Are Chuckles Enough For You?

 Big Lake Big City at Lookingglass Theatre Company

 Somewhat Recommended

Wrapping up Lookingglass’ 25^th anniversary season is the world premier of Big Lake Big City, a comedic “modern noir thriller” directed by ensemble member David Schwimmer and written by Keith Huff (A Steady Rain). Audiences will enjoy the fast-paced quips and constant references to Chicago, an aspect that at first glance may cause this to appear a perfect fit for the theatre company based in the historic Water Tower Water Works on Michigan Avenue. Yet I left feeling surprised at this addition to the season—and surprised at the confusion I felt, instead of the exhilaration with which I have typically left this particular theater in the past.

Who’s Your Mama?

Mine

Several cultures subscribe to a mythological belief that fairies or trolls may replace a human baby for one of their own, if the parents aren’t vigilant. The reason behind the exchange is sometimes social, with the supernatural parents merely searching for a better way of life for their young. But more often than not the fairy mother is desperately attempting to save her child’s life with the nutrients found in a human mother’s milk. This may or may not be the case in Laura Marks’ terrifying new psychological drama premiering in Chicago.

Don’t Wait, and go see “Lefty” at the Oracle

By Lazlo Collins

As any theatre person, goes and goes and goes to theatre; you begin to make a series of expectations; what the play will be like? How the musical will sound?   How will THAT particular company engage its audience? Many of the shows meet the expectations you already have in your head. As an audience member you assess each of the theatre’s you attend.

“A Pair of Star Crossed Lovers Take Their Lives”

by Olivia Lilley

When I stepped into the theatre, the smell of old books and the feeling that twenty-seven years of opening nights had taken place here was everywhere, in every speck of dust, in every creak of every audience seat. A lone sax on a scratchy radio moaned as if coming from a distant window across the alleyway. I was transported to the East Village storefronts of the 70’s and 80’s and I had only just entered the theatre. When the show began, the atmospheric choices of the preshow were dwarfed by the grand entrance of Mary Arrchie legend/artistic director, Richard Cotovsky. He is not a relic from some other time, but a living, breathing force of nature who’s lived through it all: now and then. The past was here before us all at once. At last, we jumped in through the grainy TV screen full of the faded colors, parachute pants, and windbreakers and we were there, a fly on the wall, as if it were all happening for the first time, in HD. When Rudy Galvan crashes onto the scene, language heats up and sexual tension bubbles.

Time Changes Everything

The Pride

A sharply directed, slickly produced play about gay rights that time travels between 1958 and 2008 has its Chicago premiere, and just in time for Gay Pride month. Under Bonnie Metzgar’s direction, the production is intelligent, tight and stylized, playing up both the humor and angst, as well as the many social issues this play examines. The final curtain will result in audience members devoting hours in thoughtful discussion as they ponder and debate the play’s message and the production’s power.

An interesting relationship evolves between three people when Sylvia, a former actress, introduces her husband, Philip, to Oliver, her children’s book collaborator. Something unspoken occurs between the two men when they’re left alone and, as it turns out, will grow and continue over the next fifty years. Philip and Oliver’s relationship evolves and then festers as Philip discovers Oliver’s penchant for anonymous sexual encounters with men in public places. Their kinship begins to unravel as Sylvia comes to understand what’s been happening under her very nose. The cautiously uptight ’50’s, while offering very little in sexual freedom for gay couples, does provide a certain safety net of rules and expectations. Not so cut and dry is the new millennium’s attitudes and tenets with those freedoms, now bestowed upon the LGBT community, sometimes presenting more rigidity than in the past. And, as audiences watch this play, they’ll notice how 2008 now seems to be a long time ago, as more freedoms are granted and additional rights are won.
The four actor ensemble are experts at maneuvering between the different story lines and eras. Acting styles, perfect dialects and mannerisms, just the right intensities, even the metaphoric shedding of clothes as the play progresses forward and retreats into the distant past, are all accomplished with style and professionalism. John Francisco’s Philip, who is a Noel Coward-like husband in the beginning, turns into a callous and sadistic creature by Act II. Patrick Andrews is a charming and needy sexual creature with little control over his kinky appetites. Jessie Fisher is incredible as Sylvia, especially as she transforms between time periods right before the audience’s eyes. Benjamin Sprunger is controlled and chameleon-like as the Man, Peter and finally the Doctor.

William Boles’ sparse set design allows for eerily smooth transitions between time and place, providing translucent walls through which the audience is able to witness characters literally stripping away their former persona only to emerge in another form. Becca Jeffords‘ specific lighting design keeps the mood and focus exactly where it needs to be in each scene, ably supported by Stephen Ptacek’s unique sound palette. Anita Deely has accomplished excellent dialect work with her quartet of actors and John Tovar’s fight choreography appears realistic, even in this intimate space.

This Midwest premiere will truly soon turn into a genuine period piece as 2008 rapidly becomes past history. But for now, Alexi Kaye Campbell’s look at how gay pride and passion have evolved (and will continue to do so at a faster pace) is definitely worth a look. Like her production of About Face’s “The Homosexuals,” Bonnie Metzgar has orchestrated her production to serve as the perfect play for Chicago’s month of Gay Pride. This is a play that says so much about who we are and who we’ve become.

Highly Recommended

Reviewed by Colin Douglas

Presented June 6-July 13 by About Face Theatre at the Victory Gardens Richard Christiansen Theatre, 2433 N. Lincoln Ave., Chicago.

Tickets are available by calling 773-871-3000 or by going to www.aboutfacetheatre.com.

Additional information about this and other area productions may be found at www.theatreinchicago.com.

RENT

RENT

A Season of Love from Beginning to End

Only in its second year, Naperville’s unique professional theatre closes the season with a fervent, deeply earnest production of Jonathan Larson’s Pulitzer, Tony and Drama Desk Award-winning musical that re-imagines Puccini’s “La boheme” as a rock opera set in Manhattan’s lower east side Alphabet City during the ’90’s. The group of artists is struggling to create and survive against all odds, including prejudice, poverty, drugs and the AIDS epidemic and death. The musical is rife with colorful, memorable characters, troubled relationships and the many challenges of being young, gifted and impoverished.

Lightweight Summer Entertainment with Heart

I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change

When the calendar says June and Chicagoland is perched on the brink of warmth and escapism, those looking for a way to pass those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer in the air-conditioned comfort of a theatre seat may find a good choice in Lincolnshire. This sweet, humorous revue about love, dating, relationships and marriage is like a good beach book. However, Joe DiPietro (book and lyrics) and Jimmy Roberts’ (music) romantic romp is more like the theatrical equivalent of a short story collection than a novel.