PicksInSix Review: Judgment Day - Chicago Shakespeare Theater
“WHAT GOES ON IN YOUR HEAD?”
PicksInSix® Review | Ed Tracy
There’s a deliciously hilarious show now playing in The Yard at Chicago Shakespeare Theater, a spritely, unabashed, comic romp that centers on a deceitful and wretched lawyer named Sammy Campo (Jason Alexander) who gets what everyone wants out of life: a second chance. The world premiere of “Judgment Day,” with a whip-smart, no-holds-barred script by Rob Ulin that’s loaded with laughs, casts the irrepressible Alexander as one of the most crass and insincere bottom feeders you will ever imagine, thanks as well to the crisp satiric direction of Moritz von Stuelpnagel.
Right at the top, coming on the heels of one of his greatest and most sinister of schemes, the throttled Sammy suffers a massive heart attack. During Sammy’s near-death experience, he is greeted in purgatory by an Angel (Candy Buckley) who appears to him as his former Catholic school teacher. No salvation here, though, as she welcomes the idea that Sammy will finally and forever be “attacked by pecking birds” and boiled in “flaming diarrhea” in Hell to pay for his sins.
But, since there are always technicalities when you are dealing with matters of Heaven and Hell, Sammy is miraculously restored to the living, armed with a new mantra to accumulate points for good deeds that will realign the trajectory of his afterlife upward. All the insincerity that follows, spewing effortlessly from the irreverent Sammy Campo, begs the question: What will it take to turn this self-centered manipulator into a person worthy of the glory of Heaven?
Sammy first makes a pact with Father Michael (Daniel Breaker), a conflicted priest who jeopardizes his own well-being by ruffling the feathers of the by-the-good-book Monsignor (Michael Kostroff) by helping Sammy. There’s the hard luck story about Edna (Meg Thalken), a member of Father Michael’s congregation who is being evicted from her house for non-payment of her dead husband’s insurance claim. The third opportunity is the reconciliation with his love-lorn wife Tracy (Maggie Bofill) and son Casper (Ellis Meyers). As the relationship with Father Michael develops, Sammy reconciles with Tracy and settles in with Casper. Soon, even his steadfast and delightfully direct assistant Della (Olivia D. Dawson) begins to recognize glacial changes in Sammy’s demeanor. But the question of salvation remains to be answered and this is where “Judgment Day” must meet its maker.
In its best and most hilarious moments—and there are many—Ulin’s script clips along much like a television sitcom, dealing with our hard fast perceptions of spirituality, morality, sex and love. The lawyerly, contrary point of view that Alexander’s self-centered despot espouses is perfectly counterbalanced by Breaker’s everyman character. Ulin allows Father Michael to complete our thoughts at Sammy’s outrageous observations at every turn, whether in the confessional, on a stakeout of insurance adjuster Jackson (Joe Dempsey) or simply finding consolation and ultimately friendship on a park bench.
Beowulf Boritt’s scenic design elements transition from Sammy’s office to the confessional and Tracy’s home all framed in a massive faux stained glass backdrop that offers otherworldly opportunities for the combined efforts of Amith Chandrashaker’s lighting design, Mikaal Sulaiman’s sound and Tilly Grimes costumes. The open design allows Alexander full range of mobility, stepping in and out of scenes in search of his comic salvation in this highly entertaining piece that feels very much like it was heaven sent just for him.
PHOTO|Liz Lauren
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