PicksInSix Review: You Will Get Sick - Steppenwolf Theatre Company

Electric performances, Impressive Illusions, Frustrating Script. 
PicksInSix® Review | Guest Contributor | Catey Sullivan

The irrevocable breakdown of the human body comes for all of us sooner or later, the inevitable manifestation of the most primal fear. Coping when you can no longer deny your end is nigh is a treacherous obstacle course of grieving, profundity, surrealism and gallows humor. Or so it is in Steppenwolf Theatre’s production of Noah Diaz’ “You Will Get Sick,” directed by Steppenwolf Co-Artistic Director, Audrey Francis. But for all its undeniable humor and electric performances, “You Will Get Sick” ultimately delivers a confused web of references that are more baffling than meaningful. 

The plot magically moves through time and space (terrific magic and illusion design by Skylar Fox) as a something-like-friendship develops between Callan (Steppenwolf ensemble member Amy Morton) and an unnamed man suffering from a  mysterious illness (Steppenwolf Ensemble Member Namir Smallwood). Smallwood makes the man rich, layered, and just cryptic enough to add a dash of mystery to the proceedings. His illness is never named, but his symptoms are horrific. His legs give way from under him. His smile has gone lopsided. He bleeds and vomits hay. To deal with telling his family, he plans a rehearsal. He’ll pay a stranger to call him, and to listen to him divulge his illness. Callan answers the flier he puts on a phone pole.

As Smallwood’s garish symptoms become more debilitating, Callan and the sick man form a singular bond. But this is no “Beaches.” Their relationship is as contractual as it is emotional. Callan charges every time she wipes the sick man’s brow. 

Diaz wraps a layer of magical realism around the bleak plot. Dinosaur-like birds are plucking humans up for dinner. A latter day snake oil salesman (Steppenwolf Ensemble member Cliff Chamberlain, quadruple cast and displaying comic brilliance as an overly earnest acting student) peddles “bird insurance.” Set designer Andrew Boyce pays a striking homage to Hitchcock’s 1963 masterpiece, “The Birds” (specifically the jungle gym scene where a playground is overtaken by winged predators). There are also repeated references to “The Wizard of Oz.” Late in the 85-minute drama, we see a replica of Dorothy’s costume in the 1939 movie, Raquel Adorno’s recreation detailed down to the bows on those iconic ruby slippers.

In addition to Royce’s towering web of a set (complete with massive reveal), “You Will Get Sick” is bolstered by Jen Shriever ’s lighting which veers from golden to blackout, all of it deployed with cinematic verve.

None of the above can stop the script from spiraling into whimsy. The final moments feel abrupt and incomplete. “You Will Get Sick” brings up a universally relatable existential crisis – but in the end, it is more nonsensical than not.

GUEST CONTRIBUTOR | CATEY SULLIVAN has been covering Chicago theater for more than 30 years. Her work has been published in the Chicago Sun-Times, Chicago Reader, Windy City Times, Playbill, Chicago Magazine, Chicago Tribune and New City, among others. She has an MFA in creative writing from the University of Illinois. 

PHOTO|Michael Brosilow

Steppenwolf Theatre Company
presents
You Will Be Sick
Downstairs Theater
1650 N. Halsted St.
through July 20, 2025

WEBSITE
TICKETS
BOX OFFICE: (312) 335-1650

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PicksInSix Review: BOOP! The Musical - Broadway in Chicago

“BOOP! The Musical” Has It All!
PicksInSix® Gold Review | Ed Tracy

When the stunning new show “BOOP! The Musical” arrives on Broadway next year, a new generation will discover the iconic Betty Boop through the spellbinding performance of Jasmine Amy Rogers in the title role, and through the eyes of one of their own—16 year-old pop media phenom Angelica Hale, making her stage debut as Betty’s new pint-sized BFF.  

At the magical moment that Betty catapults into present day Comicon from her cartoon world of the 1930s, she is searching to both escape the adulation of her own time and to satisfy her yearning to discover an answer to the pivotal question: “Who am I?” Upon arrival, she finds a vibrant world in the radiant colors of the rainbow, none of which she knows by name. She also has a predilection to put an ‘L’ in everything, so her new marshmallow world is “plurple.”

It's the black, white and red-hot opening sequence of “BOOP! The Musical” with Rogers as the charming, charismatic, and confident heroine created by illustrator, animator and cartoon innovator Max Fleischer who revolutionized the graphic technology of the day, merging illustrations and live action to create whimsical cartoon series and shorts featuring Betty Boop, Popeye and a cavalcade of quirky characters who morph from inanimate objects to all forms of comic incarnations.

The world premiere of “BOOP!” opened Wednesday at Chicago's CIBC Theatre. After years in development, there is now a dream team in place for the Broadway-bound project directed and choreographed by multi-Tony Award winner Jerry Mitchell, the first musical venture by Grammy and Emmy award-winning composer/producer David Foster with lyrics by Susan Birkenhead (“Jelly’s Last Jam”) and book by Bob Martin (“Drowsy Chaperone,” “Elf”). The creative team includes a spectacular scenic design by David Rockwell that is beautifully enhanced by Finn Ross’s projections and Gareth Owen’s sound design, Philip S. Rosenberg’s lighting and the stunning costumes of Greg Barnes.

With big, boisterous dance numbers, tender ballads, an extraordinary scenic landscape and masterful illusions courtesy of Skylar Fox, “BOOP!” has it all. It's a love story—three actually—but even more it’s a free-spirited and endearing comedy that has a message for all of us about who we are and the impact we can make on the world and the people in it.

At Comicon, Betty collides with Dwayne (Ainsley Melham) a jazz musician and for maybe the first time, Betty senses an attraction. Overcome by her new surroundings, Betty forges a friendship with Trisha (Hale) a young fan and aspiring artist in need of a little confidence of her own. It doesn't take long before we find that Trisha lives with her aunt Carol (Anastacia McCleskey), who serves as manager for the New York City mayoral campaign of Raymond Demerest (Erich Bergen) and Carol’s brother, who just happens to be Dwayne. The hook is set and a youthful love story begins to unfold.

Back in early 30s, the studio directors, Aubie Merrylees and Ricky Schroder, are in a tizzy when they discover that Betty is nowhere to be found. Grampy (Stephen DeRosa) realizes that Betty’s absence will have a disastrous impact on their present and the future, so he embarks on a cross-dimensional journey of his own with his dog Pudgy (the brilliant marionette artist Phillip Huber). In Times Square he meets up with Valentina (Faith Prince) a retired NASA scientist who is still holding a torch for Grampy that was lit 40 years earlier. At first on a quest to find Betty before it’s too late, Grampy discovers that the fire is still smoldering between the two.

The cat’s out of the bag on the secret that Betty Boop is now alive in the present when she shows up and brings the house down at Nellie’s Place, the jazz club where Dwayne is trying to get a regular gig. Once the news is public, the corrupt Demerest, the King of Waste, tries to hitch his dump truck, and whatever else he has at his disposal, to Betty’s instant celebrity. But it’s Betty who turns the tables on the plan and as always, love wins out overall.  

Martin’s book moves briskly and effortlessly with zingers and easter eggs, old and new, along the way. Musically, Foster has infused the score with a plethora of styles from jazz and pop to some socko Broadway show tunes that allow Mitchell a full range of dance routines for the superb, multi-talented ensemble. Among the highlights, Rogers leads the ensemble in the opening “A Little Versatility,” “My New York” and “In Color,” and the show is at full throttle for the truly sensational Act I closer “Where I Wanna Be.”

World Premiere of “BOOP ! The Musical” at Broadway in Chicago’s CIBC Theatre through December 24, 2023.

Price and DeRosa shine in “A Cure for Love” and the touching “Together, You and Me.” Melham joins Schroder and Probst for “Sunlight” and delivers a blissful “She Knocks Me Out.” Hale’s powerful “Portrait of Betty” is a smash and the lovely “My Hero” with Rogers is one of the show’s many highlights.

It all comes down to Rogers though, whose radiant stage presence is all at once inquisitive, vulnerable and decisive as she evolves to the real version of who she will become: a loving role model of strength and independence.

Rogers’s charismatic performance of “Something to Shout About” is a showstopper. After taking center stage surrounded by a glistening celestial panorama, she steps decisively and defiantly forward and, in that one moment, appears larger-than-life, captivating the audience and signaling the presence of a star.

That she is.  

PHOTO|Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman

Broadway in Chicago
presents the
World Premiere of
BOOP! The Musical
CIBC Theatre
through December 24, 2023

TICKETS
SHOW WEBSITE

For more reviews, visit: Theatre In Chicago

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