RECOMMENDED

For those who remember the short-lived but never-to-be-forgotten Asylum Experience in Berwyn in the late 1990s, it was a haunted house unlike any other that was steeped not in shock and gore, but in imagination and creepiness. The lines would run around the block at this time of year, surrounding the Victorian tower with a hearse in front of it as the lucky elite who were ushered in were slowly treated to disturbing and eye-popping scenes from room to room that were exquisite in their macabre detail, courtesy of Dave Link.

Link is a sculpture and design professional who creates movie-themed designs for companies such as Lucas Films, Disney, Sony Pictures, Sega and the like, and has an uncanny knack for creating lifelike characters and creatures which are then brought to life in animated vignettes and combined with live actors who are specialists in contortion, mime, performance art, minimalist deadpan dialogue and creepy improvisation that never breaks character. Read the rest of this entry »

Elizabeth Bagby & Kevin Crispin/Photo: Lucas Gerard

The Halloween custom of trick-or-treating has a lot in common with improvised theater: two parties, essentially strangers, have a brief interaction across a threshold. One party is seeking candy through dressing up in a way that at least theoretically is different from what would be worn the rest of the year; the other party is seeking entertainment or engagement—those who aren’t, leave home on Halloween, or do not bother to answer the door—without so much as stepping outside a domestic sanctuary. It is a win-win situation for people who want a brief, late-fall theatrical experience without stepping into a theater, for the mere cost of imagination for the trick-or-treater and a mere bit of candy for the temporary Halloween “host.”

That theatricality is exploited in Ron Riekki’s new play “All Saints’ Day: aka 44 Poems About Jeffrey Jones,” receiving its world premiere by The Ruckus with the California playwright in attendance at the opening. The first “trick” of the play is the title itself, a homage to, as Riekki puts it in his program notes, “Jeffrey Jones the playwright, not ‘Ferris Bueller’ sex offender,” who is usually listed as Jeffrey M. Jones. Playwright Jones wrote a play called “70 Scenes of Halloween,” the point of departure for Riekki. Reviews of that play—which I have not seen—would suggest it had a darker intention and more narrative flow than this lighter take on the theme which literally is a series of Halloween vignettes one after the other: doorbell rings, “trick or treat?” interaction, doorbell rings again, and so it goes. Read the rest of this entry »

Jim Sherman and Laney Kraus-Taddeo/Photo: Michael Brosilow

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Yes, Virginia, there is a musical version of “Miracle on 34th Street.”  It is called “Here’s Love” and was written by Meredith Wilson of “The Music Man” fame, and in newer versions is sometimes called “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas” since Wilson also wrote that classic Christmas song and it was used in revivals.  Oddly, none of the material from the original 1963 Broadway musical nor its revivals are featured in what is being billed as Porchlight Musical Theatre’s “musical” adaptation of “Miracle on 34th Street.”  “Musical,” in this case, simply means that fragments of a handful of Christmas carols are distractingly used as scene-changing transitions, usually sung in unison by cast members karaoke style to canned accompaniment with varying degrees of successful synchronization.

However, aside from that considerable caveat, the show is delightful. This is a story that works wonderfully well as a live theatrical experience since the audience, as it were, ends up acting almost in notary fashion for the proceedings, which as lovers of the classic 1947 film or its remakes know, climaxes in a courtroom. Along with the judge, it is we who end up deciding whether or not “Kris Kringle” is the real deal or a lunatic.  As played by veteran Chicago actor Jim Sherman—without whom it would be impossible to imagine all of this working—we are totally taken in. Sherman’s entrance as part of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade is handled with great fanfare and when he takes the stage, he is irresistible. Read the rest of this entry »

RECOMMENDED

Hell in a Handbag kinks up the holidays with its parody of the Rankin/Bass classic. This Christmas universe features a twist or two: Santa’s a profit-mad bastard, the Mrs. is a lush, all the elves are gay and  Rudolph’s  a sweet transvestite.

The  Mary’s Attic stage doesn’t give the fifteen-person ensemble much room to shine, but the performers make do. Newcomer  Alex Grelle rocks Rudolph’s red fishnets, which get him kicked out of the reindeer games. Jennifer Shine is punk-tastic as Clarice, Rudolph’s BFF/love interest(?). Christopher  Walsh brings the nerd as Herbie, the homosexually challenged, dentist wanna-be elf, and Ed Jones is a giggle as the pickled Mrs. Claus.

David Cerda’s book contradicts itself; it questions gay stereotypes yet perpetuates them, and his sexual innuendos are none too subtle. No matter. The numbers are fun, and the singing and dancing chops are strong. It’s the antidote for a humbug holiday. (Lisa Buscani)

“Rudolph the Red Hosed Reindeer” plays at  Hell in a Handbag Productions at Mary’s Attic, 5400 W. Clark, (800)838-3006, through January 2.

John Sanders, Kate Fry and Rob Lindley/Photo: Michael Brosilow

RECOMMENDED

When the Noël Coward revue “Oh, Coward!” opened in late 1972, Coward himself was still around but his detached and wry style had fallen way out of fashion. British actor/director/playwright Roderick Cook thought that the time was right to remind us all of what an original voice Coward had been, and the result was a hit show that even Coward himself came to check out in early 1973 in what turned out to be his last public appearance (he died in March of that year).

Cook’s idea was astonishingly simple: two male performers—one was originally Cook himself—and one female performer, all in evening clothes and sipping champagne, singing Coward songs and acting out scenes from his best-known plays. It was a passport to another era, and nearly four decades later, it feels as fresh as ever, at least in the hands of Writers’ Theatre. Entering the performance space in the back of a suburban bookstore, you are offered a glass of champagne as you head into an intimate theater transformed into an elegant, art deco nightclub of the 1930s. Music director Doug Peck greets you in tails as he is playing Coward songs on a grand piano and you find your way to small tables encircling the space in inviting, cabaret style. Read the rest of this entry »

Photo: Herbert Migdoll

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The first snowfall descends on Chicago, bringing with it the reality of the approaching holiday season and a hearty craving for diversions, rich foods and elaborate sweets. Enter the Joffrey’s annual sugar-encrusted treat, a Baroque construction of eye candy replete with children’s choruses, puppetry, the Chicago Sinfonietta, an immense Christmas tree on hydraulics, well over 100 young dancers and the entire Joffrey company dripping with frosting and lace. Robert Joffrey and Gerald Arpino’s vision of the European holiday standard injects Tchaikovsky’s most famous work with some good old-fashioned twentieth-century American athleticism. The divertissement is a mounting parade of jaw-dropping feats of flexibility and acrobatics—a healthy balance to the many hours of equally impressive physicality presented by the NFL you’re sure to gape at in the coming weeks. (Sharon Hoyer)

At the Auditorium Theater, 50 E Congress Parkway, (312)739-0120. December 11-27. $25-$100.

Andrew Carter, Ashley Bishop, Gary Houston, Kevin R. Kelley and John Mohrlein/Photo: The Stage Channel

RECOMMENDED

Creating a dramatic story to celebrate the spirit of Christmas is far more challenging than it seems. It’s far too easy to try and simply trade on the cloying sweetness of hackneyed sentimentality (see the annual rollout of made-for-TV movies), rather than to construct something that evokes the seasonal themes in a manner that warms the heart and pleases the brain. That’s why most new theater works tend to parody the tropes of the holidays; warm and fuzzy Christmas seems like an old-fashioned notion that belongs to our grandparents. Even  putting a twist on a classic can fail. Count me among those who can recite lines from the Frank Capra film “It’s A Wonderful Life” and who finds himself sobbing at the ending every time. When Porchlight did a musical version a couple years back, I expected to love it but instead found it quite disappointing. So I went to see the American Blues Theater’s production of “It’s A Wonderful Life: Live at the Biograph!” with some measure of apprehension. I left marveling at their creation of perfect Christmas theater. Read the rest of this entry »

Rick Kubes/Photo: Emily Johnston Anderson

RECOMMENDED

ATC’s holiday perennial blooms again, transporting audiences to the forties and the Golden Age of Radio. Its news reports, dedications and re-creation of Frank Capra’s classic make for poignant, gentle entertainment.

The ensemble’s impressive vocal dexterity enables it to handle the multiple castings with aplomb; Bernard Balbot gives Mel Blanc a run for his money. Rick Kubes’ on-time Foley work enhances the production’s retro feel, no mean feat. Kareem Bandealy and Mary Winn Heider have the thankless task of assuming roles Jimmy Stewart and Donna Reed  cornered, yet they manage to capture the love and humor that bind the couple.

It’s a shame the schism between ATC and the majority of its ensemble members has created double productions and competition for audience. The best gifts both groups could give us would be to rise above their differences and get back to the strenuous blessing of creating art. (Lisa Buscani)

“It’s A Wonderful Life” plays at American Theater Company, 1909 W. Byron, (773)409-4125. Through December 27.

Elizabeth Futral/Photo: Dan Rest

“I will wear the orchestra out with my dance card,” says the Merry Widow herself (Elizabeth Futral) at the Act I party where her countrymen are trying to make sure that her fortune stays within their country. The irony is that the old gal almost didn’t have an orchestra at all, as the Lyric Opera Orchestra, which had been playing without a contract since the season began nearly three months ago, had threatened a strike by curtain time of Saturday’s opening. A tentative agreement had been reached early Friday morning, averting a work stoppage.

Lyric Opera has always had a snobby attitude about “The Merry Widow.” Lyric founder Carol Fox wouldn’t touch it since it was an operetta and not an opera, but Ardis Krainik found herself presenting it twice during the 1980s: the first with Evelyn Lear in the company’s first-ever production, and again in 1986 as a vehicle for Kiri Te Kanawa, although Te Kanawa pulled out and Maria Ewing took her place. This third-ever company production sees the pendulum swing to the opposite direction, given that it was conceived around veteran Chicago director Gary Griffin and the vast majority of those involved with it come from the theater world rather than the opera world. That’s great in that it means that those long sections of spoken dialogue are performed by genuine actors, but when the singing begins, we’re often hearing “show” voices rather than operatic voices, which means that the music often loses its sparkle and luster. Read the rest of this entry »

RECOMMENDED

Even the most merry among us can stand a bit of humbug, especially when it’s delivered with the upoarious laughter inherent in David Sedaris’ “SantaLand Diaries.” The essay, a memoir of the author’s bizarre experience working in Macy’s SantaLand one New York Christmas, was Sedaris’ breakthrough when he read it on NPR back in 1992. Theater Wit has been producing the stage adaptation in Chicago as its holiday show for the last six years, three of those years with Mitchell Fain starring in the one-man family-unfriendly show as the misanthropic Macy’s elf, and they’ve got it down cold. Fain, diminutive and elfin himself, prances around the stage, cocktail in hand, delivering Sedaris’ bon mots with hilarious precision, even ad-libbing with the audience in character. Good luck trying to resist Fain’s charms, as he describes “one of the most frightening career opportunities I had ever come across” with kids who pee in the store’s artificial snow, the handlebar-mustachioed elf who delusionally thinks he’s a real ladies man and the co-worker so cheerful she asks if she can wear her costume home. In fact, if you’re not careful, you might even end up feeling downright cheerful yourself. (Brian Hieggelke)

Theater Wit’s “The Santaland Diaries” plays at Theatre Building Chicago, 1225 W. Belmont, (773)327-5252, TheaterWit.org through January 2. $24.