Lucy and Charlie’s Honeymoon

Lucy and Charlie’s Honeymoon

Lucy and Charlie’s Honeymoon is the story of two Asian American self-styled “renegades.” Bucking the high expectations of their families, they met at a dive bar a week ago and decided to get married. Now they need an equally impromptu honeymoon, starting with knocking over a gas station to get the money for one. Comic hijinks, of course, ensue.

The show uses that most American of fables, the outlaws on the road, to explore the issues of identity and expectation for Asian Americans. The show uses Lucy and Charlie’s rebellion and Charlie’s relationship with his family to explore stereotypes and how restrictive they can be, even when they are ostensibly “positive.” The show also benefits from giving a lot of people very specific locations in and points of view on the immigrant experience. It really let the show explore the issues through the story rather than just expositing on them in lieu of a story.

The undeniable strength of this show is its cast. A show that tries to blend screwball comedy with a serious point is like trying to keep a plate spinning. If it falls, there’s no getting it back. Fortunately, the cast of talented actor/singers keep the show aloft the entire time. Even when the show takes a darker turn (more on that below), I was still entranced by the cast. Standouts among a strong cast for me were Harmony Zhang as Bao, a young woman who just arrived from China and Wai Ching Ho, Charlie’s grandmother. Zhang has to do the heavy lifting for the story in its darker moments without breaking the spell the rest of the show has cast, and as both actor and singer, she crushed it. The role of ‘wacky grandmother’ is certainly not new and could have easily lapsed into the stereotypes that the show was skewering, but in Ho’s hands, there was right balance of specific choices and knowing winks that made her extreme, but not a caricature.

The set, designed by Yu Shibagaki, is one-half concert stage, one half rustic cabin, and all the action takes place there, with a few different levels and props serving to create specific locations. The show that came to mind was Hedwig and the Angry Inch and its use of a dive bar stage to tell its story. The cabin itself is filled with the board games and deer heads and the other tchotchkes you would expect, but it is still ultimately a minimal design choice, letting the audience’s imagination fill in the gaps between the cabin/stage and a gas station or Charlie’s grandmother’s house. It was very sweet and very effective. Not to get too far off topic, but the recent trend of simply projecting all scenic design elements on a screen behind the actors to save money is incredibly annoying. Not every show needs Les Mis or Hamilton’s turntables, but it was just nice to see a thoroughly realized idea where the set and staging asked me to meet the show halfway with my imagination, rather than do all the heavy lifting myself. Coupled with the ensemble doubling and tripling parts for bit players made it very ‘theatrical,’ in a good way. Seeing actors trade off instruments and fake mustaches and having a ball doing it really help my sense of immersion.

Some plot elements, which I won’t spoil here got a little too dark. I certainly don’t mind cutting through some screwball comedy with something honest and incisive, and the actors themselves performed the moments to the hilt, but I think it pulled me too hard out of the world of the show in a couple of places. I think there was a way to soften the edges of those elements without losing the valid point they raised. I want to be clear that I don’t think the dark place they went was sensationalized or unrealistic in itself, just that it was a little out of step with the rest of the show.

Those issues, however, do not distract from a show with energy and charm coming out of its ears. Getting to spend a couple of hours with these characters was alone worth seeing the show. I really can’t recommend the show enough. The story, for the most part, is bouncy and fun with the right amount of something deeper infused in it. The cast is very talented and a joy to watch. The result is a show you should absolutely add to your list for the summer.

Highly Recommended

Reviewed by Kevin Curran

Presented May 24-July 26 by Lookingglass Theatre Company, Housed in the Water Tower Pumping Station, 821 N. Michigan Ave. (entrance on E. Pearson), Chicago.

Tickets are available by calling the box office at 312-337-0665 or by going to www.lookingglasstheatre.org.

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