Author: Colin Douglas
Everything in the Garden
Suddenly Last Summer – Raven Theatre
Raven Theatre continues their homage to Tennessee Williams and his writing with a sterling production of one of the
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Like a Prayer
Grace
Like a Prayer
Shocking the audience by opening his play with three murders and a suicide, and then reversing the events like a tape being rewound, Craig Wright’s taut one-act is a mystery, of sorts.
Read MoreSomeone’s in the Kitchen
How to Use a Knife
Someone’s in the Kitchen
Ensemble acting, passionate storytelling and visceral theatrical experiences are all traits of this intimate storefront company that’s been doing great work for the past 27 seasons. In yet another noteworthy Chicago premiere, Shattered Globe Theatre introduces Windy City audiences to playwright Will Snider, with this daring, dashing new drama set in the prep kitchen of Wall Street restaurant. Amid the chaos of chopping, cooking, plating and delivering high end dinners to affluent customers, a tense situation unfolds.
Read MoreSleep No More
Macbeth
Sleep No More
In this highly anticipated followup to their recent production of “The Tempest,” Teller (the quiet partner of the famous magic team of Penn & Teller) and Aaron Posner (the talented playwright who gave us, among many others, “Stupid Fucking Bird” and “Life Sucks”) have thankfully reunited at Navy Pier’s Tony Award-winning regional theatre.
Read MoreBaiting the Hook
To Catch a Fish
Baiting the Hook
A young man named Terry, who lives with his grandma, Brenda Cameron, in a low-income Milwaukee neighborhood, truly enjoys his job. He works for Dex, Ike and Regina, handing out fliers for their popup pawnshop, in a woods near the Walmart. Their store reportedly sells articles of clothing, toiletries and other small items. The fliers, that Terry so proudly delivers to prospective customers, informs them that the shop will also buy back any guns they possess at a respectable price. So each day, Terry proudly heads out on his bicycle to distribute pamphlets advertising this makeshift specialty pawn shop.
Terry is generally sweet-natured, a man-child, with the most contagious smile always on his face. The audience eventually discovers that, as a baby, Terry experienced a tragic accident that resulted in permanent brain damage, leaving the young man with the emotional and intellectual capacity of an 8-year-old child. But Terry may be unknowingly in danger. What he doesn’t get, but what the audience suspects from the beginning, is that there’s something shady about this whole operation.
Dex and Ike, his employers, don’t come across as the nicest guys; in fact, they’re violent and threatening, especially when patronizing Terry. The two also coerce their co-worker, Regina, forcing her to perform deeds that may be against her better judgment. Terry’s girlfriend Rochelle, his doting grandmother and even his less-than-innocent cousin, Dontre all try to warn the young man to be cautious. But Terry is steadfastly devoted to Dex and Ike and thinks they’re his friends. Soon Terry and the audience learn differently.
Chicago playwright Brett Neveu wrote and developed this drama as the first play to be produced through TimeLine’s Playwright’s Collective program. Based upon a real-life event that occurred six years ago in Milwaukee, Neveu changed the names of his characters but, otherwise, related the dramatic story of Chauncey Wright. This young, innocent African American man unknowingly worked for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in one of their Milwaukee area undercover sting operations. It wasn’t until things went awry that he learned the seriousness of his mistaken trust.
Beautifully staged and guided by respected, gifted director Ron OJ Parsons, this excellent production is filled with tension and trauma. Performed almost entirely in the round, within a tiny space, the size of most living rooms, the events of this play land directly in the laps of theatergoers. The production is gritty and honest, yet laced with moments of tough love and empathy.
The talented cast is uniformly first-rate. Geno Walker is superb as Terry Kilbourn. His gentle manner, his soft-spoken ways and every look and gesture is perfection. Primarily a union film actor, Mr. Walker has made this theatrical role all his own. Tiffany Addison also makes her TimeLine debut as Rochelle. As Terry’s girlfriend, she’s one tough cookie. A minimum wage Walgreens employee, Rochelle has a soft spot in her heart for the young man who enjoys sharing her company, watching movies in her living room and sitting quietly on the front stoop talking and sipping wine.
Anji White, so miraculous in TimeLine’s productions of “The Last Wife” and, especially, “Sunset Baby,” is fiercely magnetic as Regina Whitnall. A no-nonsense woman who can take the crap from the men around her and give it right back, Ms. White is one of those actors who can mesmerize audiences with just a look. Al’Jaleel McGhee is, at once, powerful and heartbreaking as Terry’s ne’er-do-well cousin, Dontre. A young man who just can’t seem to catch a break or make a good life choice, Mr. McGhee is solid and captivating. Linda Bright Clay, a longtime Chicago veteran of theatre, television and film, is loving, impressive and convincing as Brenda Cameron, Terry’s determined, Christian-based grandmother.
The Gift Theatre’s versatile, young Jay Worthington is frightening as Ike; and Stephen Walker, seen recently in A Red Orchid Theatre’s production of Brett Neveu’s “Traitor,” creates the character of Dex Farwell as a man filled with rage and distrust. Together these two men become the antagonists of this story, who team up in turning Terry’s world upside-down.
This world premiere is spellbinding. It’s an edgy story that oozes with suspense and hostility. Brett Neveu’s drama offers a taut story about characters who we really care about. It’s all the more fascinating because it’s real, closely based upon a true incident that happened, not long ago, and just a couple of hours away from Chicago. With the recent ambush and shooting of a Chicago ATF agent currently in the headlines, this play resonates even louder with Windy City audiences. Baiting the hook to lure this fish out of water will leave audiences breathless.
Highly Recommended
Reviewed by Colin Douglas
Presented April 25-July 1 by TimeLine Theatre Company,
615 W. Wellington Ave., Chicago.
Tickets are available by calling 773-281-8463 x6 or by going to www.timelinetheatre.com.
Additional information about this and other area productions can be found by visiting www.theatreinchicago.com.
Hock-a-doo!
Memphis
Hock-a-doo!
The Ruth Page Center for the Arts will be rockin’ and shakin’ for the next couple of months with the pulsating beat of 1950’s era rock ‘n roll, rhythm and blues. Joe DiPietro and David Bryan’s head-bobbing, hand-clapping, foot tapping 2010 four-time Tony Award-winning musical has finally arrived in a local Chicago production, bringing with it an evening of unbridled joy to usher in the Spring. Electrified by Daryl Brooks’ inspired and artistically perfect direction, this production is as moving as it is exciting. It features an onstage bandstand of polished accompaniment by Musical Director Jermaine Hill, along with over two hours of spirited, period-perfect choreography, magnificently crafted by Christopher Carter, who also assisted Mr. Brooks in staging this story. Mr. Carter is assisted in choreographing by Reneisha Jenkins.
The show is loosely based on real life Memphis disc jockey, Dewey Phillips, who was a pioneer in bringing so much effervescent, bubbling black music to white radio audiences and record-buyers. The somewhat predictable story tells of fictional Huey Calhoun, a young, white man from the other side of the tracks, who wanders one night into Delray’s, an African American Beale Street club. He’s drawn by his love for the infectious, soulful music, as well as the voice and beauty of the club’s phenomenal female vocalist, Felicia. This story, with its unabashed examination of the racial tension that raged during the early Civil Rights Movement, offers a score of R&B, rock, gospel and New Orleans blues.
As Felicia, Aeriel Williams is honest and natural, yet extraordinarily powerful and poignant, as the African American songstress with a dream of becoming a recording star. She stops the show with her powerhouse voice while moving the audience with genuinely touching moments of anguish, vulnerability and strength. Liam Quealy, every bit as charismatic as Broadway’s Chad Kimball (who created the role), is a bundle of energy. This gifted young man is so likable, as well as being a supremely talented actor/singer/dancer, in his own right. His hilarious exclamations of “Hock-a-doo,” his earnest love and devotion of Felicia and his rendition of such songs as “The Music of My Soul” and “Memphis Lives in Me” are impassioned and inspiring.
Chicago’s own Lorenzo Rush, Jr. brings his magnificently glorious voice and domineering presence to the role of Felcia’s brother, Delray, stopping the show cold with his passionately sung, “She’s My Sister.” As Bobby, the always outstanding James Earl Jones II, so terrific with his breakout hit song, “Big Love,” is a bottled up dynamo just waiting to bust loose. He plays this affable custodian turned singer with grit and honesty. And boyishly handsome Gilbert Domally eventually overcomes a terrible childhood trauma to find his own voice and strength through friendship, in “Say a Prayer.” The 50’s have never sounded more joyful.
Mr. Brooks’ spectacularly gifted ensemble, all of whom sing, dance and portray multiple supporting characters, is simply brilliant. Jacob Voigt is particularly excellent as Huey’s employer and reluctant supporter, Mr. Simmons. Nancy Wagner manages to make Huey’s racially opinionated mother, Gladys Calhoun, lovable. Her breakout song in Act II, “Change Don’t Come Easy,” is like the explosive burst of a bottle rocket. Both Ryan Dooley, opening the show as a drawling DJ at an all-white radio station, along with several other roles, and Isaiah Silva-Chandley, very funny as Buck Wiley and Martin Holton, are ensemble standouts. In fact, every singer and dancer in this musical could be the star of his or her own musical. There are no weak links in this chain!
Porchlight Music Theatre has become another “Broadway in Chicago” with their latest production. It features a fluid scenic design by Jacqueline and Richard Penrod and stunning array of period costumes by Bill Morey. Beautifully acted, sung and danced by some of the city’s most skilled talent, directed with spirit by Daryl Brooks, masterfully accompanied by Musical Director Jermaine Hill and creatively choreographed by Christopher Carter—this is one of the finest productions by an excellent theatre company. It’s phenomenally performed, majestically produced and, quite simply: Hock-a-doo not miss this production!
Highly Recommended
Reviewed by Colin Douglas
Presented April 24-June 16 by Porchlight Music Theatre at the Ruth Page Center for the Arts, 1016 N. Dearborn Pkwy, Chicago.
Tickets are available at the box office, by calling 312-337-6453 or by going to www.porchlightmusictheatre.org.
Additional information about this and other area productions can be found by visiting www.theatreinchicago.com.
A Comedy That’s For the Birds
Birds of a Feather
A Comedy That’s For the Birds
Finding your soul mate is never a simple matter, whether you’re a heterosexual male and female, two men or a couple of women. But just imagine the difficulties incurred by a pair of same-sex birds, especially when they’re in captivity. Two male penguins in New York’s Central Park Zoo became world-famous celebrities when, together, they became a bonded pair, and then incubated, hatched and raised an abandoned chick. What’s surprising is that Roy and Silo were a same-sex couple.
The story of these two chinstrap penguins was the subject of a 2005 children’s picture book, And Tango Makes Three, co-written by Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson and illustrated by Henry Cole. While it won numerous awards and citations, the book became the center of controversy and figured in numerous cases of censorship. Its strong themes of family, love, acceptance and adoption were overlooked by conservative parents who objected to their children reading about homosexuality.
Writer and playwright Marc Acito, author of How I Paid for College: A Novel of Sex, Theft, Friendship and Musical Theater, adapted the children’s book into a two-act comedy, with serious overtones. Acito meshed the story of Roy and Silo with the tale of another pair of very real wild birds, Pale Male and Lola. These two real-life red-tailed hawks became nationally famous when they were discovered nesting on the ledge of a New York condo.The birds’ high-rise home was torn down but they continued to rebuild their nest and raise their young in the skies of the Big Apple. Add to the stories, one pair of birds in captivity, one pair of birds who were free, a couple of subplots about human beings. They also experience their own problems with coupling. Acito demonstrates through his play that whether a couple is straight, gay, animal or human, finding your mate and maintaining a solid relationship is never easy.
In this Chicago debut, directed with obvious love and care by Jacob Harvey, all of the characters are portrayed by a cast of four talented and very likable young actors. Marika Mashburn, always a treat in no matter what role she undertakes at the House Theatre, is delightful as a lonely Manhattan Zookeeper. She also opens the play as Paula Zahn, in a spot-on impersonation of a bitter, professional woman. Abu Ansari, another talented veteran of several House Theatre productions, is very funny as a nerdy Birder, as well as real-life millionaire, Richard Cohen.
But this production truly belongs to the two youngest actors who lovingly play both pair of birds. Paul Michael Thomson, seen in CST’s “Shakespeare in Love,” Brown Paper Box’s “The Baltimore Waltz” and The Greenhouse’s excellent “Machinal,” is terrific as both Roy and the Pale Male red-tailed hawk. He has a romp with a few other characters, as well, demonstrating his dramatic and comic versatility. His two birds couldn’t be more different as he shape-shifts into each role with ease. Handsome Aaron Kirby has performed at Drury Lane, Indiana Rep, The House, the Goodman and Redtwist Theatre (where he was twice nominated for a Jeff Award). Kirby plays Roy’s caring partner, Silo, as well as their grown daughter chick, Tango. He also dons a curly wig to portray Lola, the red-tailed hawk who’s Pale Male’s current mate. Both actors seamlessly morph in and out of each role with ease and their chemistry together onstage is always caring and considerate.
Christina Leinicke has fashioned a wardrobe of creative costumes that help delineate each character that this gifted quartet undertakes. She does an especially good job with the two pairs of adult birds, as well as with Roy and Silo’s grown daughter. Thanks to Ms. Leinicke, the actors can easily switch from one costume to the next in the shadows, created by Lighting Designer Will Coeur. Mr. Coeur is also responsible for creating the panoramic projections of various Manhattan locales, viewed upon Joe Schermoly’s semicircular backdrop, which is a big part of his scenic design that morphs from the zoo’s penguin house to the top of a high rise building. And Jeffrey Levin has amassed an array of realistic sounds and original music that enhance Mr. Harvey’s well-directed production.
This play isn’t perfect, but the production is. It has a few scenes that clutter up the main plot and add unnecessary bulk to the story. But it’s always entertaining, very funny and raises questions about several issues concerning gender and sexuality. Although the human episodes, especially those of the Birder and the Zookeeper, offer a nice contrast to the avian stories, they could easily be eliminated so that the play could be a single, feather-lined one-act. Marc Acito’s comedy is at its best when devoting its attention to Pale Male and Lola and, particularly, to Roy and Silo. It’s a pleasure to say that this play is, after all, for the birds.
Recommended
Reviewed by Colin Douglas
Presented April 27-June 17 by the Greenhouse Theater Center, 2257 N. Lincoln Ave., Chicago.
Tickets are available at the box office, by calling 773-404-7336 or by going to www.greenhousetheater.org.
Additional information about this and other area productions can be found by visiting www.theatreinchicago.com.
The Ghost of Michael Brown
Until the Flood – Goodman Theatre
On August 9, 2014, just a couple days before he was to enroll at a technical college, 18-year-old Michael Brown was gunned
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