Chicago

Chicago, at Broadway's Ambassador Theatre
Gratuitous Violins rating ***1/2 out of ****

When I visit New York City I'm hesitant to use one of my theatre slots on a long-running show because there's always so much new to see. But last month I was there on a Monday night, when most shows are dark.

Since I took in Kander and Ebb's The Scottsboro Boys in the fall, I figured one of their best-known musicals, Chicago, would make a good finale to my Broadway season. While I've watched the Academy Award-winning movie, I'd never seen it onstage.

Despite the 1920s setting, the story of a woman accused of murder, the accompanying media frenzy and a sensational trial seemed very contemporary. Chicago is a stark look at how the justice system can be manipulated and our unquenchable thirst for celebrities.

When the curtain went up, the first thing I noticed were the musicians - they were seated right in the middle of the stage, not toward the back or in the orchestra pit. It was unusual but they sounded wonderful - bold and brassy, with a great horn section.

While performers from TV, movies and music have been part of a revolving cast during the revival's 15 years on Broadway, I saw it with theatre veterans and Tony nominees Charlotte D'Amboise as chorus girl Roxie Hart, accused of murdering her lover, and Christopher Sieber as high-powered defense lawyer Billy Flynn.

D'Amboise was so appealing - I couldn't take my eyes off of her - and she reminded me a bit of Shirley MacLaine. As Roxie, she's got this sweet and innocent veneer that hides something steely and calculating.

Sieber is perfect as the cynical Flynn, just as expert in the court of public opinion as he is in convincing a jury. I last saw him on his knees as the villainous Lord Farquaad in Shrek but he's quite a song-and-dance man standing on his own two feet.

I was also really impressed with Chris Sullivan, who played a Green Bay Packer in Lombardi, as Roxie's devoted husband, Amos. He was so sad and pathetic in "Mister Cellophane," my heart just went out to him.

I have to admit that Amra-Faye Wright as murderous vaudeville performer Velma Kelly didn't make quite as big an impression on me. She just didn't strike me as a strong enough rival for Roxie. Still, like everyone in the cast she's a fine singer and dancer. (The role is currently being played by Nikka Graff Lanzarone, who I really enjoyed in Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown.)

While Chicago doesn't have room for elaborate sets what it does have is style - reflected in an energetic score, electrifying choreography and vaudeville-influenced production numbers and lots of really sexy black-clad dancers. (The Playbill credits the choreography to Ann Reinking in the style of Bob Fosse.)

My favorites were "We Both Reached for the Gun," Flynn's press conference where he manipulates Roxie like a ventriloquist's dummy; "All That Jazz," the opening number; "Cell Block Tango," featuring an array of women on Death Row; and Flynn's "Razzle Dazzle," in which he describes how a trial is really just show business.

In late August Chicago will become the fourth longest-running show in Broadway history, surpassing A Chorus Line. It remains tremendously entertaining and it could teach some musicals of more recent vintage a thing or two about holding an audience's attention.

Theatre critics and cheerleaders

Blogger Kris Vire, from Storefront Rebellion and Time Out Chicago, has an interesting discussion going on over at his blog about the role of the critic.

His Chicago colleague, the Tribune's Chris Jones, wrote a review of the musical High Fidelity, presented by the Route 66 Theatre Company, that wasn't entirely complimentary. A reader named Allison took Jones to task for being insufficiently supportive of Chicago theatre.

She said, in part, "theatre in this country is suffering right now. You are a Chicago theatre critic, by your own words "America's hottest theatre city." You are supposed to support and encourage theatre in this town.

Here's my 2 cents, as someone who's never been to Chicago and doesn't know much about the theatre scene there.

Let's suppose Jones, in a desire to be supportive, had written a more forgiving review. How exactly would that help if the show simply isn't very good? How would that accomplish Allison's goal of encouraging theatre? Wouldn't it have the opposite effect, by discouraging audience members who saw it and were disappointed?

I think Jones is supportive of good theatre. I first read about David Cromer's production of Our Town in his blog. His rave is what made me want to see it in New York. It made an impression on me because he doesn't rave about everything. That's why I trust his opinion.

When you praise a show whether or not it deserves the accolade, you lose that trust. You're not doing the audience or the show any favors at a time when there are so many choices for people's limited entertainment dollars.

I think you can best encourage and support theatre by saving your highest praise for what truly is great, what will give people an unforgettable experience and make them want to come back for more. Save it for a show that people simply can't afford to miss.

Cheerleaders are fun but they don't score any points. You've got to win the game on the field.

What's in a theatre name?

One of the byproducts of becoming a theatre fan is that I've developed a keen interest in - you might even say a fascination with - the names of theatre companies. The quirkier and funnier the better. I especially love references to forgotten places or obscure literary characters.

So whenever I come across a name that I like, I think about assembling a list and blogging about them. Then, I forget about it. But the Fourth of July weekend is here, theatre news is light and the blogging is easy.

Now, I haven't gone searching for these - I've just come across them in everyday Google-ing or reading up on theatre-related news. I'm sure there are others I've come across and forgotten about. But these are some of my favorites:

Tricycle: Based in London, I first heard of this theatre as a producer of The 39 Steps. It just seems so fitting that a very funny Hitchcock homage would be connected with a word that also makes me smile. Tricycle "aims to be a successful and accessible theatre, cinema and art gallery providing an artistic programme of the highest quality that attracts and reflects the culturally diverse local community."

Menier Chocolate Factory: The idea of seeing a show in a converted London chocolate factory circa 1870 sounds incredibly scrumptious. I wonder if they sell Menier chocolate at the concession stand? If they don't, they should! And from the description, the building sounds awesome - it still has its original exposed wooden beams, cast-iron columns and brick interior.

Single Carrot: This one's in Baltimore and I found it on the blogroll of Katie Ganem, who writes Theatreisms. The name comes from something the French painter Paul Cezanne once said: "The day is coming when a single carrot, freshly observed, will set off a revolution." I'm not sure what he meant, but I like it. Single Carrot's goal is to "infuse theatre with new life while entertaining and educating our community with socially significant productions."

Hypocrites: Most people would not take being called a hypocrite as a compliment so I thought it was interesting that this Chicago theatre company would take the word as its name. Their mission is to "make a Theater of Honesty," which actually seems the opposite of hypocrisy. I'm really looking forward to seeing the Hypocrites' acclaimed production of Our Town in New York next month.

Remy Bumppo: Chicago has a lot of great theatre names. Steppenwolf, of course, I knew because I've read the novel. But this one escaped me. Turns out, it comes from two of the founders' pets: a dog named Natty Bumppo (from The Last of the Mohicans) and a cat named Remy, (after Remy Martin cognac.) The company "strives to delight and engage audiences with the emotional and ethical complexities of society through the provocative power of great theatrical language."

Pig Iron: This Philadelphia-based theatre company is "dedicated to the creation of new and exuberant performance works that defy easy categorization" using dance, drama, clowning, puppetry, music and text. I don't know where the name comes from, maybe the state's steelmaking heritage? I first heard of Pig Iron last fall when I read about one of its productions, the bizarrely titled Chekhov Lizardbrain. Just from the name alone, I wish I'd been able to see it.

Pulitzer for Drama goes to Ruined

Congratulations to Lynn Nottage, who won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for her play Ruined, about the plight of women in the African nation of Congo who have been scarred by civil war. You can see it off-Broadway at the Manhattan Theatre Club through May 17.

The citation calls Ruined "a searing drama set in chaotic Congo that compels audiences to face the horror of wartime rape and brutality while still finding affirmation of life and hope amid hopelessness."

You can read more about Nottage and Ruined in a Los Angeles Times profile, in the New York Times review and in a review from Broadway & Me.

In this piece from the New York Post, Nottage writes about the play's origins, including how she and director Kate Whoriskey traveled to Uganda to interview Congolese refugees. (Thanks to Elisabeth Vincentelli, the Post's drama critic, for pointing me to it in her new blog for the paper.)

There's a very interesting quote in the Los Angeles Times story about what Nottage, 44, sees as the failure of her generation of playwrights to engage audiences:

'Our job as artists is to literally keep our eyes open while everybody else's are shut,' " she recalls. "And we've fallen down very badly in the last couple of decades. We're in a really unique position to have a conversation with an audience. But we are not challenging them, not their morality, their religion, their politics, liberal or conservative. We are not shaking them to the core."

Before the award was announced, Nottage said what she'd really like, more than the plaque, was to see Michelle Obama and Oprah Winfrey in the audience for Ruined. "I would like to see them take up the plight of women in the Congo as their special cause. That would be the prize."

Here's a clip that includes scenes from the play and an interview with the playwright about the issues raised in her work:



And kudos, too, to the Windy City.

I definitely have to get to Chicago someday because among other things, it's a great theatre town, which I'm embarrassed to admit I didn't realize until the last couple of years.

Chris Jones, of the Chicago Tribune, notes that Ruined was commissioned by the Goodman Theatre. That makes 2009 the second year in a row that a play originating in Chicago won the Pulitzer, coming on the heels of Steppenwolf's August: Osage County.

As this year's winner shows, the drama prize doesn't always go to a play with an American theme. Most notably, in 1956, Albert Hackett and Frances Goodrich won for The Diary of Anne Frank. The citation notes that the award is given "for a distinguished play by an American author, preferably original in its source and dealing with American life."

The 2009 finalists were: Becky Shaw, by Gina Gionfriddo, "a jarring comedy that examines family and romantic relationships with a lacerating wit while eschewing easy answers and pat resolutions;" and In The Heights, by Lin-Manuel Miranda and Quiara Alegría Hudes, "a robust musical about struggling Latino immigrants in New York City today that celebrates the virtues of sacrifice, family solidarity and gritty optimism."

Big Theatre flexes its muscle

Okay, maybe "Big Theatre" is an exaggeration and maybe I just don't know how things work in the world of licensing agreements. But both of these stories seem so unfair:

ACT I

Dario Fo is a Nobel Prize-winning Italian playwright. Last week, his representatives withdrew permission for a Live Arts, a small theatre in Charlottesville, Virginia, to mount a production of his play Accidental Death of an Anarchist.

The reason they gave was a pending Broadway engagement, although there's been no official announcement.

Accidental Death of an Anarchist did have a run on Broadway, a 1984 production that included Jonathan Pryce, Bill Irwin and Patti LuPone. It closed after 20 performances.

“This is a heartbreaking development for us,” said Live Arts Artistic and Executive Director John Gibson. The play was scheduled to run April 3-25. Live Arts is searching for alternative programming but the theatre does not have a full production to replace it.

Act II

Thunder & Lightning Ensemble, a small theatre company in Chicago, got permission to put on Bob Glaudini's comedy Jack Goes Boating. Unfortunately, the contract with the Samuel French Agency contained a stipulation prohibiting the theatre from inviting the press to review it.

Kris Vire, from Time Out Chicago and the Storefront Rebellion blog, contacted the French Agency. "A rep explained that they agreed to allow a production on the no-reviews condition in hopes of securing a larger production later."

As a result, Vire says, the 35-seat theatre "is stuck with a production it can’t promote through traditional means, and no press clippings they can use when applying for grants."

Although, as some of the comments noted, the contract is between the French Agency and the theatre. There's nothing to prevent Vire, or anyone else, from buying a ticket and writing a review. Jack Goes Boating runs through April 4.

For the president, the show is never sold out

"It is a badly kept secret that every theatre around the world holds four tickets even after a show is sold out for the Pope or the President."
Gemma Mulvihill
Broadway in Chicago

Wow, I never knew the real purpose behind house seats. So, does the theatre manager have to call the White House (or the Vatican) a half hour before curtain time to make sure they won't be needed? (I know, I know, house tickets are used for other purposes, too, like when your seats get eaten up by an expanded stage and they need to put you somewhere.)

I read that in a blog post from Mulvihill, executive director of sales for Broadway in Chicago, who recounted some of the Obama family's theatergoing, which apparently wasn't extensive but they did go occasionally.

Then-Senator Obama and his wife, Michelle, attended a performance of The Color Purple, in 2007. The couple have also been to Chicago's Goodman Theatre, to see Regina Taylor's Drowning Crow. Michelle Obama took Sasha and Malia to see Wicked and High School Musical. Here's some more on their cultural outings, from the Los Angeles Times.

Let's hope the Obamas take full advantage of those house seats. As Michael Kahn, artistic director of Washington's Shakespeare Theatre Company, told the L.A. Times, "if the first family appreciates and participates in arts events, it’s something that is part of American life. It sends a good message that the arts count.”

A problem like Blagojevich

Rod Blagojevich Superstar - the title alone makes me laugh.

Chicago's famed Second City comedy troupe has written a rock opera about the disgraced former governor of Illinois, under indictment for allegedly trying to sell President Barack Obama's Senate seat to the highest bidder.

I heard about it on NPR yesterday and I loved this quote: "Like all great theatrical ideas, Rod Blagojevich Superstar started with drinking," says Kelly Leonard, one of the show's creators. Well, I'm sure there some great theatrical ideas that didn't start with drinking - at least one or two anyway.

But somehow this seems fitting. Blago does have a flair for the dramatic - the way he jetted off to New York for television interviews while his impeachment trial was under way in Springfield, his comment that he looked to Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela and Gandhi for inspiration because they know the trouble he's seen.

And from Fiorello to Frost/Nixon, politicians have made good theatre.

The show opens on Tuesday but previews have already started. Some of the ex-governor's former staffers have seen it. They loved it so much, they stayed afterward to offer advice to the cast: "apparently our Rod doesn't swear enough."

Leonard told NPR that he's confident Blagojevich will be in the audience at some point. "As weird as that sounds, it feels to us like he's the type of guy who would come to the show, laugh his head off and go backstage for a photo op with the cast."

Wicked flies out of Chicago

After 1,500 performances in 3 1/2 years, the city of Chicago bid farewell to its sitdown production of Wicked today.

Chris Jones, of the Chicago Tribune's Theatre Loop blog, says there were some people who thought the city couldn't support a big show for an extended period of time. They questioned the wisdom of spending $10 million to create a Chicago company. But Wicked turned out to be immensely profitable.

Here's part of how they did it:

"[Producer David] Stone and his partners marketed Wicked on freeway billboards in Wisconsin and Indiana, and in airports in Michigan. Unlike most producers, they kept the touring production out of cities that might have impinged on Chicago. They were rewarded with a flood of out-of-state visitors. On Amtrak, a green Wicked bag became almost as common a sight as an American Girl doll."

Well, I guess that's one downside of a sitdown production that I hadn't thought about.

It's great for Chicago and for everyone who could hop on the freeway or a plane or an Amtrak train. But what about the theatergoers in Wisconsin, Michigan and Indiana who couldn't make it to the Windy City to see the musical? Maybe now, the tour will come to a closer location and they'll have a chance.

And in the Chicago Sun-Times, Rondi Reed looks back at the experience of portraying Madame Morrible.

Reed left the Chicago production for the role of Mattie Fae Aiken in Steppenwolf's August: Osage County, picked up a Tony award when the play transferred to Broadway, returned to Wicked, then left again to go with the A:OC cast to London, where last week they finished up a sold-out run at the National Theatre. Whew, she's had an exciting couple of years!

Here's part of what she had to say:

"To be a part of that theatrical juggernaut is something that comes along once in a blue moon. I had never done such a long run before, either -- never been asked to be so consistent, so disciplined, have the kind of stamina and heart it takes to play on that level.

"You are responsible not just to yourself, but to the other 125 people who show up for each performance behind the scenes -- in the orchestra pit, the wardrobe room, the sound board, the management office, the ones pulling the ropes, making it all happen and making it seem like magic in the process."

"And oddly enough, doing Wicked in the 2,200-seat Oriental prepared me for August, so that a Broadway theater didn't overwhelm me. It taught me about the size of performance needed to reach the back rows and still maintain integrity."

Interestingly, in August, Jones wrote "don't be surprised if she [Reed] appears as Mme. Morrible on Broadway next year." And Reed's Wikipedia entry says that she's scheduled to reprise her role as Madame Morrible in the Broadway production in early spring. I haven't seen Wicked on Broadway ... yet.

Studs Terkel: 1912-2008

Author, radio host and activist Studs Terkel, best known for his books chronicling 20th-century America through the lives of ordinary, everyday people, died today in Chicago at age 96.

Terkel, a Pulitzer Prize-winner, helped popularize oral history as a genre in books like Working: People Talk About What They Do All Day and How They Feel About What They Do; Race: What Blacks and Whites Think and Feel About the American Obsession; and Hard Times: An Oral History of the Great Depression.

I met Terkel once, about 30 years ago, when I was a young, wet-behind-the-ears student at Northeastern University in Boston. At that time, The Boston Globe had an annual weekend-long book fair with all sorts of authors peddling their latest offerings.

I'm sure I was quite the sight when I approached him - eager and brimming with enthusiasm. I remember asking him how he found his interview subjects. I couldn't afford whatever new hardcover he had just published, so I bought a paperback copy of Working and asked him to sign it. I'm not sure why he wrote "A real journalism student," with the word "real" underlined.

I do remember that he was a very nice person in our brief exchange - gracious, encouraging and extremely approachable. I even dabbled a bit in oral history myself when I did a senior honors project - I interviewed people who had been students at Northeastern during the 1960s about their lives.

While I knew a lot about Terkel, I learned a few new things from reading the obituaries today. For example, I didn't realize that he'd been an actor - on the radio and on stage. He wrote radio scripts and acted in soap operas and once appeared in a production of Clifford Odets' play Waiting for Lefty at the Depression-era Chicago Repertory Group. The Chicago Tribune's drama critic Chris Jones has a brief tribute to Terkel as a friend of Chicago theatre.

Adaptations of two of Terkel's books, Working and Hard Times, made it to Broadway where, sadly, they weren't successful. Arthur Miller's The American Clock, inspired by Hard Times, opened on Nov. 11, 1980, and closed at the end of the month. A musical version of Working, with songs by Stephen Schwartz, began previews on May 5, 1978 and closed on June 4. In the cast were Patti LuPone, who played an editor and a call girl, and Joe Mantegna, in the roles of a migrant worker and an interstate trucker.

But a revamped version of Working, with additional songs by In the Heights composer Lin-Manuel Miranda, was produced earlier this year at Florida's Asolo Repertory Theatre. It'll be staged next year at San Diego's Old Globe Theatre, from March 7 to April 12. The original is available on dvd, although I think it's with a different cast.

I'd love to visit Chicago someday. Hog butcher to the world, city of the big shoulders, it sounds so much larger than life. And Terkel, along with poet Carl Sandburg and journalist Mike Royko, was one of the great chroniclers of the city, as well as of American life.