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.

On paper, at least, I found this an irresistible concept, i.e., making a jukebox show out of those long-forgotten mod British pop gems of the 1960s. And while there are some laughs and some fun in this show very much in the Rowan & Martin’s “Laugh-In” tradition (complete with go-go dancing used to punctuate one-liners) this show really misses the spirit of the sixties by miles. First, the arrangements, which are keyboard-centered and feature no guitar (nor electric bass), which is played left-handed by a keyboardist. And the keyboards used are not vintage and make no attempt to emulate sounds of the day, like Farfisa organs. Second, the clothes, which are such caricatures and do not even resemble the fashion of the time. Third, where are all of the color organs, man, and the black lights and the incense? And if you’re going to sing songs made famous by the likes of Lulu and Petula Clark, shouldn’t there be some attempt to bring in some pipes that can really nail these songs? Much of the dialogue of the show is a “canned” track of a British advice columnist and this also has a disastrous effect on the timing of the live performances. If you’re going to do a show about a time when there are at least some people in the audience were actually there, best to get consultants from the era itself or at the very least, do your homework. Or perhaps this show is counting on the old stereotype that “If you can remember the sixties, you weren’t there, man.” (Dennis Polkow)

At Drury Lane Theatre, Water Tower Place, 175 E. Chestnut, (312)642-2000. This production is now closed. 

For those who wondered what all of that singing was doing interrupting the graphic murders in Tim Burton’s grisly and humorless slasher film “Sweeney Todd,” Stephen Sondheim’s original work is back in town complete with all of the music and humor that was cut from the film with as much tact as if old Sweeney himself had been doing the chopping. No, this isn’t the full boat version served up with full chorus and orchestra as done here by the Chicago Symphony at Ravinia and at Lyric Opera, this is the scaled-down Broadway chamber music version on a national tour where a talented cast of nine sings each role and plays the musical accompaniment on stage along with themselves. It’s a considerable feat, the kind of concept that would be perfect for a more intimate theater but which becomes somewhat lost in the wings of a cavernous house such as the Cadillac Palace. For those who know and love the work, this virtually cabaret-like treatment will be a treat and a meaningful, even if a stiff and concert-like rendering of what is arguably Sondheim’s greatest work. But for those new to the story and the work, the entire cast remaining on stage for the entire show and playing instruments even after a said character has already been, say, killed off, will be a dramaturgical disaster for keeping track of who’s who and what’s what. But if the Demon Barber of Fleet Street can survive undubbed movie stars hacking their way through a truncated score, this approach is a long way up from such cut-throat treatment. (Dennis Polkow)

At Cadillac Palace, 151 W. Randolph, (312)902-1400. This production is now closed.

Given recent headlines I think anyone would appreciate a performance of “Sweet Charity.” In addition to its positive and perky portrayal of prostitution—on second thought, this may not be the show for a certain ex-governor and his family—this classic Broadway musical features the feel good song to perseverance and optimism in the face of uncertainty and disappointment, “There’s Gotta Be Something Better Than This,” a great number whose title alone could be the mantra for most Americans just about now. Sadly, it was also the phrase that kept repeating itself through my head during most of this entertaining yet unexciting revival, presented by Drury Lane Theatre Oakbrook, helmed by musical theater vet Jim Corti and with original Bob Fosse musical staging and choreography recreated by Mitzi Hamilton. Corti, in a rich musical-theater career, was a dancer for Bob Fosse back in the day when that really meant something, and he’ll always get my respect for having danced his way across America in a national tour of “Dancin’,” Mr. Fosse’s quintessential tribute to terpsichorean joy. (And for you musical-theater buffs I might add that in this same “Dancin’” company Corti strutted his stuff alongside another Chicago musical theater dance vet, Marc Robin, whose choreographic work is regularly showcased at rival Marriott Theatre in Lincolnshire.) Hamilton, on the other hand, while having danced for Fosse as well, is more famous for being a “Bennett” dancer, as in Michael Bennett, the mastermind behind “A Chorus Line” who famously based one of his character’s stories on Hamilton’s life. She’s also one of the few individuals with permission from Fosse’s estate to reproduce his steps, so you can imagine my disappointment when those failed to sizzle, despite the presence of these two old-school Broadway dance giants. I’m going to get technical here, but the ladies’ popcorn jumps in “There’s Gotta Be Something…” should have been sharper, monkey hands down in part one of the “Frug” needed to be more staccato, gospel claps in “Rhythm of Life” more jubilant and the calypso runs crisper. And there’s a reason the second movement of the “Frug” is subtitled “The Heavyweight.” And yet, the shadow-boxing lacked “punch” and strong bells were almost entirely unheard. The orchestra is a large part of the problem. My companion for the performance, whose ear for music is as sharp as my eyes are for movement, agreed and uttered such phrases as “lack of strong syncopation,” “timid tempo” and “dragging drummer.” I can’t articulate it any better than that though I will add that it also effected the impact of Cy Coleman’s great, brassy score. Like other elements in “Sweet Charity,” it can only hope to reach the level of sensational when played sensationally. (Fabrizio O. Almeida)

At Drury Lane Oakbrook, 100 Oakbrook Terrace. This production is now closed. 

RECOMMENDED

Neil Simon’s “The Goodbye Girl” began life as a 1977 movie prequel to an abandoned Simon project called “Bogart Slept Here” that was devised to showcase the extraordinary chemistry between Marsha Mason and Richard Dreyfuss (Dreyfuss won an Oscar for his performance).  Shrewd playwright Simon had wanted to turn the successful film into a play, but it took more than a decade and a half for that to happen, brought about by composer Marvin Hamlisch’s desire to turn the property into a musical following his own huge success with “A Chorus Line.”  Simon held out for casting control and it wasn’t until Bernadette Peters and, believe it or not, Martin Short in his Broadway debut became involved—with a tryout right here in Chicago that fired the show’s original director and revised the work considerably—that the show finally made it to the Great White Way where it was a huge success. Enter Marriott Lincolnshire, which had lyricist David Zippel come in to direct a remount and revise the work further, add nearly another decade and a half and Chicago director Gary Griffin’s choosing it as his homecoming return vehicle to Drury Lane Oakbrook following his own huge successes on Broadway, reuniting Griffin with Susan Moniz, who had starred in several previous Drury Lane Griffin-directed shows.  The end result is a fascinating collaboration that is the most streamlined version of the show to date, but there are some bumps along the way.  The material, with its outdated references to “Knot’s Landing” and even a Richard Simmons parody that would be a groaner even back when the exuberant exercise guru was a part of pop culture, is hopelessly outdated, to say nothing of its really old-fashioned “love and marriage” ethos, comes off like a period piece now. The relationships are well in tact here, particularly mother and daughter and the tension between the leads, but we never buy that they fall in love, more that they have become a “Three’s Company” trio.  The songs and dances are well served, though, and the production values and cast are exceptionally strong.  (Dennis Polkow)

RECOMMENDED

In case there was any doubt about what kind of future Drury Lane Oakbrook would have following the death of Drury Lane patriarch and founder Tony DeSantis last summer and the subsequent death of his daughter Diane van Lente, a third generation has taken over with Kyle DeSantis at the helm who clearly wants to send a message: Drury Lane is back, bigger and better than ever before. Bringing in veteran Broadway director Jim Corti to stage the Broadway adaptation of the 1944 Judy Garland vehicle “Meet Me in St. Louis,” all of the stops have been pulled out for this extraordinary production, which is on the par with any Broadway touring production that you could see downtown, for a fraction of the cost. That said, this is a show that you aren’t likely to see downtown anytime soon, with its quaint nod to family life a century ago and a score filled with hits of the day as well as the three legendary original songs penned for the movie by Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane—“The Boy Next Door,” “The Trolley Song” and “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”—along with additional numbers the team wrote for the Broadway version, some of which have inexplicably been cut for this version, including the best scene in the movie and the show, the Halloween scene. Jessie Muller and Justin Berkobien make for stunning leads and sing up a storm and have great onstage chemistry, but every family member is superbly cast. The lavish costumes, choreography, sets and musical direction—complete with the luxury of an onstage orchestra—help make this a very special experience and given the opportunity to see and hear the original context for the poignant “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” make this the ideal holiday show. (Dennis Polkow)

At Drury Lane Oakbrook Theatre, 100 Drury Lane, Oakbrook Terrace, (630)530-0111. This production is now closed.

RECOMMENDED

One of the best new Off Broadway shows of recent years, “Altar Boyz” makes a transposition to Drury Lane Water Tower Place in a production that attempts to Chicagoize the show by the mere inclusion of the city’s name a couple of times, a Skokie t-shirt on the Jewish character and the voice of—yikes—long retired broadcaster Roy Leonard used as God (was Ken Nordine not available?). My first thought as the show opened was that these area actors were all too old to be credible as a musical singing group of teenagers (the genius of the national tour was in finding seasoned performers that really looked like kids) and the fivesome’s ability to harmonize and dance as a unit is, at best, under-rehearsed, making repeat lyrics such as “I got the rhythm in me” unintentionally ironic. That said, the guys are far more effective in their individual numbers, particularly Devin DeSantis’ ballads and Tyler McGee’s breakdancing. This musical tale of five childhood friends who form a sort of Catholic New Kids on the Block is a refreshingly three-dimensional take on typically two-dimensional characters. Yes, they are religious and hope to naïvely “save souls” with their youthful enthusiasm, jingle-like music and dance moves, but the work is never preachy and simply uses a Catholic ethos as a cultural bond between the group members that ultimately becomes a lesson in tolerance, understanding, family and community. Streamlined with comedy, pathos and a cleverly crafted, hook-filled high-energy score at ninety minutes with no intermission, “Altar Boyz” goes by in a flash but leaves you with much to think about underneath its entertaining veneer. (Dennis Polkow)

At Drury Lane Theatre, Water Tower Place, 175 E. Chestnut, (312)642-2000. This production is now closed.  

By Dennis Polkow

How did a white guy from Rockford end up directing the biggest all-black musical ever to hit Broadway? “It’s a question I get a lot,” admits a grinning Gary Griffin, relaxing in the upstairs library at Chicago Shakespeare Theater after an afternoon rehearsal for Stephen Sondheim’s “Passion,” which begins previewing October 2, “usually along with, ‘What is Oprah really like?’”  

The irony is that Griffin’s involvement with “The Color Purple: The Musical,” which closes a nearly six-month Chicago run at the Cadillac Palace Theatre on September 30 before heading off to San Francisco, actually predates Oprah Winfrey’s by a couple of years. “It was in this very room that [producer] Scott Sanders met with me when I was here directing [Sondheim’s] ‘Sunday in the Park with George’ back in 2002. At that point, there were only a handful of songs and a different book writer, but there was an authenticity there that I really liked.”

Griffin admits that some of his colleagues are surprised to see him back home in Chicago after directing such a big show that is still running on Broadway and wonder why he hasn’t packed up and moved to the Big Apple. “I’m a Chicagoan,” says Griffin in a very matter of fact manner, “and while I do have a New York apartment for all of the work I do there, I still have the same place I had in Andersonville for the past fourteen years. This is still—and will always be—home. And for me, the reward is in what you do. I learned as a young director not to do anything in the theater for the money. Of course, you have to make a living, but the challenges are too great to do anything that you don’t love doing.”

Griffin has been criticized by some for bringing some New York talent to Chicago for “Passion,” when plenty of Chicago talent was on hand. “The irony is that I brought my musical director, for instance, from New York because I wanted him to see how a Chicago production is done,” Griffin says. “There is much more focus on the work here and much less of the pressure and gossip that surrounds everything you do in New York.”

Griffin got the theater bug by coming to Chicago from Rockford to see shows “as soon I could drive,” he recalls. Two memories particularly stand out for him: “My senior year in high school, which was 1978, I saw ‘A Chorus Line’ at the Shubert three times. It spoke to me so powerfully about theater and the struggles of the individual in the theater world. A show like that does what any great show does—it makes you feel less alone by dramatizing a particular struggle that is universal. And then, coming to Steppenwolf productions, particularly ‘Balm in Gilead,’ which knocked my socks off.”  

Although Griffin did play a member of the Jets in a high school production of “West Side Story,” he admits that it was the backstage stuff that fascinated him more than appearing onstage himself, which motivated him to major in theater at Illinois State University. “I had heard that all of the Steppenwolf folks had attended ISU, so that was enough for me. I headed off with the intention of directing shows.”
Upon graduation, Griffin moved to Chicago and began directing “some really small-time stuff that nobody saw, just a few friends and family members” before he began directing shows for Pegasus Players and Apple Tree Theater in Highland Park. His real break came when late Drury Lane impresario Tony DeSantis hired him to be the artistic director of Drury Lane Oakbrook in 1993 and suddenly Griffin was in the position of directing several shows a year. “That was an amazing experience,” he says, “not only because I got to do a number of shows I had always wanted to do but never had, but also because I learned so much about how shows were structured and put together. And Tony was a theater producer in the old David Merrick mold, so I learned how to please a crowd and how to take care of an audience, which is an invaluable thing to know and is one of the main reasons that I get along well with commercial producers.”

And what is Griffin’s take on “Passion,” one of the least-performed shows of the Sondheim canon? “Sometimes with Sondheim,” he says, “it just takes time. It’s a great show, but it’s newer and we don’t know it as well. I fell in love with it doing a couple of numbers from it for last year’s ‘Sondheim in the Park’ in Millennium Park, enough to want to do it, and immediately thought that the space at Chicago Shakespeare is so ideal for it, because it not only reveals the intimacy of the work, but the work’s structure is more transparent because we are able to set up a simultaneously vertical instead of a horizontal stage.”

Griffin has chosen former “Saturday Night Live” comedienne and former “Wicked” star Ana Gasteyer to star as the mysterious Fosca, having worked with her on a couple of musical workshops in New York before she donned the green makeup here in Chicago for “Wicked.”

“She is a remarkable performer,” says Griffin, “who not only can sing up a storm, but she brings such depth to a text. It is amazing how someone who has a comic sensibility can discover hidden corners even in a ‘serious’ work that the rest of us would simply miss.”   

“The Passion” runs at Chicago Shakespeare Theater, 800 East Grand, (312)595-5600, through November 11.