EDGE Media Network (Chicago Theater Reviews)

Both Your Houses (October 8, 2014)

Becky SarwateLeave a comment
The cast of 'Both Your Houses'
The cast of ‘Both Your Houses’ (Source:Johnny Knight)

No mid-sized Chicago theater troupe puts on a period drama with the panache of Remy Bumppo. Pick an epoch. It doesn’t matter. Though not exactly toiling in obscurity, the company lacks the high-profile visibility of a Steppenwolf, Goodman or Lookingglass Theatre. May the opening production of Bumppo’s 18th season “Both Your Houses,” finally put an end to that injustice.

A witty political satire that feels ripped from the headlines with themes of patronage-influenced stagnation and Congressional corruption, playwright Maxwell Anderson’s 1933 script provides the gifted Bummpo cast with more than just an opportunity to look stunning in late-Prohibition Era costumes (kudos to designer Emily Waecker). In press materials, the production is described as capturing “the charm and fervor of the classic film ‘Mr. Smith Goes to Washington,’ and hit television series ‘The West Wing,’ while simultaneously challenging the plausibility of change a la ‘The Daily Show.'”

It’s a credit to Anderson’s work that he’s able to weave whimsy, romance and sharp dialogue into a deadly serious and effective fabric. In a deliberately nonpartisan way, “Both Your Houses” argues that in the first half of the 20th century, one’s vote hardly matters. Either guy (and yes, the candidate is almost certainly a man) is going to bring the same MO to Washington: load up on legislative pork, bring it back home, get re-elected, repeat. Of course everything has changed since then and the American governing process is cleaner, more honest…

Yeah… not so much. If anything, the lobbyist-infested halls of Congress are more inert and cynical than ever. Remy Bumppo’s choice of season opener could be viewed as a present-day civic statement, and the production’s press release doesn’t discourage the interpretation: “[It] will run throughout the lead-up to the 2014 midterm elections, in which 435 seats in the House of Representatives and 22 seats in the Senate will be up for re-election.”

The statement appears to be this: the system is broken. The good guys and the bad are nearly indistinguishable. Sometimes doing what it takes to protect the country looks an awful lot like criminal activity. In other situations, the right action is taken for all the morally worst reasons. But it’s not the officials who protect the status quo. We do. The voting public. And we don’t have to.

And such fun the audience has while receiving a critical warning. The sharp costumes and snappy discourse, a multi-layered plot that includes romantic intrigue and familial piety — all executed with control by Remy Bumppo Artistic Director Emeritus James Bohnen.

Bohnen’s affectionate history with the company is evident in the intimate vulnerability he elicits from the performances of the cast, which includes Artistic Associates David Darlow and Linda Gillum, as well as Ensemble Members Peter A. Davis and Eliza Stoughton. Darlow and Gillum, who both delivered searing, emotional work in Remy Bumppo’s late 17th season triumph, “Our Class,” are back stealing scenes respectively as a battle worn Congressman with a taste for illegal spirits, and a scheming Gal Friday with a sharp tongue.

The characters are drawn somewhat formulaically and a 21st century observer might bemoan the lack of a strong central female. There’s not much diversity to be found here. Blame it on 1933. Be that as it may, the work onstage is faultless.

As sort of a Remy Bumppo and Artistic Associate Greg Matthew Anderson superfan, I initially took the latter’s absence from the cast list rather hard. But the company’s talent roster is such that the disappointment couldn’t last. I settled for a press opening glimpse of Anderson in the crowd, and enjoyed another satisfying synthesis of intelligent subject matter, historical perspective and winning performances from the dependably entertaining Remy Bummpo.

Carrie: The Musical (June 5, 2014)

Becky SarwateLeave a comment
Callie Johnson in Bailiwick Chicago’s premiere of ’Carrie: The Musical’
Callie Johnson in Bailiwick Chicago’s premiere of ’Carrie: The Musical’ (Source:Michael Brosilow)

 

I’m nursing a complicated reaction to Bailiwick Chicago’s Windy City premiere of the 2012 Off-Broadway revival version of “Carrie: The Musical.” From one angle, the timeless plot of high school bullying leading to disastrous consequences for everyone involved seems more urgent and necessary a story than ever. And there can be little doubt that the production employs catchy musical numbers sung and danced most admirably by a tremendously talented cast.

And yet I have two big “buts.” The lesser is a Margaret White, Carrie’s extremely and destructively Christian mother, played with entirely too much sympathy by an otherwise gifted Katherine L. Condit. The actress displays the occasional terrifying delusion required by the part, the background needed to account for Carrie’s utter and complete sense of earthly abandonment and isolation. But there’s just a touch too much sweetness, an underlying suggestion of good intentions gone wrong that makes the subplot’s culmination unbelievable. Condit’s Margaret would never kill her child.

The decision also neutralizes the impact of the character’s religious extremism at a time when the culture wars, particularly for women, have never felt more threatening. Because I have no way of knowing if the call to play Ms. White this way was made by Director Michael Driscoll or Condit herself, I will only say it’s a mistake that cuts two ways. Happily there is still time to correct it before the show’s run concludes on July 12.

The larger objection I have to the production can be found at the back end of this review’s first sentence: “Windy City premiere of the 2012 Off-Broadway revival version” of the musical. If it takes that many adjectives to describe a work, there’s a chance it’s going to come off as derivative. And indeed the conclusion to Bailiwick’s 2013 – 14 season does feel used in many instances.

It’s like a game of theatrical telephone. You start with Stephen King’s seminal 1974 novel, followed closely by the 1976 film starring Sissy Spacek. You pass through the original Broadway musical in 1988, followed by the revival in 2012. We all try to forget the 2013 cinematic reimagining before we end on the Richard Christiansen stage at the Victory Gardens Theater.

Like the childhood game of telephone, if the initial message is pleasant, the result will retain some or all of its features. But there’s no denying that the final product is a little diluted. And that’s what we’re left with at the conclusion of Bailiwick’s “CARRIE: The Musical.”

A special salute to Samantha Dubina in the role of head mean girl Chris. She is alternately funny and frightening, a modern, bitchy caricature of the one percent youth class.

As I said, the cast is winsome and with the exception of Condit, surely not to be faulted for the production’s secondariness. A special salute to Samantha Dubina in the role of head mean girl Chris. She is alternately funny and frightening, a modern, bitchy caricature of the one percent youth class.

The actress nails the showstopper “The World According to Chris” toward the middle of act one. With her powerful voice she manages beautiful and snide at the same time. That is no easy balance, especially in song. When Chris gets what she richly (pun intended) deserves on prom night, you’ll both cheer and regret the end of Dubina’s presence.

Molly Coleman displays great comic timing as Frieda, the only other person who seems as happy as Carrie about the approaching end of high school. At the opposite end of the spectrum there’s Sawyer Smith, the darkly attractive actor who brings surprising life to the character of Billy, a slacker ball of hormones.

If there’s anything truly perfect about the production however, it’s Callie Johnson as mousy, mystical anti-heroine Carrie White. We take our seats knowing how the story ends, but in Johnson’s hands, it’s hard not to root for a different outcome. We want this Carrie to go to her 20-year reunion with a PhD after her name and a handsome husband (or wife) in tow. The whole ability to move objects with her mind thing becomes oddly incidental as the audience basks in the actress’ aching vulnerability.

I have the impression that this review reflects the disjointedness of the Bailiwick’s project overall. Perhaps that’s as it should be. And to further complicate matters, despite the strong criticisms herein, the production is worth a look. Just don’t put it at the top of your early summer viewing list.