6-20-08
Musicals, Musicals, Musicals
Bailiwick Repertory has set the bar high when it comes to premiering musicals. Last year’s Jerry Springer the Musical made its U.S. premiere to much acclaim. In August they’ll mount a rarely done Andrew Lloyd Webber musical Tell Me On A Sunday (and who knew there were any rarely done Andrew Lloyd Webber musicals).
And most recently, they’ve snagged the premiere of former Styx front-man Dennis DeYoung’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame. This rock musical has been around for a decade or so, but its original Broadway trajectory was derailed by Disney’s release of the movie by the same name. Now, years later and after much courting by artistic director David Zak, Bailiwick convinced DeYoung to give them the chance to bring the production to life.
The result succeeds in spots, despite significant flaws in both the production and the musical itself. There’s no doubting that DeYoung can write power ballads with the best of them, and he has a core of actors in the leads with the pipes to sell his songs. Dana Tretta as the alluring Esmerelda and George Andrew Wolff as the lonely Quasimodo particularly lay bare their vulnerabilities. Some of the best moments of the evening take place in the second act after Quasimodo has rescued Esmerelda from the hangman’s noose.
The main problem with Zak’s production has to do with scale. In many ways, Hunchback wants to be the sort of overproduced extravaganza that Webber made so successful in the ’80s and ’90s. However, Bailiwick doesn’t have those resources, nor can its stage hold Broadway sized volume. But Zak pulls out all the stops, featuring more intelligent lighting than you’d find in every Chicago theatre north of Steppenwolf combined. The modest band, directed by Keith Dworkin, has six pieces, overwhelmed by two electric pianos, and they, along with the actors, are amped beyond belief. From the fifth row I could not hear the actors over their own amplified voices. In other regards, the production doesn’t match those excesses. The set, though sprawling, isn’t particularly detailed or luxurious. A larger production would likely feature dedicated dancers for a few numbers. Elizabeth Wislar’s costumes are acceptable, but not grandiose, although particular notice should be given to Quasimodo’s mask, designed by Richard Hensel. But in all, the production feels as though it’s pushing to be something it’s not going to succeed in being.
In the end, your enjoyment of Hunchback will depend largely on your appreciation for its music, which has more in common with Webber than Sondheim. The book has been roundly criticized, but this is not a show that’s going to live or die based on character complexity. If the music works for you, there’s a core of fine performances to bring it home, and you will likely find yourself applauding vigorously by the curtain call.
The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Bailiwick
Chris Jones, Tribune—“To call David Zak’s heartfelt production a mixed bag does not adequately describe its contrasts. Aided by an enhanced sound system, a six-piece band and several Equity contracts, some of the singing is spectacular. And in the person of George Andrew Wolff, there’s a powerful lead performance. Given the hump and the lack of characterization, there were a million ways for Wolff to camp this up. Instead, he offers a moving take on this reclusive fellow and belts his problems to the rafters. As Esmerelda, Dana Tretta stuffs her heart into her mouth and gives it her considerable all… But some of the growling ensemble work is about as subtle as a kick in your bad teeth.”
Hedy Weiss, Sun-Times—“DeYoung has a first-rate feel for the musical theater form. He also clearly has learned many lessons from Andrew Lloyd Webber and the Boublil-Schonberg team, and his Hunchback is very much in the tradition of both. Most crucially, DeYoung has penned at least a half-dozen songs that feel like ‘keepers’ after just a single hearing. They are songs that expertly reflect both the nature of the characters and the conflicts at hand… The script is a bit more problematic. While the storytelling is clear and the relationships well drawn, the more intimate scenes are far stronger than the kitschy ‘street mobs’ and gypsy interludes.”
Jack Helbig, Reader—“Dynamic collaboration is necessary because musicals are complex. When one person dominates—or worse still, creates alone—the end result usually seems off balance. That’s the problem with Dennis DeYoung’s musical version of The Hunchback of Notre Dame, the classic novel about doomed love in 15th-century Paris. A gifted songwriter, former Styx front man DeYoung has packed his adaptation with power ballads and soaring anthems. But he desperately needs a stronger book. Director David Zak has given the material as good a production as one might reasonably expect.”
Christopher Piatt, TimeOut—“DeYoung and Zak have whipped up a garish, unholy creation that may be faithful to its source material in plot but commits public infidelity in terms of taste. Creatively derivative from start to finish, Hunchback curiously feels like a parody of a satire of a spoof of this kind of ill-advised page-to-stage theater. The musical half-lives of composers Jim Steinman and Frank Wildhorn—who have similarly adapted gothic, prosaic literature all too enthusiastically to the musical stage—continue to decay here. DeYoung’s piercing, screechingly inappropriate synth score manages a few pop hooks, but the melody and lyrics tend toward the generic, so the power ballads could easily be from a rock-musical version of Pride and Prejudice or Jude the Obscure.”
Lawrence Bommer, Free Press—“What’s remarkable about this new musical by rock legend Dennis DeYoung is how much compassion he lavishes on a plot that could have sagged into campy melodrama… Given their immediate familiarity, DeYoung’s songs will either comfort or irritate Broadway babies. But at least these ballads come when they should and feel all they mean. They’ve also fallen into the right hands. David Zak’s rampaging staging delivers the usual reliable Bailiwick Rep showcase for non-negotiable talent.”
Venus Zarris, Gay Chicago—“Its children’s book exposition, coupled with the lyric’s simplistic rhyming patterns, makes for a low-impact dramatic rendering of the story. And for the record, puns equal NOT funny, so it only stands to reason that a string of puns equals a string of not funny. Despite the B-Grade schmaltziness of this musical adaptation, David Zak’s exciting direction plus the dedicated and likeable cast salvage a good time out of the showy but shallow material. They manage to take this over-the-top Greatest American Hero theme song treatment of the story and sell it as best as they can.”
Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story, Drury Lane Theatre Oakbrook
Chris Jones, Tribune—“The handsome young actor firing up the western ‘burbs is Justin Berkobien, who has a new union card and a bucket-load of talent. I’ve heard closer facsimiles of the Holly sound, and Berkobien misses some of the essential gawkiness that made Holly so personally distinct. But in terms of charismatic and vocally adroit star turns, this is one to remember… Despite terrific production values, Tammy Mader’s staging doesn’t solve the often-clunky storytelling in the piece. But the concert sequences are bravura, and this big, highly experienced cast makes sections of the show work—parts I’d never seen work before.”
Hedy Weiss, Sun-Times—“Director-choreographer Tammy Mader keeps things moving but never quite gets her actors to go beyond the generic… The other two big scenes—at the Apollo (where everyone is shocked to learn Buddy is white) and the ‘final concert,’ where Buddy shares the bill with the Big Bopper (Casey Campbell) and Ritchie Valens (a spicy Tony Sancho)—are fun if not quite electric. Things are at their best when the full orchestra, including some top-notch brass players, are onstage.”
Kerry Reid, Reader—“Yeah, it’s got all the requisite rock clichés: the bad record deal, the band breakup, the tragic accident at the height of great fame. But Alan Janes and Rob Bettinson’s starry tribute to the bespectacled rock genius from Lubbock has the advantage of the great Holly songbook. Tammy Mader’s spare-no-expense staging boasts Justin Berkobien’s engaging performance as a laconic but confident Buddy, along with strong musical accompaniment from the rest of the 20-member cast.”
Brian Kirst, Free Press—“Director and choreographer Tammy Mader amazes with her contagious creativeness. She guides her cast, many playing their own instruments, with charm and guile. Justin Berkobien’s Buddy Holly is a forceful performer. His infectious musicality and full heart truly establish the tragedy of Holly’s premature passing. Jim Barclay, a professional drummer in his acting debut as Holly’s cohort Jerry, is a natural, winning wonder.”
Scott C. Morgan, Windy City—“So if Buddy’s script is bland, at least the talented Drury Lane acting ensemble under Tammy Mader’s direction wring everything they can out it. But even more remarkable is that the actors also rock out playing their own instruments… If taken as an amazingly talented rock ‘n’ roll tribute band concert with great production values and well-acted bits of script filler, Buddy will surely satisfy. But if you want a more theatrical experience with complex drama, humor and emotion, try looking elsewhere.”
Jekyll & Hyde – The Musical, Bohemian Theatre Ensemble
Chris Jones, Tribune—“So for this show to work as written, you mostly need huge voices in the lead roles, accompanied by some titillating sensual writhing and a few nods toward notions of duality. Bohemian has the seriousness of intent and plenty of writhing, but not the huge voices. This is a very young and, for the most part, vocally immature cast… There is, though, one terrific performance from Laura McClain, an emotionally alive young actress with a knockout voice who is so good as the virginal Emma, you wonder why Dr. J. is even thinking of experimenting on himself, instead of running for the hills with this empathetic charmer.”
Misha Davenport, Sun-Times—“For the Bohemian Theatre Ensemble’s current production of the musical, director Stephen M. Genovese has pinned all his hopes on success in exploring the duality mentioned in the show’s opening number, ‘Facade.’ From set to costumes to character, Genovese’s production embraces that duality with gusto. And the risk pays off handsomely. This is the best production of the show that you will perhaps ever see. There are still problems with the book, pacing and characterization that only a massive re-write would fix, but Genovese’s production is just clever enough that you don’t always notice the show’s many fault lines.”
Albert Williams, Reader—“The Bohemian Theatre Ensemble’s intimate ‘reconceptualization’ of this 1997 Broadway hit seeks to highlight the theme of Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic novel: the duality of human nature. But director Stephen M. Genovese’s talented young cast can’t redeem Frank Wildhorn’s banal sub-Andrew Lloyd Webber melodies or Leslie Bricusse’s hackneyed lyrics and stilted script. These problems are compounded by some awkward staging, including noisy and distracting set changes during several big solos, and mushy diction in the choral numbers.”
Kay Daly, Time Out—“Bohemian Theatre Ensemble’s Jekyll & Hyde is a frustrating experience. Once again, director Stephen Genovese has assembled a talented cast and surrounded it with a high-quality production. It’s a pity he’s marshaled these assets in the service of an inferior show… True, Jekyll & Hyde has its hard-core fans, and it had a long run on Broadway. Its hammy lead role has attracted big-name stars, including rocker Sebastian Bach and, yes, David Hasselhoff. But at its bifurcated heart, Jekyll is inept. Subtle as a sledgehammer, it substitutes wooden exposition for character development and key modulations for musical depth.”
Louis Weisberg, Free Press—“Bohemian Theatre Ensemble throws enough passion, talent and innovation into this production to send it soaring into the stratosphere. But BoHo’s best efforts can only launch this wingless clunker of a musical so far… Stephen M. Genovese has directed the heavily expository (and hard-to-follow) first third of the play rather limply, but this production finds its evil footing once Jekyll unleashes Hyde. Ultimately, smart direction, technical brilliance and a powerful lead performer somewhat save this Jekyll & Hyde from the doldrums of its script.”
Nunsense, Marriott Theatre
Kerry Reid, Tribune—“Marriott last did this show in 1997, with Alene Robertson as Sister Mary Regina, the Mother Superior of the beleaguered Little Sisters of Aptakisic. She’s back in this current incarnation, directed and choreographed by Rachel Rockwell, and that’s a flat-out blessing. Robertson’s brass and sass stays just this side of crass (sorry, Goggin’s affection for obvious rhyme schemes is infectious). She receives some fine support from her quartet of lesser nuns, especially Abby Mueller’s addlebrained Sister Mary Amnesia.”
Hedy Weiss, Sun-Times—“A relatively cost-conscious piece (requiring five comically and vocally gifted actresses plus a small band), Nunsense is now back on the stage of Lincolnshire’s Marriott Theatre—a perfect counterpoint, perhaps, to the massive, altogether glorious production of Les Mis that preceded it. The show has been expertly mounted by director-choreographer Rachel Rockwell and features an excessively gifted cast, but that cannot dispel the fact that it is trivial beyond all triviality.”
Jack Helbig, Reader—“Dan Goggin’s 1985 musical started out as a series of greeting cards featuring joke-cracking nuns, and hasn’t transcended its roots. It offers the kind of cute, toothless, mildly entertaining show that doesn’t offend a soul. This production, directed by Rachel Rockwell, gleams with Marriott’s trademark polish. The performers are all top-notch. But not even Alene Robertson’s virtuoso impression of a nun accidentally drunk on Jack Daniel’s candies can make this revue seem like more than what it is: a series of predictable comedy sketches and songs poking fun at all the usual targets.”
Quote of the Fortnight:
“The business leaders and the civic leaders don’t define a city; the artists do.”—Mayor Daley at a conference honoring Chicago Shakespeare and Steppenwolf Theatre for their Tony successes.