Tommy on Top

Tommy on Top – PrideArts

I don’t like giving bad reviews. I know how much work and energy go into a show and how vulnerable it makes the people who put in that work. I always try to respect that. I flatter myself that I am not in the class of reviewer who enjoys writing pans to make themselves feel smarter than everyone else who may have liked something. I always try to meet a show where it is and judge it not just for how I viewed it, but also through the lens of its intended audience. Even if something isn’t for me, it’s often for someone, and to me, a well written review looks for that. This is the long way of saying I can usually find something to hang my hat on to recommend a show to someone for some reason. Unfortunately, I cannot do that for PrideArts’ latest production, the Chicago premier of Tommy on Top, a farce by British playwright Chris Woodley. The story centers on hunky, young, and closeted actor Tommy Miller, on the cusp of winning an Oscar, having to deal with the possibility of being outed and the impact that will have on his career.

I think the core problem is that the characters acting like they are in a farce is the death of farce. The characters have to take the story deadly seriously to heighten the absurdity. I’m not sure if was acting choices or direction or both, but it felt like after every punchline, I could see the show visibly waiting for the laugh. The plot itself also never gelled for me. I understand that even in 2022, if and how and when to come out is a fraught process, but the stakes and beats of the story felt like they were lifted unaltered from a story written in the late 90s or early 00s. The way the characters talked about being gay and being outed read as dated to me, if that makes sense. Underscoring this problem is that most of the pop culture punchlines felt like a mix of early 2000s references as well. Even the more modern references to Tommy’s Republican agent voting for Trump somehow already feel behind the times. The election was a year and a half ago chronologically, but about a lifetime ago in terms of pop culture references. The cumulative result was that the show felt older than its age.

And all of these problems can be, if not fixed, at least pleasantly papered over by the breakneck pace of the farce and the escalating action, but here, too, the show fell flat. A story like this needs focus and momentum to shift from actor to actor like a ping pong ball careening back and forth across the stage and that never happened. The actors, instead of feeling like they were acting with each, just seemed to be acting next to each other.

I could tell that everyone was trying their hardest, and usually that shakes out to something where I can find something to enjoy. Unfortunately though, Tommy on Top just didn’t come together, and try as I might, I am stuck at recommending you give it a pass.

Not Recommended

Reviewed by Kevin Curran

Further information about this and other area productions can be found by visiting www.theatreinchicago.com.