Jim Corti's mesmerizing ‘Cabaret’ at Drury Lane is a four-star thrill-ride to 1930s Berlin

 

THEATER REVIEW: "Cabaret" ★★★★ Through Oct. 11 at Drury Lane Theatre, 100 Drury Lane, Oakbrook Terrace; Running time: 2 hours, 45 minutes; Tickets: $29-$38 at 630-530-0111 or www.drurylaneoakbrook.com. Patrick Andrews is the Emcee.

Of all the characters who populate John Kander and Fred Ebb’s masterful Broadway concoctions, none is as mesmerizing, or as terrifying, as the Emcee of “Cabaret.” “Wilkommen,” he sings, opening up his bag of ironic tricks and welcoming you to the gloriously horrible party taking place in Berlin—even as the world topples like a smug Teutonic drunk into a terrifying and inevitable abyss.

If you’re at a good production of this iconic musical—and director and choreographer Jim Corti’s eye-popping new revival at the Drury Lane Oakbrook is a great, great production—your heart lands in your mouth when the Emcee sings “Tomorrow Belongs to Me,” lest it actually does.

In recent years, the Emcee has become the province of post-modern personalities—I’m thinking of Alan Cumming at Sam Mendes’ 1998 Broadway revival (also starring the late Natasha Richardson ) or, last year, Bruce Dow at the Stratford Festival in Canada. These charismatic actors turned in self-aware performances dripping with polysexual flourish. But they were individuals floating in their own sea. You never believed they could belong in Christopher Isherwood’s novel about the Kit Kat Club in the Berlin of the 1930s.

But in the case of Patrick Andrews , the young Chicago actor whose work in Corti’s show is simply dazzling, you are left with no doubt whatsoever.

'Water Fools' is postponed for Friday

The Friday performance of “Water Fools (Fous de Bassin)” has been postponed to Sunday because of weather conditions at Navy Pier. Saturday's performance is unaffected.

An announcement from Chicago Shakespeare Theater reads: In order to accommodate Friday’s guests, CST and Ilotopie have scheduled a "rain date" performance for Sunday evening at 9:15 p.m. Ticket holders may present their Friday email confirmation on Sunday night to be admitted. The free viewing areas will be open at 7:00 p.m. on a first-come, first-served basis.

Read more about "Water Fools" here.

(Posted by Doug George)

Broadway in Chicago to present in the 'burbs

Broadway in Chicago and its longtime atagonist, the Rosemont Theatre, appear to have buried the hatchet in the name of ABBA.

In January, Broadway in Chicago will present a week-long run of "Mamma Mia" at the modern theater near O'Hare Airport, it was announced Thursday.

Not so long ago, the Rosemont Theatre was regarded as a threat to downtown interests (it briefly had its own Broadway subscription series), but the suburban venue has been less busy of late, especially in terms of theater. Clearly, its leadership is now more willing to make deals with competitors.

For the first time in a decade, the Radio City Christmas Spectacular will not be performed in Rosemont this season (Madison Square Garden Entertainment, which owns the Rockettes, now also owns the Chicago Theatre and is likely to focus its future interests there). That takes a big bite out of the Rosemont's winter business.

Meanwhile, Broadway in Chicago's theaters in the Loop are full and "Mamma Mia" has a big suburban pull. And thus a deal was made.

'Water Fools' is coming to Navy Pier

“Water Fools (Fous de Bassin)” is coming to Navy Pier this weekend, to be performed by the French troupe Ilotopie (ill-a-tope-ee) in its American debut. The show will be at sundown (about 9:15 p.m.) Friday and Saturday in the water off the east tip of the Pier. The audience stays on dry land; free admission of about 3,000 people is first-come, first served.

It’s French street theater, albeit performed on the water. The illusion is to turn the waves of Lake Michigan back into a French street. Expect to see floating baby carriages and sights like heads exploding into fireworks. There's no traditonal narrative, says Chicago Shakespeare Theater Executive Director Criss Henderson. ("Water Fools" is part of the World’s Stage Series, which also brought Chicago the midair bell ringers of “Maudits Sonnants” last summer.) "But there are people you’ll meet and get to know” during the performance, he says. “Just don’t get too attached to the man whose head bursts into flames.”

(Posted by Doug George)

Want to buy a famous theater? Asking $1.3m

 

The Greenhouse Theater Center on Lincoln Avenue is being put up for sale by Wendy and William Spatz. (Alex Garcia/Chicago Tribune).

Want to buy four famous, well-trafficked theaters in the heart of Lincoln Park? They’re yours for just $1.3 million. Owner financing available.

There’s just one catch: You have to continue operating them as theaters for at least the next two decades.

Since this blog isn’t normally given over to offers of real estate, let me explain the very, very interesting story behind this one. And first, let me point out that $1.3 million, while a significant chunk of change, is an eye-popping bargain when it comes to acquiring new theaters. Most Chicago companies looking for a new home have to come up with at least $10 million—usually a great deal more—in construction and/or renovation costs.

And as I’ve said before, itinerant companies don’t tend to last long in Chicago. The building in question is the Greenhouse Theater Center, better known as the old home of Victory Gardens Theater at 2257 N. Lincoln Ave., right in the midst of the Lincoln Park night life scene. If you’re driving or walking past, look for the cultural island in a sea of bars. Longtime fans of the off-Loop scene will know that the Greenhouse also was once the home of the Body Politic Theatre, scene of some of the most important productions in the history of Chicago theater. It may not be a historic building in architectural terms, but it is in theatrical terms.

Chicago-style 'High Fidelity' has heart but not the right performances

 

THEATER REVIEW: "High Fidelity" ★★1/2 Through Oct. 11 at Pipers Alley, 1608 N. Wells St.; Running time: 2 hours, 20 minutes; Tickets: $29.50-$39.50 at 312-664-8844 or www.hifichicago.com. Jonathan Wagner, Michael Mahler and Stef Tovar star in Route 66 Theatre Company’s “High Fidelity” at Piper’s Alley.

When Stephen Frears decided to make a movie out of “High Fidelity”—Nick Hornby’s lovably smart and very alt-British prose-ode to a male life characterized by cool tunes and a perpetually broken heart—he had the inspired idea to set it in Chicago. Thus, in 2000, John Cusack could be seen trekking to his Wicker Park record store, struggling against both his own relationship-shattering lack of ambition and a young scene-stealer named Jack Black. It all worked deliciously. Chicago is the perfect host of a lovable loser.

Six years later, Broadway got hold of “High Fidelity” and destroyed it with the alacrity and surety of a blind crow scratching a perfect circle of vinyl. I walked through the doors of the Imperial Theatre in New York, and for the 30 seconds that this disastrous musical survived, encountered a devastatingly self-evident truth: The characters in the inanely over-produced show wouldn’t be caught dead listening to—let along singing—the very songs they were trapped performing. Or, to put it another way, Rob’s record store wouldn’t ever sell the “High Fidelity” soundtrack.

Now comes Chicago’s nervy Route 66 Theatre Company, attempting a Chicago-style rehab on catastrophic New York choices.

Beware, NEA chairman Rocco Landesman, the perils of playing poorly in Peoria

On Aug. 7, the colorful Broadway producer Rocco Landesman was confirmed as the 10th chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts. In a New York Times interview published one day later, Landesman made his first mistake.

“I don’t know if there’s a theater in Peoria,” Landesman was quoted as saying, “but I would bet that it’s not as good as Steppenwolf or the Goodman. ... There is going to be some push-back from me about democratizing arts grants to the point where you really have to answer some questions about artistic merit.”

That did not play well in Peoria.

By the following Monday, Marilyn Leyland, a community volunteer at the Eastlight Theatre in East Peoria, had written demanding that I come and review its production of “Rent” and vouch for its excellence. “This would be your opportunity,” she said, “to enlighten those who might have seen the quote.”

Also last Monday, the ArtsPartners of Central Illinois, an arts service organization, called Landesman in his new office. By Tuesday, Landesman had called back and an arrangement had been made for the chastened new chairman to come to Peoria—probably in early December—for a lesson in the importance of the arts to central Illinois.

On Friday, Kathy Chitwood, who runs the Eastlight Theatre and clearly knows how to seize her moment, declared that the upcoming meeting between Landesman and Peoria arts leaders would be dubbed “The Lemonade Stand,” in homage to the recent, so-called Beer Summit, an attempt at White House damage control following a similarly injudicious statement made by President Obama after a racially charged incident in Cambridge, Mass. In Peoria, Chitwood said, explaining her idea, “we take lemons and make lemonade.”

So what does all this teach us? And what should it teach the NEA’s new chairman?

Martha Lavey takes charge at TCG

Steppenwolf Theatre Company artistic director Martha Lavey is the new board chairman of the Theatre Communications Group, it was announced Monday.

Based in New York, TCG is the service, research and lobbying organization for America's non-profit theaters. It also publishes American Theatre magazine and a wide variety of playscripts and other theater-related publications.

Light Opera Works cast delivers a perfectly loverly 'My Fair Lady'

 

THEATER REVIEW: "My Fair Lady" ★ ★ ★ Through Aug. 30 at Cahn Auditorium, 600 Emerson St., Evanston; Running time: 2 hours, 50 minutes; Tickets: $30-$88 at 847-869-6300 or www.lightoperaworks.com.

The beloved musical “My Fair Lady,” most people think, is about the transformation of Eliza Doolittle, a Cockney flower girl whose life is transformed after she learns to elongate her vowels in “The Rain in Spain Stays Mainly in the Plain.” In fact, class mobility comes naturally and easily to Eliza. Like George Bernard Shaw’s “Pygmalion,” the play that inspired Broadway’s Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe, “My Fair Lady” is really about the transformation of Henry Higgins, Eliza’s initially cruel mentor.

This Shavian stand-in for the entire British establishment has to learn that a savvy, young working-class woman can’t be treated like a caterpillar on a microscope slide. He must understand that a woman who pronounces his name ’Enry ’Iggins is worthy of his love, sure, but also his respect.

Some productions of “My Fair Lady” get that right. Some don’t. Thanks to a couple of very smart, honest and engaging lead performances from Nick Sandys and Natalie Ford, Rudy Hogenmiller’s new show at Evanston’s Light Opera Works falls cheerfully into the former category. Finally—and, boy, it took a while—this company seems to have realized the importance of stellar performances atop its shows.

Spiderman, Cromer, 'Blackbird,' dissing Peoria and other theater news

So much for the quiet of August allowing for a few days of tree-hugging. Upon my return to civilization, I find various interesting matters  afoot.

• The general view on and around Broadway appears to be that the upcoming production of "Spiderman, Turn Off the Dark" is kaput--a victim of chronic cost overruns. Nonetheless, the producers continue to insist that all is on track for the spring opening. Either way, production has been halted, because the money has been halted, and there are reports that the stars are looking for other work. Certainly, this looks like the defining moment in the young career of the Chicago entertainment attorney David Garfinkle, who is the lead producer and is being cast in New York as the neophyte Chicago "outsider," swallowed up by director Julie Taymor and the big spenders of Broadway. It is a common stereotype. We'll have to see if Garfinkle can emerge triumphant.
• "Blackbird" closes this weekend at the Victory Gardens Theater, where it has done huge business. Huge. The show will be remembered fondly at the Gardens for the lines around the block of people trying to snag scarce tickets. "Blackbird" also introduced "premium tickets" to the world of Chicago non-profits. Ducats were held back for those willing to pony up $100 a ticket, or, better yet, ready to subscribe to the 2009-2010 season. They were all sold. The show also sparked a bizarre item in Stella Foster's Sun-Times column reporting a couple's engagement after seeing a show which doesn't seem exactly ideal for the cultivation of a romantic mood. Different strokes...
• My mailbox is full of Broadway in Chicago subscribers shocked and appalled by "Spring Awakening," which proves that the show confounded usual expectations.
• After dissing Peoria in careless (albeit irrefutably accurate) remarks arguing that Chicago has higher quality theater, the newly confirmed National Endowment for the Arts chief Rocco Landesman will pay penance by paying a visit to the iconic showbiz barometer of a town.
• Garth Drabinsky, the man who developed the Oriental Theatre and, arguably, built the contemporary notion that Chicago is a long-run town, will be paying a visit to a Canadian prison. Lasting seven years.
• Jane Alderman, one of Chicago's leading casting directors, has announced plans to quit the business at the end of the year. She'll continue to teach, and she's acting on Broadway this fall in "Superior Donuts."
• David Cromer, who is having quite the year, will leave the Off-Broadway production of "Our Town" next weekend. He'll be replaced by Jason Butler Harner. After his Broadway gig directing Neil Simon, Cromer will move on to Lincoln Center, where his production of "When the Rain Stops Falling" by Andrew Bovell will open at the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theatre in March.  Perchance Cromer, who worked for cheap in Chicago for years, will replace Taymor on the impecunious Spidey project, assuming he could make nice with Bono.