PicksInSix Review: Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812 - Writers Theatre

‘GREAT COMET’— Big, Bright, Beautiful Star!
PicksInSix® Review | Ed Tracy

The Chicago premiere of “Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812” is lighting up the Glencoe sky over Writers Theatre in a soaring production directed and choreographed by Katie Spelman with music direction by Matt Deitchman. Spelman has assembled an exceptional ensemble who deliver a flawless performance of Dave Malloy’s groundbreaking electropop opera that received a dozen 2017 Tony Award nominations.

There is a lot to unpack in this love story derived from a 70-page section of Tolstoy’s War & Peace. The first path of two storylines that are destined to intersect involve the emotional struggles of Natasha (Aurora Penepecker) a free-spirited young woman who is visiting Moscow to meet relatives of her soldier fiancé who is away at war. Natasha becomes wildly tempted by the deceptive Anatole (Joseph Anthony Byrd) whose seductive charms compel her to break her engagement and make plans to elope with Anatole. But there is more to Anatole than meets the eye.

The second path involves the unhappily married Pierre (Evan Tyrone Martin) who is tormented by drink and depression and searching for his own way out of the situation. Pierre’s promiscuous wife Hélène (Bri Sudia) happens to be Anatole’s sister and takes macabre pleasure in helping him lure Natasha’s affection. Pierre is lost in his own obsessions to the point where he publicly confronts one of Hélène’s lovers, Dolokhov (Andrew Mueller), who also happens to be a friend of Anatole, and, in a drunken rage, challenges him to a duel.

Natasha’s host and godmother Marya D (Bethany Thomas), Natasha’s cousin Sonya (Maya Rowe) and Mary (Julia Wheeler Lennon) Andrey’s sister have vastly conflicting interests while, at home, Mary must contend with the eccentric Bolkonsky (Rob Lindley) and keep a watchful eye on Natasha as events unfold. By the time Andrey (Matthew C. Yee) arrives, there is glass all over the floor and only with Pierre’s influence can there be a hopeful solution for both Natasha and for himself.   

This glorious work is sung-through, a highly ambitious undertaking that could only be accomplished with the superb ensemble—including those mentioned with Sophie Grimm, Will Lidke and Jonah D. Winston—steeped in seasoned Chicago talent and showcasing many fine newcomers to Writers, including the luminous Penepacker whose voice and presence as Natasha is intoxicating in a big, bright, beautiful star turn. Rowe is perfect as Sonya, particularly in the memorable “Sonya Alone.” Martin’s brilliant vocal range is on full display as the conflicted Pierre. Winston has the reins well in hand in “Balaga” leading the company on a wild crowd-pleasing ride.

The creative team of scenic designer Courtney O’Neill, costume designer Raquel Adomo, sound designer Eric Backus and lighting designer Yael Lebetzky create a stellar, unified experience, and the magnificent work of Dietchman, conductor/pianist Charlotte Rivard-Hosler and the orchestra shines brightly all night long to deliver Malloy’s complicated and intricate score with elegance and precision. Altogether, it’s a compelling, cosmic adventure that just might be a once-in-a-lifetime event!

PHOTO|Liz Lauren

Writers Theatre
presents
Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812
through October 27

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PROGRAM

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PicksInSix Review: Andy Warhol In Iran - Northlight Theatre

Northlight’s ‘Warhol’ “Brings Home The Bacon!”
PicksInSix® Review | Ed Tracy

Iran in the 70s – a fight for political, moral and individual rights that led to targeted suppression of protests by a regime that wielded torture and fear as the rule of law. Fast forward nearly fifty years and women’s rights now take center stage in regional protests. Radical change in our time is both momentary and glacial. A single act of violence broadcast on social media ignites instantaneous worldwide condemnation, while the exhaustive search for truth and justice that follows moves at an exhaustingly slow pace.

Throughout the life and times of Andy Warhol from the late 40s until his death in 1987 at 58, every encounter was a rich story worthy of being told. If you experienced the work of the iconic pop creator/activist/artist/filmmaker firsthand, the repetition of Warhol’s single images were unavoidably captivating. Shades of Marilyn Monroe, Richard Nixon, and Campbell’s Soup. Films that captured the personal stories of his subjects, or nothing at all, always inquisitive, searching for the essence that makes each subject unique. In the telling, Warhol built a worldwide following, amassed wealth, influence, access and fame with a single superpower: his ability to observe.

Warhol’s adept skill and fascination with his subject’s uniqueness, that also nearly took his life, is a central theme of Northlight Theatre’s absorbing production of Brent Askari’s “Andy Warhol in Iran,” directed by Northlight’s Artistic Director BJ Jones. The byproduct of this fascinating piece is a broader understanding of who Warhol was as a person, told through monologues highlighted with fast-moving images that frame the fictional confrontation between Warhol, masterfully interpreted in a brilliant performance by Rob Lindley, and a young radical named Farhad, played superbly by Hamid Dehghami.

It is difficult to determine when the razor-sharp dialogue of Askari’s writing ends and the pinpoint pacing of Lindley’s seamless delivery begins. Given the show’s premise of a politically-motivated celebrity kidnapping, one might not imagine that the storyline would be deliciously layered with so many hilarious Warhol-esqe observations. To Lindley’s credit, he both feeds off of and into Dehghami’s frenetic obsession to further his group’s cause by way of Warhol’s fame. The cause of Farhad’s pain at the hands of Iran’s torturous and oppressive regime is very real. Askari’s script exploits Warhol’s astute and inquisitive nature to disarm his potential captor and Lindley skillfully knocks it out of the park. The result is a free-flowing narrative of discovery that, along the way, retells Warhol’s early years in Pittsburgh, tumultuous relationships, a near-death experience that altered his life forever and his personal view on a range of topics from capitalism to life and death. On the former, it’s like he always says: “You gotta bring home the bacon!” To the latter, he muses: “Dying is not hard; it’s the waking up part.”

Dehghami, an accomplished Iranian actor and recent MFA graduate of Northwestern University, evokes a generation of college students caught up in the political turmoil of the era that would lead to their expulsion from academic communities across the United States. That brief, but powerful, intersection with western culture, was the single act for that generation, prompting life-alerting choices of family and freedom for countless Iranians who oppose tyranny.

Set in a suite at the Royal Tehran Hilton smartly designed by Todd Rosenthal, the room serves as an oasis of the decadence of the period where Warhol discovers perhaps for the first time what the world view of his work truly means to those who exploit it for their own means. Mike Tutaj’s riveting historical projections are enhanced by the collaborative sound design of Andre Pluess and Forrest Gregor. But it is Lindley’s crisp, clever and measured approach that pours out and will ignite the inevitable conversation about Warhol’s vast complexity.

PHOTO|Michael Brosilow

NORTHLIGHT THEATRE
presents
ANDY WARHOL IN IRAN
North Shore Center for the Performiing Arts
9501 Skokie Blvd.

through February 19, 2023

WEBSITE

(847) 673-6300

HEALTH & SAFETY

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PicksInSix Review: Songs for Nobodies

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Stunning Northlight Return for Bethany Thomas!

For the second time in as many weeks, I found myself in a theater so consumed and satisfied by a live performance that I actually closed my eyes for a moment just to listen. What I heard was the rapturous voice of Bethany Thomas, channeling the enigmatic Billie Holiday in a spot-on rendition of “Ain’t Nobody’s Business If I Do.” It is one of five encounters with greatness that are richly told in Joanna Murray-Smith’s “Songs for Nobodies” now playing in a stunning production at Northlight Theatre.

The solo piece, artfully directed by Rob Lindley, is a commanding showcase for the gifted Thomas who is recognized as one of Chicago’s most versatile actors and recording artists and whose powerhouse vocals are equally at home in a theater, a cabaret and on a rock concert stage. So, it may be no surprise to some that the wide and diverse range of vocal styles from Judy Garland, Patsy Cline and Edith Piaf to Holiday and Maria Callas land firmly and gloriously in Thomas’ extraordinary wheelhouse.

There is, however, much more at the heart of Murray-Smith’s staggeringly smart and sophisticated play. Lindley has skillfully incorporated the talented Thomas’ inexhaustible creative reservoir with Murray-Smith’s eclectic characters who have random encounters with legendary singers in order to tell their compelling stories. Each fascinating character comes to life in Thomas’ brilliant performance that culminates with Callas’ “Vissi d’Arte” in one of the most stirring theatrical moments you will ever experience.

The play is constructed with historical wayposts weaved within its imagined encounters. A random April 1961 meeting in New York City between Judy Garland and the fragile Bea Appleton, a ladies room attendant with sewing skills. Backstage with Patsy Cline in March 1963 when venue usher and southern belle Pearl Avalon’s brief rendition of “Amazing Grace” earns her the opportunity of a lifetime. A stirring homage to the French resistance performer Edith Piaf by the bilingual librarian Edie Delamotte from Nottingham whose father’s life she saved. An interview by the feisty urban features writer Too Junior Jones breaking through the thick public curtain of Billie Holiday. And then, culminating in the observations at sea of Orla McDonaugh of the turbulent love affair between Callas and Ari Onassis.

Each successive interlude is played out on a multi-level stage designed by Jeffrey D. Kmiec, draped above with microphones and cables of the era that serve to evoke the multitude of nights these performers have connected with their audiences. The suspended microphones provide powerfully introspective transitional moments as well, enhanced by Jesse Klug’s lighting and the elegant simplicity of Thomas’s attire designed by Mieka van der Ploeg. With music director Andra Velis Simon, crisp sound design by Lindsay Jones and Eva Breneman’s dialect work, “Songs for Nobodies” is a multi-sensory experience.

In a feat that could only occur in the theater, with no props, projections or other distractions, Bethany Thomas magically transforms her towering presence into the size and vaulted styles of each singer, performing with such intensity, emotion and authority that we are joyfully reassured the power of live theatre, struggling mightily to return, will live on.

PHOTO|Michael Brosilow

NORTHLIGHT THEATRE
Presents
SONGS FOR NOBODIES
through October 31, 2021
9501 Skokie Blvd

WEBSITE

TICKETS

(847) 673-6300

ONLINE PROGRAM

HEALTH AND SAFETY PROTOCALS

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