Daily Archives: October 24, 2011
'Smokey Joe's' Lacks the Right Stuff at Open Door
By Devlyn Camp
There should be a disclaimer on the script of Smokey Joe’s Café: “THIS IS NOT A CABARET. THIS IS MUSICAL THEATRE.” If there were, Open Door Theatre would have done it right. Although the show is a simple series of Leiber and Stoller songs, the character work has to be there. On the opening night in their new space, an intimate room, which took 32 months to conceive, the vocals were strong and the cast was enthusiastic, but the entertainment fell short.
McKinley Johnson directs cheesy poses and cliché musical theatre song and dance. Each number ends with back-to-back stances and smiles out to the crowd and one guy jumping off the stage and striking his best “Superstar!” During the numbers, the actors seem a bit lost and accelerate forward with false confidence. They smile and sing, but they’re not there. For such a small space, those poses aren’t even played to the full audience. The middle fifteen seats get the good stuff while stages left and right lean in to see what’s happening on the inside of the cast semi-circle.
Pushing aside the directorial errors, there is some talent hiding in the cast. It’s all in the women. Unfortunately, Smokey Joe’s is primarily led by men’s songs. But when the women can shine, boy, do they. The supremely underused Missy Karle is brassy, confident, and addictive. She leaves the audience wanting more, even after she’s been gone for three numbers. When Reneisha Jenkins takes center for her cover of “Hound Dog,” well, thank the man upstairs that there isn’t much terrible choreography in this number to distract from the outstanding vocal talent.
Overall, the production is quite mediocre. The men aren’t manly, the staging is plain, the cast lacks chemistry. It’s a series of awful high school-level clichés. When a show points at itself and says, “Wow! I’m a musical!” it should be a campy, humorous moment. But here, it’s just plain dull.
SMOKEY JOE'S CAFÉ
Open Door Theatre
Now through November 20th
Tickets $28, available at opendoorrep.org
Contact critic at devlynmc@yahoo.com
‘A Behanding in Spokane’ at Profiles: Fantastically Far-fetched
By Devlyn Camp
The entire premise of Martin McDonagh’s 2010 play A Behanding in Spokane is absolutely absurd. You should see it. After a vague incident in which a train sliced his soon-to-be-stolen hand away, Carmichael has dedicated his life to recovering the piece. Knowing completely that his hand will not be functional, but still wanting it, he collects the body parts he finds and moves on to continue to search for his own. When a “hand deal” with a couple pot dealers goes bad, the play begins.
A black comedy, Behanding is dashed with intelligent comebacks from the sarcastic characters, particularly the leading one-handed man (Darrell W. Cox). However ridiculous his obsession, looking in from the outside the audience can really get a kick out of the situation. The Broadway production last year starred Christopher Walken in the lead. I must wonder if this original cast had the tale played out a bit better comically, and not so…heavy handed (pun!). Throughout this Chicago premiere production, I couldn’t help but think how higher the highs could have been and how lower the lows. Although Profiles put on a decent show, the acting could use more. The performances become mediocre when the company takes the script too seriously. In such an outrageously comic situation, characters need much less depth for the jokes to roll. The situation at hand (he he) is the more important aspect of the scene, not so much the realism of the drama. Those pot dealers (Sara Greenfield and Levenix Riddle) get it right more so than the hand wrangler.
Even with doubts of reaching the Walken-and-company level of comedy, Rick Snyder’s production is still quite funny and just as ridiculous. In the end, you won’t be able to help but stand up and give the guy a hand. (Couldn’t resist it.)
A BEHANDING IN SPOKANE
Profiles Theatre
Now through December 4th
Tickets $35-40, available at profilestheatre.org
Contact critic at devlynmc@yahoo.com
Quick! ‘Step in Time’ to ‘Mary Poppins’ before she’s gone.
By Devlyn Camp
The winds must have changed again because Mary Poppins has returned to the Cadillac Palace Theatre. With a whole new cast and the same enchanting spell, Poppins is entertaining the masses just as she always has. Rachel Wallace has taken on the many iconic clothing articles of this particular nanny – the coat, the hat, the bag and, of course, the umbrella – and brought a little Julie Andrews and a lot of realism to Mary. Although it’s hard to catch as a child watching the classic film, seeing Wallace portray the character revealsa Poppins who is quite full of herself, but rightfully so. More expressed in the book than the film, the story is actually rather dark. In living form, tableaus of Londoners in dreary clothes and umbrellas among the steamy wet streets stage a darker world. When Mary arrives, the gorgeous grays flash away and the winds whip in with electric color.
The sets are filled with life. Kids are dazzled by the enormous foldout house, awakening statues, and rolling smokestacks – not to mention the anticipated magic of Mary’s bag and enchanted umbrella. There is no disappointment in the screen-to-stage transition. The musical has every piece of the film and more from the original P. L. Travers book from which it’s based. Adding the charming touch of live theatre to the pair makes this show it’s very own form. There is no other way to see this perspective on the tale of the nanny who brought magic to commonplace life.
Just as fascinating as when you were a child, this production is a fantastic few hours of familiar song and dance, striking costumes and chimney sweeping. Even with its spooky touch, Mary Poppins is simply – gosh darn the cliché – practically perfect.
MARY POPPINS
Cadillac Palace Theatre
Now through November 6th
Tickets starting at $25, available at BroadwayInChicago.com
Nicolas Dromard and company. Photo courtesy Broadway In Chicago.
Contact critic at devlynmc@yahoo.com
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