Romeo & Juliet - Babes with Blades at the Raven: Highly Recommended

This one has it all: great acting, great "violence," great writing (of course, it's the Bard), a great ensemble, and great directing. Even the minimalist set (dictated by space and budget) was innovative and evocative. Get ready, there's nary a nit to be found in this review!

This production by the Babes with Blades company at the Raven Theatre is truly a gem. The story itself was effectively edited by the director, Brian LaDuca, who manages through excision and conflation to keep the heart of the story intact and the running time to two hours. He highlights enough of the bawdiness of the Bard to keep the pace entertaining, and is true to the language. Well done!

With the cast being completely women, I wondered what gender-inspired changes there would be, and the good news is - none. Not that I would have objected, mind you, but the audience's inability to distinguish man from woman based on their physical appearance means we must focus on the characters themselves. And this company is clearly capable of strong acting - not just amazingly compelling "violence."

Special kudos are due to Amy Harmon as Mercutio, and Eleanor Katz as Nurse, and Ashley Fox as Juliet - though there wasn't an actor "beneath the salt." Ms. Harmon in particular had her dialogue, timing and acting down cold, and managed some of the more challenging fight scenes with such skill that they seemed effortless.

The set - a two-story affair, with a trestle between up- and down-stage - was used very effectively to allow scene transitions to begin in the back while the former finished in front. The effect of this was to keep the pace ratcheted up an extra notch, and the cast certainly was adept at maintaining that energy.

All in all, the classic story was told in a slightly unconventional way that did not intrude, but in fact enhanced the original tale. The language was easily understood, elocuted clearly and punctuated nicely by smart direction. And the fight scenes were glorious, as one can expect from Babes with Blades.

Hie thee to the Raven, and see this gem before it departs on 30 April.

From Generation to Generation at Stage 773 - Recommended

Musicals and community theater are a risky business: they depend upon a broader range of talent than non-musical plays, and sour notes can be more off-putting than a flubbed line. Fortunately, it all comes together quite nicely in Stage 773's production of Karen Sokolof Javitch and Elaine Jabenis' "From Generation to Generation."

The voices of this large cast are strong and confident. Along with the other musical components - orchestra, choreography and sound - they give this production the solid backbone upon which it successfully builds the rest of the play. The only weak link here is the lyrics: sometimes Javitch tries to fit too many syllables into a line (with apologies to Tom Lehrer), and it shows.

So, what about the story?

The line is pretty straightforward: Rose is dying of cancer, despondent, and is encouraged by her rabbi to leave her as-yet-unborn granddaughter an ethical will. What follows is much more of a memoir than an ethical will, albeit a wide-ranging and largely pleasing one. There is enough humor and uncertainty to keep everything interesting and moving forward, for after all this is basically a "feel good" play.

The set is far more versatile than it appears and deserves special mention: it provides a much richer palette for the rest of the production than one would initially suspect. And several of the actors display some real acting chops as well, not just a facility to sing and dance.

So, all in all, if you're looking for a talented company performing a story from the heart that will bring more than a few chuckles and the occasional tear - as it did for me - then this is your play.

Why didn't I give this "highly recommended?" It's probably due more to the structure of the play itself, which briefly held the promise of raising issues and conflict, and instead settled on the aforementioned memoir approach. I would have loved to see more acting and a richer line for character development, but even without these it's a play worth seeing.

El Nogalar at Goodman Theatre - Not Recommended

I really didn't want to give this one a negative review. After all, it's not without merit. But it's not worth the price of admission, in my opinion. If you get a reduced rate, go for the positives I'll mention below, but otherwise - redirect your hard-earned ticket dollars in another direction.

El Nogalar is a re-working of Chekov's The Cherry Orchard done by Tanya Saracho for Teatro Vista. It has a number of intriguing bits and pieces, and - typical of the high quality one comes to expect from the Goodman - the set is stunning. In particular, the use of a huge, beautifully executed doll house to indicate the geography of the scenes - as well as serve as a constant reminder of the importance of the residence itself - was wonderful. Other touches were also well-executed, including the orchard and what I suppose must be called the barbeque pit.

There was a bit of audio punctuation that was used from time to time that could best be described as synthesized verbal buzzing, but I couldn't decipher what it meant to the development of the story. By and large, however, the production values were excellent; alas, they're only one of the legs needed to support the three-legged beast known as a play.

The writing itself is the second leg, and in this case we were presented not with character development but more a series of expositions that were more monologues than anything else. The story lurches forward, one plot element after the next, but very rarely did we get the sense that any growth was taking place, let alone any really challenging conflict.

To add insult to injury, there was some very obvious product placement in the dialogue, and it stood out like a sore (and putrefying) thumb. Was it necessary to have repeated references to Apple, in particular their iPad2? This was a shonde, and should have been left out.

On the positive side, I appreciate the playwright's attempt to render Chekov into modern times, and I believe that the use of the Mexican drug cartels was a reasonable choice. Likewise, the use of Spanish throughout was an interesting choice, but I believe it needs some refinement. I understand enough Spanish to get through the play, but clearly there were inside jokes in the Spanish that only bits and pieces of the audience "got." Is the author attempting to set up a divide that mimics that between the emigrees and those who stayed behind? I'm not certain - just curious.

The final "leg" is the performance itself, and in this case the acting was uneven and disappointing (but not terrible). It's difficult to assess how much was due to the material and how much to the actors themselves, but it's worth noting that the one character who demonstrated movement (though I wouldn't call it growth) was Dunia, and Yuneun Pardo's performance in that role was the strongest of the lot. At the other end of the spectrum, the role of López seemed to have been ripe for growth, but Carlo Lorenzo Garcia's performance was the weakest.

All in all, this was a disappointing way to spend a couple of hours and more than a few dollars.

"Radio Golf" at Raven Theatre Company - Highly Recommended

Radio Golf by August Wilson, which had its last performance this evening at the Raven, is another great example of what can be reached by a community theater when they have the resources of an excellent play and a dedicated company. That's not to say that the various elements - play, acting, and set - were without flaws, but rather that it was a rousing evening where I really got the sense that this performance meant something important to everyone - and the audience willingly came along for the ride.

The last of Wilson's "Century Cycle" plays, Radio Golf takes up the difficult topics of assimilation, success, and ethical behavior in a story that stumbles a bit in the beginning, but gains strength and depth as it proceeds. Ultimately, it paints the choices with less ambiguity than I might have preferred, making our protagonist Harmond Wilks (Michael Pogue) more predictably heroic than conflicted.

The characters of Elder Joseph Barrow (David Adams) and Sterling Johnson (Antoine Pierre Whitfield) are clearly and powerfully drawn - and realized by their actors. It helps that Messers Adams and Whitfield also appear to have been the strongest actors in the company, as their monologues were a joyful blend of street sense, common sense and comedy, delivered with great timing and just the right spices.

Wilson's characterizations of the wealthier characters - Wilks, Roosevelt Hicks (Warren Levon) and Mame Wilks (Demetria Thomas) seemed less nuanced, at least until the final scenes of genuine conflict. And while Mr. Levon gave a strong and enthusiastic performance, I found myself wanting to call out "Slow Down!!!" too often in all three of their performances.

The set was fine for the play - if anything, it had more detail around the edges than was called for, especially given the (appropriate) starkness of the center. The lighting cleverly implied motion in a direction opposite to the source (the shadows of the blinds on the floor), a nice rendition of the play's essential tension.

It's a pity I wasn't able to review this in time for others to get out and see it - but it speaks highly to the quality of the Raven Theatre - definitely a gem in Chicago's theater crown.

PS: I've decided to change my ratings to Highly Recommended / Recommended / Somewhat Recommended / Not Recommended, as I wanted to give tonight's play a strong review - without it being a 5 out of 5.

"Tree" at Victory Gardens - 4 of 5 stars

Tree, by Julie Hébert, is a great example of the strength of community theater in Chicago. Certainly, Victory Gardens is one of the better "second tier" theaters here, and as such I've come to hold it to higher standards than others. Tonight, it lived up to those standards - quite nicely!

Probably the best dimension of this play is the writing. Ms. Hébert knows her characters: their voices, their demons, their desires. And she's not afraid to take us into the magical realism of Alzheimer's, trusting the audience to piece it together. The puzzle parts are richly offered up, and they eventually coalesce to tell a deeper, more moving story than we thought was in store for us.

The presentation of difficult issues - racism, abandonment, neglect, Alzheimer's, gender stereotyping - are portrayed authentically and with an excellent balance of humor and pain. Only once did one of these issues get "short shrift" - Leo and Didi's exchange at the very end about her love life - and I take that one lapse as the exception that proves the rule. Well done, Ms. Hébert!

The acting is fine by community standards, and in particular Leslie Ann Sheppard as JJ (the strongest of the lot, despite her relative youth) and Celeste Williams as Jessalyn give spirited and well-rounded performances. While it may seem trivial, I was particularly moved by Ms. Sheppard's singing at the end of the play - her voice carried the angst of the entire story in a way that was profound.

Be ready for some coarse language, though I never found it offensive. It worked best for me when it was surrounded by the humor that Ms. Hébert is quite skilled in evoking, but less so - mainly on the strength of the acting, in my opinion - when it was purely the servant of anger.

The set was a visual treat, though the choice of the boat rising from the mist at the play's opening seemed overly symbolic. The lighting design was also quite good, and the use of a few audio tricks was in the main effective.

The "bookends" of the story were the weakest, particularly the ending. Stop reading now if you don't like spoilers.