Felicia P. Fields and cast/ Photo: Liz Lauren

RECOMMENDED

Borrowing the template from “Ragtime” of having well-known historical characters musically interact with fictional characters representative of various classes of American society, “A Civil War Christmas: An American Musical Celebration” attempts to use the holiday season as a nostalgic look back, warts and all, at our conflicted soul-searching as a nation at the climax of its greatest national crisis. The scenario for Paula Vogel’s play—receiving its Chicago premiere from Northlight Theatre—is Washington, D.C. on Christmas Eve, 1864, when General Sherman gave President Lincoln the captured city of Savannah, Georgia as a Christmas present.

The show cleverly uses the African-American experience on both sides of the conflict as a means to look at ourselves in the mirror with the clear adage that the more things change, the more they stay the same. The scene of an escaped slave and her daughter finally arriving at the bridge across the Potomac only to be turned back by Union soldiers because the city already has enough of “her kind” could come right out of today’s headlines. Read the rest of this entry »

Photo: Cheryl Mann

“Movement comes from individual people’s qualities. What are we picking out and reinforcing that one person did naturally?” Glenn Edgerton, artistic director of Hubbard Street, is talking about the process of staging repertory work—specifically Jiri Kylian’s sensuous, iconic “Petite Mort,” a personally resonant piece for Edgerton, who was a member of Nederlands Dans Theater when Kylian first choreographed it. “In 1991 it was very raw, even in technique. Over the years it has become more codified. It’s a very sought-after piece and every time it’s presented with a new company it becomes more exact. Now it has its own technique. It’s fun to analyze to the nth degree what our old colleagues did naturally…we were just young dancers doing what we do. And it’s great fun to realize it was an important time in Kylian’s development.” Read the rest of this entry »

Photo: Sergio Soltero

There are a lot of things that can get in between a friendship, but few as impactful as love and ambition. Joshua Mikel’s new play explores the rift these two forces cause between three young people in a small Spanish village.  Atlantia’s star bullfighter, La Muerte Negra, has just died, and Kay Kay becomes more than jealous when his best friend Arturo not only proves La Muerte’s more worthy successor, but also proclaims his love for Kay Kay’s sister, Pumpkin.

In a general sense it’s no surprise how the story ends, but the play often takes some demented turns that would be more satisfying if they were developed more fully. Fortunately, Paul E. Martinez’s complex Kay Kay picks up where the script leaves off. Chris Acevedo and Carla Alegre form the sweet, doomed couple and Megan Tabaque’s La Muerte is a haunting yet underexplored supernatural presence. But ultimately the fantastical, sweaty production finds its soul at the intersection of jealousy and passion.  (Neal Ryan Shaw)

Tympanic Theatre Company at the side project, 1439 West Jarvis, (773)442-2882.  Through December 22.

Dan Toot and Emily Shain/Photo: Anna Bahow

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Fish (Dan Toot) is a rage-a-holic boxer, taught to “punch till ya can’t punch no more, then keep punching.” But he finds calm with Cherry (Emily Shain), a runaway who lives “around.” Both are survivors of unthinkable abuse rooted in crushing poverty.

James McManus’ script combines the poetry of the everyday with the hardscrabble life of a working class without work. He hits a couple of clinkers when the language overwhelms the scenario, but still manages to create a gorgeous, imaginative world.

Toot captures Fish’s anger and aggression; he is bark and bite. Shain’s Cherry longs for magic and creates it with her love. Peter Oyloe  brings a gentle dignity to Duffy, Fish’s brother, who has mastered the serenity needed to survive, drawing strength from his wife Bug (Jessica London-Shields) a midwife who longs to create life herself. It’s a strong ensemble that creates rich, fully formed performances. (Lisa Buscani)

The Side Project Theatre Company, 1439 West Jarvis, (773)973-2150. Through December 19.

Andy Baldeschweiler and Jenny Sophia/Photo: Bob Knuth

Cole Porter’s attempt to write a Rodgers and Hammerstein-style opus, his 1948 “Kiss Me, Kate,” includes his most integrated score and most erudite lyrics. It came after a long silence and even after some flops at the end of Porter’s career, following a near-fatal horse riding accident that left Porter in constant pain for the rest of his life. Taken on because of tax problems, Porter pulled out all of the stops for “Kiss Me, Kate” and was able to succinctly sum up in a single work all that his art had developed into over decades as the top tunesmith of both Broadway and Hollywood.

Most productions tend to either concentrate on the work’s gut-busting comedy, as the most recent Broadway revival did to great success, or for the sumptuous score, as do the many productions mounted regularly by opera companies. Circle Theatre’s current production emphasizes the dance element, hardly a surprise given that the show’s artistic director Kevin Bellie is also the choreographer. And while that element is indeed well-served, if a dancer is going to say, carry the tune of a tear-it-up number such as “Too Darn Hot” for instance, you need to make sure that said performer can actually carry a tune or at least has received enough vocal coaching to be able to deliver the goods. Read the rest of this entry »

Photo: Gary Ward

It is always fascinating to see how Theo Ubique will cleverly re-imagine even the most familiar shows on an intimate scale at the No Exit Café, the group’s Rogers Park venue. It worked wonderfully well with Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Evita” a couple of seasons ago, so why not have a go at his most popular show—indeed, for better or worse, one of the most popular shows by anybody—“Cats?”

Doing such a theatrical warhorse is rather ballsy because the damn thing is so popular and overdone; the Broadway version is still touring and comes to town now and then, bringing new meaning to its advertising catchphrase, “Cats: Now and Forever” after nearly thirty years running.

Even so, on paper at least, such an overexposed work could conceivably benefit from a fresh, more intimate approach, and with talented local choreographer Brenda Didier branching out and making her directorial debut, the pieces looked like they could be in place for a refreshing new take.

When push comes to shove, however, what we get in Didier’s Theo Ubique version is a truncated version of the original staging and choreographic movements (though with key climactic ensemble moments often confusingly left on the cutting-room floor), rather than the fresh approach that Didier’s dual director/choreographer credit—which fails to acknowledge the source for most of her ideas—would suggest. Read the rest of this entry »

Peggy Roeder, Amy Matheny/Photo: Michael Brosilow

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Small-town life may be small, but it’s rarely simple; that’s what they discover in Budapest (pronounced boo-DA-pest), Illinois as the members of the local women’s club decorate their float for the town holiday parade.

It’s a motley crew. Doodee (Wendy Robie) is the town doer; she’s the first to help, but the first to judge. Char (Rengin Altay) is a divorced real estate agent in need of a change; Arletta (Peggy Roeder) is the small-minded busybody, and Luce (Amy Matheny) and Marty (Adrianne Cury) are two women attempting to take their attraction to the next level.

Patricia Kane’s script has tone changes that strain credibility; Luce is reluctant to embrace a lesbian relationship but becomes Don Juanita by the second act. But Kane’s punchy dialogue and surprising twists keep you entertained and rooting for her characters. Leslie Buxbaum Danzig’s fluid direction keeps the tight ensemble sparking. It’s a fun, far-from-silent night. (Lisa Buscani)

About Face Theatre at Theater Wit, 1229 West Belmont, (773)975-8150. Through December 12.

Carla Kessler/Photo: Michael Brosilow

RECOMMENDED

The House’s remount of their successful 2007 holiday show is a very loose adaptation of ETA Hoffman’s classic story “The Nutcracker and the Mouse King,” and yet its prologue is still almost ironically evocative of the Tchaikovsky ballet. Cheerful dancing around the Christmas tree turns to tragedy, however, when news arrives of the son’s death at war. A year later, no Christmas party almost means no Christmas, until a surprise visit from Uncle Drosselmeyer, with a gift for Clara of a nutcracker that looks like her brother, upsets the somber balance of the household. The adaptation by company members Phillip C. Klapperich and Jake Minton cleverly psychologizes the tale, spinning the magical battle against darkness and Rat Kings as one against childhood grief and family wounds. The brisk, lively staging never lets you linger on such heavy thoughts for too long, but the actors all have great fun with each other, with the script, and with the audience. You’ll believe in magic again. (Neal Ryan Shaw)

The House Theatre of Chicago at the Chopin Theater, 1543 West Division, (773)251-2195. Through December 26.

It’s not really a nostalgic childhood memory unless it’s summer, is it? Cynthia VonOrthal’s new full-length puppet show places us in the summer of 1971, when children still played in the street and you put new clothes on layaway at Sears just long enough before they go out of fashion. The Martini and Blahute families have been friends as long as they’ve lived next to each other, but this rose-colored slice-of-life becomes threatened when rumors begin to spread that Harm Martini has been fooling around on Gay. Aside from that, not much actually happens, and the threadbare plot moves along mostly due to the captivating puppet work. The puppeteers really disappear behind their puppets, which end up displaying a disarming humanity. The stage and script often get cluttered with too much business, and the play is a little too preoccupied with establishing the culture of the era with little payoff. It’s just a mismatch of a well-trod story and ingenious stagecraft. (Neal Ryan Shaw)

VonOrthal Puppets at the Raven Theatre West Stage, 6157 North Clark, (773)878-8337. Through December 19.

Stephen Rader/Photo: John W. Sisson, Jr.

RECOMMENDED

An ambitious and charming, if not always rewarding, interwoven operetta that stages Lewis Carroll’s (nee Charles Dodgson) nonsensical poem “The Hunting of the Snark” with a more tired rehashing of the dodgy sexuality of its author and his relationship with young girls—less interesting than the choice to present Dodgson and Carroll as separate characters, one timid and one flamboyant, vying for control. One would expect no less than the accomplished, often acapella, singing and impressively tight choreography that Caffeine and Chicago Opera Vanguard bring in collaboration. And the imaginative embodying of the characters in the snark hunt, including an anarchist bootblack, Marxist billiard marker and a delightfully slimy Barrister, are imaginatively and gloriously campy in a post-Tim Burton way—and they defy the big question of how to stage a poem so deeply about language itself with witty songs and eccentric whimsical acting. Read the rest of this entry »