A Girl With Sun In Her Eyes is a riveting re-invention of the police procedural. It’s 6 am and an undercover female police officer has been reported missing for several hours on Chicago’s South Side. The last person to see her is now the primary suspect in her disappearance. Two veteran police officers with complex ties to the missing officer—and each other—lead the interrogation. How far would you go to protect the life you have? The Shield meets Memento in this world premiere thriller.
Pimprov revolves around four pimps who took improv comedy classes on accident. The groups lack of political correctness and outrageous costumes are only part of the reason they're growing in popularity. The other reason is, they're really funny.
In A Beautiful Spell, Jim and Franny wake up in the middle of the night panicked to discover that they no longer love each other. Is it real or just a night terror? Frightened and confused, the couple struggles desperately to get back what they've lost - before the sun comes up. A Beautiful Spell exposes the deep and sometimes painful truths that lie beneath the surface of wedded bliss in this hilarious and touching new play.
Today my darling Dar Williams is presenting her first musical. I first met the brilliant music of Dar Williams when I was living in Massachusetts in the fall of 2005. I have been in love with/a missionary for her music ever since. I was lucky enough to see her at a random concert in York, PA in 2010 & she lived up to everything I had built up in my mind. It was one of the best, most fulfilling & satisfying concerts I've ever seen. She is a GENIUS of a writer/lyricist & has such a consistently perfect perspective. Her songs always have a nostalgic tone that reminds me of New England. She writes with a direct but sweet & subtle sense of feminism, slight green party flair, and quick & quiet sense of humor.
I am so curious about this musical because it seems like the lovechild of two of my greatest loves: Dar's music & musicals. However, there is suprisingly little press to give insight on what this production will taste like. The most descriptive descriptions I have stumbled upon are these 2 vague references:
Paul Whitehouse recounted anecdotes from his time working at Starbucks. Off-the-bat, he had an engaging & approachable stage personality. For me, his immediate backstory of the employment was a little eerie…living in Wrigleyville, a BA in Theatre, & having spent more hours than you’d ever imagined crafting coffee creations.
His strongest bit was recounting the days
after a cab drove into his Starbucks at North/Wells.
People made the same lame joke:
“I didn’t know this was a drive-through location”
332 times. I so relate to his pain.
“The Coffee Serving Muppet Machine”
He spent equal energy dissecting his relationship with the management as he did recounting interactions with the customers. This was a strong balance, but his narratives relating to the customers had a much stronger, more cohesive point-of-view. The only bit that recurred throughout the whole skit was one in which he imitated Muppets portraying his bosses. He had good miming capabilities (especially of Elmo & the Cookie Monster) & physicality, but the point of the Muppetizing was foggy. The common strand of Muppetzing bosses cost some of the quality of his more insightful & subtle observations at times, the imitations even blurred the clarity of his story’s narrative line. The whole performance piece would have been stronger without the impressions and a dedicated reliance on his ideas.
One Moral I Appreciated:
Don’t leave gum under the table
because someday a human being will have to clean it.
Act II: Trapped in a Box
At intermission, I had a conversation with my friend because I was unsure if would I like the structure & I was wondering how interesting a solitary job could be. All of the anecdotes from the first piece were recounting interactions with 3-D humans. But the question posed to me in response was:
Aren’t people more obnoxious on the phone than in real-life?
It turned out to be true that there is more meat for humor erupting from a situation where humans can be faceless jerks. More of the root of the humor was found in recorded phone conversations, so the central character was largely reactionary, which is still to her credit since she wrote the show.
My first impression was that the styling was too colorful & over-stylized. This heightened tone was maintained throughout the piece. Her reactions were strong, quick, & extreme. Her emotions & physicality too pronounced. Initially she, created a character who was more bratty than whose frustrations were authentic & actually relatable. She reacted to the phone calls before we had a chance to develop the same perspective her character had already developed. The whining got old until she warmed the audience up. I grew to like her performance more as it progressed, and she turned out to be a very committed, talented performer. Eventually, I realized her attitude was based on frustration of being pulled upon & intrinsically dissatisfied with her life situation.
Best Line:
"Gotta get me off the bottom of my totem pole"
And the production couldn't have faded out with a better song:
AIDA is an opera that was translated into a musical that could have been highly sensual show, but Disney had to sand that essential element down. The musical was a glorified cartoon at times. My imaginary movie would be more sensually-based & historically-relevant like Rome. But I do love some of the songs & Disney never fails in awesome spectacle, which is always appreciated onstage. I also love that AIDA has a very different tone than the typical Disney musical. At least this musical was based on an opera as opposed to the animated inspirations of Shrek, Beauty & the Beast, The Little Mermaid, Mary Poppins, The Jungle Book, & even the mighty Lion King.
