Annoyance brings more "Steam"

It looks like Chicagoans will have a couple more chances to go down the hole.

The Annoyance Theatre has extended the late night hit "Steamwerkz: The Musical" through Oct. 5.

The modern-day retelling of Alice in Wonderland is a "gay fantasia on local themes" (eat your heart out, Tony Kushner). Critics (inluding yours truly) have called it of the funniest shows of the summer. It has been referred to as the "Wicked" of Uptown (presumably where the towels --and not some green-skinned witch-- defy gravity on Friday nights). You can read my review posted here: http://triggercritic.blogspot.com/2012/07/msuical-dream-works-at-steamwerkz.html.

"The show has been sold out since we opened, so we're riding it 'til it goes limp" quips director Clay Goodpasture. "The cast and I are thrilled that it has been 'extended' for another long, hard month."

The original cast will remain in place for the extended run with the expection of Ben Kramer (Dewayne and Mad Max) who will depart the show on Aug. 31. pHProductions, GayCo and Second City actor Brett Mannes dons the towel beginning Sept. 7 .

“Steamwerkz: The Musical” runs Fridays at 10 p.m. through Oct. 5 (no show Aug. 17) at the Annoyance Theatre, 4830 N. Broadway. Tickets, $20. Call (773) 561-4665. theannoyance.com.

This "Rent" might not be worth signing the lease for

Mark (Alan Schmuckler, left) films as Roger (Derrick Trumbly) tunes the guitar
he hasn't played in a year in David Cromer's production of "Rent" Photo by Michael Brosilow.

Cross-posted from Broadwayworld.com

by Misha Davenport

In theater, much like in real estate, it’s location, location, location when it comes to whether or not it is worth paying the rent.

Take the American Theater Company and About Face Theatre’s co-production of Jonathan Larson’s Tony and Pulitzer prize-winning musical running through June 17 at ATC. Transported out of a 1990’s era lower east side of Manhattan, the musical based on Giacomo Puccini’s “La Boheme” probably wouldn’t work.

“Rent” is also very much a product of the era in which it was produced. I attended the Monday night press opening of this local production with a friend with whom I saw the original Broadway production back in 1997. Both members of Generation X, if there is one musical that we claim as our own, it is “Rent.”

That isn’t to say we approach the material with reverence. We certainly aren’t the same two people we were when we saw the original cast and it is only right that the show evolves, too.

I only had to look at chalkboard in the lobby with a user guide explaining what “antique” relics such as AZT were (because, you know, people don’t take AZT any more, right?) to know that the times of “Rent”  have changed. You couldn’t even get a martini on the lower east side in 1997. Now, one will set you back $15 during happy hour (but I digress).

From Left: Tom Collins (Alex Agard), Mark (Alan Schmuckler),
Angel (Esteban Andres Cruz) and Roger (Derrick Trubly).
Photo by Michael Brosilow.

This brings me to David Cromer’s gritty production. The proceedings are grounded in realism. Unlike a Broadway production in which the starving artists all still manage to have perfectly coiffed hair and outfits that look like you couldn’t afford them, Cromer’s vision of the starving artists and misfits of Avenue B actually look like they all could be an eviction notice away from being homeless or a needle away from an overdose.

Introspective, would-be Avant-garde film maker Mark Cohen (an appropriately understated and slightly neurotic Alan Schmuckler) is exactly the kind of guy you used to see reading obscure books in the back of your college coffee shop. Roger (Derrick Trumbly) is the former pretty boy front man of a rock band whose looks (and voice) are fading. Mimi (a terrifically fierce and passionate Grace Gealey) very much looks the part of a teenaged dancer lured by the seductive dream to make it big in the Big Apple who turns to stripping and heroin when her dreams don’t come easy. Angel (Esteban Andres Cruz) really does wear outfits that one imagines might be assembled via dumpster-diving clothing by an inventive, homeless drag queen.  Performance artist Maureen (Aileen May) comes across as an artist whose performances don’t always match the potential of her concepts. Only professor Tom Collins (Alex Agard) and attorney Joanne (Lilli-Anne Brown) remain unchanged from their original Broadway counterparts.

In the real world, starving artists, junkies, professors, attorneys and the homeless don’t usually sound like professional singers. In a bit of added realism, we’re being asked to accept a Roger whose voice cracks on some of the score’s many high notes and a Maureen and Angel whose ranges (alto and baritone) don’t match the musical’s score (a belting mezzo soprano and falsetto tenor, respectively). Most noticeably, Angel’s second act solo “Take Me” is actually performed by a ensemble member Anji White while Cruz (who is otherwise fearless and fierce in his performance) flails about in what can only be described as a dimly-lit piece of interpretive dance that robs the audience of the impact of (spoiler alert) his character’s demise.

The show’s biggest misstep, however, was the decision to use a traverse stage in which the audience sits on two sides facing each other. Much like when utilizing theater in the round, traverse staging requires the actors to play to both sides equally. That didn’t happen in the performance I caught and the fault lies with the show’s director, not the cast. I had the misfortune of being in section B and spent most of the two-and-a-half hour musical watching the backs of actors’ heads as they played to the other side. Not exactly riveting theater. In group numbers like “Seasons of Love” that featured the ensemble singing to both sides, the vocals didn’t seem to be blended (I had mostly baritones singing in front of me, so that’s the only part I heard).  

There was one pay-off. Mimi’s first act solo “Out Tonight” was just to the right of me. Friends in section A and E complained afterward that they couldn’t hear anything she sang during that number, but Gealey’s performance was electrifying from where I was sitting. In fact, Gealey has the distinction of being my favorite Mimi (no offense to the original Broadway Mimi, Daphne Rubin-Vega). Had I been sitting somewhere else, apparently that may not have been the case.

Gealey also impressed when she managed to make a moment out of a guitar accidentally falling off of Roger’s sofa during “Light My Candle.” Most actors would have just picked up the guitar and returned it to its original resting place, but Gealey worked with it in the moment, using the guitar as a sort of peace offering to the cowering Roger. Such a spontaneous event can make for a powerful moment in live theater and such was the case here.  

So, is it worth paying this “Rent?” I can’t say I’d recommend it, particularly if your theater seat is located in section B. Other locations? Who knows? Location, location, location.

“Rent” runs through June 17 at the American Theater Company, 1909 W. Byron. Tickets $45-$50. Call (773) 409-4125. www.atcweb.org

Careful the tale you tell, that is the spell....

For the umpteenth time in a decade, someone is trying to get Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine's most accessible work, "Into the Woods" made into a feature film. A still from the original Broadway production is above.

The Hollywood Reporter is, well, reporting that Tony and Academy-Award nominated director Rob Marshall has been tapped to direct a big screen version for Disney that is to feature a book by Mr. Lapine and an alleged score feature a few new songs by Mr. Sondheim himself.

To me, the show seems to be an odd fit for Disney. It's a bit too cynical (but, then again, what do I know).

Let the fantasy casting begin!

Spend the holidays with "The Addams Family"

by Misha Davenport

(cross-posted from broadwayworld.com)

It took more than two years, but the creative team behind the musical “The Addams Family” deserves a chorus of finger snaps for finally getting it right.

The show in its current (and, hopefully, final) incarnation is a sheer delight and rightfully deserves to be the hottest show in town. It’s a pity that its initial run was cut short by a week. The touring production is far superior to the pre-Broadway that opened here a couple of years ago and even the recently-closed Broadway production. It’s a horrifyingly humorous romp that shouldn’t be missed.

The plot involves Wednesday Addams (Cortney Wolfson whose big voice contradicts her lithe body) who has fallen in love with Lucas Beineke (a likeable Brian Justin Crum). The pair are polar opposites. She’s an Addams and he’s from Ohio. She is impulsive. He is reserved Yet, the pair have fallen in love.

Addam Family matriarch Gomez (Douglas Sills, who manages to better the original Broadway Gomez Nathan Lane in his comic delivery) finds out about his daughter’s engagement and Wednesdays guilts her father into keeping the secret until the two families can meet and make an honest assessment of each other without the Damocles sword of a wedding hovering above everyone’s heads.

Gomez and Morticia (Sara Gettelfinger, who is far more alluring and a better singer than Broadway’s original Morticia, Bebe Neuwirth) pride themselves on their frank, open and honest relationship and Gomez quickly realizes he’s trapped and bound to upset one of the two women in his life.

Meanwhile, the bald and slightly asexual Uncle Fester (the hilarious Blake Hammond) is pining for his love (the moon; this is the Addams Family afterall). Wednesday’s masocist little brother Pugsley (Patrick D. Kennedy) frets that his sister’s boyfriend will put a crimp in his sister torturing him. Grandma (Pippa Pearthree) just wants to be left alone with her potions and herbal remedies in the attic. Lurch (the rich bass Tom Corbeil) the undead butler seems content to go about his duties.

The future in-laws are initially picture perfect, but it only take s a few scratches to see their dysfunctional flaws. Mal Beineke (Martin Vidnovic) is a controlling workaholic. His wife Alice (Victoria Huston-Elem, a terrific understudy in the role normally played by Crista Moore) is high-strung and prone to bouts of rhyming. Lucas finds himself at that fork in the where he must choose whether to disappoint his parents or himself as he marches to adulthood. Dad wants him to join the family business, but Lucas isn’t so sure.

For as kooky and altogether spooky as The Addams Family may be, the success of the franchise has always relied on the fact that the hopes, dreams, fears and problem they face at their core never stray from a familiar and immediately identifiable path (albeit a less well lit one).

While the situations are most often played for laughs, the comedic show is not without its touching moments, though. These include “Happy/Sad” in which Gomez attempts to explain how he really feels about his daughter growing up and Gomez and Morticia’s duet “Let’s Live Before We Die.”   

"The Addams Family" is one family worth visiting this holiday season. 

"Book of Mormon" seeking to convert Hollywood

Packed and heading to Hollywood?

One of this Broadway season's breakout hits, "The Book of Mormon" may just be heading to to the big screen if the show's book writers Matt Stone and Trey Parker have their way.
Though the plot of the show is hardly traditional movie musical fare (or Broadway for that matter; it's about naive Mormon missionaries sent to convert an Ugandan village where poverty, AIDS and violence are rampant), Trey and Stone, who also have a little hit called "South Park" on Comedy Central, told Deadline.com that if they show continues to do boffo Broadway box office, a movie adaptation is almost a given.
"We've learned in our careers that as long as something is successful, they will give you money for it," Parker told Deadline.com. "They just want to make money in Hollywood, they don't really care. As long as the musical continues to do well, I don't think it's going to be hard at all."
I caught the show in previews and thought despite the occasional raunchy bits, felt the overall experience was sweet and uplifting. With tickets to the musical on Broadway hard to come by, a movie musical just might gain a few more converts to this brilliant and touching show about the power of faith.
You can order tickets to the Broadway show at the show's website here.

Tales of the City's Barbary Lane Now More Musical

San Francisco's American Conservatory Theater nabbed the rights to the world premiere of "Tales of the City: The Musical," the musical adaptation of Armistead Maupin's classic book. It plays May 18-July 10th in what is expected to be a pre-Broadway run.

The book for the musical is by Jeff Whittey, who won a Best Book of a Musical Tony award for "Avenue Q." The score and lyrics are from the Scissor Sisters' Jake Shears and John "JJ" Garden, who, while not a full-fledged member of Scissor Sisters, has toured as keyboardist for the band. Direction is by Jason Moore, who was Tony-nominated for his direction on "Avenue Q."

The musical is expected to closely follow the events of the first book in the series. The music has thus far been kept under wraps. The creative team have begun to talk about the project, though:



Though it would be hard for anyone to step into a role made most famous by Academy Award-nominated actress Laura Linney, who first came to prominence as main protagonist Mary Ann Singleton in the 1993 public television miniseries "Tales of the City."

I'm a huge fan of the books (with the exception of Michael Tolliver Lives), Linney absolutely nailed the characters naivety and boundless optimism at the start of the series.

Betsy Wolfe will be playing the lead in the San Francisco try-out.

Wolfe doesn't have a ton of Broadway credits to her name. I missed her as Katheryn Brawner in the 2007 revival of "110 in the Shade" and in one of the musicals from last season, "Everyday Rapture." Is it me or does Wolfe bare a resemblance to Linney?

Far more recognizable is Tony award-winning actress Judy Kaye ("The Phantom of the Opera" and "Ragtime") in the role of Barbary Lane matriarch Anna Madrigal.

Rounding out the trio of main characters is Wesley Taylor as Michael "Mouse" Tolliver.

Taylor was last seen in Chicago (and on Broadway) as Wednesday Addams' love interest Lucas Beinke in the musical "The Addams Family."

So, is Maupin's book in good hands? I'm nervous. The Scissor Sisters are currently on tour with Lady Gaga through at least May 6. That doesn't give Shears a lot of time to devote to tweaking music and lyrics. It's the same problem that Julie Taymor and the producers of "Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark" learned the hard way when U2's touring schedule prevented Bono and the Edge from devoting themselves completely to the score and lyrics for that troubled show.

And the fact that we have heard so little of the "Tales" score makes me even more nervous.