Rachel Weinberg - Page 12

While MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG is quite a dark show, it's undeniably one of my favorite Sondheim musicals-and Porchlight's production does well to demonstrate why this is the case.

Court Theatre Artistic Director Charles Newell lends a deft hand to this stunning, newly searing production of Arthur Miller's ALL MY SONS. Though Miller's classic play takes place in 1946, the all-star ensemble makes the plight of the crumbling Keller family feel raw and altogether present.

Eric John Meyer's world premiere play THE ANTELOPE PARTY opens on a meeting in an apartment setting notable for its vast and bright collection of MY LITTLE PONY memorabilia (kudos to set designer Joe Schermoly and properties designer Jesse Gaffney for this delightful visual). In this moment, we meet the members of the Rust Belt Brony Meet Up group. The bronies (sometimes referred to as Pegasisters when they're female-identifying) are adult fans of the children's show MY LITTLE PONY. The members of the Rust Belt group, in particular, identify with the show's messages of magic and friendship and find solace among their brony counterparts.

Aziza Barnes's BLKS is often funny, often vulgar, and sometimes heartbreaking. Now in a world premiere staging at Steppenwolf, BLKS chronicles 24 hours in the lives of three young black women in their early 20s living in New York City. Barnes's playwriting is achingly real and naturalistic, while also showcasing the playwright's poetic chops. In Octavia (Nora Carroll), Imani (Celeste Cooper), and June (Leea Ayers), Barnes has given us three unique and beautifully written characters navigating a tumultuous moment in their young lives.

BEAUTIFUL THE CAROLE KING MUSICAL, one of the most well-constructed and delightful jukebox musicals I've ever seen, has arrived back in Chicago just in time for the holiday season. This empowering musical about singer-songwriter Carole King has enough emotional impact to make your heart burst. This is my third time seeing BEAUTIFUL, and I remain struck by the emotional depth behind this show.

Tracy Letts's world premiere THE MINUTES, now making its debut at Steppenwolf Theatre Company, unfolds in an unsuspecting manner. Both because the play has a smart structure that shifts over the course of the 100-minute runtime and also because the content left me contemplative for days after seeing it. Here Letts uses the framework of a small town's council meeting as a microcosm of a larger discussion on the current political climate (though this play is not overtly about Trump's presidency) and the desire to cling to certain ideologies in the name of order and group preservation, though those long-held beliefs may not be true.

On the page, Harmon so beautifully expresses the nuances of shifting friendships and the fear of being left behind by those one holds dear, and he also nails so completely the complex neuroses that come with dating, loneliness, and being lost in one's own head. Director Keira Fromm and an outstanding local cast bring Harmon's expertly crafted words to life, finding both maximum amounts of humor and gut-wrenching emotion in the piece.

Under the direction of frequent company collaborator Brenda Didier, BILLY ELLIOT THE MUSICAL electrifies the mainstage at the Ruth Page Performing Arts Center, Porchlight's new home. Based on the eponymous film about an adolescent boy from a working class British mining town who aspires to be a ballet dancer, this production finds the deep emotional core in its story about community and acceptance. With music by Elton John and book and lyrics by Lee Hall, this BILLY ELLIOT bursts with heart and passion.

Under the deft direction of Audrey Francis, Steep Theatre Company treats audiences to an intimate, intense Chicago premiere of Ayad Akhtar's THE INVISIBLE HAND.

Broadway In Chicago's Summer Concert on Monday drew probably the largest crowd for the event I have seen in several years of attendance (and they were definitely a fired-up bunch). Musical theater fans across Chicago clamored to see Broadway In Chicago's showcase of ten upcoming touring shows (with a bonus appearance from HAMILTON's Chris De'Sean Lee, who co-hosted with usual emcee Janet Davies of ABC7). Here's my take on the highlights of the concert and which touring musicals should top your must-see list for the coming season.

Mercury Theater's revival of the iconic rock musical HAIR infuses some peace, love, and sunshine into this Chicago summer. While Gerome Ragni and James Rado's lyrics still resonant today, this production stays firmly rooted in the late 1960s. Brenda Didier's direction, Robert Kuhn's costumes, and Jeffrey D. Kmiec's set design all have a 'traditional' feel-at least traditional by the show's standards. Certainly HAIR's call for peace and embrace of the Tribe's diverse identities echo the present and remind us of the progress yet to be made, but this staging does not underscore that relevance based on production choices.

Christopher Wheeldon's visually stunning production of AN AMERICAN IN PARIS has come dancing into Broadway In Chicago's Oriental Theatre. Wheeldon's complex and extensive choreography is the most striking and entertaining element of this new musical, based upon the classic Gene Kelly film and with a new book by Craig Lucas that weaves together George and Ira Gershwin's lush song catalog. AN AMERICAN IN PARIS enjoyed a successful Broadway run in 2015, and this touring company can certainly keep up with Wheeldon's moves as well as the original ensemble.

"This music is magical. My writing is stilted." So proclaims Erik Jensen as famed rock critic Lester Bangs in HOW TO BE A ROCK CRITIC, now playing as part of Steppenwolf's Lookout Series. This thought has likely crossed the mind of all art critics out there (certainly it has crossed mine), and it embodies the spirit of this 80-minute solo play as it charts Bangs's career. Jensen and co-playwright Jessica Blank (the pair are also married) give us a portrait of Bangs-who died of a drug overdose at age 33-that demonstrates the passion, creativity, and self-destructive nature that defined him. This solo play provides an overview of Bangs's trajectory and allows audiences to learn about the rock music he loved, aided by David Robbins's sound design.

Taylor Mac's HIR, now in its Chicago premiere at Steppenwolf under the direction of Hallie Gordon, proves itself to be a complete whirlwind from the beginning. Collette Pollard's strikingly realistic living room/kitchen set is in a tornado-like state when the curtain comes up at the top of the play, with heaps of clothes scattered around, a large tower of miscellaneous household appliances and craft supplies barring the front door, and a general lack of discernible counter and floor space anywhere. This state of disarray echoes the chaotic state of the dysfunctional family at the center of HIR: order has gone entirely to the wayside. Paige (Amy Morton, a commanding spitfire from the start) resides in this mess of a house with her transgender son Max (an earnest and likable Em Grosland) and her husband Arnold, who is deeply mentally incapacitated as a result of a severe stroke (Fran Guinan in a shocking and haunting performance). When Paige and Arnold's eldest son Isaac (Ty Olwin) arrives home from war, he finds a home and family that he no longer recognizes.

Autumn Hurlbert is taking it back to the '90s (namely, 1595) in the role of Portia as part of the first national tour of SOMETHING ROTTEN! This new musical chronicles a fictitious rivalry between playwright brothers Nick and Nigel Bottom who, at the advice of a fortune teller, create the world's first musical in order to compete with William Shakespeare. Hurlbert portrays the romantic, literature-loving Portia, who becomes Nigel's love interest. In advance of the tour's Chicago engagement, Hurlbert chatted about why she loves the show, her time on MTV's reality show LEGALLY BLONDE THE MUSICAL: THE SEARCH FOR THE NEXT ELLE WOODS, and what it is like to tour the nation with her husband and two-year-old son by her side.

Following a successful 2015 run, that great white whale MOBY DICK has returned to Lookingglass in a highly physical, inventive, and visually compelling production that's fully in keeping with the company's aesthetic. David Catlin's adaptation of Herman Meville's sprawling novel surrounds audiences in the universe of those whalers on board the Pequod in search of that elusive creature. With Courtney O'Neill's artful and hand-crafted set design, the stage and audience reside in a whale 'skeleton,' which cleverly also becomes the structure of the ship. As is common with Lookingglass productions, MOBY DICK also makes use of some talented, athletic performers who take on stunning acrobatic feats (choreography by The Actors Gymnasium's Sylvia Hernandez-DiStasi). But like any voyage, Catlin's script has a number of slower, narration-heavy moments that lack much action. MOBY DICK vacillates between moments of captivating artistry combined with heightened physicality and lengthy stretches of pure narration.

Bartlett Sher's 2015 Tony Award winning revival of THE KING AND I has sailed into Broadway In Chicago's Oriental Theatre in a triumphant touring production.

Both beautiful and necessarily brutal, Antoinette Nwandu's PASS OVER is a play that's entirely essential to this moment.

The world premiere of Karen Zacarias's NATIVE GARDENS at Victory Gardens Theater provides ample humor and wit-even if the playwright's neighborly metaphor sometimes feels too on the nose.

Just as Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens's 1999 musical RAGTIME traverses numerous locales on the East Coast and spans the years from 1906-1914, so too does director Scott Weinstein's dynamic staging make full use of The Den Theatre's Heath Mainstage. In Griffin Theatre Company's production, Weinstein's in-the-round staging often has actors dispersed among the audience (indeed, a handful of performers appeared right in front and me and even made eye contact during the performance). While this is an intimate production of a sweeping musical, this genius device lends RAGTIME the grand air it commands. The closeness of the action also lends pathos to this story of three American families-one white and privileged, one black, and one immigrant-as they navigate a changing country at the beginning of the twentieth century.