A beloved and iconic 1960s musical that is rarely revived, “Funny Girl” is so associated with canonizing the career of Barbra Streisand and was so tailor-made to her performing style that few attempt to tackle it unless you have one hell of a leading lady who can sing her heart out, make you laugh and break your heart all in the same show.

The great irony, of course, is that vaudevillian Fanny Brice, upon whose career “Funny Girl” is based, was a subtle and smoky contralto, not a belting soprano like Streisand. As an anchor of the Ziegfeld Follies, Brice had made a specialty of comedy along with “victim” torch songs where she came out and poured her heart out about mistreating men, about which she knew so much that a movie was made about her life that so offended her that a successful lawsuit ensued. Her son-in-law and producer Ray Stark sought to set the family record straight with a film version of her life that would be so whitewashed that few took interest, so Stark decided to do a backstage Broadway musical instead.

Unable to secure the rights to Brice’s songs, who was dead by then, a new score was commissioned from Jule Styne, of “Gypsy” fame. As with “Gypsy,” Styne’s score was such a tour de force that Anne Bancroft, the original choice for Brice who was just off of her Tony and Oscar for “The Miracle Worker,” pulled out. Name performers of the day such as Carol Burnett and Edye Gorme were considered but ultimately Streisand, who at that time was still singing at clubs in Greenwich Village, was secured. Though the show was a triumph, it became more about Streisand than Brice, a problem for anyone else trying to do the show ever since. Read the rest of this entry »

Although the 1967 film is a silly and trivial affair, that spoof of the 1920s featuring Julie Andrews, Mary Tyler Moore and Carol Channing is a masterpiece compared to this overlong, misconceived mess of a musical that is loosely based on the film. At a time when tuneful Broadway scores are seemingly a dime a dozen, the new songs here are dreadful and are repeated ad nauseum. And if that weren’t enough, there are Asian stereotypes such as dropped r’s and even minstrel-show anthem “Mammy” sung in Chinese!

Why the creators dumped some of the best period songs of the film in favor of such inferior new material is a mystery, but at least the Drury Lane choreography by Tammy Mader and swing band directed by Ben Johnson evoke a sense of the raucousness of the era.  Holly Ann Butler is a likeable Millie, though there is little of the initial naïveté that the character calls for.  By contrast, her suitor Jimmy (Mark Fisher), who is supposed to have street smarts, comes off as the one who needs to be shown the ropes.  The other lovers (Randall Dodge and Dara Cameron) do exhibit some chemistry in their scenes but it is Melody Betts who steals the show with a knockout performance as Muzzy. (Dennis Polkow)

“Thoroughly Modern Millie” plays through December 20 at Drury Lane Oakbrook, 100 Drury Lane, Oakbrook Terrace, (630)530-0111. $19-$61.

Here’s the press release announcing the Jeff noms for Equity:

Chicago Theatres Shine in Outstanding Jeff Nominated Productions of 2008-2009 Season

Goodman Theatre and Drury Lane Oakbrook
Top List of Award Nominees

50 Years of The Second City to be Spotlighted
at The Jeff Awards

Thursday, August 27, 2009 – Chicago, IL.   The Jeff Awards today announced 179 nominations in 35 categories for Chicago Equity theatrical productions which opened between August 1, 2008, and July 31, 2009. The Jeff Awards sent judges to the opening nights of 141 productions offered by 57 producing organizations. From these openings, 98 Equity productions were “Jeff Recommended,” which made them eligible for award nominations.

The 41st Annual Jeff Awards ceremony, honoring excellence in professional theatre produced within the immediate Chicago area, will be held on Monday, October 19, at the North Shore Center for the Performing Arts in Skokie, 9501 Skokie Boulevard. A pre-show Appetizer Buffet will run from 6:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m., and the Awards Ceremony, directed by Michael Weber, will begin at 7:30 p.m. The Second City, celebrating 50 years as a producer, will play a featured role at the Jeff Awards ceremony. Advance purchase tickets, which include the ceremony and the pre-show buffet, are $75 ($55 for members of Actors’ Equity Association, United Scenic Artists, Stage Directors and Choreographers Society, and The Dramatists Guild of America). The evening is black tie optional and the public is cordially invited to attend. To purchase tickets, visit the Jeff Awards website at www.jeffawards.org. For more information, contact Equity Chair Diane Hires at equitywing@jeffawards.org. Read the rest of this entry »

RECOMMENDED

Jim Corti has had a long association with “Cabaret,” as Joel Grey’s understudy and then taking over for Grey as the Emcee for the national tour of the Hal Prince Broadway revival of the show, and also having worked with Bob Fosse, who directed the movie version.  Both of those versions added new material so how refreshing to see that as director and choreographer of this often misunderstood show at Drury Lane Oakbrook, Corti has gone back to basics.  Fosse, of course, turned an ensemble show into a diva vehicle, and even got Kander and Ebb to write a new song for Liza Minnelli, “Maybe This Time,” which most stagings begrudgingly include.  It’s a great song, but it makes the character of Sally Bowles larger than life, a repressed diva.  Not this time: Zarah Mahler plays Sally as an ordinary girl with lots of dreams who wears her heart on her sleeve.  Read the rest of this entry »

It’s always great to see an area theater get the first post-Broadway rights to a show, and in the case of “Curtains,” Drury Lane Oakbrook is deservedly presenting the first regional theater staging of the work less than nine months after it closed on Broadway last June.  Of course, the fact that the show went straight to regional theaters rather than have a big, splashy national tour with its star David Hyde Pierce—who won the Tony Award last year for Best Actor in the show—and has even already been licensed for college and high school performances so soon, might tell us something.

Like “Robbin’ Hood!  A New Musical of the Old West,” the show-within-a-show that “Curtains” satirizes, this is a show that never seems to quite get off the ground.  The fact that this is the umpteenth Broadway show to satirize the making of a show within an actual show since “The Producers” doesn’t help: there are such better examples of this genre out there.  For starters, “Robbin’ Hood!” is not credible even as a bad musical with good or even bad intentions; you have to buy that the show-within-a-show could actually pass for, well, a show, and said show has to be bad enough yet clever enough as a show and yet somewhat still reflect the qualities of a Broadway musical.  Likewise, the characters in the show who are supposedly Broadway musical personnel have to reflect some awareness of the form they are satirizing.  Read the rest of this entry »

What makes Chicago’s theater world special? We picked up the latest issue of Entertainment Weekly for clues. In the cover story, “CSI” star William Petersen explains his decision to leave his role as one of the top paid actors in television, earning a rumored $600,000 an episode, to move back to Chicago and Chicago theater: “It was too safe for me at this point. So I needed to try and break that, and the way to do that, for me, is the theater.” EW went on to credit Petersen for much of the show’s success, notably bringing a theatrical ensemble philosophy to play in its production. Or consider the runaway success of Steppenwolf’s “August: Osage County,” which transferred to Broadway,  receiving critical acclaim and multiple Tony Awards, not by shaking it up with Broadway “names” but instead by virtually transferring the Steppenwolf production intact, with the addition of lead producer and fellow Chicagoan Steve Traxler. What makes Chicago theater—or for that matter, Chicago dance or any other form of performance practiced on our stages—special? We’d contend it’s the power of the ensemble, the spirit of collaboration that champions artistic risk-taking and subordinates the commercial. And so, in that spirit, the critical ensemble responsible for Newcity’s ongoing stage coverage presents our take on the most influential people on and offstage in Chicago. Read the rest of this entry »

Top 5 Shows

“Caroline, or Change,” Court Theatre

“A House with No Walls,” Timeline Theatre

“The Glass Menagerie,” Steppenwolf Theatre

“No Darkness Round My Stone,” Trap Door Theatre

“The Birthday Party,” Signal Theater

—Monica Westin

Top 5 Shows

“Jon,” Collaboraction

“A Very Merry Unauthorized Children’s Scientology Pageant,” A Red Orchid

“Be More Chill,” Griffin Theatre

“Men of Tortuga,” Profiles

“Picked Up,” Neo-Futurists

—Nina Metz

Top 5 Theatrical Experiences

“Caroline, or Change,” Court Theatre

“Columnibus,” Raven Theatre

“As You Like It,” Writers’ Theatre

“The Comedy of Errors,” Chicago Shakespeare Theater

“Romeo y Julieta” (Staged Reading), Chicago Shakespeare Theater/Shakespeare in Español

—Fabrizio O. Almeida

Top 5 Guilty Pleasures

“Jarred: A Hoodoo Comedy” by Tanya Saracho, Teatro Luna

“Speech and Debate” by Stephen Karam, ATC

“Dead Man’s Cell Phone” by Sarah Ruhl, Steppenwolf

“The Little Dog Laughed” by Douglas Carter Beane, About Face Theatre

“After Ashley” by Gina Gionfriddo, Stage Left Theatre

—Fabrizio O. Almeida

Top 5 New Plays

“Kita y Fernanda” by Tanya Saracho, 16^th Street Theater

“The U.N. Inspector” by David Farr and James Sherman, Next Theatre

“Dead Man’s Cell Phone” by Sarah Ruhl, Steppenwolf Theatre

“Our Enemies: Lively Scenes of Love and Combat” by Yussef El Guindi, Silk Road Theatre Project

“Superior Donuts” by Tracy Letts, Steppenwolf Theatre

—Fabrizio O. Almeida

Top 5 Revivals

“The Maids,” Writers’ Theatre

“The Lion in Winter,” Writers’ Theatre

“Requiem for a Heavyweight,” Shattered Globe

“Plaza Suite,” Eclipse Theatre Company

“The Birthday Party,” Signal Ensemble Theatre

—Fabrizio O. Almeida

Top 5 Play Revivals

“Our Town,” Hypocrites

“The Lion in Winter,” Writers Theatre

“Requiem for a Heavyweight,” Shattered Globe

“Journey’s End,” Griffin

“M Butterfly,” BoHo

—Dennis Polkow

Top 5 Memorable Productions by a Smaller Theatre Troupe

“Multi-Purpose Doom,” Sandbox Theatre Project

“The Further Adventures of Hedda Gabler,” Dog & Pony

“Termen Vox Machina,” Oracle Productions

“On My Parents’ 100^th Wedding Anniversary,” Side Project

“The Last Days of Judas Iscariot” (original mounting), Gift Theatre

—Fabrizio O. Almeida

Top 5 Directors

Ann Filmer for “Kita y Fernanda,” 16^th Street Theater

Charles Newell for “Caroline, or Change,” Court Theatre

Sean Graney for “Edward II,” Chicago Shakespeare Theater

William Brown for “As You Like It,” Writers’ Theatre

Greg Kolack for “Columbinus,” Raven Theatre

—Fabrizio O. Almeida

Top 5 Musicals

“Caroline, or Change,” Court Theatre

“Grey Gardens,” Northlight Theatre

“Tell Me On A Sunday,” Bailiwick Theater

“The Full Monty,” Marriott Lincolnshire Theatre

“All Shook Up,” Marriott Lincolnshire Theatre

—Fabrizio O. Almeida

Top 5 New Musicals

“Caroline, or Change,” Court Theatre

“Grey Gardens,” Northlight Theatre

“Songs for a New World,” Porchlight

“The Ballad of Emmett Till,” Goodman Theatre

“I Am Who I Am: The Story of Teddy Pendergrass,” Black Ensemble Theater

—Dennis Polkow

Top 5 Musical Revivals

“Tell Me on a Sunday,” Bailiwick Theater

“Sweet Charity,” Drury Lane Oakbrook

“1776,” Signal Ensemble

“Jacques Brel’s Lonesome Lovers of the Night,” Theo Ubique

“Gentlemen Prefer Blondes,” Circle Theatre

—Dennis Polkow

Top 5 Worst Musicals

“Shout! The Mod Musical,” Drury Lane Water Tower

“Avenue Q,” Broadway in Chicago

“Dirty Dancing,” Broadway in Chicago

“Russian on the Side,” Royal George Theater

“Gutenberg! The Musical,” Royal George Theater

—Dennis Polkow

Top 5 Worst Musicals

“Dirty Dancing,” Broadway in Chicago

“The Kid from Brooklyn,” Mercury Theater

“Gutenberg! The Musical!,” Royal George Theatre

“Jekyll & Hyde—The Musical,” Bohemian Theatre Ensemble

“Sweeney Todd,” Broadway in Chicago

—Fabrizio O. Almeida

Top 5 Operas

“Manon,” Lyric Opera

“The Abduction From the Seraglio,” Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Ravinia

“Lulu,” Lyric Opera

“Porgy and Bess,” Lyric Opera (second cast)

“Don Giovanni,” Chicago Opera Theater

—Dennis Polkow

Top 5 Productions of Shakespeare

“As You Like It,” Writers Theatre

“Comedy of Errors,” Chicago Shakespeare

“Much Ado About Nothing,” First Folio

“Merchant of Venice,” Boho

“Twelfth Night,” City Lit

—Dennis Polkow

Top 5 Touring Shows

“Saint Joan,” Shaw Festival Canada, Chicago Shakespeare

“Cirque du Soleil: Kooza,” United Center

“The Drowsy Chaperone,” Broadway in Chicago

“My Fair Lady,” National Theatre London, Broadway in Chicago

“Jesus Christ Superstar,” Broadway in Chicago

—Dennis Polkow

Top 5 Holiday Shows

“The Christmas Schooner,” Bailiwick Theater

“A Dublin Carol,” Steppenwolf Theatre

“A Christmas Carol,” Writers Theatre

“Radio City Music Hall Christmas Spectacular,” Rosemont Theatre

“The Seafarer,” Steppenwolf Theatre

—Dennis Polkow

Top 5 Comedy Shows

“Impress These Apes,” Blewt!

“Shatter,” Pat O’Brien’s solo show at Second City e.t.c.

“Steve and Jordan, Respectively” i.O. Theater

“Brother, Can You Spare Some Change?” Second City e.t.c.

“PennyBear: A Collection of Miniature Plays and Curious Diversions,” Apollo Theater Studio

—Nina Metz

Top 5 Female Performances

Janet Ulrich Brooks, “Golda’s Balcony,” Pegasus Players

Christina Anthony, “Brother, Can You Spare Some Change?” Second City e.t.c.

Erin Barlow, “Red Angel,” LiveWire

Sarah Goeden, “13 Dead Husbands,” Sansculottes Theater

Rachel Quinn, “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes,” Circle Theatre

—Nina Metz

Top 5 Male Performances

David Cromer, “Our Town,” The Hypocrites

Usman Ally, “Celebrity Row,” American Theater Company

Steve Wilson, “Red Angel,” LiveWire

Edward Thomas-Herrera, “The Last Days of Beast,” Live Bait’s Fillet of Solo Festival

Daniel Behrendt, “Beggars in the House of Plenty,” Mary-Arrchie

—Nina Metz

Top 5 Out-of-the-Box Performances

“Inner Space,” Joffrey Ballet’s American Moderns

“Walking Mad,” Hubbard Street Dance Winter Series

“The Young Ladies Of…,” About Face Theatre

“Dr. Egg and the Man With No Ear,” Redmoon Theater

“One on One,” Hubbard Street Dance Winter Series

—William Rogers

Top 5 Dance Shows by Chicago Companies

“The Sky Hangs Down Too Close,” Lucky Plush Productions

“Nuevo Folk,” Luna Negra Dance Theater

“De-Evolution of Mudwoman,” Breakbone DanceCo

“Vintage Modern,” Same Planet Different World Dance

“American Moderns,” Joffrey Ballet

—Sharon Hoyer

Top 5 Overrated Productions

“Dave DaVinci Saves the Universe,” House Theatre

“Dirty Dancing,” Broadway in Chicago

“Shining City,” Goodman Theatre

“The Glass Menagerie,” Shattered Globe Theatre

“Scenes from the Big Picture,” Seanachai Theatre

—Fabrizio O. Almeida

Top 5 Theatrical Disappointments

“Dirty Dancing,” Broadway in Chicago

“Les Miserables,” Marriott Lincolnshire Theatre

“Yohen,” Silk Road Theatre Project

“Richard III,” Strawdog Theatre

“Macbeth,” Greasy Joan & Co.

—Fabrizio O. Almeida

 

RECOMMENDED

“Your stock broker wants to say ‘hello’ before he jumps out the window,” relates Ito the housekeeper (Ghuon “Max” Chung) in “Mame.” The time is 1929 but this 1966 Broadway gem is being served up in an elaborate and colorful production at Drury Lane Oakbrook that hardly reflects the fact that lean times are making a comeback. But if times are tough, Auntie Mame and her colorful cohorts are the perfect antidote: “Life is a banquet, but most poor sons of bitches are starving to death.”

A wealthy and eccentric woman who loses everything in the crash, Mame (Barbara Robertson, although Kat Taylor takes over the role after November 16) teaches us that with enough imagination, improvisation, curiosity and optimism that there is so much more to living life than mere money. Any day is a holiday to Mame (“It’s Today”), and even Christmas can be created from scratch on demand (“We Need a Little Christmas”). It’s a lesson that she attempts to teach her nephew Patrick (Liam Byrnes and later in life, Ryan Reilly), who comes to her a well-off but sheltered and attention-starved orphan who ends up engaged to a society girl whose family worries about “the right kind of people” moving in to their restricted Connecticut community. Mame gives them all a much-needed trip to the woodshed without becoming confrontational or preachy, another valuable lesson for our era of ultra-polarized politics.

Robertson makes a splendid Mame, bringing the needed comedy and pathos to the role, and singing those wonderful Jerry Herman songs supported by a rousing mini-Big Band. And though you could quibble that veteran Chicago character actress Arlene Robertson (no relation) doesn’t exactly fit the mold of “the first lady of the American theater” Vera Charles, her wry delivery, singing ability and comic timing rescue the performance. Director William Osetek has restored some cutting-edge lines from the non-musical version of the play and brings home the message of tolerance while raising suburban eyebrows by having Mame and Vera hysterically plant a huge kiss on one another when they meet Patrick’s bigoted in-laws. Both Patricks are impressive, but Byrnes’ performance as young Patrick is a standout with his superb singing and the acting trajectory he has to make with the character.

Drury Lane Oakbrook has settled in as the best regional theater in the area consistently doing musicals and some of the gems that begin there are starting to make their way to Drury Lane Water Tower Place and are as good as—and in some cases better—than far more expensive musicals currently playing downtown. (Dennis Polkow)

At Drury Lane Oakbrook, 100 Drury Lane, Oakbrook Terrace, (630)530-0111. $28-$32.Through December 21,

Start with a perfect score (Richard Rodgers), perfect lyrics (Lorenz Hart), perfect source material (William Shakespeare) and a perfect book (George Abbott) and then eviscerate all of the above and you get an idea of what to expect from David Bell’s “new adaptation” of 1938’s “The Boys From Syracuse” that is currently playing at Drury Lane Oakbrook. This Rodgers & Hart show is one of a mere handful that really are perfect specimens of the American musical theater (Cole Porter’s “Kiss Me Kate” and Bernstein’s “West Side Story,” also based on Shakespeare, are also on just about everyone’s short list) so you would think that anyone who wanted to “revise” such a show would have to be major supporter of, say, “Coke II.” Fast forward completely past one of the best overtures in any show and what you get are doo-wop harmonies, pseudo-Satie piano music and over-the-top caricatures that make “Road to Morocco” movies look sophisticated. Much of the original score has been gutted, as has the entire Act I climax. Yes, you do get some of the show’s classic standards such as “Falling in Love With Love,” which is literally shrieked instead of sung, and a truncated “This Can’t Be Love.” Chorus scenes and the show’s swing era ethos have been replaced with pop-gospel-revival arrangements and “American Idol” conventions. It is hard to remember the last time that such a great work has been so thoroughly disrespected and misrepresented and we can only hope that some area presenter who could actually deliver the goods on this one will do so soon. Meanwhile, far better to check out the full recording of a concert version of the work with all of the trimmings made a decade ago by New York City Center’s “Encores!” series where at least “Boys” can be heard as it was meant to be heard. (Dennis Polkow)

At Drury Lane Theatre Oakbrook, 100 Drury Lane, Oakbrook Terrace, (630)530-0111. $28-$33. Through September 28.

RECOMMENDED

It’s impossible not to wonder if “Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story” would have been written had the eponymous rock-and-roller not died such a tragic and premature death in a plane crash nearly fifty years ago. Because, as Drury Lane Oakbrook Theatre’s production of co-authors Alan Janes and Rob Bettison’s 1989 musical bio-drama proves, Holly’s death seems to have been the dramatic highlight of an otherwise un-dramatic life and musical career: Holly gets dropped by his label; Holly resists musical assimilation; Holly has an acrimonious split with his longtime band; Holly marries a Hispanic woman. All in all, pretty tame stuff faced by any artist rockin’ and rollin’ during a period when that genre was considered, as a memorable line from the play reminds us, “a communicable disease.” And although I can’t speak from a place of musical authority as might a rock critic or journalist, the play’s twenty-something sampling of Holly’s undeniably feel-good and toe-tapping songs nonetheless suggests at best a canon of music characterized by pleasant melodies and anodyne lyrics. Nothing wrong with that, and quite frankly it’s a lot more than today’s top-40 offers, but for the non-baby-boomer free of nostalgia it’s difficult to see—or hear—what the groundbreaking sound and influence is. Things aren’t helped by the fact that the musical gives us nothing of Holly’s formative years—indeed, how did a white kid from Lubbock, Texas, start playing and develop his sound? That this revival gets as much entertainment mileage as it does is a credit not only to director Tammy Mader’s polished production but also to actor Justin Berkobien’s exuberant performance in the title role. If the real Buddy Holly could have been described as possessing “the sex appeal of a telephone pole” that’s certainly not the case with Berkobien, a great-looking actor who looks like Clark Kent incarnate—tousled brown hair, blue eyes and a Midwestern Boy Scout’s charming eagerness-to-please. Along with the confident presentation of Holly’s songbook, as well as the play’s period authenticity, he’s the best thing in this entertaining if dramatically lightweight piece of Holly hagiography. (Fabrizio O. Almeida) 

At Drury Lane Oakbrook Theatre, 100 Drury Lane, Oakbrook Terrace.  Thu 1:30pm & 8pm/Fri 8pm/Sat 5pm & 8:30pm/Sun 2pm & 6pm/Wed 1:30pm. $22-$41.50. Through Jul 27.