Review: "Cyrano" The House Theatre of Chicago @ Chopin Theater, Ends 10/16

Full disclosure:  I did not receive a press ticket for this show.
This ain’t your mama’s Cyrano.  Purists will most certainly dislike it, though I’m not sure why.  Perhaps they won’t find it up to par with the real Cyrano himself: Hercule-Savinien de Cyrano de Bergerac (1619 - 1655), noted dramatist and duelist.  Or the plethora of writings based loosely on his life, among them being Edmond Rostand’s epic lyrical French verse.  Perhaps they are being purists about the many English translations, the most notable being the humorless Brian Hooker version, in which the word “panache” is never used and often slides into free verse, or the Anthony Burgess version which has gone through a series of rewrites.  But this Matt Hawkins-adaptation is also an English translation, so what are they being purists about?  And who’s to say that a century from now, people won’t be getting all defensive for Hawkins adaptation, complaining about the new “sock-puppets with those colorful miniature sabers you find lancing fruit in a tropical drink” version.  I call copyright dibs on that concept.  By the way, I put the word “purist” in my on-line thesaurus, and it suggested the word “fussbudget.”  Hmmm.  So tempting.  Just saying.

Shawn Pfautsch as Cyrano and company

What Hawkins has done is re-imagined the Cyrano legend, reducing it down to its core story of a romantic triangle that is tainted with unrequited love, and bolstered by fantastic swordsmen and women in feats of daring-do.  It is a very familiar theme, and a very comfortable one.  It is a story that will always find its way onto the stage and screen in many formats, and in this particular case, into the hearts of the audience.  Well, me at least.  I was moved by the ending, and I know the show.  But this ending captured the unique sadness of this lovers genre in a few moments of theatrical pleasure.  Hawkins is clever in his nods to the different adaptations that came before his.  For example, Cyrano’s long and elegant take about falling from the moon in Rostand’s play is turned into a short little musical piece that just meanders from the mind of his Cyrano (played with just the right - dare I?? - panache by Shawn Pfautsch, who also wrote the song lyrics with Hawkins for Kevin O'Donnell's original music).  I found it amusing, because both the old text and new song seemed to get us to the same point.  Same journey, different vehicle.   And did you know that the real Cyrano was known for his science fiction writing?  From Wikipedia: Cyrano de Bergerac's works L'Autre Monde: où les États et Empires de la Lune (The Other World: The States and Empires of the Moon) (published posthumously, 1657) and Les États et Empires du Soleil (The States and Empires of the Sun) (1662) are classics of early modern science fiction. In the former, Cyrano travels to the moon using rockets powered by firecrackers and meets the inhabitants. The moon-men have four legs, musical voices, and firearms that shoot game and cook it. See?  In the end, it all fits.


No doubt there will be some who will wax nostalgic for the meeting at the bakery, or the berating of the actor Montfleury in the first scene of the traditional presentation.  And who doesn't love to berate an actor?  Some have made careers out of that.  But Hawkins has cut an hour from the usual 3-hour length of most traditional productions with surgical precision, and then allows his other blades to take the stage.  Not only is this his adaptation, but he is the director and fight choreographer.  And what a grand spectacle it is to witness the swordplay as it engulfs the cleverly-designed, rotunda-inspired play-space, including a balcony.  There was a Globe aura to Collette Pollard's gorgeous set that I found very appealing.

Shawn Pfautsch

As for the actors, they hit all the right notes of bravado, compassion, loyalty and love demanded of them in this story.  Again, Pfautsch's Cyrano was a grand mixture of melancholy, wit, romance and correctness.  He opens the show by sitting at a piano that is center stage, and does a witty lounge-singer routine about his favorite word.  Very adroit and humorous.


The apple of his eye is Roxanne, played with sagacity and adeptness by Stacy Stoltz.  She is constantly in motion as she flits lightly around the stage, presenting an aura of surety and appeal, while in quieter moments is reflective of her feelings for the apple of her eye, Christian.  Played by the handsome and talented Glenn Stanton, this Christian is a delightful assimilation of warrior in battle and ignorance in love.  The famous balcony scene between Cyrano, Christian and Roxanne was touching and heartfelt.


I must mention Shane Brady's precise portrayal of Le Bret as well as the comic finesse of Mike Smith as Ligniere.  And, certainly kudos go to the ladies and gentlemen who wielded swords with seeming abandon; both for their skills and for them not slicing anyone in the first row.  I sat in the balcony, coward that I am.


I could go on about the costumes, sound, lighting, and etc.  All were top notch.  For those who are looking for an evening of exciting theatre, romance, comedy, music and Über-swordplay, go see this show, presented by The House Theatre of Chicago at Chopin Theatre at 1543 W. Division St. They have $10 student and Industry rush tickets available at all performances.  You can't beat it.  For more information, go here.

 Worth the price of admission?  You bet your panache it was.

Review: "Eat Your Heart Out" Albright Theatre, Batavia, IL Ends 9/24

Full disclosure:  I received a press ticket to review this show

I'll be honest with you.  I'd never heard of Eat Your Heart Out, written by Nick Hall, when I was invited to review it.  Google searches led me to a paltry lot of old announcements of the show being performed in New Jersey and La Brea, CA.  And many, many reviews.  Oh my...everyone seemed to love it, calling it funny and touching, and that it elicited laughter and a few tears.  So why didn't I like it?


I tried to find a good description of the show, but since it was off-off Broadway, the best I could find was the blurb on the Samuel E French web site (they license the rights of the show at $75/performance).  It says, "Charlie's an out of work actor currently working as a waiter (hmmm, something new). The scene is a series of hilarious encounters (not so much) in Manhattan restaurants both elegant and shabby. By changing the tablecloths in the course of the action, the basic setting of three tables and six chairs becomes another place. The action's uninterrupted (true, but you better have precise pacing) and the comedy never stops (false on all accounts). The other performers play several parts; the girl desperately trying to eat snails and oysters to please her fiance, the middle aged lovers so intent on each other they cannot order dinner; the rich, embittered astrologer; the timid man who never gets a waiter; the agents, directors, actors, and waiters. An amusing (debatable) gallery of characters whose stories intertwine and finally involve Charlie."  Sounds exciting, yes?  By the way, the parenthetical commentary is mine.  So is the rest of this post.


Personally, I found the script to be weak, with very little substance.  It's all a series of encounters broken up by actor talk (I went on an audition today and funny actor stuff happened...that sort of thing) while Charlie and the bus boy change the tablecloths.  Some were funny, and some just went on well after the point was made until you wanted to scream ENOUGH ALREADY.   The thematic connection between the scenes is tenuous except for the fact that Charlie is the waiter.  He is the glue that holds the scenes together, but he's not enough.  And this is not a comment on JP Quirk's portrayal of Charlie.  He did a good job as the yeoman of the food-service world.  Believeable for the most part at being the actor, but slid a bit into being an actor and disconnecting himself from the scene.  But the character of Charlie just isn't compelling.


Taryn Hettlinger Parise and her husband Tony Parise play all the axuillary "older" characters in the various dining establishments (the best one is a Poe-themed restaurant called Tintinnabulation, with a bell on each table and a dead raven at the cash register).  They were adequate for what they had to do, which was be basic stereotypes of "older" characters, but neither brought any spark to the table.  Anika Bryceson presented us the "younger" women.  She had a look that draws your eye, but then did little to hold it.  Most of her lines as reoccuring character Doris were responses to what Charlie would say, and she would answer in a shy, coquettish way...down and to stage left.  Every time. Every single time.  It reeked havoc on the pacing of the first scene, which should snap, crackle and pop.


The highlight for me was the performance of Terrell Riggins as the "younger" men.  His character of the ostentatious customer at Tintinnablulation screamed snobby and oozed smarmy.  His portrayal of the young man with lust in his heart that morphs into a lustful coupling with Bryceson on the table in a Mediterranean restaurant table (funny, but went too long) was certainly committed.  And his turn as the waiter who is the moral antithesis of Charlie was well fleshed out.  And, I would be remiss if I didn't say that the appearance of Aidan Descourouez as the I-Pod shuffling bus boy at each eatery always brought a smile to my face, as well as some toe tapping.


Weak acting shows the holes in a weak script.  That's not the case here.  The cast did a decent job, but had an insurmountable hill to climb with a show that goes nowhere.  Pacing became an issue a few times, some of which could have been tightened by director Heidi Swarthout.  But she's not responsible for Act 2, which went on for eternity.  In my notes, I wrote, "Wow, when will this end?  Where is it going.  And why should I care?"  Yeah, there's a problem with the script.


Was it worth the price of admission?  Not the show, but support the actors if you can.  A couple of them do nice work.  You have two more performances.  For tickets and other information, visit Albright's web site.

Review: "The Double" Babes With Blades Theatre Company @ Lincoln Square Theatre, Chicago IL

Full disclosure:  I received a comp ticket to see this show.


Come on...say it with me.  Babes With Blades.  Again, but this time drag out that final 's'.  Babes With Bladessssssza!  That's it!  Fun, yes?  Trust me, I'm not one whose prone to sophomoric behavior...in public....usually.  But when I left the theatre after watching this action-packed 40s-style backstage romp, I had a silly-ass grin on my face, and kept chanting their name over and over.  Babes With Bladessssssza!  Driving west on I-90, heading back to my suburban haunts, the mantra became hypnotic and my car began to amble as I drifted in and out of consciousness... But enough about me.

Gillian N. Humiston and Olivia Wood

The Double was written by Barbara Lhota, and is being premiered by Babes With Blades Theatre Co.  Lhota was the author of the one-acts in my last review, and truth be told, I have become a fan of her writing.  I'm sure there is a page somewhere I could link to that describes the show, but I think it's best stated by WBEZ's Jonathan Abarbanel when he chose it as his theatre pick on his station's web-site:  "Barbara Lhota's new play, The Double, takes us backstage at Broadway's Belasco Theatre in the 1940's, where Minnie is appearing in a production of Cyrano de Bergerac, and gets into trouble she only can get out of with sword play and unarmed combat. Hey, this show-within-a-show must be another world premiere from Babes With Blades, Chicago's unique female stage combat troupe. The Double... merges screwball comedy with swashbuckling..."  Well said.

I believe that in order to parody something, you must first have a great love, respect and understanding of the subject or your presentation will be weak and ineffective and ring false.  As someone who enjoys 40s screwball comedy, it was obvious just how deeply Lhota and company feel about this genre.  The playbill tells me this was a workshopped show, meaning that it's been taken from its raw form oh-so-many years ago (2008), and been subjected to readings, rewrites, actors input about characters they have started to call their own and more readings and rewrites.  It's a creative process (I've been through a few) with the end goal being to whip the piece into a shape that is audience-friendly.  There were probably loftier philosophical goals, but audiences rarely care about the process, just the result of the process, so why talk about them here?  


The story is sharp and clean, and the text is laced with rapier wit. The comedy comes in broad strokes as well as sharp jabs, and the characters parry and thrust the rapid-fire dialogue.  Please stop me before I run out of sword puns.  The characters are stereotypes with a twist.  That's not a bad thing in a new show that channels the spirit of a specific period and style, because it allows the audience to quickly get comfortable.  And this is a comfortable show.  It's not drama.  It's not high-art.  It a high-energy, hard-working, swashbuckling comedy fest.  It's the 40s, with modern sensibilities.

Lisa Herceg, Mark Pracht and Kimberly Logan

As for the cast, they were stellar.  Applause goes to Lisa Herceg for her turn as Rosalind Rollins, who appears to have channeled Rosalind Russell from His Girl Friday.  A fast-talking dynamo who does verbal gymnastics with Lhota's healthy dose of 40s-speak, Herceg hits all the comedy targets and has mastered the side-long glance.  She is the quintessential strong comedic lead.   Her character's ex-husband and leading man of the Cyrano production is played by Mark Pracht.  He does a nice job of capturing the cad/actor and stays on equal footing as he verbally spars with Herceg.

Brendan Hutt and Kathrynne Wolf

Kathrynne Wolf played Shirlie Spagel, the fight and dance choregrapher of the Cyrano production, who is the target for the affections of cast member George Hall (Brendan Hutt).  Both are agile, athletic and limber as they mark out a fight sequence that quickly turns from swordplay to foreplay.  Later on, there is an hysterical take on the big battle in Cyrano, with Wolf playing the entire Spanish garrison.

Kimberly Logan and Gillian N Humiston

Kimberly Logan and Gillian N. Humiston shine in the roles of the ingenue and her new stunt double (thus the title) who is also a life-long friend.  Both ladies have a cute and bubbly presence that works well with this style, and are a joy to watch.  And when they let go in a wonderful 40s-style dance number choreographed by Alison Doenheggen, they light up the stage.  Rounding out the cast are Shaun Nathan Baer as Adrian Young, the Christian of the Cyrano production and Dan Foss, who brings great humor to the role of Saul Bloomfield, the producer who has a habit of making  awkward word choices.


Director Leigh Barrett has done a nice job with this new show, and has put together a wonderful ensemble of familiar, yet slightly different, iconic 40s characters.  While they could still tighten up the cues a bit, and punch the comedy harder in some sections, this production does what it sets out to do:  entertain.


Was it worth the price of admission?  A big yes!  And look for deals on GoldStar and Hotix. And, if you have seen Strangers and Romance, I hope you kept your program.  You'll receive a $5 discount if you bring it to The Double.  And vice-versa.


For information and tickets, visit the Babes With Blades website.


So, I've seen two one-acts by Barbara Lhota, a new play by her about the wacky backstage goings-on for a production of Cyrano.  Now I just need a production of Cyrano to complete the triptych.  Next up:  Cyrano by The House Theatre.