PicksInSix Review: Jersey Boys - Mercury Theater Chicago

Sweet, Sassy, Success Story, Richly Told!
PicksInSix® Gold Review | Ed Tracy

After an electrifying opening on Thursday night at Mercury Theater Chicago,  “Jersey Boys,” the mega-hit Tony Award-winning musical has officially launched its first regional production in Chicagoland. Get in step, folks. This will be the hot ticket to get in town!

The Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice book follows the origin story of The Four Seasons, one of the top selling vocal groups of their, or any, time told from the perspective of each of the four guys who traded up from a Newark street corner to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame – Tommy DeVito (Adrian Aguilar), Nick Massi (Jason Michael Evans), Bob Gaudio (Andrew MacNaughton) and Frankie Valli (Michael Metcalf).

JERSEY BOYS: The Story of Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons at Mercury Theater Chicago through May 19, 2024.

Along the way, all night long, the memorable Bob Gaudio and Bob Crewe hits keep coming, backed by the highly-charged Mercury Theater band under co-musical directors Eugene Dizon and Linda Madonia, and with choreography by Christopher Chase Carter, all under the co-stage direction of L. Walter Stearns and Brenda Didier.

And everyone on and off stage make it look easy, something that this magnificent show is decidedly not. With over 30 numbers, lots of moving parts, and barely over a dozen players covering numerous roles, Mercury’s “Jersey Boys” is a sweet, sassy, success story, richly told. Things move along at lightning speed on Bob Knuth’s mammoth, two-story scenic design framed with G. “Max” Maxin IV graphics that serve to both reinforce the story and provide multiple visual surprises. With Rachel Boylan’s costumes, lighting by Denise Karzcewski and Stephanie M. Senior’s sound design, this marvelous production is everything you could hope for.

The show also serves as a right of passage for a very select group of actor/singers at the top of their craft who can navigate a musical marathon of intricate harmonies, stage show choreography and the rigorous ebb and flow of a dramatic story that allows for multiple narrators to tell their own version of the story about friendship, family, overcoming obstacles and achieving success.

The multi-layered Mercury creative team hit solid gold with this extraordinary cast. Aguilar’s gritty, commanding portrayal of Tommy DeVito, the hardened, street smart leader of the group, propels the origin story forward at the outset while Evans’s superb, more introspective, troubled Nick Massi wins us over, particularly when the stress of keeping up wears him out.

The teaming of MacNaughton and Metcalf is inspired. MacNaughton’s pure voice and vocal range add depth to the musical mix and Metcalf has all the right stuff for the demanding vocal range and lush delivery of Frankie Valli—a star turn of the first order—charming and poised, with just the right mix of confidence and vulnerability.

Grant Alexander Brown shines as the ebullient matchmaker Joe Pesci. Starmaker producer/songwriter Bob Crewe is played by the multi-faceted Adam Fane who hires the group as backup singers to his corral of recording artists and becomes the pivotal driving force in their success co-writing with Gaudio. It’s in Crewe’s studio where the transformation begins, their unique sound starts to coalesce and the show throttles up. And true to the real-life rags-to-riches story, Gaudio delivers the chart busting hit they have been waiting for and “Sherry” vaults the Four Seasons on to fame, fortune and all the trappings that follow.

From top to bottom, strong supporting performances from the ensemble are delivered by Dan Gold (Nick DeVito), Eric A. Lewis (Barry Belson), Kayla Shipman (Mary), Jason Richards (Norm Waxman), Haley Jane Schafer (Lorraine), Carl Herzog (Gyp) and Maya McQueen (Francine).

When we get through the drama of it all, Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons find their place in history, and Mercury’s “Jersey Boys” is on a path all its own–another milestone run on Southport for the foreseeable future.

Oh, what a night, indeed!  

PHOTO|Liz Lauren

Mercury Theater Chicago
presents
JERSEY BOYS
3745 N Southport Avenue
EXTENDED through July 28, 2024

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For more reviews, visit: Theatre In Chicago

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PicksInSix Review: Big River - Mercury Theater Chicago

Mercury Delivers Powerfully Moving “Big River”
PicksInSix® Review | Ed Tracy

The seven-time Tony Award-winning musical “Big River: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” is now playing in a bold and gritty revival at Mercury Theater Chicago, anchored by the engaging and exuberant performance of Eric Amundson, as the youthful homespun Huck, and a glass-shattering performance by Curtis Bannister as the freedom-longing slave, Jim.

Twain’s 1884 novel, on which the musical book by William Hauptman is based, recounts a coming-of-age story of a young man, desperate to escape an abusive father and a strict authoritarian foster family. Befriending an escaped slave, Huck serves as the narrator on a river adventure that winds its way through a study of race relations, slavery and prejudice in mid-19th century South. The topic is especially relevant these days considering that Twain’s depiction of racial injustice of the era has been banned regularly since it’s publication—despite being required reading in classroom’s throughout most of the 20th century.

Rarely produced regionally at the size and professional scope that director Christopher Chase Carter has so skillfully assembled in the intimate and historic Mercury Theater, “Big River” is stocked with seasoned Chicago talent and exceptional debut performers who together form a universally superb ensemble covering numerous roles. Revealing a true depiction of the underlying drama of the story amid Roger Miller’s highly entertaining and folksy score is the pivotal challenge that director Carter dispatches with a firm hand on the tiller, creating a stark landscape that exposes the racial insensitivity of the time. The no-holds-barred approach is intentionally difficult—we see slave families being ripped apart, chilling frontier justice and hear derogatory racial epithets—but Carter’s daring approach works, and the result is a powerfully moving experience.

The show begins as Huck is disciplined by his court-ordered guardians, the Widow Douglas (Colleen Perry), Miss Watson (McKinley Carter) and company in “Do Ya Wanna Go To Heaven?” Carter chooses to skip through the score earnestly without applause breaks to allow the numbers to coalesce with the story which moves things along from Huck’s fearful treatment at the hands of his drunken father “Pap” Finn (David Stobbe) in the quippy lyrics of “Guv’ment,” the blood pact that Huck, Tom Sawyer (Callan Roberts) and their cronies make in the spirited “The Boys,” Amundson’s silky sweet rendition of “Waitin’ for the Light to Shine” and Roberts letting it fly hog wild in “Hand for the Hog.”

When Huck decides to fake his death and steal away, he meets Jim who is about to escape on a raft. As the river adventure begins, Amundson and Bannister deliver the rousing anthem “Muddy Water.” Huck agrees to assuming “ownership” of Jim to protect him as the two seek to reunite Jim to his wife and children. But almost immediately, a despicable pair of con men—terrific turns for Stobbe as The King and Gabriel Fries as The Duke—lure Huck with promises of wealth in “When the Sun Goes Down in the South.” The two commandeer the raft to Bricktown, Arkansas, shackle Jim in isolation and Huck realizes that his new-found partners are bottom feeders, albeit comical ones. The pair then pose as brothers and heirs of a recently deceased resident and hatch a plan to take things over. When their plan runs aground, Huck and Mary Jane Wilkes (Amanda Handegan) devise Huck’s escape to Hillsboro where Jim has been sold back into slavery.  Handegan’s impressive debut performance includes two gorgeous numbers—“You Oughta be Here with Me” with her sisters Susan (Perry) and Joanna (Haley Jane Schafer) and “Leavin’s Not the Only Way to Go” with Bannister and Amundson who team up again for “World’s Apart.” The performance of the night belongs to Bannister who rocks the house with the soulful ballad “Free at Last.”

The rugged, multi-tiered, post and beam set draped in burlap is designed by Jacqueline and Richard Penrod and includes a central unit that adapts seamlessly with the story. The stage is awash with the auburn hues of Denise Karzcewski’s lighting and gorgeous period costumes by Marquecia Jordan, particularly in the funeral scene and “How Blest We Are” that showcases the talents of Isis Elizabeth (Alice’s Daughter), who I am sure we will be seeing a lot more of in the future. Music director Malcolm Ruhl, conductor Marques Stewart, and choreographer Ariel Etana Triunfo bring the legendary Miller’s beautiful, and only, theatrical score to vibrant life. “Big River” plays through June 11.  

PHOTO|Liz Lauren

Mercury Theater Chicago
presents
BIG RIVER
3745 N Southport Avenue
through June 11

WEBSITE

TICKETS

For more reviews, visit: Theatre In Chicago

ARCHIVE

PicksInSix® is a registered trademark of Roxbury Road Creative, LLC