Yuri Lane

Yuri Lane is clearly a very talented performer who can generate more sounds than most could accomplish with a full Foley studio. He sets out, with the help of playwright/director Rachel Havrelock, to depict the audio lives of several of Chicago’s diverse neighborhoods by riding along with a variety of their denizens. Leaping from person to person he visits parts of the South, West and North sides of Chicago, attempting to show how different neighborhoods have their own rhythms and how they bleed into each other as their residents meet and interact. I think he’s also setting out to talk about the way gentrification and condo-creep gradually homogenize all neighborhoods.

Unfortunately, Lane, while impressive from moment to moment, can’t summon the range to make each neighborhood truly distinct. Because he relies on a similar beat for most of his travel and action, it’s hard to identify when he’s moved from one area to another. His characters are much more distinct, from Jojo to Tiffany to Yuri himself, but even here Lane relies too much on stereotype to create truly compelling figures for his journeys around Chicago.

Finally, Soundtrack City Chicago lacks much of a narrative throughline. It’s designed as a survey anyway, but it’s difficult to tell what themes Lane sees as central. Only issues of gentrification show up repeatedly, but this potentially interesting subject doesn’t get a very close examination. Finally, Lane allows himself to deviate occasionally from his journey for segments that feel more generic—an embodiment of one office geek’s first time playing his new computer game for instance. It’s fun, but it doesn’t further the show’s already tenuous journey.

Lane also has Soundtrack City shows for San Francisco and New York, which might lead to some of Soundtrack City Chicago’s less specific approach. I also suspect that a younger, more reactive audience would make the evening that much more interesting. The night I attended, Lane had difficulty getting any level of participation from the viewers. Soundtrack City Chicago doesn’t really live up to its name, but there’s no doubt that Yuri Lane’s an interesting man to watch on his journey, even if the journey itself doesn’t always satisfy.

Soundtrack City Chicago – Viaduct

Chris Jones, Tribune—“Lane and Havrelock stay just—but only just—this side of stereotyping in places, always a danger when you’re doing quick-fire snapshots of people. So they’d be wise to deepen their characters. And even though the narrative is rich and socially resonant, it could do with more clarity, focus and (above all) composed tension throughout. If the story were as compelling as the performance, this thing would be a knockout. It’s still not to be missed—Lane is that good. Currently, Lane and Havrelock are pretty much self-producing with their friends at the Viaduct Theater. Not for long, one suspects.”

Hedy Weiss, Sun-Times—“As for Lane, he is small, lean, physically fleet and impossibly fit. A perpetual motion machine, he must have shed 10 pounds on opening night at the Viaduct—an un-air-conditioned theater that seems to absorb heat. Lane is wondrous to watch and listen to—observant, funny, fast and playful. Yet an hour or more of hip-hop theater can begin to have diminishing returns. The relentless beat and the wall of sound it builds can become oppressive at times. No wonder that harmonica-playing sounded so soothing.”

Brian Nemtusak, Reader—“‘Human beatbox’ Yuri Lane plays multiple characters in his ‘hip-hop comedy’ about urban life. There’s no denying Lane’s mad skills or freakish repertoire of rhythms and sounds. And his best bit—a heavy-beats-and-harmonica blues fusion—is a real barn burner. But if 90 minutes of his guy-from Police Academy meets the Fat Boys shtick strikes you as a recipe for mime-level annoyance, too, no amount of chops is gonna change your mind about the collection of patly precise, staggeringly unimaginative neighborhood types Lane and writer-director Rachel Havrelock have devised.”

Tim Sauers, Gay Chicago—“The meatier scenes allow Lane to really showcase his talents, separating the background, connecting tissue from the more fully developed settings. At the pinnacle of these scenes is one in which Lane has the opportunity to portray Freddy, a nerdy office worker playing a new video game he recently received from Biker Mike. Lane not only portrays the exchanges between Freddy and Biker Mike with clarity but also fully realizes a video game complete with battling characters and a symphony of electronic and war commotions. Simply astonishing.”

Death of a Salesman – The Hypocrites

Chris Jones, Tribune—“Doors are the motif of choice in Sean Graney’s moving, provocative and startlingly successful revival of Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman. As Graney imagines it, these hunks of varnished wood are apt markers for the tragic life of Willy Loman. And Graney makes a formidable theatrical case… Graney designed the look of this show himself, along with Jim Moore. The visuals—not just the doors but the way the circuitous playing area suggests a rat trapped in a cage—are a remarkable achievement. Graney’s work is not only daring and distinctive but sophisticated and mature. It’s time some bigger doors around town opened for this fine young director.”

Hedy Weiss, Sun-Times—“The power of Graney’s fast-moving, crystal-clear production (and if anyone doubts Graney is one of the most insightful directors now at work in Chicago, this production should set them straight), lies in both its speed and its microscopic reading of the text. Even those who’ve seen Salesman countless times before may wonder why they never quite picked up on the green velvet bedroom slippers worn by the legendary older salesman so admired by Willy Loman… Small things, perhaps, but crucial, and they make all the difference, as does the sense of how Willy’s weaknesses have been transmitted to his sons in intriguingly different ways.”

Kerry Reid, Reader—“Director Sean Graney makes the classic drama young again, freeing it from the burden of audience fatigue with familiar speeches, and real-life couple Bill and Donna McGough give a lived-in believability to Willy and Linda Loman. The intimate venue makes the play’s occasional spiky outbursts all the more effective. The show is well worth seeing if only to marvel at how the excellent cast handle the breathtaking final 15 minutes, but there are many other riches over the production’s three-hour span.”

Nina Metz, New City—“In its most avant-garde move yet, the Hypocrites take a straight-up approach to Arthur Miller’s most American of classics, Death of a Salesman. And in the process, the company breathes new life into a play that has been co-opted in recent memory by the hulking presence of Brian Dennehy. Director Sean Graney goes for something different, casting a tallish beanpole with a slight middle-aged paunch named Bill McGough. With a thin and gravely voice like Hal Holbrook, McGough is altogether infuriating—just as he should be. It’s a hell of a psychological workout, and at the end Graney gives us one last vision of Willy as he steps, literally, into his own grave.”

Lawrence Bommer, Free Press—“Sean Graney’s lacerating revival centers on Bill McGough’s self-effacing, sad-sack Willy. Drained, doomed, and elegiac, this near-survivor is trapped in a literal world of closed doors, the final one opening only to his grave. McGough’s bracing ordinariness makes Willy stand for the world’s many Mr. Cellophanes. Though period-perfect in her demure demeanor, Donna McGough proves a stalwart defender of her broken man. Robert McLean memorably plays the son who frees himself from a lifetime of lies. Finally, as Willy’s only friend, Christopher Meister conveys the quiet decency that might have saved Willy if he could only listen.”

Tim Sauers, Gay Chicago—“As the opening of its ninth season, the Hypocrites mount an outstanding version of this classic, one that carefully unravels with close introspection the downward spiraling of a working man’s inability to obtain the American dream. Every aspect of director Sean Graney’s production is informed by the emptiness of this failed dream and of death that hangs in the air. He has assembled a strong ensemble that understands this is a work that demands attention to the language and the character motivations behind it. Impressively performed and evocatively designed, the Hypocrites’ revival focuses on telling the story with clarity and truth.”

Rick Reed, Windy City—“Thankfully, Sean Graney, bolstered by a fine ensemble and creative team, elegantly and eloquently rises to the challenge in this spare, inspired production. Graney’s take on the story of Willy Loman (played with downtrodden weariness by Bill McGough), a second-rate, has-been salesman whose life has been a series of disappointments, wrong turns, and misguided dreams, is a take that I think Miller would have been proud of. Graney makes of the small Athenaeum studio space a world of doors, doors that tiredly open, but more importantly, slam shut.”

Gypsy – Porchlight Music Theatre

Chris Jones, Tribune—“Doing a full-blown Gypsy in the back of the Theatre Building ain’t easy. And the mechanics of (director L. Walter) Stearns’ production finally run out of steam late in the second act, when the necessarily rapid-fire succession of strips, set-changes and new locales finally overwhelms what has hitherto been a dynamic little show, chock-full of invention and imagination and guts. You’ll have to forgive the lack of contrast between the successful Gypsy Rose Lee and her back-of-the-cow antecedent, just as you’ll have to forgive the sense that in the last few minutes, everyone has finally run out of budget, ideas, notes and gas. The rest of the show is much, much better.”

Hedy Weiss, Sun-Times—“Gypsy—the 1959 creation of Jule Styne (music), Stephen Sondheim (lyrics) and Arthur Laurents (whose book was inspired by the life of the classy stripper-writer Gypsy Rose Lee and her sister, actress June Havoc)—looks at the harsh realities of show biz, but mostly it is the story of a small, dysfunctional family led by a single mother hellbent on making it through hard times. And it is this intimate aspect of the story that powerfully shines through director L. Walter Stearns’ detailed, beautifully acted Porchlight Music Theatre production.”

Lawrence Bommer, Reader—“Arthur Laurents, Jule Styne, Stephen Sondheim, and Jerome Robbins’s musical recounts Gypsy Rose Lee’s journey from kiddie-show second banana to burlesque’s classiest stripper under the tutelage of her domineering mother. Seldom have sharper lyrics been paired with better tunes in a sturdier bio-book. Porchlight Music Theatre Chicago’s revival, directed by L. Walter Stearns, makes up for its scenic slackness with industrial-strength make-believe thanks to Rebecca Finnegan’s carnivorous Mama Rose and Jess Godwin’s lacerating performance in the title role.”

F.O. Almeida, New City—“Finnegan possesses a fine belting voice that more than adequately handles Jule Styne’s sumptuous score. And it’s impressive to hear her approach Rose’s songs not just as the series of undisputable showstoppers that they are but as deeply felt musical expressions of character psychology worthy of any dialogue in Arthur Laurents’ equally strong book. The rest of director L. Walter Stearns’ deeply satisfying production finds a good balance between comedy and pathos and makes this revival a worthy opener to Porchlight’s 11th season.”

Louis Weisberg, Free Press—“Rebecca Finnegan’s heavily nuanced, provocative performance as Rose is at the center of this somewhat risky interpretation. In many instances it pays off, giving the audience a fresh lens through which to view one of musical theater’s greatest achievements. But in some instances Finnegan’s portrayal translates into indecision—a state of mind utterly foreign to the single-minded Rose and one that comes perilously close to derailing the trajectory of the story. Nevertheless, Porchlight delivers a rousing production that had much of the audience on its feet at its Sunday matinee opening.”

Jeff Rossen, Gay Chicago—“Porchlight Music Theatre opens its new season with a mostly solid production that needs some work in the orchestra pit (actually, “perch” would be a better description) and experienced some technical difficulties during its opening performance but is given a ferocious bite by the captivatingly raw performance by Rebecca Finnegan as the driven Mama Rose. Subtly mixing confidence with insecurity, most devastatingly in her triumphantly conflicted ‘Rose’s Turn’ finale, Finnegan continues her ascent here into Chicago’s upper echelon of first ladies of the musical stage.”

Two By Friel – Irish Repertory

Chris Jones, Tribune—“There are two interrelated main problems with Kay Martinovich’s disappointing Irish Repertory of Chicago production of Two By Friel, a double bill of Friel takes on texts Chekhovian. First, both of these one-acts are overplayed. Second, there’s a chronic lack of irony. And if you’re doing Friel after Chekhov and you’re not brimming with that all-important quality, problems inevitably ensue. Come to think of it, if you are having an extra-marital affair and you’ve not got any irony, then problems ensue there too.”

Hedy Weiss, Sun-Times—“It makes perfect sense, then, that Friel would create two stage adaptations of Chekhov works—the famous short story “Lady With the Lapdog” (retitled The Yalta Game), and the popular vaudeville sketch The Bear. As for Irish Repertory’s decision to stage this double bill bearing the umbrella title Two by Friel (After Chekhov), it has proved to be an inspired one… Director Kay Martinovich, whose directorial touch is perfect in The Yalta Game, allows The Bear to grow more shrill than funny at times. But Jana Anderson’s ravishing costumes, Tom Burch’s picture-perfect sets, and the innate charm of the actors cannot be denied.”

Justin Hayford, Reader—“Kay Martinovich directs the U.S. premiere of this double bill. The Yalta Game takes ill-advised liberties with Lady With Lapdog. While Chekhov builds drama by pinpointing outward signs of inner torment, Friel’s infatuated duo catalog their emotional lives exhaustively, squandering the story’s drama and irony. In The Bear Friel reworks an early farce about the collision between a histrionic grieving widow and a boorish landowner, making Chekhov’s self-described ‘stupid vaudeville’ overbroad if occasionally funny. The production is handsomely designed and swiftly paced, but the cast is uneven.”

Quote of the Fortnight

“Chadwick Boseman’s wildly ambitious, hip-hop influenced Deep Azure had a rough workshop at the Apollo Theatre in New York early this summer, in preparation for its current full-length production by the Congo Square Theatre Company of Chicago. Now there’s a pleasing reversal of the usual theatrical power structure.”—Chris Jones reviewing Congo Square’s production of Deep Azure in the Tribune.