8-17-07
Backstage Camp Doesn't Go Far Enough
It’s clear that Backstage Theatre was seeking to follow the traditional summer programming recipe. Find something light, frothy and fun; mount it with an energetic young cast; and watch the audiences roll in. And there’s no doubt that the vocal and positive audience in attendance when I saw Zombies from the Beyond was enjoying Backstage’s efforts.
Boyd Harris and Elizabeth Hope Morgan in Zombies from Beyond at Backstage This thoroughly silly affair envisions an alien landing in Milwaukee, circa 1955. The Milwaukee Space Center mobilizes to deal with the visitors who, led by a nubile evil mistress, are seeking young men to further their race. Throw in the required romantic dalliance between the daughter of the base’s military leader and the brilliant scientist whose invention saves the day, and you’ve pretty much summed up the entire plot, such as it is.
Actually, the story only serves as an excuse to trot out song after song, mostly in the doo-wop style of the period and featuring truly absurd lyrics. These moments work best, by far. Elizabeth Hope Morgan, as femme fatale Mary Malone, works her songs skillfully, drawing the greatest number of laughs. Rebekah Ward-Hays as the man-hungry secretary Charlene seems to thoroughly enjoy her numbers and Eva Swan, playing the evil queen, shows off some operatic tendencies once she arrives on the scene.
The men, unfortunately, don’t match the women’s skill or vocal training, frequently wavering off-key or being drowned out by the live accompanists (and kudos to Backstage for managing two live musicians). Director Megan E. Frei may have tackled too many jobs, as she also served as music director, choreographer and sound designer. The actors are—with the exception of Swan and Matthew Gottlieb, who manages some nifty tap dancing—clearly not accomplished dancers, and much of the choreography looks sloppy and under-rehearsed. While the simple set design from Heath Hays proves effective, lighting designer Matt Kooi has left dark spots right where Frei has staged significant bits of the action, which suggests poor director/designer communication.
Still, there’s some fun stuff here, and if you’re a fan of musicals, you’ll probably enjoy some of the subtle and not-so-subtle jabs at the genre. And if you’re a fan of ‘50s era science fiction pulp, you might find a musical adaptation amusing. But the delivery is sloppy, which keeps Zombies from the Beyond from transcending the appeal of its material.
Zombies from the Beyond, BackStage Theatre Co.
Zac Thompson, Reader—“In James Valcq’s camp musical lampooning 1950s sci-fi, a small group of scientists and townspeople have to save Milwaukee from a pack of singing, dancing zombies from outer space. But despite the outlandish premise, the comedy is never quite as cheeky or outrageous as it should be—if there’s such a thing as a safe space zombie musical, this is it. BackStage Theatre Company’s production, a Chicago premiere, is lively but uneven. For every clever characterization or deft sight gag, you get a raft of flat singing and sloppy stagecraft.”
Tim Lowery, Time Out—“This first transition underscores what Zombies occasionally does well: No matter how tired the setup, swiftly segueing to a new scene keeps toothsome camp from rotting. It’s akin to prescribing sugar pills to a kid with ADD, but hyperactivity is often the best medicine, and we wish there were more of it here… There are two assets here: Elizabeth Hope Morgan’s delightful voice and comedian Ken Barnard’s awkward stage exits. Still, this can’t quite separate itself from other bloated musical comedies on the fringe circuit—where anything after intermission seems like surplus.”
Brian Kirst, Free Press—“Director Megan Frei knowledgably hones her cast on the broad acting style of the films they are aping and they respond with enthusiasm and skill. Some of the crowded Probe Seven Control Room scenes, particularly the opening number, do come off as a bit too cluttered. This may have as much to do with the limited theater space as any lack on Frei’s part, though. Most entertaining and akin to Ray Harryhausen, the effects wizard for many of the 1950s monster epics, this production offers us a spaceship effect that is amazingly simple and deliriously fun.”
Emily Lee, Gay Chicago—“Frei is simply not up to all these challenges. Perhaps if she had simply donned a director’s cap, we would have been treated to a very different show. This is perhaps the largest tragedy the production offers up. There are some very nice performances here, and in the rare moments when scenic dialogue takes over, we are able to fully enjoy the company’s ample talents. All too soon, however, we’re treated to another subpar musical number. Too bad this likable cast didn’t have ample help putting it all together.”
Catey Sullivan, Windy City—“The cast shows evidence of tone deafness, but that doesn’t dampen the gusto with which the Backstage Theatre Company dives into the new musical Zombies from the Beyond. A send-up of 1950s sci-fi flicks that calls for broad-as-a-barn acting, James Valcq’s intentionally ridiculous tale of evil Russian spies, lovelorn secretaries and wide-eyed ing?nues is also too long by a good 30 minutes. This is fluff enough to support a 90-minute show, at most. At two hours, Zombies wears its welcome thin.”
Gross Indecency, Bohemian Theatre Ensemble
Lawrence Bommer, Reader—“The trials of Wilde, which resulted in penal servitude for ‘gross indecency’ (homosexual acts), are meticulously recreated by Moises Kaufman. A riveting assemblage of heartbreaking and contradictory testimony, this 1895 media circus delivered the goods—Wilde’s own martyrdom, the family quarrels that instigated the first trial, and the witch hunt that showed how little the Victorians differed from the Puritans. Director Stephen M. Genovese’s terrific nine-man cast transforms a history lesson into an immediate confrontation between art and life. Wilde’s life was a work of art, but authorship of this tragedy was out of his control.”
Fabrizio O. Almeida, New City—“Kaufman’s play is less an occasion for riveting theatricality than for well-researched factual regurgitation. In short, there is nothing here that Kaufman reveals or develops that hasn’t been stated before and with more dramatic imagination and flair. Nevertheless, Bohemian Theatre Ensemble’s intimate production for the Heartland Studio, under the well-paced and fluid direction of Stephen M. Genovese, assures that there’s never a dull moment despite the dense nature of docudrama theater. As well, it’s performed with an admirable earnestness that is typical of BoHo productions.”
Kay Daly, Time Out—“In dramatizing Wilde’s downfall through court transcripts, excerpts from his writings and other found materials, Kaufman finds the Sophoclean heart of Wilde’s tragedy; this is a man who couldn’t not destroy himself. Aside from a few glaring gaffes (uneven lighting, awkward accents, a sense of too many actors crowded in too small a space), Bohemian offers a competent production. As Wilde, Sam Wootten has the playwright’s tone of knowing languor down pat, and there are some strong supporting performances. But the production is marred by one insurmountable flaw: a lack of tension.”
Scotty Zachar, Gay Chicago—“Actor Sam Wootten presents himself as the penultimate Oscar Wilde while at the same time conveying the writer’s insecurities, revealing that beneath Wilde’s armor of arrogance lived a man unsure of himself, yearning to be loved. Jackson Doran does an exemplary job portraying Wilde’s closest male companion, Bosie. Strong performances are also garnered from Kevin Mayes, playing Wilde’s lawyer, Clarke, and David Roby, portraying Bosie’s bloviating father, Queensbury. The rest of the ensemble, including Ryan Guhde, Evan Linder, Andrew Marchetti, Paul Miller and Tom Weber, are all experienced actors, seasoned by numerous Chicago stage productions, and they do not disappoint.”
Insignificance, Steep Theatre Company
Kerry Reid, Tribune—“[Terry] Johnson’s play is a sweet and sometimes adroit exploration of American pop culture circa 1954—and of the longing for human connection in a post-atomic world. Under Brad Akin’s direction, this Steep Theatre production is a good-natured, low-key affair featuring an affecting performance by Julia Siple as Marilyn Monroe and a less assured, but occasionally quite charming, turn by Toby Nicholson as ‘the Professor.’ (In a cloying move, Johnson never explicitly identifies the four characters as Einstein, Monroe, Joe DiMaggio, and Joseph McCarthy.)”
Hedy Weiss, Sun-Times—“Insignificance, now in a first-class production by Steep Theatre, works a neat trick by lacing the most complex ideas with iconic personalities. My companion, a physicist, was mightily impressed with the fullness and accuracy of Johnson’s explanations of Einstein’s theories. But the fact that Johnson has Marilyn Monroe (who wants nothing more than to be valued for her intellect), do most of the play’s heavy intellectual lifting is a huge plus. And even if you don’t comprehend everything, Johnson has devised enough vivid metaphors to let you catch enough.”
Jack Helbig, Reader—“Productions of Terry Johnson’s 1982 seriocomic fantasy depend a lot on the kindness of actors. A strong cast capable of impersonating these notables would give this sweet but shallow play the illusion of depth. But a weak one, like the cast assembled here by Brad Akin, only succeeds in showing the myriad ways Johnson falls short as he steals pages from Tom Stoppard, mixing highbrow topics (the theory of relativity) with lowbrow plot turns (sex, violence). It didn’t help that the night I saw the show Toby Nicholson, as Einstein, kept stumbling over his lines. Or that Julia Siple was utterly unconvincing as Marilyn.”
Nina Metz, New City—“As a pop cultural grab bag, the play lacks sufficient edge or insight into the walking stereotypes who occupy the stage. The title, as it happens, resonates in all the wrong ways. Brad Akin’s production for Steep Theatre does have one thing going for it, and that is the presence of Vince Teninty as McCarthy, hair slicked back in an oily, receding coif. Killer acting skills aside, he is in possession of one of the best speaking voices you will hear in Chicago theater—a deep, Harvey Fierstein-like rumble drenched in battery acid.”
Christopher Piatt, Time Out—“Insignificance puts her in a hotel room with the Scientist (Nicholson makes a tender Einstein), who’s being interrogated by a commie-baiting senator. Monroe’s worship of Einstein and Russian literature was part of her mythology, but while Johnson restates it here, he can’t treat it as anything more than a bottom-drawer Stoppard joke. Director Akin has helped actors hurdle unworthy material in the past, but here even he can’t help. That gifted Siple, an actor of resources and honesty, can’t create a Marilyn who interests us speaks volumes about Johnson’s self-defeating meta setup. He condemns the publicity men who robbed her of her true identity, but he, too, is comfortable slumming it in the sewer and blowing hot air up her dress.”
Venus Zarris, Gay Chicago—“Steep Theatre creates a solid, albeit tiresome presentation of the script. The cast is adequate…John Wilson creates an interesting set design that subtly represents the nebulous quantum nature of the story in the concrete location of the hotel room. Brad Akin’s direction keeps things moving but adds little focus or build to the story. Sadly, in this case, this is one of those plays whose title sums up the production.”
Jonathan Abarbanel, Windy City—“Sure, it’s a fantasy—but it simply isn’t fantastic enough. It’s only hope is an inspired production, which this one is not except for the imaginative little set by John Wilson, offering a three-dimensional cityscape, a lovely cosmos trompe l’oeil background and some pretty lighting effects. The four cast members are diligent and professional and bear a passing resemblance to the people they portray, but under director Brad Akin they don’t enlarge or particularly illuminate the script, which alternates between the clever and the clich?d.”
2 By Pearl, Eclipse Theatre Company
Chris Jones, Tribune—“Late Bus is the piece that really pops—mostly because of the amazing work by Alana Arenas, a young Chicago actress (and new Steppenwolf ensemble member) with seemingly boundless talent. The piece is set in a bus station in the Motor City, which a lovably chatty former hooker called Ava Gardner Johnson (Frances Wilkerson) is leaving for a new life in the Georgia city they call the ‘Black Mecca…” Hospice is less successful. That’s partly because it’s a more prosaic, predictable and static play, but it’s also because the two performers, Tanya Lane and Noelle Hardy, were still getting comfortable with the rhythms of Cleage’s rich language on opening night, rather than being prepared to build the necessary fulsome connections.”
Hedy Weiss, Sun-Times—“Overloaded with cultural clich?s and epigrams, Hospice is just too much of a precious construct. Though no less sad, just as schematic in many ways, and far more outlandish, Late Bus to Mecca, zestily directed by Thomas Jones, is terrific theater that generates comedy from tragedy. The time is 1970. The place is a Detroit bus station. And it is near midnight as Ava Gardner Johnson (the engagingly energetic Frances Wilkerson), a motor-mouth prostitute with a heart of gold, waits for the bus to Atlanta. Fleeing her pimp, she is determined to make a bundle plying her trade during the Muhammad Ali-Jerry Quarry fight there. Meanwhile, she tries to chat up the wholly wasted and silent young woman (Alana Arenas, who proves acting is listening) seated beside her.”
Kerry Reid, Reader—“Eclipse Theatre Company continues its Pearl Cleage season with two one-acts. Both handily reflect issues of race, gender, and the creative impulse, and Cleage’s sharp-elbowed dialogue allows actors to pull out all the stops. The evening opens with the caustic Hospice, about a dying poet and the daughter she abandoned years earlier. The real gem, however, is the hilarious, touching Late Bus to Mecca, in which a motormouth prostitute befriends a disheveled woman in a bus station.”
Novid Parsi, Time Out—“It’s not that the tortoise turns hare in the second piece, Late Bus to Mecca, but that director Jones puts the lagging reptile on a turned-up treadmill… Where Hospice suffers from meandering dialogue, Mecca benefits from it, cutting a satisfying slice of life. It’s helped too by an amusing, delightfully understated Wilkerson (the two actors will alternate the parts). An unexpected yet plausible bond develops between this unlikely duo, a much happier union than that between these two wildly divergent one-acts.”
Brian Kirst, Free Press—“Director Chuck Smith directs with a precise fluidity that allows his actresses to truly envelop their characters. Tanya Lane as Alice, the mother, burns with a cold bitter fire underscored by cracks of careful emotion. As Jenny, the daughter, Noelle Hardy is a warm celebration of persistence and faith. Both women ultimately ring deep and true… Director Thomas Jones skillfully enables the performers, to find exquisite layers beneath characters that could have come off as stereotypes. As Ava, Frances Wilkerson delivers with perfect timing what is essentially a 45-minute monologue. Wilerson also gives a complex heart and misty yearning to this bawdy, gum snapping adventurer. As her counterpart, the silently bewildered ABW, Alana Arenas presents a character so realistic that her every look and motion comes off as if it were brilliant non-fiction.”
Tim Sauers, Gay Chicago—“Unfortunately, these aren’t the best choices to showcases the writer’s work. Thematically, both explore the planning to escape, but the message never satisfies, as the first piece is overburdened with metaphoric and culture clich?s and the other a one-note, repetitive musing on searching for second chances”
Catey Sullivan, Windy City—“In all, Late Bus to Mecca shines with wit, warmth and intelligence. Unfortunately, those first two qualities are lacking in the evening’s opener, Hospice. Also a two-hander, Hospice deals with a mother in the last throes of cancer and her pregnant daughter. Neither character invites empathy, but Cleage’s dialogue is more problematic; it sounds like speechifying rather than genuine conversation. Director Chuck Smith draws effective, nuanced performances from Noelle Hardy (as the daughter) and Tanya Lane (as the mother), but there’s only so much the cast can do—Hospice feels like a warm-up for any number of Cleage’s later, more deeply drawn female characters.”
Quote of the Fortnight:
“Hotels and motels, with their boxy confines, have never been kind to mismatched lovers.”—Nina Metz reviewing Signal Theatre Ensemble’s production of Fool for Love in the Tribune.