Review: ALWAYS SOMETHING THERE... at Marriott Theatre, Lincolnshire IL
Production runs through August 10, 2025.
I don’t want to live a redo life.
This is the premise of the current production at the Marriott Lincolnshire Theatre. Chicago native Sandy Rustin’s Always Something There…, a Peggy Got Sue Got Married/Back to the Future, etc. styled tribute to the 1980’s, is having its world premiere at the Marriott. It is about being able to go back, reliving your life and changing those horrible choices you made in your teen years.
This happens to 45 year old Samantha Craig (Jeff award-winning Heidi Kettenring) while she is on a business trip on her birthday. When she wakes up the next morning, she is 18 again and back in her childhood home. However, she knows about her current life and embraces the chance she now has.
Teenage Samantha (college senior Christina Priestner in her Marriott debut) gets rid of the boyfriend who became her husband, she gets rid of her job for a toilet company and she gets back into the music she loved. We also meet Samantha’s friends (Emma Ogea stepping in as Camella) and the really bad and really good boyfriends (Ty Shay and Ian Coursey in his Marriott debut).
The ensemble is the 1980’s again in all its Technicolor clothes designed by Amanda Vander Ryl. Director James Vasquez has managed to re-create a certain decade and all that is a part of it. Looking at the audience, everyone was enjoying the exuberance of the cast, the spectacular dancing by choreographer Tyler Hanes and the sound of the Marriott orchestra under the direction of Celia Villacres. There are 23 songs.
Some are sung the way they were written but there are others that have been arranged differently and they are beautiful. It is fun but there are moments of regret and sadness that might just grab heartstrings. It is about the choices we make, good or bad. Do you want to redo or go back? Maybe.
I believe after seeing this production, you will think about it for a while. Possibly discuss or even break into song and dance. There’s still a teenager in each of us. Go see this production and see what happens.
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