PicksInSix Review: As You Like It - Writers Theatre

TOP-NOTCH ENSEMBLE SHINES AT WRITERS!
PicksInSix® Review | Guest Contributor | Ronald Keaton

There is, up in Glencoe, a unique and striking musical adaptation of William Shakespeare's comedy masterpiece “As You Like It” playing at Writers Theatre through December 14. It's directed by Nichols Artistic Director Braden Abraham in bold, wonderfully outlandish strokes that enhance this story of lost souls who all find each other in the Forest of Arden. There is a magic in Arden. Everyone experiences a kind of ethereal conversion in attitude and outlook. Arden thus symbolizes more—a place of refuge and spiritual comfort, a haven of freedom.

There is a great deal of plot in the play that is simply too thick to fully share. Yet the adaptation by Shaina Taub and Laurie Woolery make highly accessible, in plain language, the various plot points that the Bard offers. They do not hesitate to use plain and modern language to help the storytellers along, and it's a welcome tool to have. Yes, the aficionado does miss some of that wonderful poetry, chiefly Jaques' classic, rueful rumination on life about the "seven ages of man." And then there's his sharp and welcome banter with the fool Touchstone in Shakespeare's play. But in hindsight, this approach doesn't really serve the Taub and Woolery vision. They see other ways to go.

Instead, the migration of unhappiness from the Court of Duke Frederick that ends up in Arden takes the well-known sentiment of contemporary life 'love is love is love...' to new places here. There is a company of subjects—including Duke Senior, his daughter Rosalind, his niece Celia and Touchstone—who all leave to find their romantic fortunes, banished by Frederick. One young man, Orlando, has become a kind of celebrity for his win in a wrestling match, while his brother Oliver starts out as a real bully in picking on Orlando. Through their own issues, they both end up in Arden and mend fences. And we've only just begun.

Eventually in this story, there is a literal quartet of lovers—traditional, same-sex, comic and dramatic—that celebrates their newly found love and release from the pressures of the world. The music/lyrics by Tony winner Taub are a potpourri of folk styles and rock rhythms, all filled with style and maturity. The music is played by an onstage, ragtag group, perfectly complimenting the action. Music direction came from the versatile Michael Mahler. The band is fronted by Matthew Yee as Jaques, who here becomes a kind of eloquent narrator of the action, while performing his scenes with the ever-present guitar in hand. It's an inspired placement of the character and fabulous usage of Mr. Yee's talents.

The tight cast is one of the great examples of ensemble acting this writer has seen in musical theatre in quite a while, as well as top-notch creators to represent. Everyone (and I mean everyone) has a moment or two to shine while being present in the story for the others. A few to mention, while honoring the truly professional level that all the actors reached: Benjamin Mathew's Orlando is passionate and aware of those passions at every turn. The Rosalind of Phoebe Gonzalez, whose male guise of Ganymede teaches Orlando to woo Rosalind, is charming and full. Andrea San Miguel offers a Celia ripe with energy and purpose. The great clown Touchstone lives in the capable, expert hands of Jackson Evans. There's the overbearing brother Oliver (the smooth, deep-voiced Anand Nagraj). The two Dukes—Frederick (Scott Aiello, tough and demanding) and Senior (Paul Oakley Stovall, subtle and tender)—show their family leadership constantly, even as they are on opposite sides. Chicago treasure Janet Ulrich Brooks shows up in at least three different characters, each expertly articulated. Please take note: the entire cast knows how to support each other, a refreshing and telling sign with work of such high quality. And a real bow to Mr. Abraham's direction.

Shakespeare's famous line "All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players" is not forgotten here either, and it receives a Taub examination in a song lyric:  "All the world's a stage / And everybody's in the show / No one's a pro" is the first song we hear. It's sung by Mr. Yee as Jaques, the character who speaks the original line in the Shakespeare play. Same sentiment, more accessible and, in its own way, properly applied to today.

GUEST CONTRIBUTOR | RONALD KEATON received an Equity Jeff Award for the performance of his one-man show CHURCHILL. www.solochicagotheatre.com.  Coming soon, his new solo play about Ben Franklin, THE FIRST EMBASSY.

PHOTO | Jenn Udoni

Writers Theatre
presents
AS YOU LIKE IT
325 Tudor Court
Glencoe, IL
through December 14

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PicksInSix Review: The Audience - Drury Lane Theatre

Brooks Holds Court in “The Audience.”
PicksInSix® Review | Guest Contributor | Ronald Keaton

I had the unique opportunity of seeing the original Broadway production of Peter Morgan’s historical play about Queen Elizabeth II, “The Audience,” back in 2015, with the fabulous Helen Mirren and a host of excellent actors in support.  The research into the subject matter is meticulous and well-organized, and if you’re a history buff, you will absolutely love this wonderful creativity.  If you’re not and you keep an open mind, it will lure you in with a kind of picture-book approach of a history lesson, that couldn’t be more entertaining in its turns, and they’re offered by the fine actors seen here. 

“The Audience” takes place during the reign of Queen Elizabeth II, specifically focusing on her weekly meetings with the prime minister in office.  It’s not told in a linear fashion, but in a kind of memory focus, so we get an interesting and full scrapbook of storytelling.  There’s even a narrator-on-staff, so to speak—the versatile Jürgen Hooper as the Equerry—to help guide us through the maze of time and place and, well, all the prime ministers, as well as a young Elizabeth (Omi Lichtenstein in an impressive turn) to whom the adult Queen can relate to on occasion.

All the meetings are held in what’s called ‘The Meeting Room’ in Buckingham Palace. It is very simple, accessible staging by director Jessica Fisch. Center stage are two chairs with a small table between them, where all the discussions take place. It might have helped a bit to have the prime ministers and/or the Queen get up and move more often to vary the scene, but that’s nothing that overcomes the fine storytelling.  Ms. Fisch also has created a smooth, absolutely silent scene change habit for those chairs and other set pieces, musically underscored, that actually entertains on its own, thanks to a wonderfully restrained, elegant scenic design by Andrew Boyce.

The entire play is owned by Queen Elizabeth II and taken into charge by the redoubtable Janet Ulrich Brooks, one of Chicago’s truly talented, fascinating actors. She plays Elizabeth from the beginnings of her reign in 1952 by meeting her first Prime Minister, Winston Churchill (an irascible, almost knightly Matt DeCaro), who detests and resists any turn from tradition in the meetings and, indeed, reinforces the Queen’s grandfather, George V, in his insistence on maintaining such structure. The Queen stands up to the great man with questions and methods of her own; they reach a shaky truce of sorts by meeting’s end, and one tips a hat to her resolve.

All the Prime Ministers are at once impressed, shaken and establish their own friendly joust with the Queen.  The first PM appointee Anthony Eden (excellently manipulative and fearful by Mark Ulrich) betrays his reputation with his mismanagement of the Suez Canal affair. Ron E. Rains offers a surprisingly full-bodied and humorous Harold Wilson, thanks to the playwright’s gift of three different scenes with the Queen. (Mr. Wilson did have two separate terms in office, thus justifying what we see.) Susie McMonagle clutches the expected aggressive stance as Margaret Thatcher in a gripping, properly uncompromising exchange with Brooks’ Queen. Both John Major (John Judd) and Tony Blair (Alex Goodrich) leave strong marks on their terms in the office for totally disparate reasons. The Scot, Gordon Brown (Raymond Fox) followed the Churchillian path of Chancellor of the Exchequer in stabilizing the UK’s economy, which led to his PM appointment.  And David Cameron (a second turn by Mr. Goodrich) led the first peacetime British coalition government that voted to leave the European Union in 2016, forcing him to resign.

The richness in history is handled by Elizabeth with varying degrees of attitude, but always in support of each charge. And the many physical changes in Ms. Brooks’ appearance onstage are deftly handled through those aforementioned scene changes with wig and dress by a hugely talented palace staff, both in the story and through the craft. This fine production of a rare play runs at Drury Lane Theatre in Oakbrook Terrace through October 20.  

GUEST CONTRIBUTOR | RONALD KEATON received an Equity Jeff Award for the performance of his one-man show CHURCHILL. www.solochicagotheatre.com  Coming soon, his new solo play “Echo Holler.” www.echoholler.com

PHOTO| Brett Beiner

Drury Lane Theatre
presents
The Audience
100 Drury Lane
Oakbrook Terrace
through October 20, 2024

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PicksInSix Review: The Cherry Orchard - Goodman Theatre

“All Things Come To An End.”
PicksInSix® Gold Review |Ed Tracy

On my first visit to Chicago, I took a brisk late morning walk from Streeterville down Michigan Avenue across the DuSable Bridge to Wacker then North Dearborn and into the lobby of the Goodman Theatre. I was on a quest, of sorts. I browsed the impressive donor wall and peered in on the staff bustling around next door at Petterino’s.

It was mid-March 2002 and I had visited a hundred theaters or more before but could immediately feel the unique energy emitting from this slumbering giant of a venue. The feeling was palpable and inspiring.

I ventured upstairs and—remarkably by today’s security standards—into the Albert Theatre balcony, settling quietly into the last seat on the aisle, watching stagehands prepare for the next performance of the Robert Falls-directed masterpiece, “Long Day’s Journey into Night.”

It was not apparent to me at the time just how much influence one person could have on an institution, particularly when it is in the business of the performing arts and operates at such an extraordinary professional level as the Goodman Theatre. Falls’ work had been recognized with numerous awards, most notably a Special Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theatre and for directing “Death of a Salesman.”      

An amazing career for someone who had served as Artistic Director at Goodman since 1986. But Falls was just getting started. Twenty years passed before a new generation of artistic leadership would begin writing the next chapter. The foundational work by Falls and longtime Executive Director/CEO Roche Schulfer is an epic story of partnership and passion for the arts.  One need only look at the last six pages of the program to witness the investment by individuals, corporations and foundations whose support has enabled groundbreaking new work and educational opportunities to flourish on multiple stages.

Countless years of opening nights at Goodman were top of mind as I entered the Albert on Monday for the opening of Falls’ brilliant production of Anton Chekov’s “The Cherry Orchard,” a play choice that speaks to his long range vision and embraces a legacy that will be lasting and permanent. Falls is an artist extraordinaire and an innovator who has operated at the pinnacle of his craft through a defining and challenging era for contemporary theater.

This is a production to see and to savor.

Change is inevitable and “all things come to an end” a resoundingly appropriate quote from the play that sums up our human urge to reconcile with the past even as we keep a hopeful eye to the future. Adapted by Falls from a translation by George Calderon, “The Cherry Orchard” bursts with life, love, anguish and longing, showcasing an aristocracy trapped in its social mores, vulnerable yet oblivious to the generational change that is consuming them. It is theater of the highest caliber, a classic running spritely on all cylinders with production values that are rich, textured and sublime.

It is also a play for our time, when our own creative culture is at a tipping point and theater itself in the middle of a seismic shift. Falls has molded Chekov’s vision of the collapse of mid-19th century servitude society into an assessable production that looks and feels very much like it might have at the Moscow Art Theater during its debut at turn of the 20th century. Now enhanced for a modern audience, it emerges with all the joy and sadness that Chekov might have imagined—delightfully entertaining, absorbing and captivating—elevated to new heights by an extraordinary ensemble led by the blistering performance of Kate Fry (Lubov Ranyevskaya) and inimitable Chicago stage veterans including: Kareem Bandealy (Lopakhin),  Christopher Donahue (Leonid Gayev), Matt DeCaro (Boris Semyonov-Pishchik), Alexandra Escalante (Varya), and Amanda Drinkall (Dunyasha) with two of the most endearing and heartfelt stage turns of this or any season by Francis Guinan (Firs) and Janet Ulrich Brooks (Carlotta). 

Todd Rosenthal’s artful scenic design of the estate of Lyubov Ranevskaya, the stunning costumes by Ana Kuzmanic and evocative lighting by Keith Parham, all coalesce to provide the perfect visual tapestry.

The page has now been turned. We can only dream that the next glorious chapter of Goodman Theatre history will be as exciting, and satisfying, as this one. “The Cherry Orchard” plays through May 7.  

PHOTO|Liz Lauren

GOODMAN THEATRE
presents
THE CHERRY ORCHARD
EXTENDED through May 7
Albert Theatre
170 N. Dearborn St.

(312) 443-3800

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PicksInSix Review: Pipeline

‘PIPELINE’ LEADS TOWARD ONE DARK DESTINATION

As Dominique Morisseau’s “Pipeline” begins, Nya (Tyla Abercrumbie) has just been informed that her son Omari (Matthew Elam) has had a serious altercation at a boarding school and is about to be expelled. Nya, an inner-city public school administrator, tries gamely to get through the day as she reaches out to her ex-husband and makes plans to bring her son home. In the meantime, we meet Laurie (Janet Ulrich Brooks), an instructor who has returned to her classes after a harrowing confrontation with a student. Laurie makes a pact with the school security guard, Dun (Ronald L. Conner), to protect her in the future.

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In and through Morisseau’s insightful story, deftly directed by Cheryl Lynn Bruce at Victory Gardens Theater, runs the fear of reprisal for anyone who takes a stand against prejudice and discrimination in school systems and what effect those actions will have on the future of the students’ lives. Omari’s impassioned defense, first to his girlfriend, Jasmine (Aurora Real de Asua), and then to his mother and father, Xavier (Mark Spates Smith), begins to rip apart his family—his rebellious attitude the cause of Nya’s growing stress and anxiety. From their perspective, Omari is in the pipeline toward only one dark destination. That reality has everyone worried.

The heart-wrenching performances of Abercrumbie and Brooks, whose mounting frustration at working in a challenging and often hostile educational system that drives one to drink and the other to the edge of her sanity, are raw and compelling.  It seems that no matter how much care and attention they invest, situations will grow out of control in an instant with dire consequences.  

Elam’s Omari believes he has every right to be self-righteous in the face of bigotry and persecution, so he casts aside the safe harbor that his family projects would be a better fit than the lawless unknown of the streets. And, as a role model, the all-business Xavier lost his son long ago—shown as a poignant moment of realization that Smith delivers powerfully as Xavier recognizes that it was largely his past choices that have brought the family to where they are today.

The character study also provides fine opportunities for de Ausa, whose edgy portrayal of Jasmine plays particularly well in a confrontation with Abercrumbie, and for Conner, who has more than security on his mind.

This piece is a conversation starter about attitudes between children and parents, students and administrators and a host of other elements in our at-risk communities and across our educational systems. It asks the questions: How do we know where to draw the line on discipline and behavior if the social lines of toleration keep wavering? How does social media impact those areas? And, what is the impact on our children if we do not get it right the first time? Although there is a hopeful conclusion, Morisseau drives home the point that before answers emerge, everyone must really listen to each other, or face the grim reality that it may already be too late.

PHOTOS|Liz Lauren

VICTORY GARDENS
Presents
PIPELINE
through March 3rd
2433 North Lincoln Ave
(773) 871-3000
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PICKSINSIX Review: MASTER CLASS

CALLAS: "Ho dato tutto a te."

The TimeLine Theatre Company production of Terrence McNally’s 1996 Drama Desk and Tony Award-winning “Master Class” now playing at Stage 773 traces the life and career of opera diva Maria Callas as immigrant, daughter, student, artist, spouse, lover and mentor starring one of Chicago’s most gifted actors, Janet Ulrich Brooks, as Callas. McNally’s play evokes the live experience of opera classes that were held twice a week at the Julliard School from October 1971 to March 1972.  

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“Master Class” delivers the lessons of a lifetime to three students, expertly cast as Tenor Tony (Eric Anthony Lopez), First Soprano Sophie (Molly Hernandez) and Second Soprano Sharon (Keirsten Hodgens), composites from the 25 of Callas’ students who participated in the Julliard events and based on McNally’s firsthand observations. A magnificent 12 foot Steinway grand piano is the centerpiece of the sweeping design by Arnel Sancianco that engulfs the thrust space to bring Callas, her students and accompanist Manny (Stephen Boyer) eye-to-eye with the audience.

That imposing juxtaposition helps Brooks immediately establish full and complete authority. At one juncture, as she sizes up the second of her three students, the teacher chides the young woman on her appearance then instructs her to start all over from the beginning. The consequences of the inappropriate exchange pries into the defiant Callas, exposing what is her essential truth: “Ho dato tutto a te.”  — I gave everything to you.

Nick Bowling, a TimeLine founder and Associate Artistic Director, directs his 30th production with musical direction by Doug Peck. Ingeniously interspersed throughout McNally’s work are recordings from Callas’ professional career while the fiery temperament and her unequalled understanding of the composer’s intent erupts forcefully from the text in Brooks artfully rich performance.

Uniformly the voices of the students are exceptional. Hodgens delivers a powerful Lady Macbeth. Lopez gives a fine tenor performance and Hernandez is delightful as the soprano. Boyer is a superb musician and fine vocalist. It is Brooks, however, who is captivating as she navigates the story of the legendary artist who painfully struggled with obesity, a volatile marriage to Giovanni Battista Meneghini and anguish of her long-time relationship with Aristotle Onassis.

Although Maria Callas’ final performance on stage (in Tosca) was in July 1965, the Julliard master classes launched a series of recitals from 1973 to 1974 throughout Europe, the U.S and Asia.  Life in the world of opera is not so far removed from our own, however. Callas’ legacy is summed in her teaching of the art – be passionate, feel it in your gut, show up prepared, be willing to sacrifice and give everything to the work and, ultimately, to the audience. That includes knowing when to take a final bow, which Callas sadly did in 1977 at the age of 53.        

PHOTOS|LARA GOETSCH

TIMELINE THEATRE COMPANY
Presents
MASTER CLASS
through December 9th
STAGE 773
1225 W. Belmont Avenue
(773)327.5252

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