RECOMMENDED

Based on the Voltaire novella that sought to lampoon eighteenth-century optimism, Leonard Bernstein’s “Candide” was written for Broadway in 1956, the show running seventy-six performances before folding, although the magnificent original cast album and the emergence of the show’s overture as a symphonic staple kept the show alive as a cult classic. Hal Prince oversaw revisions of the work in the early 1970s that replaced the original book, both a one-act Broadway version, and a two-act “opera house” version, which is the version that Lyric Opera presented under Prince’s own direction back in 1994.

Bernstein himself allowed but had nothing to do these revisions, where half of his music ended up on the cutting-room floor and the rest re-ordered. “In trying to eliminate what was admittedly a confusing book,” Bernstein told me in 1985, “the adapters also began tinkering with lyrics and where particular songs should be heard in the show, eliminating the overall musical architecture of the work, at least as I imagined it, and also tipping the work in too comedic of a direction.” The composer set out to correct this with his own “final revised version” which he completed and recorded mere months before his death in 1990, but that version has yet to be heard in Chicago.

Porchlight Musical Theatre has opted instead for the minimalist 1973 one-act revision, in many ways the least of all possible worlds of “Candide” performance possibilities. A five-piece orchestra playing this score leaves a lot to the imagination, to be sure, and reduces the fanfare opening of the familiar overture to a solo trumpet line minus the usual and much-needed supporting harmony. One staging element that Porchlight has borrowed from Prince’s own productions is the way that characters use the venue itself for their many comings and goings, which is fun, but unlike Prince’s productions, the audience members are never made part of the action. We, after all, are the real “class” for Dr. Pangloss in his various guises as he seeks to illustrate the absurdity of the optimistic philosophical dictum that the world that is, insofar as it is, is the best of all possible worlds and yet here, the characters interact only with each other and the orchestra.

At ninety minutes plus, this is a long single act and far too much of it is spent with sight gags and vaudeville-like shenanigans that at times make the music seem like a distracting, if welcome, interruption. Thankfully, those songs that are heard are mostly well sung, though needlessly and unevenly over-amplified in such a small space and in the case of the iconic “Glitter and Be Gay,” overdone. Most worthwhile about the production is Ryan Lanning’s Candide, who with his clarion tenor and boyish looks and mannerisms sterlingly pulls off what is usually a rather thankless role. And while the cast performs a rousing finale of “Make Our Garden Grow,” such seriousness and poignancy appear to arrive out of left field given the trivial tone that has largely preceded it. (Dennis Polkow)

Through November 2, Theatre Building Chicago, 1225 W. Belmont, (773)327-5252. $37.

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.

Leonard Bernstein’s one-act gem of an opera “Trouble in Tahiti” is so rarely revived that its simply being done will generate interest, and it would be great to report that Next Theatre’s revival is up to the task, but alas, while the principals are able to traverse the satiric “battle of the sexes” in 1950s suburbia dramatic aspects of the work, this is a piece that needs, well, pipes to make it work. Gorgeous arias such as “There is a Garden” need clear tone, clarion sound and flexible vocal technique, not erratic tremolo that camouflages pitch. The work is a mere forty-five minutes long, so what to present alongside of it that can stand up to it has always been an issue. The Next Theatre idea is to show how musical theater has “evolved” since by presenting “world premiere” performances of new songs in the second half by five different composers. The problem is that the songs themselves are presented out of context—are these works from would-be musical theater pieces, song cycles or stand-alones?—and are given mostly over-the-top readings by folks who in some cases, can barely carry a tune, let alone actually sing this stuff. Not that there is much to sing here, as these are mostly lyric-centered novelty pieces and sophomoric songs. Michael Mahler’s “The Rise and Fall of Britney Spears,” for instance, rhymes lines such as “the cops will be at the back door” with “No one want to see your kid raised by a crack whore.” Yikes. And one cardinal rule of satire is that the satirers have to have more talent and wit than the satiree to be effective. The finale, Joshua Schmidt’s bluesy Kander and Ebb-influenced power ballad “The Little American Dream,” at least exhibits some melody, even if it pales alongside of a melodic master such as Leonard Bernstein. Granted, what wouldn’t, but why set up such an inevitable comparison? (Dennis Polkow)

At Next Theatre, 927 Noyes, Evanston, (847)475-1875. This production is now closed. 

RECOMMENDED

If you’re a dance company, you need live music to dance to, and if you’re a symphony orchestra, you need something for your audience to look at other than folks sitting there in tails and gowns.  Such is the mutual benefit for the collaboration between Hubbard Street Dance Chicago and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, a partnership that is celebrating its fifth anniversary.  Past collaborations and new works will be spotlighted at this special anniversary one-night-only performance, which will include the first-ever collaboration between the two organizations, “counter/part,” choreographed by Hubbard artistic director Jim Vincent and set to movements from Bach’s “Brandenburg” Concertos along with the return of 2004’s “SF/LB,” set to Leonard Bernstein’s “Prelude, Fugue and Riffs,” with choreography by Daniel Ezralow as well as an excerpt from Vincent’s 2007 “Palladio” with music by Karl Jenkins and a preview performance of Doug Varone’s “The Constant Shift of Pulse,” set to music of John Adams, which will be officially premiered by Hubbard in March.  Also included on this Edwin Outwater conducted program are Mendelssohn’s “Hebrides” Overture and Bartok’s “Romanian Folk Dances.”  (Dennis Polkow) 

At the Symphony Center, 220 S. Michigan, (312)294-3000. This production is now closed.

RECOMMENDED

One of the great ironies of Frank Capra’s classic “It’s a Wonderful Life” is the despairing context in which George Bailey’s guardian angel paraphrases the titular optimistic phrase in the climax of the film: George is desperately digging away the snow from his dead brother’s grave because George wasn’t there to save him from a drowning accident, and George also learns that the men that his brother saved during World War II are dead as well. It is a horrifying moment, made all the more so by Dmitri Tiomkin’s haunting yet subtle score. If “Life” were going to be made into a musical, then too bad that Tiomkin never wrote the music, because the music to this 1989 version is serviceable, but forgettable, and far too “wonderful” in its ethos. That said, the lyrics to the songs work well by and large, particularly as the hopes and joys of the various characters are introduced song by song, and the stellar cast of Porchlight Music Theatre’s production brings them off beautifully, particularly Jayson Brooks’ George Bailey, who gives the character such a unique spin that you almost forget James Stewart’s iconic stuttering. It all works quite nicely until George’s suicide attempt, and then things get bizarrely operatic with characters bursting into song during what should be the show’s darkest moments. It reminded me of Leonard Bernstein admitting that he tried and tried to set Maria’s climactic indictment speech with the gun to music in “West Side Story,” but it just wouldn’t work. But lovers of the classic film will still find plenty to feast on, and a whole new imaginative take on characters that you thought you knew are given a new, if sometimes overexuberant, lease on “life.” (Dennis Polkow)

At the Theatre Building Chicago, 1225 West Belmont, (773)327-5252. This production is now closed.