PicksInSix Review: Guys and Dolls - Drury Lane Theatre

Shake the Dice. Save a Soul!
PicksInSix® Review | Ed Tracy

Looking for the oldest established permanent floating crap game in New York with tough guys packing heat and cracking wise while a couple of old-time love stories unwind in locales as exotic as Havanna and the Hot Box Club? If so, then, the rock’em sock’em revival of the 1950 Tony Award winning “Guys and Dolls” now playing at Drury Lane Oakbrook is the show for you.  

Director/choreographer Dan Knechtges with co-music directors Roberta Duchak and Chris Sargent, who also conducts, have assembled an impressive ensemble of multi-talented performers for a highly-charged production showcasing the most cherished music and lyrics of Broadway’s legendary songsmith Frank Loesser and a book by Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows based on Daymon Runyon’s stories and characters. The cavalcade of Loesser hits like the touching ballads “I’ll Know” and “More I Cannot Wish You,” the superb bigtime, song and dance spectacles “A Bushel and a Peck,” “Luck be a Lady,” and “Sit Down You’re Rocking the Boat,” make Drury Lane’s “Guys and Dolls” a musical extravaganza that pokes good-natured fun of the rough and tough guys and the glitzy glamor dolls from Runyon’s creative imagination.

As the story unfolds, the lovable huckster Nathan Detroit (Jackson Evans) has been unofficially engaged for 14 years to the vivacious Miss Adelaide (Alanna Lovely), headliner at the Hot Box Club. Adelaide is trying to get him to stop gambling and settle down to the life she has imagined all along. Meanwhile, Detroit and his ‘associates” Nicely-Nicely (Nkrumah Gatling) and Benny (Christopher Llewyn Ramirez) are trying to get a spot for some nightly action and stay a step or two ahead of the law in the process.

Against the backdrop of petty larceny and bawdy late night revelry, the dutiful missionary Sarah Brown (Erica Stephan), struggling to make a difference one sinner at a time at the Save-A-Soul Mission, falls hard and fast for the suave, high-stakes charmer Sky Masterson (Pepe Nufrio). When the love table turns on Sky, he finds himself suddenly searching for any way to win her back again including making good on his mark to fill up the evening prayer meeting to impress the zany General Cartwright (Heidi Kettenring) and save the mission from closing.

Drury Lane Theatre presents “Guys and Dolls” through June 9, 2024. More information and tickets HERE.

Stephan and Nufrio are perfect together. Their rich vocals and chemistry shine in the heartfelt Act I closer “My Time of Day/I’ve Never Been in Love Before.” Stephan, one of Chicago’s top performers, is simply marvelous. Nufrio’s smooth and effortless Sky is spot on in “My Time of Day,” and with the brilliant ensemble in “Luck Be a Lady.” Lovely sparkles as Adelaide, displaying excellent comedic chops in “Adelaide’s Lament” and singing, dancing and leading the Hot Box Girls in a sizzling version of “Take Back Your Mink” while chumming up with Evans’s hilarious and heartwarming Nathan for lots of laughs and their touching duet “Sue Me.”

Back at the mission, Gene Weygandt’s serves up a splendid Arvide Abernathy, Kettenring is a riot and everybody gets in the act when Gatling explodes into the rousing crowd favorite “Sit Down You’re Rocking the Boat.” Angela Weber Miller’s scenic design, framed in a glistening Broadway skyline, alternates seamlessly between the relatively solemn confines of the mission to the gritty underbelly of the city and the sultry Hot Box Club where Leon Dobkowski’s stunning costumes set the place on fire. All in, Drury Lane’s “Guys and Dolls” is a night filled of 7’s and 11’s for every high stakes roller in the audience.  

PHOTO|Brett Beiner

Drury Lane Theatre
presents
Guys and Dolls
100 Drury Lane
Oakbrook Terrace
through June 9, 2024

WEBSITE

For more reviews, visit: Theatre In Chicago

ARCHIVE

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

PicksInSix Review: Damn Yankees - Marriott Theatre

A DEVIL OF A GOOD TIME!
PicksInSix® Review | Ed Tracy

Looking to fill your breezy summer evening with the crack of the bat and a stadium-size offering of blockbuster musical numbers mixed with an offer of immortality? All these merge in “Damn Yankees,” the 1955 award-winning hit with book by George Abbott and Douglass Wallop, lyrics and music by Richard Adler and Jerry Ross, choreography by Bob Fosse and starring Ray Walston and Gwen Verdon. “Damn Yankees” received seven Tony Awards, spawned a hit film, and is playing now in a robust and rollicking revival at Marriott Theatre that’s a devil of a good time!

The musical, based on Wallop’s “The Year the Yankees Lost the Pennant,” holds up well nearly 70 years later even with a cluster of eye rollers in the script that require a special comic touch these days. But all is forgiven when this time capsule begins delivering a string of socko company numbers like “Heart,” “Shoeless Joe from Hannibul, MO,” “Who’s Got the Pain,” and “The Game” in showstopping style. And that’s exactly what happened—twice—at Wednesday’s opening performance with the top-flight talent assembled by director James Vásquez and Tyler Hanes’s Fosse-infused choreography.

Vásquez has stacked the lineup for laughs, too, with Sean Fortunato in a wickedly sardonic performance as the devious devil Mr. Applegate who grants the wish of Joe Boyd (Ron E. Rains) for the Washington Senators to win the pennant. With a slight of hand, a whiff of smoke and a change of name, Applegate creates Joe Hardy (Andrew Alstat) whose youth, power and abilities will pick the hapless Senators out of the cellar and into the World Series for the small price of Joe’s eternal damnation. As the team rises in the standings, the story clings to some detective work by ace reporter Gloria Thorpe (Erica Stephan) whose curiosity threatens to expose Joe before he can finish the job and lead the team to victory.

It doesn’t take long for Joe to realize that he’d rather be home with his wife Meg (Daniella Dalli) than face Applegate’s mounting pressure to stay within the baselines. As Joe begins to waver, Applegate enlists the services of Lola (Michelle Aravena), an irresistible temptress, to woo Joe back on his team. But even Lola’s sexy and sultry advances fail and Lola instead conspires to help unravel Applegate’s plan. As the clock ticks down, things start to heat up in Joe’s world.

In addition to the many memorable individual highlights in the show—Aravena’s playful, coy “A Little Brains, A Little Talent” and the steamy “Whatever Lola Wants” are truly topflight and Fortunato knocks “Those Were the Good Old Days” out of the park—the ensemble’s work throughout, and especially in “Two Lost Souls,” a dark, smoky ode to Fosse that virtually oozes up from the underworld, is phenomenal.   

In a cast of venerable Chicago talent, Lorenzo Rush Jr. stands out as the Senators coach Van Buren who leads the ensemble in “Heart” and plays some solid work with Jonah D. Winston and Michael Kingston. Erica Stephan steps up front and center for the crowd-pleaser “Shoeless Joe” that includes the amazing jump rope talents of Ben Broughton. Heidi Kettenring and Lydia Burke team up on the sidelines as kooky, adoring Senators fans, spreading gaiety and a little fog around on Regina Garcia’s sharp and versatile set. With Jesse Klug’s surreal lighting effects, Michael Daly’s subterrain sound and truly gorgeous 50s era costumes by Teresa Hams, the stage is awash in vibrant color to match the music directing talents of Ryan T. Nelson and Noah Landis’ orchestra, and to make Marriott’s “Damn Yankees” the show to see in Chicago.  

PHOTO|Liz Lauren

MARRIOTT THEATRE LINCOLNSHIRE
presents
DAMN YANKEES
through June 4, 2023

WEBSITE

TICKETS

(847) 634-0200

HEALTH PROTOCALS

For more reviews, visit: Theatre In Chicago

ARCHIVE

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

PicksInSix Review: Cabaret - Porchlight Music Theatre

Barrelling Down the Track of Life!
PicksInSix® Review | Guest Contributor | Scott Gryder

Perhaps you would have thought you’d gotten lost along the way to the opening night performance of Porchlight Music Theatre’s “Cabaret” at the Ruth Page Center for the Arts, for the stage had been transformed into a magnificent train depot the depth of the theater. Although I was familiar with the musical beginning with a trip, I was in no way prepared for the runaway train experience coming down the track brought on by an engine of brute force talent fueled by the finest directorial and choreographed momentum.

John Kander and Fred Ebb’s “Cabaret,” based on the 1951 Broadway play “I Am a Camera” by John Van Druten, appropriately starts with a train ride to Berlin by aspiring American novelist Clifford Bradshaw, who’s seeking inspiration for his latest work. The first German he meets, Ernst Ludwig, punches his personal ticket to rapture and ruin. Beyond the intimate bonds Clifford forges with vulgar club performers and hardworking, hardened day dwellers, the backdrop of “Cabaret” is a Germany politically seething with the growing threat of Hitler’s Nazi Party agenda, which eventually sends Clifford’s new life and loved ones scrambling to find their footing amid the inevitable devastation.

What really charges the show is the synergy between every single member of the cast. Whether a featured or ensemble role, each performer brings fully formed characters to the stage. Even cameos are dynamically developed. There were times when, even as the stage is filled with rambunctious activity at the Kit Kat Club, one can readily identify each character from across the show’s scenes thanks to their nuanced behaviors. This cast is committed to character. Between hit novelty numbers at the Kit Kat, multiple characters completely saturate the book scenes with profound truth. The glamor and vulnerability of Erica Stephan’s Sally Bowles is breathtaking, while Mary Robin Roth brings a fierce compassion to her Fräulein Schneider to a degree that would make even Lotte Lenya green. Additionally, Neala Barron’s brash Fräulein ‘Fritzie’ Kost, with a vocal apparatus that bellows, belts and sears, comes through with humor and heart. While, lastly, wreaking of a smarmy charm, Josiah Haugen’s Ernst Ludwig is nearly irresistible, embodying the Nazi nature with a frightening charisma.

As an intensely avid fan of the legendary Broadway songwriting team, this production, on the whole, is just what a production of “Cabaret” ought to be. It’s bawdy. It’s sincere. It’s disturbing. And each actor fits firmly into their roles, fully embracing the subtext of every line and lyric. Implementing a phoenix-like rising from the ashes, time-travelling establishing moment, PorchLight’s Artistic Director Michael Weber has gifted us a ticket to a searing production that transports us full steam ahead into the heart of the story. Add to that the ever-scintillating dance sequences by Chicago-beloved choreographer & associate director, powerhouse Brenda Didier, and the scenes and musical numbers are of famed Moulin Rouge caliber.

Scenic Designer Angela Weber Miller’s stunning railway-inspired set creates a fully playable canvas, easily absorbing projections to help designate locations, and flawlessly transforming between the famed Kit Kat nightclub and Fräulein Schneider's boarding house. Costume Designer Bill Morey dominated the epic task of not only costuming a cast of featured characters in the main plot with delicious textures and swanky style, but he created provocative visuals for the multitude of senses within the scenes at the Kit Kat Club. What added bonus depth to the stage was the cinematic lighting by Patrick Chan. Taking advantage of the steady haze silently creeping onstage, Chan achieved movie-like close-up energy by utilizing sharp spotlights across clouds of emoting washes of reds, blues and golden hues. The orchestra, under the baton of conductor and musical director Linda Madonia, was sublime. They executed Kander’s music with incredible precision and stamina. Kudos to trumpeter Greg Strauss! Has he got sonant spunk! If only, considering the glitz and personality given to the actors' costumes, the orchestra had also been outfitted with thematic pizzazz instead of street clothes.

The engine of this “Cabaret” only continues to gain propulsion as each new relationship is forged or broken or as each dream is won or lost, relentlessly pushing the plot and the lives of those involved to go faster and faster. Eventually, as trains do, the best laid plans are derailed, grinding goals to a halt and sending lives smashing. And the ride from start to finish is worth it! As a ticket-buyer tip: look for seats center or house right, so you’ll have a better view of the action, especially stage left. You really must come to Porchlight’s “Cabaret,” old chum!

GUEST CONTRIBUTOR | SCOTT GRYDER received a Non-Equity Jeff Award for his performance in the one-man show BUYER & CELLAR. www.thescottgryder.com

PHOTO|Liz Lauren

PORCHLIGHT MUSIC THEATRE
presents
RENT
Ruth Page Center for the Arts
EXTENDED
through March 19, 2023

WEBSITE

TICKETS

HEALTH & SAFETY

DIGITAL PROGRAM

 
Additional Cabaret Content

Courtesy of Porchlight Music Theatre January 2023

Cabaret - Origins
Cabaret –Influences
Cabaret at Porchlight!

For more reviews, visit: Theatre In Chicago

ARCHIVE

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

PicksInSix Review: Holiday Inn - Drury Lane

View fullsize

The Home of Boy Meets Girl

Just in time to ring in the season comes Irving Berlin’s “Holiday Inn” a refreshingly homespun backstage musical for the entire family chocked full of explosive dance numbers and the iconic tunes that everyone knows and loves from the Berlin songbook. In the capable hands (and feet) of director/choreographer Matt Crowle, with a streamlined book by Gorgon Greenberg and Chad Hodge, and a stellar company from head to toe, Drury Lane’s “Holiday Inn” is a high-wattage hit!

The stage story setup, more or less true to the original 1942 film, follows crooner/composer Jim Hardy (Adrian Aguilar) and his dance partners Ted Hanover (Drew Humphrey) and Lila Dixon (Darilyn Burtley) who have their sights set on the big time. Hardy wants to settle down with Lila in Connecticut, just as Hanover and their agent Danni Reed (Honey West) book a six-week tour. Despite a marriage proposal from Hardy to Lila, the tour proceeds and Hardy is off on a new adventure as a gentleman farmer and owner of Mason Farm. The farm’s caretaker Louise (Danielle Davis) has a plan to help Hardy and set him up with an elementary teacher and the former owner of the farm Linda Mason (Erica Stephan). One thing leads to another, the engagement falls apart and the two suddenly realize they may have something more in common than the fact that the farm is still deep in debt. With few other options, they decide to turn the inn into a holiday show place, but only on holidays.

Miraculously, and only in a musical, the stage show blooms in a week so that as New Year’s Eve rolls around Holiday Inn magically becomes “the home of boy meets girl.” The story sails by after that and serves as a path to one tremendous dance number after another—every one a gem!

In a remarkable, and long overdue, return to the stage after a multi-year absence, Aguilar is phenomenal as Hardy, a steady anchor who adds numerous dimensional layers to the role. The sure-footed hoofer Humphrey has an abundance of talent and more than enough savoir faire to deliver a series of exhilarating dance numbers. The two are paired with Burtley, who gives a captivating standout performance as Lila. When attention turns to the heartwarming Stephan and the budding relationship with Aguilar’s Hardy, sparks really begin to fly. Stephan not only has a beautifully full singing voice that matches perfectly with Aguilar, she also dances effortlessly with Humphrey in multiple numbers. It’s a joy to watch unfold.  

Among the featured musical performances, Davis is hilariously delightful as Louise, leading the Ensemble in a dazzling performance of “Shaking the Blues Away” and there’s more than a few surprises in “Let’s Say It With Firecrackers/Song of Freedom” with a nifty cameo by Nicole Scimeca (who splits the role of Charlie Wilson with Lily Kocourek). There is plenty to be thankful for all night long when the score has hits like “Be Careful, It’s My Heart,” “Cheek to Cheek,” “Blue Skies,” “White Christmas” and “Heat Wave.”

Music Director Linda Madonia and conductor Christopher Sargent deliver the crisp, big band sound of Carey Deadman arrangements. Jeffrey D. Kmiec’s versatile scenic design transitions seamlessly from show stage to New England inn with Lynda Meyers elegant and evocative costumes punctuating every holiday. Lee Fiskness lighting design is enhanced by Bryce Culter’s projections and pin-perfect sound by Ray Nardelli all help to start the New Year right at Drury Lane.  

PHOTO|Brett Beiner

DRURY LANE THEATRE
presents
IRVING BERLIN’S
HOLIDAY INN
through January 9, 2022

WEBSITE
TICKETS

For more reviews, visit: Theatre In Chicago

ARCHIVE

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

PicksInSix Theater Review - Drury Lane "Beauty and the Beast"

BOOK-BOUND BELLE CHARMS BROODING BEAST

Just when you thought that we could not be more different, along comes a beautifully, rich production of Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast,” now playing at Drury Lane Theatre, to provide clear proof that we are really not that different at all. Everyone of us, just like the Beast and his manor full of minions, need a little love before it’s too late and the bloom is off the rose. That includes the sweet and lovely Belle, who spends every waking moment with her face buried in a book, a sort of shield to deflect awkward situations and ward off unwanted advances. It all adds up to a lot of Disney-stylized drama that make this visually-stunning, live-action fairy tale, tick-tock-tick all night long.

“Beauty and the Beast” was Disney’s first Broadway venture almost a quarter of a century ago, which is reason enough to bring a teapot, candle, clock and feather-duster back to life in the surefire holiday hit. Directed at Drury Lane by Alan Souza, with choreography by Ron De Jesus, the musical is an expanded version by the same team responsible for the original 1991 animated film classic — book by Linda Woolverton, music by Alan Menken and lyrics by the late Howard Ashman and Tim Rice.

In case you do not have a family member, or know anyone under thirty-five, to ask, the book-bound heroine Belle (Erica Stephan) charms the brooding Beast (Brandon Contreras) at the center of a love story that challenges us to see people for who they truly are. Belle represents the dreamer in us all, holding in her hands the key to transforming the Beast who has been dwelling in a dark, introspective place for a long time. Words matter to the fearless Belle and Stephan is perfect, delivering gorgeous renditions of “Home” and “A Change In Me.” The magically dark and mysterious Kevin Depinet set, a series of grand staircases and multiple levels framed in the ever-present rose, allows for multiple scenes including a lofty, strategic setting for the commanding Contreras to render the powerful Act I anthem “If I Can’t Love Her.”

On the more sinister side of the tale, the comic foil Gaston (Mark Banik), and his side-kick Lefou (Paul Michael Thompson), slink and slam along in their single-minded pursuit to corner Belle’s affections. As events unfold, Belle’s father Maurice (Mark David Kaplan) stumbles into the manor where a clever cache of spirited souls dwell — Lumiere (Tony Carter), Cogsworth (Nick Cosgrove), Babette (Sierra Schnack), Mrs. Potts (Bri Sudia) and her son Chip (Sophie Ackerman), Madam de la Grande Bouche (Catherine Smitko) and Monsieur D’Argue (Billy Rude). With the curse in place and time growing short, something must be done to break the spell. But they are all intimidated by the Beast and his house rules, that is until Belle arrives to make a bargain for her father’s freedom and give them reason to hope.

View fullsize

The company numbers are terrific — including the opener “Belle,” “Something There,” and the show-stopper “Be Our Guest,” with the enormous talent of Carter, Sudia, Cosgrove and Schnack leading the way. Sudia is everyone’s favorite teapot, providing one of the night’s most memorable moments with a lush and lovely performance of the title song.

The Drury Lane Orchestra is in top form under the direction of Christopher Sargent. Belle’s stunning yellow gown, and all of the marvelously detailed costuming, is the work of designer Ryan Park. With Ryan O’Gara’s lighting and a dizzying array of ingenious properties from designer Cassy Schillo, “Beauty and the Beast” has something for everyone.  

PHOTOS|Brett Beiner

DRURY LANE THEATRE
Presents
DISNEY’S
BEAUTY AND THE BEAST
through January 27th, 2019
100 Drury Lane 
Oakbrook Terrace, IL 60181 
(630) 530-0111 
 

WEBSITE

For more reviews, visit: Theatre In Chicago

ARCHIVE