Chicago Stage Review

79th Grant Park Music Festival Opens Tonight!

By Lori Dana

A dramatic program, culminating in the dark sweep of Peter Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4 in F Minor, Op. 36, should prove a suitably grand outing for music director Carlos Kalmar and the Grant Park Orchestra, as they kick off the venerable festival’s 79th season, and ninth year of performing in Frank Gehry’s soaring Pritzker Pavilion. Nestled on the north edge of Millennium Park, flanked by the bustle of Michigan Avenue and the steel and glass towers of East Randolph Street, the home of the Grant Park Music Festival has a distinct urban flavor, and an easy, Midwestern vibe. This evening, as dinners are unpacked from backpacks and gourmet hampers, wine is uncorked and pop tops are popped; wealthy and working class, immigrant families, groups of young downtown office workers, art school students and retired couples will sit chock-a-block upon the great lawn, all united and transformed by music.

The inaugural program’s thematic drama takes several different forms. The opening piece, a lively orchestral pastiche by celebrated young composer Andrew Norman, serves up a “tossed salad” of sound. From sprightly pizzicatos and skittering scales, to swooping, brass driven crescendos, Norman’s ‘Drip’ makes for a compelling opening dialog.

Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 5 in A Major, K. 219, brings us back into more familiar territory. Featuring the festival debut of celebrated American violinist Stefan Jackiw, this piece is the work of another young composer: Mozart was only nineteen at the time of its creation. Drawing more on the style of his operatic music, this piece is played in a broader, more majestic way than might be implied by the usual allegro, but the motifs are classic Mozart. In keeping with the dramatic theme of the evening, contrasting sections of darker oriental melodies give a somewhat folkloric feel to the latter half of this so-called “Turkish Concerto”.

As a vividly emotional finale to the evening, Tchaikovsky’s 4th Symphony could not be more perfect. A massive, sweeping piece that amply displays the depth and breadth of the Grant Park Orchestra’s professional prowess, it moves from military fanfare to ominous swirling dances to woodwind arabesques that flutter like birds through sun-dappled trees. The orchestra, razor sharp under Kalmar’s crisp direction, will sweep the audience from contemplative melancholy into the eye of the storm with breathtaking skill in the urban twilight. This Chicago summer tradition is an immeasurable cultural gift, a source of joy and transformative energy in the heart of the city — and it’s FREE. If you haven’t made it your tradition yet, now is the time.

Opening night of the Grant Park Music Festival takes place tonight, Wednesday June 12, at 6:30 p.m. in The Jay Pritzker Pavilion, Millennium Park.

Classical Concerts in Millennium Park ~ The Grant Park Music Festival

Jay Pritzker Pavilion images by Venus Zarris

By J. Scott Hill

The exponential growth of Chicago’s Burlesque scene over the last couple of years has made it possible for almost anyone willing to take their clothes off in public to find a paying audience. Just because someone takes their clothes off in public, however, does not make that person a Burlesque dancer. What an absolute delight it was to spend an evening with actual Burlesque dancers at The Belmont Burlesque Revue.

Our tour guides through this debauched aggregation of late night entertainments were MsPixy and her drink-slash-sidekick Giant Martini. MsPixy has been the golden goose of Chicago Burlesque for the last couple of years, writing and directing and choreographing brilliant Burlesque parody shows, such as Boobs and Goombas: A Super Mario Burlesque and Fellowship of the Boobs: A LOTR, D&D, WoW, RPG Burlesque Adventure. Back onstage with her home troupe, Belmont Burlesque, MsPixy did not perform striptease herself, though she did keep the crowd delighted as she plied her Transylvanian accent hosting and singing, and participating in another performer’s striptease (which will be discussed later). MsPixy was incredibly funny and quick with her wits, and she wrangled a difficult audience better than most local stand-ups could have.

Giant Martini, donning no less than four blue cheese stuffed olives, was not up to his straight man routine of egging MsPixy on to talk dirtier and slur her Transylvanian accent a bit as he got emptier and emptier. Ever the pro, MsPixy did manage admirably without Giant Martini’s usual eighty-proof injection of personality booster. It appears that Giant Martini is strictly on the wagon for a few months, since MsPixy is clearly knocked up. Congratulations to MsPixy and her husband, art photographer K Leo, on their pending offspring.

MsPixy and the other Belmont Burlesque Bombshells had the assistance of a gal who appears to be their new intern or apprentice, Trixi Kidd. While Ms. Kidd has done the old bump-and-grind elsewhere in other shows, she spent most of her time onstage picking up the castoffs of the other performers. She is clearly already a crowd-pleaser, even in these early stages of her, ahem, training. Given her learning curves, I predict that we shall be seeing a lot more of her very soon. (Note to self: update prescription for glasses now.)

Although the Bombshells of Belmont Burlesque pack enough of an entertainment wallop on their own to knock out any audience, the evening did include a few special guests. Lady Jack performed two slick numbers: one as the ultimate sexy maid and the other as a black-and-red clad Latin vision amped up on surf guitar music. The Amazing Tomás, a regular at many cabaret and Burlesque shows around town, brought his always-entertaining blend of comedy and magic to the party and did not disappoint. The devilish and darling Diva La Vida demonstrated that red wine is not only good for her heart, it also makes her clothing peel off and drop to the floor. Comedian Katie McVay played up the obsessiveness of her inner neurotic nebbish, falling somewhere between Willow Rosenberg and Rupert Pupkin.

The Belmont Burlesque Bombshells, however, would not be outdone in their own revue. Kitten Kaboodle seduced the crowd as she writhed around in a nightie (and progressively less) to the spy-and-surf sound of The Reverend Horton Heat’s “In Your Wildest Dreams” — me-OW. There is much more to Titi Touché than just a great pair of gams, and she showed most of that “much more” to awestruck onlookers when she stripped the light fandango to Ray Charles’s “The Nighttime is the Right Time.”

No Belmont Burlesque Revue would be complete without the lethal curves of Paris Green. Scantily costumed in a yellow-and-black nothing that made her look as much like an arch-villain as a sexy bee, Paris Green buzzed and swooped to protect her honey pot from a wily old bear (played by MsPixy), while the boogie-woogie music playing in the background gave her moves their classic rhythm. Burlesque dancing may be half role-playing, but you won’t ever find this much oomph and oolala while a-LARPing in the woods — put that in your beehive and smoke it!

The Belmont Burlesque Bombshells came together for their frilly parasol number, with the vivacious Hazel Hellbender making a guest appearance as the substitute for the preggers MsPixy. The Bombshells appeared to have just stepped out of A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte at the Art Institute and strolled over to the theatre. This tightly choreographed routine was one part Busby Berkeley and three parts Moulin Rouge, and one hundred percent charming.

If you just want to see exhibitionists bare all in a public forum, then any old Burlesque show around town will do. If, however, you want to see sensual, seasoned ecdysiasts ply their art by joyously titillating and teasing their fans with neo-vintage Burlesque hipster hip-sway, then The Belmont Burlesque Revue at Theater Wit is perfect.

4 STARS

(“The Belmont Burlesque Revue” runs monthly [next show June 22, 2013] at Theater Wit, 1229 W. Belmont Ave.773-975-8150)

TICKETS: The Belmont Burlesque Revue

Belmont Burlesque

Theater Wit

Belmont Burlesque Revue photos by Black Pearl Photo.

3:00 a.m.: Slipping Beyond the Boundaries of a Bruised Mind

Jillian Erickson moved to Chicago 15 years ago with doing a solo show like this in mind. After spending many years as a Writer, Performer and Co-Producer/Director of Beast Women, she has experienced what feels to be a handful of very unique lifetimes worth revealing.  As a result, she has created this show.  3:00 a.m. is a menagerie of Jillian’s life over the past years:  from Colorado to Chicago from Ralph Machio to Religion  from Biological Clocks to A-ha.  3:00 a.m. is an interweaving of years gone by and the smorgasbord of segments that have steered her towards her current path.  It’s time to strap yourself in, and hold on tight. This show is, after all, one of the many rides of her life! 

Presented by Beast Women Productions and Prop Thtr

Fridays and Saturdays, 8:00 p.m.

 June 7 - 29, 2013

@ Prop Thtr

3502 N. Elston, Chicago

Show Type: Performance Art

Tickets – 3:00 a.m.: Slipping Beyond the Boundaries of a Bruised Mind

By Venus Zarris

What do we love? We love CREEPY. We love MAGIC. We love STORYTELLING. We loved a good old-fashioned POLISHED PERFORMANCE. And if that’s not enough, we love FREE. In short, we love OBSCURA ~ A MAGIC SHOW.

Oracle Productions continues its remarkable mission of providing “More free art by more artists to more people.” with their intimately sensational B*SIDES presentation of Christian Cagigal’s OBSCURA ~ A MAGIC SHOW. Cagigal delivers a marvelously mesmerizing one-man oddity by way of tales of the macabre woven into enchanting parlor tricks.

We’ve all been shown a card trick or two and they usually come with a story but consider the “pick a card, any card” variety of slight of hand child’s play compared to Cagigal mastering of peculiar prestidigitation. He’s a snake charmer and we’re the snakes. He’s the Pied Piper and we’re the mice. He’s a slick salesman and we’re buying out his eccentrically enchanting merchandise; lock, stock and barrel.

Perhaps the most brilliant element of OBSCURA ~ A MAGIC SHOW is its sublime simplicity. There are no white tigers or water chambers, rather there is an unassuming man sitting at a table with some cards and trinkets. He is sneaky, charming and oh so smart. He is playfully silly and yet dead serious in his delivery. Cagigal’s performance harkens back to a day when restraint and control created more than bombast and bravado.

OBSCURA ~ A MAGIC SHOW mixes a bit of modern technology into the ancient arts of magic and storytelling to create a fascinating theatrical hybrid. It is no wonder that the SF Weekly-Mastermind named Cagigal one of the “Ten Future Bay Area Art Icons” or that he was voted Best of the Bay by the San Francisco Bay Guardian. His performance creates a captivating suspended animation of eerie alchemy and delightful drama.

It would be thrilling to see a “late night” incarnation of this unique interlude, perhaps darker and even more haunting. As it stands, OBSCURA ~ A MAGIC SHOW is freakishly fun and family friendly. It is also an absolute must see for lovers of both magic and devilishly tall tales. Part of Oracle Productions Public Access Theatre, OBSCURA ~ A MAGIC SHOW is a free offering that proves to be a priceless opportunity for Chicago to experience this incredible talent.

 3 ½ STARS

(OBSCURA ~ A MAGIC SHOW runs through June 2 – THIS WEEKEND ONLY! – at Oracle Theatre, 3809 N. Broadway, Chicago. 773-244-2980)

Limited Seating - Reservations Recommended

TICKETS – Christian Cagigal’s OBSCURA

Oracle Productions – Free Art For All » OBSCURA

Christian Cagigal ~ Official Website 

Christian Cagigal press photos by Gil Riego Jr.

By J. Scott Hill

It has been ten years since Orange Flower Water’s world premiere production at Steppenwolf. Since then, playwright Craig Wright has made a name for himself writing for hip TV shows, such as Six Feet Under (for which he received an Emmy nomination), Lost, The United States of Tara, and his own creation Dirty,Sexy Money. Wright, an ensemble member at A Red Orchid Theatre, has also spent some of that time writing vehicles for his fellow A Red Orchid ensemble member Michael Shannon, such as the plays Grace and Mistakes Were Made.

Craig Wright has a tremendous gift for writing dialogue, and this gift was already well developed when he penned Orange Flower Water; here arguments sizzle and fizzle with the feel of real life. At this stage in his career, however, Craig Wright had not yet found his voice when writing monologues. The letters read aloud at the beginning and the end of Orange Flower Water, for example, swing back and forth from prosaic to purple without ever finding the verisimilitude of their own intermediate tones of voice. Sometimes the script flows naturally and seems to be the story of real people we may well know or be. Other times, Orange Flower Water clunks along over (A) literary contrivances and (B) the revelation of backstory (the origin of the title, for example, is a clunky case of both simultaneously).

Orange Flower Water is the story of an affair between two married people. A difficulty with the script is that neither person involved in the affair is the dominant personality in their respective marriage. The action of the play begins three years into the affair between David and Beth, and they are only now getting around to the possibility of having sex together. The audience is expected to believe in the existence of a longstanding affair between two adults with non-dominant personalities who are so non-aggressive that the affair doesn’t make it past third base for three years. The audience is expected to believe that one of these timid individuals mustered up enough chutzpah one time three years prior to the main action of the story to actually instigate this affair. The audience is expected to believe that David and Beth are willing to jeopardize their marriages, even their rights to see their own children, just to make out on the sly sometimes. This is the clunkiest of the clunky contrivances in Orange Flower Water, and it constitutes an overload of an audience’s reasonable suspension of disbelief.

Given some of the low points of the writing, it takes a solid cast to make Orange Flower Water work as well as it works in the current production from Bare Bones Theatre Group and Interrobang Theatre Project. Joseph Wiens plays Brad, whose wife Beth is cheating on him. Brad has significantly less stage time than the other three characters in Orange Flower Water and Joseph Wiens is a better actor that this role calls for. Brad is a walking, talking anachronism. Brad is a sports-minded alpha male who owns a mom-and-pop video store (which were nearly all closed already ten years ago when this script was first produced). Joseph Wiens takes the two-dimensional Brad and gives him some much-needed depth. It is easy to see why Beth wants out of her marriage to Brad; Wiens works hard to let the audience see how much Brad wants to stay married to Beth. Wiens contributes subtlety to a character that has a bludgeon of a personality.

The two characters having the affair, Beth and David, are played by Ina Strauss and Keith Neagle. Ina Strauss plays Beth as a woman who has allowed life to happen to her for a number of years and is now starved for deep, abiding affection. Ina Strauss made me believe that Beth could carry out a sexless affair for three years, as Strauss makes it clear that her Beth needs the hand-holding and the kissing and the touching, and all the things those imply, infinitely more than mere sex. David, as played by Keith Neagle, is passive-aggressive. David is quick to snap, and just as quick to back down or to be backed down. Neagle plays David as domineered in his marriage to the point of near crippling inaction. Neagle cleverly gives David’s attempts at invective such little force behind them that the audience knows he has already mentally checked out of his marriage with no intent to try to salvage it.

The strongest performance in Bare Bones and Interrobang’s co-production of Orange Flower Water comes from Cyd Blakewell in the role of Keith’s wife, Cathy. Cathy has control issues, but sees herself as the loving, benevolent dictator of her family. Over-committed and overly organized, Cathy tears through her professional and personal life in a way that is so incompatible with her husband David that it makes David, a pharmacist by trade, feel puny compared to her. Cyd Blakewell’s Cathy is about ninety-five percent walking, talking to-do list and about five percent batshit crazy. In Blakewell’s hands, Cathy’s compulsions may be the attempt to keep that five percent batshit crazy under lock and key. Here, Cyd Blakewell is a joy to watch.

Orange Flower Water is a hit-and-miss early script from a writer who has since grown beyond such inconsistency. The strength of this production comes from how much the solid cast contributes over and above the written word — no actor more than does Cyd Blakewell. When the script is merely functional or impossibly far-fetched, this cast makes it believable. When the script is believable, this cast breaks your heart.

 3 STARS

(“Orange Flower Water,” produced by Bare Bones Theatre Group and Interrobang Theatre Project, runs through June 9 at Raven Theatre, 6157 N. Clark St. 773-904-0391)

Bare Bones Theatre Group

Interrobang Theatre Project

Orange Flower Water production photos by Claire Demos.

* Visit Theatre In Chicago for more information on this show. Orange Flower Water – Raven Theatre – Play Detail – Theatre In Chicago

Lyric Opera of Chicago

Oklahoma!

Music by Richard Rodgers

Book and Lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II

By Lori Dana

How can there be musical theater without live music? That is the question many theatregoers are asking themselves these days. With the outrageously high cost of decent seats to a Broadway show, the least a production could do is feature a real live orchestra, right?

Wrong. It has become standard practice in many theaters to use recorded music, and to distract from that fact with gratuitous special effects. In an effort to engage the Internet generation, which requires a fast moving plot and plenty of eye-candy, musical theater productions have, in many cases, done away with orchestras altogether.

Not so Lyric Opera’s new production of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s iconic Oklahoma! This is musical theater done Grand Opera style: a no holds barred production featuring the vast resources of one of the world’s great opera companies, including the peerless talents of The Lyric Opera Chorus and Orchestra. Marvelously detailed sets, lavish costumes, and a cast that features a mix of incredible talent (award-winning Broadway stars, acclaimed Chicago theatrical veterans and a group of spectacular dancers) all rest on this rock-solid musical foundation. One realized, even before the final notes of the overture had died away, what a great sense of immediacy and humanity a full orchestra added to the Lyric production. The whole experience would have been flat and lifeless without it.

And what an experience it was! To witness the show (that many consider the progenitor of American musical theater) as its creators intended it to be seen, including Agnes de Mille’s tour de force “Dream Ballet,” was a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

If you grew up in the U.S. in the 50s and 60s, you couldn’t avoid knowing the music of Oklahoma! — a turn-of-the-century romance set against the pitched battle between cattle ranchers and sodbusters for primacy on America’s western frontier. If you hadn’t seen the show yourself or performed in a school production of it, your parents probably had watched the movie version with you on television — or perhaps they had an album of hits from the Broadway production in their record collection. Such was the cultural status of this musical.

As time has passed, Oklahoma! is still a popular production for community theatres and high school drama departments. Its universal themes of romance and hope in the future, combined with a uniquely American enthusiasm for growth and change continue to appeal, and Rodgers and Hammerstein’s incredibly expansive score is no less infectious and engaging than it was seventy years ago. In short, Oklahoma!  just never seems to grow old. An outstanding cast in the Lyric presentation brings new life and relevancy to a work that conceived of the musical as living history and the embodiment of American democracy and patriotism when it premiered in 1943 at the height of the Second World War. In addition to its relevance as historical depiction, it’s also good old-fashioned entertainment.

The spirited and funny characterizations in Oklahoma! are sure to be recognized by any American audience. John Cudia and Ashley Brown are Curly and Laurey, the dreamers striving to succeed on the wide-open frontier; Curtis Holbrook and Tari Kelley are Will Parker and Ado Annie Carnes, their loveable, more plebeian counterparts. All have sterling Broadway credits, Cudia in Phantom of the Opera and Les Misérables, Brown originating the role of Mary Poppins in that long running hit. Cudia’s rich tenor and Brown’s somewhat operatic soprano complement each other in a most pleasing way and their lively sparring adds just the right amount of sexual tension to the mix, albeit in a sly 1950s way that is surprisingly refreshing. Will and Ado Annie are more unvarnished, and their hilarious banter adds earthy spice to the mix. Annie’s vacillating between the ardor of Will and the Persian peddler Ali Hakim (uproariously played to perfection by Usman Ally) adds levity to the story at all the right moments.

Supported with strong performances by Chicago veteran Paula Scrofano as Aunt Eller and David Adam Moore as the sinister Jud Fry, Lyric Opera has their Oklahoma! cast loaded for bear. Add to this the original Agnes de Mille choreography, performed by a full troupe of top-notch dancers, and you have a very unique musical theater experience.

Lyric Opera’s production has created the perfect balance: between sets that reflect the colorful but elemental aesthetic of a Grant Wood painting and richly detailed costuming, among singers and actors and dancers, between rousing chorus numbers and simple tender moments. One never feels that production values overwhelm the tremendous humanity of Oklahoma! What a great gift Lyric has given to Chicago audiences.

4 STARS

(“Oklahoma!,” presented by Lyric Opera of Chicago, runs through May 19 at the Civic Opera House, 20 N. Wacker Drive. 312-332-2244)

Lyric Opera of Chicago

Oklahoma! production photos by Dan Rest / Lyric Opera of Chicago.

 By J. Scott Hill

Of all of the theatre companies, Burlesque troupes, and cabarets I review, I am most frequently asked about Beast Women. “When and where can I see them?” or, more often, When and where can I see them again?” Beast Women have spent part of the last eight months on tour, but mostly they have been on hiatus. Rested and ready, the Beasties are back at the Greenhouse Theater Center for their 2013 Spring Series. Six years of fresh auditions for every Beast Women series have caused veteran performers to further refine their craft and have continually raised the bar for fresh talent.

Beast Women 2013 Spring Series was opened by the wonderful Kelsie Huff. Kelsie Huff is a standup comic on the brink of stardom. She has hours of tight material. Her narrative voice is clear. She is expert at playing off the audience. If comedians still got discovered in Chicago for anything outside of Saturday Night Live or monologue writers for talk shows, Kelsie Huff would have already been a star. See her in Chicago while you can: to further her career, she will soon enough have to relocate to either New York or Los Angeles.

Each of the dance-oriented performances on the opening night of Beast Women 2013 Spring Series combined various forms into unique art. Belly Fusion Dancer Brywn Arlwyn added elements of pop-and-lock to belly dance to create a whole new set of creative contortions. Sarah Heston brought ballet and modern dance together to construct powerful flashes of narrative, seeming to tell of a giving spirit upon whom the demand was both voracious and unceasing.

One number that really got the crowd stirred up was Miss Tamale Sepp’s performance art piece, a clever study in movement and sparks that brought striptease into the metal fabrication shop. I am not sure if she was trying to cut the lock off of her chastity belt or just adding a turbo-boost of grind to the old bump-and-grind, but her bodywork was expert.

Original Beast Woman Jillian Erickson took the audience on a rickety carnival ride through her brain in a preview of her solo show, 3:00 a.m.: Slipping Beyond the Boundaries of a Bruised Mind, which opens June 7 at Prop Thtr. Brand-new Beastie Amy Geist rocked the country with a voice that Nashville or at least American Idol should have already discovered.

Monologist and frequent Beast Women contributor Roberta Miles owned the evening among the solo acts. Roberta Miles most often performs monologues with sexual themes where nothing is off limits; this piece was about her bush starting to lose some of its, um, foliage. Earnest and hilarious, Roberta Miles was in her zone opening night.

The final act of the opening night of Beast Women 2013 Spring Series was the all-female Beastie Boys tribute band She’s Crafty. She’s Crafty is a supergroup of Chicago standups — Amy Sumpter, Maggie Jenkins, and Kendra Stevens — backed by DJ (and most excellent podcaster) Sara Tea. Somebody call a general contractor because She’s Crafty blew the roof off of the Greenhouse. A Beastie Boys tribute band comprised of Beast Women is a no-fail proposition from the start. She’s Crafty is the new MUST SEE band in Chicago. Find them. See them. Love them.

Every Beast Women show is different, so every night will have a substantially different lineup, but the Beast Women have demonstrated a consistent commitment of quality over time and genre. If the opening night of Beast Women 2013 Spring Series is an indication of most nights, you should show up every night.

3 1/2 STARS

(“Beast Women 2013 Spring Series” runs Saturdays at 10:30 p.m. through June 1 — with the new talent showcase Beast Women Rising on Sunday, May 19 at 7:00 p.m. – at the Greenhouse Theatre Center, 2257 N. Lincoln Ave, Chicago. 773-404-7336.)

TICKETS: Beast Women 2013 Spring Series

Beast Women

Beast Women 2013 Spring Series performance images by Hunter Matthews.

By J. Scott Hill

At five foot eight and three hundred and fifty pounds, I was proportionately the fattest person at the opening of The Whale. Opening night audiences are mostly made up of industry people, and there are a limited number of Santa Clauses, Tevyes, and Nicely-Nicely Johnsons among them. I rarely stay for post-show receptions, but I had to cut through the entire length of this one to use the restroom. As I struggled my way through the Victory Gardens’s tightly packed lobby, I felt many pairs of eyes upon me, watching what the fat guy would eat from the buffet (nothing), or how many doughnuts or bags of Doritos the fat guy would stuff into his satchel for later (none). At this reception after a poignant drama centered upon a six-hundred-pound man, serving doughnuts and bags of Doritos was not funny, not even in an ironic hipster way; it was mocking, prejudiced, and hateful. This may be the fault of the caterers, however, because Director Joanie Shultz obviously takes a very thoughtful, honest look at the effects of stress eating, obesity, and overeating as slow suicide in Victory Gardens Theater’s production of The Whale. Shultz is careful never to make this show about fat; fat is sometimes a symptom of the drama and fat is sometimes a cause of the drama, but fat is not really the subject of this show. Still, I hope that Victory Gardens’s Artistic Director Chay Yew fires the caterers on artistic grounds before the opening of Mojada in July. Otherwise, the opening night guests may be served Fritos and refried beans out of novelty sombreros because some mocking, prejudiced, hateful menu planner thinks that is funny in an ironic hipster kind of way.

The hand of a brilliant director is necessary (and Director Joanie Shultz is brilliant here, make no mistake) to tell the story contained within Samuel D. Hunter’s script. The script is a little too contrived at times — for example, the title The Whale comes from the notions that the six-hundred-pound main character just happens to be deeply affected by both an essay about Moby Dick and the biblical story of Jonah. But there are some wonderful surprises, too, which I won’t reveal here as not to spoil those surprises. Samuel D. Hunter excels at presenting many of the more predictable or cliché things in The Whale in unpredictable, non-cliché ways — and that writerly gift is the salvation and the strength of this script.

Director Joanie Schultz is careful not to let us see the morbidly obese main character, Charlie, eat very much. We do see him drink soda fairly often, however, and it is always out of a large McDonald’s cup. The cinderblocks that hold up Charlie’s sagging sofa are stuffed with crumpled-up fast food bags. Set Designer Chelsea M. Warren and Prop Designer Sarah Burnham were very careful to balance an unkempt, junky look with the open space necessary for a man as large as Charlie to get around.

Charlie is played by veteran Chicago actor Dale Calandra in an extremely convincing fat suit. Charlie is the role of a lifetime for Dale Calandra. Charlie teaches writing online without appearing on a webcam, so that his students can not see his physical form. Charlie was married with one daughter before he could admit to himself that he was gay. Charlie started down the path of extreme weight gain after his long-time lover died. Charlie is a sad man and is, on balance, getting sadder over time. His peaks get less high and his valleys get deeper. He lives in the pit of despair and he is filling that pit with cortisol and food. Calandra plays Charlie with purpose, so much purpose that it takes a while for the story to unfold to where the audience can see why he could live with so much purpose and still let himself deteriorate to such a terrible state. Dale Calandra’s Charlie feels everything. In Calandra’s portrayal, Charlie has worried himself into a corner, eaten himself into a wheelchair, and nearly grieved himself into the grave. This is a monumental performance by Dale Calandra: expect his name on all the Best Actor lists when awards season comes around.

The show has a terrific ensemble, with a standout performance by Cheryl Graeff as Charlie’s friend/nurse/enabler Liz. Graeff plays Charlie’s friend like she is Valerie Harper, his nurse like she is Thelma Ritter, and his enabler like she is Colonel Sanders. Cheryl Graeff does a tender and cantankerous dance of trying to keep Charlie happy and healthy — which have become seemingly mutually exclusive.

Patricia Kane as Charlie’s estranged ex-wife Mary and Leah Karpel as Charlie and Mary’s daughter Ellie are burdened with looking at Charlie’s enormity through society’s eyes. Patricia Kane does a lot with very few lines and displays a modicum of sympathy. Leah Karpel takes a lot of lines that do not seem like they should be coming out of this teenage girl’s mouth and owns them, displaying a seething contempt for difference that speaks volumes about her character’s own innermost concept of self.

As Elder Thomas, Will Allan displays exponentially more doubt here than the typical Mormon teen on their mission, at times channeling a frazzled Gene Wilder. Will Allan is one of several terrific actors who broke big in TimeLine’s 2009 mega-hit production of The History Boys. Allan is excellent as Elder Thomas, but he is too old for the part and he looks too old for the part. He was excellent as, but too old to be playing, Billy in Remy Bumppo’s 2011 production of The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia? Allan is off to the Yale School of Drama this fall to pursue his MFA, so he may only have one or two more shows here in Chicago. Still, Casting Directors, Will Allan is a fine actor and a grown-ass man, so start casting him accordingly.

The overall effect of Victory Gardens’s production of The Whale is that Samuel D. Hunter’s hit-and-miss (but mostly hit) script is elevated by Joanie Shultz’s careful direction. In turn, Joanie Shultz’s direction is elevated by a dream ensemble, and that dream ensemble is led by Dale Calandra in a heart-wrenching, momentous performance. This production has a complicated relationship to the Ideal, but so does real life.

3 1/2 STARS

(“The Whale” runs through May 5 at Victory Gardens Biograph Theater, 2433 North Lincoln Ave. 773-871-3000.)

The Whale – Victory Gardens Theater

The Whale production images by Michael Brosilow.

BEAST WOMEN 2013 SPRING SERIES

By J. Scott Hill

The Second City is a victim of its own success. With more than fifty years as the world leader in improv-generated sketch comedy, The Second City has itself set the standards to which its shows must be held. If Let Them Eat Chaos were the new revue from the number one sketch comedy source in Wichita, Kansas, then this might have been a rave review. Let Them Eat Chaos, however, is the new revue on The Second City Mainstage, and, as such, does not live up to the standard that has been set for half a century upon those hallowed boards. Let Them Eat Chaos is like a typical graduation show from one of the Training Program classes. This is not to say that the show isn’t funny. Let Them Eat Chaos has a lot of laughs. The Second City should be a spa for the human soul, and a show there should feel like a mud bath: glorious, heavy, dirty, working its way into the dark recesses and uncomfortable places, some of it may even stick with you for a long time afterward. Let Them Eat Chaos is more like an alcohol rubdown: it feels cool, even refreshing at times, but it quickly evaporates into nothing leaving no residual traces at all.

The topics of the mostly tame sketches in Let Them Eat Chaos include: looking at how life can pass someone by while they are texting, the true origin of the Panama Canal, a sailor meeting a gal at a USO dance before going off to fight in World War II, telenovelas, and little kids drawing cats. While some of these sketches are a bit esoteric, none of them is particularly edgy. The most tightly written sketch in the show is a rap with two emcees — a socially conscious African American rapper (played by the supremely talented Edgar Blackmon), who lays down some deft rhymes only to throw to the privileged white emcee (solid utility player Ross Bryant) who raps about petty inconveniences faced by upper middle-class technophiles.

Sometimes, a revue at The Second City seems to be designed to showcase a certain player or players; if Let Them Eat Chaos can be said to have a star, it is Katie Rich, and it sure feels like she is being aimed directly at Lorne Michaels. Katie Rich is frequently charming, and dominates the better sketches in Let Them Eat Chaos. This is an ensemble heavy with performance skills. Unfortunately, the writing here is too safe to launch anyone’s career into the stratosphere just yet.

Let Them Eat Chaos is entertaining, but unfrenzied and certainly not chaotic. With no chaos being served up, the audience is expected to eat up the sketch comedy equivalent of pub grub in a venue that should never offer such standard fare.

2 1/2 STARS

(“Let Them Eat Chaos” is in OPEN RUN at The Second City Mainstage, 1616 North Wells Street. 312-337-3992.)

The Second City

Let Them Eat Chaos production photos by Clayton Hauck.