You’ll Be Charmed

Lucy Darling: Indulge – Rhapsody Theatre

Here’s a sentence I haven’t gotten to type very often in the last few years: a new theatre is opening! In the former space of the Mayne Stage in Rogers Park, the Rhapsody Theatre will host a variety of music and cabaret acts in its 200-seat theatre. To kick of their inaugural season, Carisa Hendrix dazzles as magician and all-around delight, Lucy Darling in an evening of magic, comedy, and a large number of martinis.

They say the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach. The way to mine, however, is through good crowd work. Not sparing anyone in the first few rows from being at least a small part of the act, it’s a delight just to watch Lucy respond in real time to the audience. It’s an incredible skill and one you don’t get to see over Zoom. She did a fantastic job of always keeping the show moving and working in call backs to earlier audience members, so the show should always feel fresh, and like something you’ll only see this one time.

I’m also a sucker for close up magic. I’m in the camp of not trying too hard to figure out how it was done, since I think that spoils the mood a little, so over the course of the night, the array of card tricks and disappearing and reappearing cocktails just tickled me. The humor was in the sweet spot of ‘lightly bawdy’ that amuses but never offends. The result is a carefully crafted, but still apparently effortless evening where Lucy Darling’s charisma is the real magic at work.

This show was a great way to launch this new theatre, and I wish them the best of luck. Theatre is a difficult profession in the best of times, but hearing the new owner and manager talk about his passion for the project before the curtain went up, I have no doubt that they have what it takes to be a success and a neighborhood staple for a long time.

In honor of the new show, Lucy is trying out several new tricks, and as she said, “If they work, you’ll be impressed, and if they don’t,” she added with a smirk, “you’ll still be charmed.” All the tricks worked, so I was deeply impressed, and after an hour and a half of delightful banter with Lucy, I was also thoroughly charmed.

Highly Recommended

Reviewed by Kevin Curran

Presented through July 16 at Rhapsody Theatre at 1328 W. Morse Ave., Chicago.

Tickets can be purchased at rhapsodytheatre.com.

Further information about this and other area productions can be found by visiting www.theatreinchicago.com.