of the playwright pulling all the strings rather than the story evolving organically from the characters and situations. It’s still a very enjoyable evening, but the artificiality of the script is undeniable. However, that is a defect that likely will pass unnoticed by first timer attendees wrapped up in the corkscrew machinations volleyed back and forth between Wyke and Tindle.
The production benefits mightily from the fine two-level set designed by Richard and Jacqueline Penrod. The set, with its stairway and windows and balcony and doorways becomes a major contributor to the events on stage. The set is enhanced by Denise Karczewski’s atmospheric lighting. Brenda Winstead designed the costumes and Barry G. Funderburg the sound.
“Sleuth” runs through March 20 at the Theatre at the Center, 1040 Ridge Road. Most performances are Wednesday and Thursday at 2 p.m., Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m., and Sunday at 2:30 p.m., with some additional Thursday evening and Saturday afternoon performances. Tickets are $36 to $40. Call 219 836 3255 or visit www.TheatreAtTheCenter.com.
The show gets a rating of 31/2 stars. February 2011
Contact Dan at zeffdaniel@yahoo.com.
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Dirty Rotten Scoundrels
At the Theatre at the Center
By Dan Zeff
Munster, Indiana – I never saw the movie “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels,” a 1988 comedy that starred Michael Caine and Steve Martin. But if the film was anything like the musical adaptation, it was one droll event, easily overcoming a wobbly storyline with its wit and sophistication.
The Theatre at the Center is presenting the regional premiere of the show, a vehicle that should have received more exposure considering its audience friendly humor and high entertainment production numbers. But director William Pullinsi snared rights to “Scoundrels” and runs with it, assembling a superior cast that does noble service in the cause of the musical’s wry humor and dance opportunities.
“Dirty Rotten Scoundrels” takes place on the French Riviera and focuses on the rivalry between two con men, an urbane pseudo-Englishman named Lawrence Jameson and brash young Freddy Benson, who seeks out Jameson as a mentor to enhance his con man skills. Before the first act is over the pupil becomes a competitor.
The rest of the show follows the machinations of Jameson and Benson as they try to fleece a rich matron from Omaha named Muriel and a sweet young thing from Cincinnati named Christine. A bumptious young oil heiress from Oklahoma also gets thrown into the scamming mix.
Jeffrey Lane’s book provides the framework for the action. While its narrative credibility is lacking, especially in the second act, the dialogue is a constant pleasure. The one-liners are sharp and hip, and the dialogue is sometimes comically self referential, like when characters recognize they are people in a musical. Spectators seeking gritty realism should look elsewhere. This is a breezy show that borrows liberally and unapologetically from other musicals (“Fiddler on the Roof” and “Sweet Charity”) and its humor from puns, insults against the French—wherever a funny bit can be mined.
Style counts for a lot in
“Scoundrels.” It’s all very urbane, in the spirit of the Riviera as the
playground of the rich, if not the very bright. Jameson and Benson, in cahoots
with a local Frenchman named Andre, are three totally unthreatening criminals.
Jameson makes his way into the hearts, and bank accounts of his female marks
through charm. Benson is more high energy and low comedy, but just as
larcenous.
While there are only a half dozen characters who matter in “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels,” they all make great company. As the delectable Jameson, Larry Wyatt acts and looks like Patrick McNee and Gene Barry, a pair of actors who set the gold standard for posh urbanity. Michael Mahler takes the physical comedy road as Freddy Benson, reveling in the show- stopping “Great Big Stuff,” a song and dance hymn to Freddy’s unsatisfied greed.
Larry Adams assumes a thick French accent as Andre, Jameson’s accomplice, and tosses off many of the show’s best lines with Gaelic aplomb. Paula Scrofano has been featured in Pullinsi productions for decades and she is a joy as Muriel. Scrofano isn’t known as a comedienne but her manner with a quip and a one liner indicates she would thrive in language-driven high comedy.
Dara Cameron is a pleasure as the ingénue from Cincinnati who holds the show’s biggest plot twist. Lauren Creel flourishes in her big number as the rich girl from Oklahoma, having fun with her home state and dancing up a Southwestern storm.
This is an exceptionally well-danced show under choreographer Stacey Flaster. We enjoy everything from Fred-and-Ginger ballroom dancing to a hoedown, executed with spirit and skill by the eight-member chorus of Creel, Cara Salerno, Megan Simmons, Stephen Stockley, Bobby Johnson, Robert Deason, Alex McCrary, and Jenny Guse. These are heady days to be a dancer in Chicagoland theater, with “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels” and the Marriott Theatre’s “A Chorus Line” currently on the boards, and Drury Lane set to open “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers.”
Pullinsi orchestrates the entire production with a sharp eye for its upscale comic style. He can’t do much about the book problems but the spectator is too busy being amused by the zippy dialogue, David Yazbeck’s clever lyrics, and the first-rate dancing to fret over storyline improbabilities and slow spots.
Special commendation goes to the musical accompaniment led by William A. Underwood. The six musicians sound like a full and accomplished pit orchestra. Brenda Winstead designed the vast wardrobe of stylish costumes. Set and lighting designer Christopher Ash and props designer Libby Fandrei have collaborated to creatively shift the action indoors and outdoors with the movement of a few pieces of scenery.
The production is really a triumph for Larry Wyatt, who has been an ornament to the area theater scene for three decades. Give the man an epigram and a BBC English accent and he owns a show.
“Dirty Rotten Scoundrels” runs through October 10 at the Theatre at the Center, 1040 Ridge Road. Performances are Wednesday and Thursday at 2 p.m., Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m., and Sunday at 2:30 p.m. with selected Thursday evening and Saturday matinees scheduled. Tickets are $36-$40. Call 219 836 3255 or visit www.TheatreAtThe Center.com . Sept. 2010
The show gets a rating of 3 ½ stars.
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Noises Off
At the Theatre at the Center
By Dan Zeff
MUNSTER, Indiana—“Noises Off” is the funniest farce in England-language theater. “Charley’s Aunt” may give it some competition, but for intricacy of structure and laugh-out-loud hilarity the Michael Frayn masterpiece takes first place.
“Noises Off,” like all farces, is fiendishly difficult to do well. It requires an ensemble of talented comedians and a razor sharp director to achieve the split second timing and comic credibility that the play demands. The best production of the show I’ve ever seen was in London shortly after it opened in 1982. I’ve seen a number of later attempts, all well meaning but all a beat off. The results were evenings of mild amusement that didn’t begin to tap the glorious comic riches of the play.
The Theatre at the Center is reviving “Noises Off” and it takes its place as the second best staging I’ve attended. Nothing likely will ever top the joys of the London original, but under director Bill Pullinsi’s directing the Theatre at the Center taps most of the show’s humor potential.
“Noises Off” is a great comedy and it’s also one of the best plays about the theater in the modern dramatic canon. The script follows a hapless company of English actors as they stage a silly sex comedy called “Nothing On” in three different provincial theaters over a period of several months.
The first act portrays a rehearsal of the play, introducing us to the characters as they stagger through the final run through before the show opens. The second act takes place backstage during a performance. Most of the dialogue is from “Nothing On” but the action comes from the performers miming various levels of anguish and anger as they await their entrances. Two of the actors are in the midst of a jealous fight. One of the actresses suffers from “nervous exhaustion.” The meek assistant stage manager announces she’s pregnant by the play’s director. It’s an Armageddon.
The third act is the final performance of the play before the tour ends. The show takes place as the actual audience would see it, but by this time chaos has enveloped the cast. Props develop a life of their own, lines are blown, entrances and exits scrambled, and hostilities among the characters reach the boiling point.
“Noises Off” follows all the sanctified traditions of farce. The story is rife with misunderstandings as characters miss embarrassing encounters by split seconds amid the slamming of countless doors while the story escalates into total insanity. A couple of characters even drop their pants. For extra credit, Frayn adds a layer of droll wit to a genre not usually noted for clever language.
The Theatre at the Center revival is particularly strong in its female components. Marilyn Bogetich is a joy as the housekeeper in “Nothing On” as played by ageing actress Dotty Otley, ending her career in thespian disarray. Laura E. Taylor is a hoot as the ditsy blonde who keeps losing a contact lens. Laura Leonardo Ownby is an oasis of calm within the maelstrom around her as actress Belinda Blair. And Anna Hammonds has some golden moments as the long suffering assistant stage manager trying to hold the show together technically in the midst of dealing with unexpected future motherhood.
The male components of the play are charged with providing
most of the dithering and frantic physical action. Dale Benson impersonates a doddering old
alcoholic ending his acting career playing an improbable burglar in “Nothing
On.” Benson has feasted on this kind of role for decades in Chicagoland theater
and he’s a riot. I also liked Will Clinger as the sarcastic and increasingly
desperate director of the play.
Jeff Cummings expends a huge amount of energy as Gary Lejeune, who does an over-the-top John Cleese impersonation as a jealous lover. Clay Sanderson is appropriately dim as the focal point of Lejeune’s ire. Jason Wroblewski rounds out the cast as the stagehand drafted into the acting company when other actors start disappearing at performance time.
Lee Brasuell designed the effective multi-door two level set. Brenda Winstead designed the costumes, Denise Karczewski the lighting, and Matt Meher the sound.
Playgoers who have never seen “Noises Off” should catch the Center show and expose themselves to a priceless slice of comic heaven. Patrons who’ve suffered through inadequate previous revivals can finally enjoy the show near its comic potential.
“Noises Off” runs through March 21 at the Theatre at the Center, 1040 Ridge Road. Performances are Wednesday at 2 p.m., Thursday at 2 and 7:30 p.m., Friday at 8 p.m., Saturday at 2:30 and 8 p.m., and Sunday at 2:30 p.m. Tickets are $20 to $40. Call 219 836 3255 or visit www.TheatreAtTheCenter.com.
The show gets a rating of 3½ stars. February 2010
Contact Dan at zeffdaniel@yahoo.com***************************
Crazy for You
At the Theatre at the Center
By Dan Zeff
MUNSTER, Indiana—Musical comedies of the first four decades of the twentieth century had great music and great stars. But the stories were so lame that audiences of the post “Oklahoma!” generation would find the hits of the 1920’s and 1930’s unwatchable.
So Broadway producers had a brainstorm. Take songs by the
Hall of Fame composers of the early twentieth century and put them on stage
nestled within a new, workable book. No composer was more deserving of this
type of reclamation project than George Gershwin, who provided the music for
two reconstituted musicals on Broadway, “My One and Only” in 1983 and “Crazy
for You” in 1992.
Needless to say, liberties were taken with both shows. The books were completely replaced and songs were borrowed from other Gershwin musicals plus songs from Gershwin movies. The results were delightful, partly thanks to exceptionally creative work by the directors and choreographers. But it was the Gershwin music that lit up both shows.
The Theatre at the Center is reviving “Crazy for You” in a highly serviceable production directed by William Pullinsi, a master hand at staging classic musicals in the Chicagoland area for a generation.
There is a certain comfort in watching “Crazy for You.” The show definitely does not challenge the audience’s intellect or churn their minds with controversy. The book by Ken Ludwig is agreeably silly and the humor is corny to the max, though occasionally there is a spark of tart satirical wit in the dialogue.
But it’s the music that lifts the evening. There have been numerous hit musicals in the last decade that visited Chicago, but how many of them sent the spectators out into the night humming a number from the score? Excluding “Jersey Boys,” with its pre packaged Frankie Valli hits, the answer likely will be zero. Now consider “Crazy for You,” which offers “Someone to Watch Over Me,” “Embraceable You,” “They Can’t Take That Away from Me,” “But Not for Me,” “Nice Work If You Can Get It,” and the Olympian “I’ve Got Rhythm.”
Ludwig’s book places the action mostly in the dusty town of Deadrock, Nevada, during the 1930’s. Bobby Childs has been sent by his gorgon but wealthy mother from New York City to Deadrock to foreclose on Deadrock’s only theater. Bobby has been stage struck all his adult life and he instantly falls in love with Polly Baker, who owns the Deadrock theater with her father. The plot provides a load of ludicrous misunderstandings until Bobby saves the theater by, what else, putting on a show. Bobby and Polly lead the parade of the characters paired off romantically by the final number.
We don’t get much tap dancing in musicals today, so the tapping throughout this revival should bring joy to fans of the genre. The Center production offers a sextet of excellent female hoofers who click their way pleasurably through one tap number after another, climaxed naturally by “I Got Rhythm.”
Center choreographer Linda Fortunato follows the spirit of the Susan Stroman dances in the Broadway production, which means a high level of visual invention, like turning the six chorus girls into string basses in the “Slap That Bass” number.
Richard Strimer plays Bobby Child with a nice wide-eyed charm. He sings acceptably and dances with distinction. Amy Brophy sings the role of Polly with a strong upper register voice. There isn’t much she can do with the predictable two-dimensional character acting wise. The best all-round performance of the show comes from Lauren Creel as Bobby’s initial love interest. Creel is a first-rate singer and dancer and puts a delicious bite into her cynical dialogue. And Larry Adams does a solid comic turn as the ego-inflated impresario Bela Zengler.
A separate paragraph of commendation goes to those six ladies of the chorus and their high stepping dancing—Amber Mak, Carrie Stedman, Cassandra Liveris, Megan Simmons, Nicole Miller, and Cara Salerno.
Given the technical limitations of the theater, the production must get along with rudimentary set pieces and props changed on stage during blackouts. Bill Bartelt makes a virtue of necessity with some drolly cheesy facades. Brenda Winstead’s costumes give the show an appropriately 1930’s look. Denise Karczewski designed the lighting and Barry Funderburg the sound. William Underwood directs the effective off stage small orchestra.
“Crazy for You” runs through June 14 at the Theatre at the Center, 1040 Ridge Road. Performances are Wednesday and Thursday at 2 p.m., Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m., and Sunday at 2:30 p.m. with some additional performances on Thursdays and Saturdays. Tickets are $36 and $40. Call 219 836 3255 or visit www.TheatreAtTheCenter.com.
The show gets a rating of three stars. May 2009
Contact Dan at zeffdaniel@yahoo.com .