Author: Colin Douglas
On the Right Track
Pippin
A disoriented young man wanders onto the stage to a bed. He appears glassy-eyed and looks quite bewildered. Suddenly, from out of the mattress leaps the Leading Player, a supernatural-like sorcerous, colorfully decked out in black, red and silver. This mysterious, magical being encourages the youth, with a large bottle of pills in hand, to “Join us, leave your fields to flower; join us, leave your cheese to sour; Come and waste an hour or two.” Where, exactly is she luring this befuddled boy, and why? Is she tempting him with options for living or seducing him with a drug-induced escape from life through suicide?
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Here She Is Boys, Here’s Rose
Gypsy
Everyone wants approval and attention, to be noticed, to be liked. In the eyes of many people, becoming successful is equated with being loved. This is the universal theme that propels this classic show that playwright Arthur Laurents subtitled, “A Musical Fable.” While on the surface, this is a show business saga. It’s a success story that’s set in the world of theater, particularly in Vaudeville and Burlesque of the 20’s and 30’s. The story is also a twist on the Hans Christian Andersen tale of “The Ugly Duckling,” where a homely, awkward young bird grows up to become a beautiful, graceful swan. But because everybody, regardless of gender, age or occupation, harbors the need to be noticed, praised and loved, “Gypsy” is a fable for every one of us.
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The Odd Couple
Shaw vs. Tunney
When a reporter went to interview the famous up-and-coming prizefighter, Gene Tunney, he noticed that his modest mountain cabin was filled with—of all things—books! The writer asked the pugilist what he was reading and he replied, The Way of All Flesh, by Samuel Butler. Why? Because Tunney had found it for 50 cents at a thrift shop and it had contained a preface by his favorite author and playwright, George Bernard Shaw.
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You Know, You Simply Want to Shout!
The Real Housewives of Motown
Like so many audience members at the Press Opening, I grew up on the Motown Sound. A native of Detroit, the soundtrack of my youth and teenage years were the songs of the Supremes, Gladys Knight and the Pips, Little Stevie Wonder, The Jackson Five, Marvin Gaye, Mary Wells, Martha and the Vandellas, Smokey Robinson, The Four Tops and The Temptations, among so many others. Hit tunes, like “Dancing in the Street,” “Stop in the Name of Love,” “My Girl,” “Tracks of My Tears,” and “Fingertips” kept me rocking and rolling, while they blasted out of the tiny speaker of my transistor radio.
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A Celebration of Life
The Gospel at Colonus
The Court Theatre closes its 2022/2023 season with what can only be described as a jubilant musical and dramatic celebration of life. I defy audiences to sit quietly, casually and passively just observing this pulsating production. If you aren’t clapping your hands, you’re bobbing your head to the beat; if you’re not actively participating in the kind of call-and-response tradition found in a Pentecostal Church service, you’re at the very least emotionally engaged. Theatergoers will find themselves filled with exultation at this ancient story brought into the twenty-first century. And if none of these things apply, you might want to check your pulse.
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The Butterfly Effect
Tango
When a small, seemingly insignificant occurrence causes or contributes to other, larger and more dramatic events, we call this the Butterfly Effect. At one time, it used to be referred to as Chaos Theory. This belief that the flapping of a butterfly’s wings might actually create tiny changes in the atmosphere that would bring about something catastrophic, like a tornado or a typhoon, is a more poetic turn of phrase. Such a phenomenon is the premise of Joel Tan’s two-act drama, now having its American premiere at PrideArts.
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To Tell the Truth
The Whistleblower
James A. Garfield, the twentieth President of the United States, once said, “The truth will set you free, but first it will make you miserable.” In his new comedy, prolific playwright, Itamar Moses seems to have decided to take this idea and run with it. The Tony Award-winning book writer of the musical “The Band’s Visit” poses this query: What if you told everyone the whole truth about everyone and everything? What would their reactions be to your complete candor? And, as a result, how would your own life change?
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Searching for Connection
The October Storm
After the success of “The Last Pair of Earlies,” Windy City playwright Joshua Allen’s first installment of a promised dramatic series, Raven Theatre is presenting the Chicago premiere of the second play in his Grand Boulevard Trilogy (the third drama has been commissioned for next year). Once again set in the same, three-flat apartment building as his first play, Chicago’s Southside becomes another character in this drama. This play, set in the 1960’s, is again about change and how people cope with it. The drama’s also about how we spend our lives desperately searching for a connection with someone or something and, when it happens, how we deal with it.
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From Baby Phase to Empty Nest
MotherFreakingHood
Today, we are celebrating National Mother’s Day; but every Thursday through Sunday, through mid-June, is Mother’s Day at Mercury Theater Chicago’s Venus Cabaret Theater. In an hilarious, toe-tapping tuneful musical, with book, music and lyrics by Julie Dunlap and Wilmette, Illinois’ Sara Stotts, the challenges and joys of motherhood are celebrated with humor. Three smart women of different ages and from varied backgrounds experience everything that being a mother entails. Told through a series of short scenes or episodes, each punctuated by a delightful, effervescent pop/rock song, the two-hour production, including intermission, takes these wonderful women from “Baby Phase” to “Empty Nest.”
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Opposites Do Attract
Hatefuck
In the final hours of a party to promote a fellow writer, given by Imran, a successful Muslim author, he notices an attractive woman standing alone on the other side of the room. Imran recognizes that, like him, she’s also Muslim. Layla is a liberal literature professor at Wayne State University who accuses Imran of spreading sensationalized antiMuslim stereotypes through his popular, but violent, sexist novels. She taunts him and hurls insults at the cocky, young writer and he, not to be sneered at, returns the favor. As the verbal munitions fly fast and furious something unexpected happens. Imran and Layla find themselves sexually aroused and, before you know it, they’re ripping off clothing and rolling round together in passion. Obviously this is proof that opposites do attract.
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