Matthew Holzfiend and a gentlemanly stallion

Live Bait's new musical Camp Nimrod for Girls may surprise audiences with its lack of camp. The musical story of a young girl who goes away to summer camp and falls in love with her horse, it's the sort of archetypal set up that might lead one to expect self-referential humor galore, but the trio of book writers mostly avoid the urge to laugh at their own material, instead playing things straight up.

Their approach has its joys and failures. Jay Paul Skelton's cast of nine actors do an admirable job of playing their adolescent characters—always a tricky proposition. Here, however, they sustain the terrible, terrible seriousness that we all remember from our junior high years. The solution to four horses playing key roles—head pieces by Tatjana Radisic reminiscent of a production of Equus reveal enough of the actors' faces to allow unfettered singing and acting—elegantly draws the line between the human and equine worlds. And when Camp Nimrod does elicit laughs at its characters' pubescent foils—as in the subtly sexual song on the joys of horseback riding—it's never cruel, only sweet.

This irony-free attack has a few flaws, though they are largely outweighed by the show's positives. Camp Nimrod's at its best when the tone stays light. The half-hearted attempt to give its characters more serious back story falls flat. Some hyper-aware parents may have minor issues with young Jane's choices: a 13-year-old, player-on-the-make with only one thing on his young mind, and her horse who also displays some pretty manipulative behavior as he tries to guide Jane away from her human paramour.

Still, if you find yourself analyzing Camp Nimrod's message that closely, you're probably taking things too seriously. In general, this fun little musical is universally recognizable by anyone who's gone to camp, and, in particular, by any woman who had a youthful obsession with horses. You won't be challenged, but you will have a good time.

Camp Nimrod for Girls—Live Bait

Michael Phillips, Tribune—"It's a modest, sweetly ridiculous item. The score and book work well together while achieving results more dutiful than distinctive. Yet at its core Camp Nimrod for Girls, has something most new musicals lack: A good premise…Director Jay Paul Skelton's production flatters the material. The writers aren't going for arch camp; in some oddball, affecting ways, Nimrod stays true to the ordinary social anxieties of a 13-year-old, and Skelton doesn't push it…A theatrically viable and funny idea guides this all-ages musical. If the writers can fully embrace the deadpan interspecies romantic triangle, Nimrod might just make it back next summer."

Hedy Weiss, Sun-Times—"The 90-minute show—which might best be described as National Velvet meets Equus—would unquestionably prove a great hit were it to transfer to the theater at American Girl Place, that emporium for upscale suburban girls and their indulgent mothers. But, unless viewed as a kind of nostalgic exercise in teenage "camp" (as in tongue-in-cheek pop sendup, as opposed to sleepaway adventure), it doesn't quite make the cut as an adult entertainment."

Kerry Reid, Reader—"What makes the show so beguiling is its sure-footed balance between the ludicrous and the sentimental. Just as Jane is getting run through the wringer about her "inappropriate" attachment to butterscotch, the horse endures a chorus by his four-hooved friends warning him "don't get saddled with a dame. Michelle Dahlenburg as Jane is wide-eyed and cherubic without being saccharine, and she has a real chemistry with Matthew Holzfeind as the gentlemanly stallion, so magnetic that it's not hard to understand why Jane prefers Butterscotch to the overbearing Randy, played with note-perfect petulance by Ryan Pfeiffer."

Jonathan Abarbanel, Windy City—"Director Jay Paul Skelton has assembled an attractive cast chiefly of Off-Loop newcomers who are young and cute (well, they are playing 13 year olds) and have good legit belt voices. Matthew Holzfeind as principal horse Butterscotch has a particularly sweet voice. Ryan Pfeiffer as principal boy Randy is appropriately smooth-talking and hotheaded. Michelle Dahlenburg as Jane, the girl torn between boy and horse, wisely plays her odd triangle straight. The six other ensemble members offer strong, energetic and even support."

Cave With Man—House Theatre of Chicago

Chris Jones, Tribune—"To a point, the joie de vivre of the telling—and the originality and audacity of the idea—satisfies those of us who are true believers in the House's work. But only to a point. Cave men need better play…As a conceptual blueprint, Cave With Man is very cool. But there's insufficient thought and detail in its thematic execution. And thus nothing ever builds—the show has no dramatic tension from moment to moment. Most important of all, Cave With Man lacks emotional resonance. The main strength of the House is its heart. This troupe's astounding ability to engage us emotionally always has made its immature excesses easy to overlook. That's completely missing here."

Hedy Weiss, Sun-Times—"You've got to hand it to the young artists of the House Theatre Company. They are possessed of boundless energy and exceptional discipline. They move with animal grace and fearless power. They are endowed with an admirable sense of play. They've got strong visual and aural imaginations. And they're willing to experiment. However—and that's a strong however—while all these qualities are in great supply in the company's newest work, Cave With Man, the piece, 'a play on words' created by Stephen Taylor and directed with ingenuity by Nathan Allen, leaves much to be desired. Long before its overlong playing time of about two hours is up, tedium sets in."

Jack Helbig, Daily Herald—"(T)he production takes two hours to tell a story that could have been told more simply and effectively in 35 minutes. Of course a simpler production wouldn't have had all these doodads and gimmicks meant to fool us into thinking we were watching amazing theater. The acting is almost universally awful. It is so bad, in fact, it would be unfair to single anyone out for criticism. A few actors emerge unscathed, however, but most of the time the large, poorly directed cast seems determined to prove everyone's high expectations were wrong."

Justin Hayford, Reader—"Playwright Stephen Taylor has no more aptitude for plausibility than Spangler. In Cave With Man he imagines the prehistoric moment when humans first invented language—although they already have cargo shorts, conga drums, and most inexplicably, party clothes for Saint Patrick's Day. The first word uttered is "nanana" which comes out of the mouth of a blind caveman after he's eaten a banana. Everyone in his little circle starts using the word, and soon he's naming his children, his wife, himself, people in the audience, and a strange guy in a green dress who sometimes hangs from a rope. Eventually then next generation of cave people, armed with language, start fighting among themselves, until finally the blind patriarch and a lady with horns end up in a battle to decide…something or other."

Tim Sauers, Gay Chicago—"Taylor mixes all three of the plot lines that embody all theatre—man vs. man, man vs. beast, man vs. nature—into a compelling piece, well executed by the ensemble, who fully realize with stunning beauty both Taylor and Allen's visions. Allen is really quite masterfully detailed in his examination of words, their development from rough sounds to flowing language and the process of human evolution. The supporting players provide an atmospheric thrill with their layering of percussive sounds, synchronized movement and witty antics building layer upon layer around the story, surrounding and good-naturedly inviting the audience along on the pilgrimage."

Mary Shen Barnidge, Windy City—"None of this, understand, stops us from succumbing to Cave With Man's primal rhythm. (That's not a figure of speech—percussion instruments of all descriptions accompany the action, their volume fortuitously diluted by the magnitude of the Viaduct's Great Room.) Under the curiously laissez-faire direction of Nathan Allen, an athletic 15-member cast led by Matthew Hawkins as the patriarchal hero generate Dionysic exuberance sufficiently seductive to draw us into the part-etymology. Textbook/part-Zap Comix universe of a venture more smartly conceived than executed."

Hannah and Martin—TimeLine Theatre

Michael Phillips, Tribune—"The production remains very good. The play is pretty good, especially coming from a new playwright. Even with (Elizabeth) Rich and (David) Parkes having at it, however, it's a case of a stimulating first act followed by a prosaic and predictable second one… Brian Sidney Bembridge's set, with its alternating strips of plywood and scribbled-upon blackboard lines, remains first-rate. Director (Jeremy B.) Cohen moves the text along like a breeze, at least until Fodor delivers the big, clunky Act 2 scenes. Then the breeze hits a dramaturgical brick wall. The play seems to contract rather than expand. Such scenes are the work of a promising newcomer."

Hedy Weiss, Sun-Times—"The electrifying buzz generated by every element of TimeLine Theatre's thrilling, highly provocative production of Hannah and Martin sparks just such total engagement…If anything, the play—brilliantly directed by Jeremy B. Cohen—feels tighter and more sharply etched than before as a result of the author's subtle but clarifying revisions. And because the work is infused with such emotional fire, such intellectual heat, such moral turmoil and such a keen sense of impassioned debate, watching it a second time is even more rewarding."

Mary Shen Barnidge, Windy City—"For this remount of TimeLine's multiple award-winning 2003 production, Elizabeth Rich and David Parkes reprise their title roles, the former fairly bristling with intellectual fervor and the latter walking the line between naiveté and casuistry with never a misstep. Providing these champions an occasional rest are a muscular ensemble who likewise pass no judgments on the personalities they portray. Theatergoers who missed this show last spring AND this summer (like I did) should take advantage of this last-chance opportunity to witness world-class artistry in the making."

Poppin' and Lockdown 2—Factory Theater

Michael Phillips, Tribune—"You don't need to be up on all that, or down with it, to have a good, semi-raunchy time of this Factory Theater sequel, a follow-up to the first Poppin' and Lockdown… Playwrights Michael R. Meredith and Kirk Pynchon manage to sustain their Osterizing blender of a spoof quite nicely. The show gets off to a weak start, with a too-straightforward re-creation of the Do the Right Thing opening-credits dance sequence. But with the first real dance-off between Caesar and Turbo, at the neighborhood rec center, the fun begins."

Christopher Piatt, Sun-Times—"This spoof of '80s 'Go for it' movies, every bit as ridiculous as it sounds, is prototypical Factory fare. It's scrappy, foul-mouthed, produced on a thrift-store budget and held together by masking tape. But it walks (and sometimes "worms") the Factory's patented razor-thin line: If it were any more disorderly it would be a total disaster, but if it were any more professional it would be no fun at all. As is, it's great fun. Michael Meredith and Kirk Pynchon's script ranges from the genre satires of the Wayans brothers (at an anti-drug rally, a banner reads 'Crack + You = Bad') to unbridled, inexplicable absurdity."

Nick Green, Reader—"Director Steve Walker again crafts a delicate balance between glowing reverence and nudge-and-wink irony: one character gushes, 'I look much cooler now!' after trading a generic tracksuit for a hilariously dated B-boy ensemble. But when the humor gets too broad, the focus starts to unravel. The best punch lines disappear amid attempts to sprint to the next target; by the fourth or fifth ending, the buildup has stalled. A sequel ought to raise the stakes to impossible heights, or at least move a formula closer to perfection, but Poppin' and Lockdown 2 does neither. Sure, it's fun to revisit the characters five years later—too bad they haven't learned any new moves."

"There's no getting around it: Shakespeare's comedies are too long for contemporary audiences."—Brian Nemtusak in a review of Velvet Willie's As You Like It in the Reader.