Open Eye's production of You Can't Take It With You

You Can't Take It With You by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart could be referred to as a high floor play. Because of its inherently quirky characters and funny situations, even the worst production will be decent. As a result, this beloved piece of theatre can be often found in production at high schools and community theatres around the country. However, it's got a tough ceiling to reach as well, requiring a large cast of excellent comic actors who can embody their characters fully and resist the urge to be quirky, purely for quirky's sake. Open Eye doesn't offer the worst production possible by any means. But they also don't approach the ceiling.

The Sycamore family could be found in the dictionary next to the word eccentric. Mom (Sara R. Sevigny) is currently a playwright, having once been a painter and probably a number of other pursuits before that. Dad (Scott Pasko) makes fireworks in the basement with the enthusiastic Mr. DePinna (Robert Coleman). Daughter Essie (Robyn Coffin) makes candy, but really wants to be a ballerina and her husband Edward (Jason Jude Hill) plays the xylophone, messes about with his printing press and makes masks, among other things. The patriarch of the clan, Grandpa, (Dean Peerman) made the original choice to live life this way after years in the business world and spends his days at the zoo or going to commencements. Into this mix, the relatively normal daughter Alice (Carolyn Wright) brings her boyfriend, Tony Kirby (Daniel Shea). Most of the rest of the play consists of the collision between the Sycamores and the rest of the world, as the IRS and the Kirby family come to grips with the unspoken Sycamore motto—do what makes you happy.

With a cast of 18, it's almost inevitable in a small non-Equity theatre that some of the actors won't be up to the particular blend of quirky and realistic that Kaufman and Hart's script demands. The best performances find that balance, though. In particular Sevigny's mom has a real depth and emotional concern to counterpoint her rather batty moments. Shea, as the boyfriend, gives perhaps the most complete performance as a young man willing to accept most anything in the name of love. The key role, though, is that of Grandpa. Peerman has a nice low-key believability, although he's a little too small for the space and rest of production. Many folks know Jason Robards' turn in this character in a production filmed for PBS and his Grandpa pretty much dominated the proceedings. Peerman's not such a big presence, which turns the focus of the play towards the young couple.

Director Christopher Maher keeps everything going at a nice clip and generally succeeds in keeping out of the play's way, which is what a play like this mainly needs. He does present some truly awkward stage pictures when significant numbers of the play's large cast end up on the Athenaeum's relatively small stage. Still, the mugging stays at a minimum, and the story moves along.

All in all, this is a workmanlike production for Open Eye. It's not going to change anyone's life, but for summer audiences who might not know this chestnut of the American stage, Open Eye serves it up well.

You Can't Take It With You—Open Eye Productions

Lawrence Bommer, Reader—"It seems boho oddballs are the perfect cure for a mean Depression, and marrying ambition and art represents the American dream — without buyer's remorse. But first you have to believe in the opposites who attract. That's too great a challenge for Christopher Maher's overwrought, undercooked revival. All the quirks and running jokes are here — anarchic ballet lessons, czarist émigrés cooking blintzes, pseudoclassical portrait painting, even a welfare king. But from the start this production is indiscriminately over-the-top, so the complications that should build to comic climaxes don't."

Venus Zarris, Gay Chicago—"Whether you love this show, played in it in high school or have never had the pleasure of seeing it before, this is a fun production. The ensemble is nice. The chemistry is good but not fantastic. The timing and pacing are well done as it is a three act play but never lags or drags. The technical elements work fine. The build is decent, but it isn't over the top in engaging charisma, which is what a dated, somewhat complicated script like this requires. Except, that is, for Dean Peerman's performance of Martin Vanderhof, the grandfather to this band of wacky misfits. Mr. Peerman is so brilliant, poignant and charming that his performance elevates this entire production."

Jonathan Abarbanel, Windy City—"Under director Christopher Maher, Open Eye Productions captures the hopeful heart, gentle satire and wistful charm of the play, written as a buck-'em-up romantic comedy in the depths of the Great Depression…The acting mostly works, as director Maher and the 17-person cast use understatement to their advantage, a wise idea in a small studio playhouse. When they do not the balance and tone are thrown out-of-whack. Generally, the principal characters get it just right…As Grandpa, (Dean) Peerman not only is the right age but also has an easy-going pixie-ish charm, a light and confident grace. You can't take it with you, but you'll enjoy it while it lasts."

Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune—Steppenwolf Theatre Company

Chris Jones, Tribune—"(Laurie) Metcalf, a superb stage actress adept at playing vulnerable characters with imposing defenses, does not do anything here that her longtime Steppenwolf admirers won't have seen her do before. But she's strikingly well cast, and she makes a sweet, funny, likable Frankie. (Yasen) Peyankov, an immensely talented and smart Chicago actor who hails from Bulgaria, misses the rougher, darker edges of Johnny, for sure, but hits all of the necessary empathetic buttons. He has the audience right from hello, if not Frankie."

Hedy Weiss, Sun-Times—"The actors here are superb. Metcalf, playing the role of Frankie, suggests that physical presence is less important than psychological tuning. Metcalf, in a high-strung portrayal, uses her sleek, athletic body and makeup-free face to beautifully suggest a woman of battered self-esteem who nevertheless maintains a solid core of self…Peyankov's earthiness and high energy…are all just right for a character who is trying to fend off defeat and bolster his own deflated self-image while desperately attempting to secure a second chance in life. The actor may be at his best in his quieter moments, however"

Barbara Vitello, Daily Herald—"Steppenwolf ensemble members Metcalf and Peyankov play McNally's weary, wounded lovers like a pair of virtuosos: fluently and in perfect tune. Their ability to express volumes with a single glance, and the easy affection that plays out the scenes in which they fight, love, laugh and tend each other's physical (and emotional) wounds makes for excellent theater… And sentimentality occasionally invades the narrative. But ensemble member Austin Pendleton's smart, restrained direction grounds the play, minimizing its melodrama without sacrificing its lyricism. Ultimately Frankie and Johnny make memorable music—and memorable theater."

Jack Helbig, Reader—"(T)he beauty of this play is that McNally isn't afraid to show his characters' faults. Frankie is overly defensive and easily angered; Johnny is too aggressive for his, and Frankie's, own good. Productions usually follow the pattern of the off-Broadway version that bombed here in the late 80s, in which a strong actress (the then-unknown Kathy Bates) rolled over a not as strong actor. But here director Austin Pendleton has found a Johnny, Yasen Peyankov, to equal Laurie Metcalf's Frankie. The play is much funnier, more dramatic, and more satisfying if we aren't quite sure how the play's wrestling—mental, verbal, psychological, and physical—will turn out."

Nina Metz, New City—"In this Steppenwolf revival of Terrence McNally's 1987 romantic obstacle, under the direction of Austin Pendleton, while the nuances of this push-pull relationship are delivered with solid technique, there's nothing particularly special about the production. As Johnny, Yasen Peyankov's performance is best described as smudged—it needs more edges and corners. Laurie Metcalf, normally a resonant, multifaceted actor, plays Frankie's turn-on-a-dime mood swings as the stuff of cliche: A woman coming unhinged rather than a person who is terribly, terribly wary and unwilling—at first, anyway—to succumb to the promise of real love."

Web Behrens, Free Press—"An intermissionless two-person show, it always lives or dies on the strength of its actors, which makes it tasty bait for Steppenwolf. In director Austin Pendleton's period production, it's just as notable for the realism the company does so well—particularly David Swayze's set design recreating a late-1980s Manhattan apartment and James F. Ingalls' naturalistic lighting…Metcalf nails the comedy with her unerring instincts, right down to the skeptical looks she flashes her suitor when he reveals yet another coincidence about their life histories. Meanwhile, Yasen Peyankov makes for a believably urgent Johnny, though he has a tendency to hurry through a few of the quiet beats."

Mary Shen Barnidge, Windy City—"Holding focus in Steppenwolf's cavelike auditorium for 90 minutes is still a marathon assignment for only two actors, even with David Swayze's tschotchke-cluttered scenic design providing opportunities for stage business. What keeps us emotionally invested, however, is the delightful sense of spontaneity imposed by Yasen Peyankov and Laurie Metcalf on repartee often reduced to theatrical fizz. Who cares that it's the same old song when it's played by a pair of virtuoso spoken-word musicians like these?"

The Judas Kiss—Circle Theatre

Chris Jones, Tribune—"With two sets and a cast of seven, this is the kind of smallish, talky, emotionally intense drama that works very well in Circle's tiny theater. The designer Bob Knuth, an occasional wizard when given neither space nor money, creates a grand set from the simple twin motifs of fabric and white paint…Most significantly of all, [Michael] Matthews' direction is careful and considered but also well-paced and rippling with the kind of panache necessitated by any play in which someone representing Oscar Wilde is speaking lines. You just have to look at the faces in the mainly young and entirely non-Equity troupe to sense that this show was cast with unusual care."

Justin Hayford, Reader—"Circle Theatre's rocky production has enough community-theatre trappings to keep an audience distanced. …More important, director Michael Matthews opens his production with a forthright bluntness that not only seems decidedly un-British but drains tension from the action…But with the arrival of Don Bender as Wilde, the production begins to find its center. As an actor, Bender is no stranger to scenery chewing, and his resemblance to Wilde both in stature and sensibility is tenuous. But he has a keen understanding of the stakes his character faces and an eagerness to let the impossibility of Wilde's situation tear him to shreds."

Lawrence Bommer, Free Press—"For some the fall of Oscar Wilde holds the same fascination as the equally intense self-martyrdom of Jesus Christ…Eloquent as its subject, Sir David Hare's 1998 drama, now in a persuasive Chicago premiere by Michael Matthews, contrasts Oscar's true love with his false friend…David Hare and Michael Matthews make this twisted passion play matter beyond anything you can imagine till you see it. This is Oscar as we need to know him, unrepentant and uncompromised even as he destroys his every dream."

Mary Shen Barnidge, Windy City—"Hare's text has Wilde defending his position in language as incisive as it is florid—duties easily executed by Don Bender—but the role of Douglas is the more difficult assignment for the actor who must impose on his patently untrustworthy persona a degree of credibility sufficient to earn our intellectual investment. Jarrett Dapier does his best with what the playwright has given him, despite director Michael Matthews' efforts to enliven the dialogue-driven action with plenty of casual nudity. But it is no match for Bender's elegant phrasing and unwavering composure, nor for Hare's patently biased argument."

Weddings of Mass Destruction—GayCo

Nina Metz, Tribune—"The show hews to the traditional Second City format and structure right down to bentwood chairs, piano accompaniment and blackouts between scenes. Though it starts off sluggishly, Weddings finds its rhythm soon enough and eventually reveals itself to be one of the more subversive, and subversively funny, revues to hit Chicago in recent memory… At first glance merely pleasant and capable, the cast displays an increasingly fine-tuned comedic savvy. Each member of the ensemble has a standout moment, but it is Celeste Pechous who really makes an impression."

Derel Jevens, Sun-Times—"As revues go, this one is particularly generous, covering many styles and themes over its intermissionless 90 minutes. There's music ((Mandy) Price's torch song to Alyssa Milano) and mime (her silent, accident-prone attempt to seduce Judy Fabjance) and the occasional well-placed, well-earned touch of poignancy. The quality comes and goes, as it must for all sketch shows. But the overall impact is satisfying, suggesting that these troubled times bring out the brainy, bawdy best in GayCo."

Jennifer Vanasco, Reader—"Edgier than GayCo's usual sketch shows, this revue focuses on gays and lesbians marrying in Massachusetts. More broadly, the topic is the quest for ordinariness—which makes for interesting debate on where the gay community is going…But the sharpest sketch isn't about marriage at all. Jim Bennett, John Bonny and Matt Elwell begin by spoofing 'Queer Eye for the Straight Guy,' they don 'pinkface' plus white gloves, top hats and tails. Shuffling along brightly to minstrel music, they sing that they're 'helpful and harmless queers' just trying to make nice with America. For gays and lesbians, this bit poses a serious question: Can we find acceptance without losing ourselves?"

Venus Zarris, Gay Chicago—"Weddings of Mass Destruction is a delightful production filled with whimsical, cleverly written, well-performed bits that are sure to leave you laughing out loud. It's a much needed shot in the arm of entertainment, given the ridiculous current onslaught of antigay politicking we're faced with on a daily basis as the country gears up for this year's divisive presidential election. Don't worry, though, it's relatively light on politics and heavy on fun."

Rick Reed, Windy City—"This smart, irreverent, and sometimes biting ensemble tackle issues of the day, plus casting their sharp-focused and witty eye on other, less topical material, like dildos, bears, mate-swapping, and becoming a lesbian because it's the "in" thing to do. The ensemble, which consists of Jim Bennett, John Bonny, Matt Elwell, Judy Fabjance, Celeste Pechous, and Mandy Price, are funny and fresh, all easily ready for the Second City mainstage…and beyond. Their keen observations, irreverence, and penchant for deft characterization put them a cut above most improv comedy groups you'll find in Chicago."

Critics Quote of the Fortnight

"Sometimes when you go to the theatre, the company you are visiting gives off an impression like, 'We're awesome, and you're lucky to be here, because we're the shit.' When they cross the line from confidence to arrogance, as a critic I think, 'You had better be.'"—Venus Zarris reviewing Tangerine Arts Groups' Production of Splintered Idylls in Gay Chicago.