DreamCast: After The Fair

After the Fair, set in late 1890s England, is the story of the tangled web that is woven when Edith, a bored married woman, begins to write love letters on behalf of her maid, Anna, to a young man with whom Anna has had a brief romance. The letters, Edith insists, are her words, but Anna's feelings. One of the interesting questions this musical raises is whether feelings can be separated from words. Can you feel something if you can't express it? Anna, charming as she is, is uneducated and limited in her ability to convey her feelings. Her brief (and physical) encounter with Charles is very different from the deeper, cerebral relationship Edith develops with him via letters. Which is more real? Which would he choose, if he had to? 

After The Fair: TalkinBroadway

Why I Love This Tiny Musical

• It reaffirms the power of letter-writing. At the end of the day, there really is nothing better than receiving a great, well-written letter. And if it's a love letter, all the better.
• With the love letters holding so much power over the plotline, there is a substantial amount of pressure for these love-letters to be exceptional. The beautiful text fulfills the expectations, but the fact that these love letters are placed to music of equal quality makes this the most authentically romantic musical I have ever encountered.
• In an opposing (but equally appreciated thought), this musical also brings to light the dangers that come with writing something meaningful rather than speaking it. It's ironic that this is such a solidly-set period piece because this message is so applicable to the contemporary, text-friendly audience.
• I love theatre being structured in a quadrangle [4-character] structure. This structure is becoming more common in plays, but I would love to see it applied to the musical theatre scene as well.

The Players

Bonnie Wright as Anna
I'm not a Harry Potter fan, so her face seemed familiar
but it was hard to pinpoint from where.
I like that vibe for Anna.
She has a manner & face that is
vaguely familiar & vaguely worldly, while still seeming
earnest, endearing, entrancing, & adorable.

James Franco as Charles Bradford
He immediately comes across as charming but with some depth.
If he could channel that sense of intensity with
a lazy rich-boy tone,
he would be a perfect casting as the
charismatic but ultimately disappointing beau.

Edward Herrmann as Arthur Harnham
Arthur's role is that of the unwaveringly strong, eternally oblivious,
but ultimately loving male provider.
He operates from the mentality that care-taking equals love,
but a love that is not always sufficient
to the complicated females in his life.
The distant, white-collar husband/father is a role that can easily fall flat,
but on he played & conquered a similar role on Gilmore Girls.

Sela Ward as Edith Harnham

I initially thought of her because of her physical resemblance to Michele Pawk.

And being a regular on CSI means that she knows how to play a thinker,

and Edith is nothing if not a

plotter, planner, & executor.

The Original Grease @ American Theatre Company



{ACT I}

The Act I opening number was Foster Beach (otherwise known as Summer Nights). The environment solidly established an authentic history between the Pink Ladies & Burger Palace Boys. I liked how the Greased Lightning car was built into the set as a fixture. As Kenickie, Mike Tepali was not as slick & smooth as typically performed (which I appreciated), but he didn’t own the stage during the moments that belonged to him. He sang well, but didn’t build enough of a character until the second act. Jan  & Roger's duet Mooning was the weakest, most zone-out/bathroom-break moment of Act I. Jan (Missy Moreno) seemed the oldest actor & lacked subtlety. Roger (Rob Colletti) had a more natural & chill demeanor, which only caused Jan to seem more of an over-actor.

As Patty Simcox, Alaina Mills played that familiar-to-everyone, student-council type. She was such a well-rounded actress who could be plugged in everywhere from the most satirical of musicals to the most heavy-handed textual pieces. This production also created a relationship & dynamic between Patty Simcox & Danny Zuko that added depth to both of their characters.

Adrian Aguilar was unflinchingly solid as Danny Zuko. It had to be difficult to play a part immortalized by John Travolta & already beloved by most of the audience members. He had an approachability & vulnerability that has always been lacking. Sandy goes through her classic transformation, but this Danny actually did as well. It felt like he tried more than the Danny Zuko's of the past, he was more earnest but not lacking any of the necessary attitude. If anything, having it set in Chicago instead of Anywhere, America nails in the reality of Danny's hardcore reality.

As Marty, Carol Rose seemed an ordinary & random casting at first, but she won me over during Freddy My Love. Sh belted with ease with a committed, composed & complex characterization of the song’s text. She also reminded me of Scarlett Johansson.

We Go Together is usually the ending to Act II, but this production used it as the end of Act I. This is a great song that was better utilized to cement these friendships before intermission than the cheesy, cinched-up loving ending of the movie. It felt like they actually went together. I’ve had those moments where being with your friends at the end of the night, where rain erupts, gossip prevails, & the sub-par memory is infused with nothing but the ache to return to the scene of the crime-time. The song was performed a capella & erupted organically from a few snaps & the catching on of a beat. One of the best Act I finales ever.



{ACT II}

The second act opened with Sandy singing Raining on Prom Night with the radio; it reminded me of the structure & presentation style of Show Me How by The Killers. It was a dreamier rendition but still served as a less dreamy replacement for the vibe of Hopelessly Devoted to You. Which I appreciated, because Hopelessly Devoted is a nice & pretty song, but redundant & severely emotional.

I loved Kelly Davis Wilson as Sandy. She played a new & different Sandy. This was a spazzier Sandy. It takes confidence to act upon the young, female, crazy instincts. To act as such requires a confidence that the meek movie version lacked. This spazzy quality could be interpreted as a livelihood, a passionate person. Exactly and only the type that would attract & entrance a city boy like Danny Zuko.  She had a quicker & hotter stand-up to Danny halfway through the first act. That quick heat had to be a reflection of the time they spent together on Foster Beach, and the quality of their interactions seemed a lot more grounded & realistically impactful than the foggy, vague love we saw between John Travolta & Olivia Newton-John on that misty beach. Another difference in this production was Sandy's origin. In the movie, she was transplanted from Australia to Anywhere, America. In this version, it was from Joliet to the Northwest Side. It made her more approachable & the differences between her & the rest of the characters seem more substantiated.

The Dance dominated the majority of the second act & dance drug on at times.  The deejay was Vince Fontaine From Vince Fontaine Dancing Studio’s (Michael Accardo) & he had the vibe of a car salesman. I liked establishing this character as a local celebrity; it was much more realistic/interesting. The Boogie Man Boogie reminded me of Spring Awakening, which is good. It is a vintage musical, but this is still a contemporary production that should take advantage of the influence of like-minded contemporary pieces. I loved Hannah Gomez as Cha-Cha because she was so the opposite of the traditional casting; she was like this group’s Andrea Zuckerman & I loved her.

Bryan Conner seemed like a random casting for the Beauty School Drop-Out Angel. He was not a 1960’s dreamboat-type, but more a pretty 1990's boy-bander. It was not at all a nurturing rendition like Frankie Valley’s; the tone had threatening, more good-riddance tone to it. I liked that vibe, but the number itself seemed out of place with the production as a whole. This song did allow an opportunity for Roni Geva to shine as Frenchy. She was a great contemporary adaptation of the movie figure we love so much. Her performance didn’t bring anything new to Frenchy but I'm not sure Frenchy needed anything new. Her character is a sweet, soft-spot in the show & she fulfilled that role perfectly.

There Are Worse Things I Could Do was scripted as direct & narrated response to Sandy. It didn't start with that big pause before female belter moment, but she sort of slid into the song. Jessica Diaz was a sarcastic Rizzo who showed the smarts in her street smarts. Her face reminded me of Fairuza Balk & I was parital to her bangs.

Alone at the Drive-Through was a perfect avenue for Kenickie to excel. His voice was strong, but the performance quality of his vocals were just as strong. What I initially saw lacking in him in Act was a lack of physicality being infused into his character. But he made up for that with this number because he sat stationary & could focus his energy on acting through his singing.

In My Day was a song by Miss Lynch. Peggy Roeder gave a good rendition of a pointless song & a waste of time, considering the length of the show. This number was my least favorite surprise, but it is no way a reflection of Peggy Roeder's overall pitch-perfect performance.

Kiss It was my favorite surprise from this new/old Grease. It actually had a point, perspective, & style (all of which were lacking in the movie's You're the One That I Want).

September WishList



Pornography

Steep Theatre Company

In Pornography, six stories intertwine to offer a portrait of society at the dawn of a new century and on the eve of a world tragedy. It is early July, 2005 and the United Kingdom is the center of the world: home to the G8 conference, site of the Live 8 concert, and recently announced host city for the 2012 Summer Olympics. On the morning of July 7, 2005, that center is shaken by three bombs in London's underground. Pornography was first produced in 2007 by Deutsches Schauspielhaus in Hamburg, Germany, and made its U.K. premiere at the Traverse Theatre as part of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

Weekends Through Sept. 17

Alice's Adventures Under Ground

City Lit Theatre

Based on the writings of Lewis Carroll and employing Carroll as a character in the play, Hampton’s play uses episodes from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There as well as material from Carroll’s personal correspondence to explore the relationship between the Oxford mathematics tutor and the little girl who inspired his literary legacy.

Runs Through Oct. 9

Tiny Fascists - A Boy Scout Musical

Annoyance Theatre

Going to Philmont Scout Ranch is every Boy Scout's dream. Dying, however, is not. Two troops embark on what's supposed to be a fun camping trip only to end up in the middle of a disastrous plane crash, facing danger at every turn. Created by a cast of eleven actual Eagle Scouts, “Tiny Fascists’” characters speak from real-life experience.

Fridays Through Sept. 16

DreamCast: The Secret Garden

My Thoughts

This is an amazing & underappreciated musical that should be reproduced in tours/regional/community theatres much more frequently. I think the reason why it is a back-burner musical is due to the fact that it seems misleadingly like children’s theatre. I’m sure it is difficult to sell tickets to a children’s book turned musical that is actually so poignantly & applicable to the adult mind. Like Oliver! and Carousel, these musicals read as overly-sentimentalized if poorly directed or thematically misdirected.

The musical opens with the death of Mary's parents, which displaces her from India to the English Moors. Here she meets her Uncle Archibald, who is lost in grief over his dead wife Lily. Mary’s reminiscence of Lily compounded with Archibald’s grief drives him to eventually to run away to Paris. There is a thread of this story that acknowledges the physical displacement occurring in the face of grief. Whether it a choice or a forced relocation, the physical journey in the face of grief is a direct symbolic reflection of the journey that overcoming grief demands. Mary’s active pursuit of life despite grief pulls Archie back to allow him to “walk through the walls he’s hidden behind for years.”

To me, The Secret Garden is thematically a musical study & poetic homage to the reality of adjusting to a grief-stricken life. It accurately addresses the dismantling effect of an acute loss to the living victims. In this musical, the dead are not memories but present characters. This allows the audience to picture their presence, grieve their absence, and empathize with the characters.

Most stories build up to a climax. In The Secret Garden, we are seeing what happens in the aftermath of the climactic moment. The drama has already happened. Lily died, Mary’s parents died. The Secret Garden is almost like Seinfeld in that it is about nothing. But this nothing is a reflection of the absence of something: namely, the person whose death still haunts the one(s) left behind. The moral of this story is that grief is rightfully debilitating, but can somehow be overcome with time from the most unexpected string of catalysts.

The Players

Ralph Fiennes as Archibald Craven

In Wuthering Heights, he was a perfect brooding Heathcliffe.
In The English Patient, he showed that he can conquer
difficult physicalities in characters &
use them to project his performance.

Joseph Fiennes as Dr. Neville

In Shakespeare in Love, swooned silently & sacrificially,

and swallowed feelings of inappropriately directed love.

Those are the feelings that also drive Neville's quiet actions.

I would love to see actual brothers sing this song.

Natascha McElhone as Lily

I LOVE her on Californication.

She is entrancing English rose with a fittingly steel backbone.
And has the hauntingly beautiful thing down.

Suri Cruise as Mary Lennox

She is finally old enough to star in something besides tabloids.

Mary is a girl who is thrust into the world of the English moors
after an isolated life in the foreign, unrelatable India.
I think Suri could channel that feeling.

Chris Colfer as Colin Craven

I don't watch Glee, but a little bird suggested this casting.

I like it because his face has a sweetness to it. Colin is usually cast so frail,
but that physicality should be a result of circumstance. He could first appear sick,
but then go through a physical transformation to appear
alive & fresh in the finale.

Michael Cera as Dickon

He has a positive approachable energy that he brings to every part.

Dickon's first role is to provide companionship for Mary.
Michael Cera is always cast as
a guy who seems fun to hang out with.

He seems to play characters
(Juno, Nick & Nora's Infinite Playlist,
Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, Arrested Development)
that find tiny details of life & make them interesting.

Which is exactly what transcribes between Mary & Dickon:
he introduces her to the unnoticed life around her &
awakens her senses & sense of self.

Ginnifer Goodwin as Martha

I've always had a soft spot for this girl.

She really does exemplify that girl-next-door thing
without being annoying or idealized.

I have liked her in a lot of performances,
Big Love & He's Just Not That Into You (no judgement),
but I have never seen her dominate.

Martha would be a great part to demonstrate her strengths.

Maulik Pancholy as Fakir

His role on 30 Rock proved his skill at
making small characters memorable.
Plus, he graduated from Northwestern's Theatre program, so props for being local.

Rose Byrne as Rose Lennox

I like that she looks like she could
be the sister Natascha McElhone,
as well as the mother of Suri Cruise.

She has a serious & earnest quality
that Rose requires as the concerned sister.

Sam Anderson as Ben Weatherstaff

My primary reasoning for this casting was Lost alumni loyalty.

As Bernard, he was hard-working, honest, & slightly dopey.
And those are the traits of a great gardener.

Kelly Bishop as Mrs. Medlock

She is a great actress & a most important Broadway alum
(1976 Tony for Best Supporting Actress in A Chorus Line)

Not to mention she is also a Gilmore Girls alum.
She is a strong, subtle actress who can play the icy matriarch
without being cold & bland.
Plus, she's so pretty.

August WishList



Detective's Wife

Writer's Theatre

Alice Conroy is the mother of two grown children, owner of a frame shop and the long-time wife of a Chicago homicide detective, but when her husband is gunned down on the job, she sets out to find out who did it...and why.

Extended Through Aug. 14

Black and Blue 

Factory Theater at Prop Theatre

Two brothers, ten years, one bet. 'Black and Blue' treads into the realm of Chicago rivals, sports fanatics, and the good old fashioned American bar bet. Do You Know Your Black and Blue?

Weekends Through Sept. 3  

 

Improvised Jane Austen

Chemically Imbalanced Theatre

In 1817, the world suffered the loss of Jane Austen, the quintessential courtship novelist. Improvised Jane Austen now presents a delightful show that attempts to fill the void of the countless novels lost due to her untimely demise. Social class, elopements, blustering spinsters, and sinister sisters are given a 21st century twist as the ladies use the voice of Austen to comment on love in our own time. Will our heroine end up with Mr. Darcy? Or will she run off to pursue her dream of a career? When you combine ten smart women with the wittiest author of all, anything can happen.

Runs Through Aug. 25

Sweeney Todd

Drury Lane Oakbrook

 

Starring Greg Edelman!

Runs Aug. 11-Oct. 9