Theater
	Reviews below: Review 1 / Review 2 / Review 3 / Review 4 /Review 5
All publications Front Page Nightspots Blacklines En La Vida Out! Resource Guide Current WCT Issue	1 Wendall Greene Playwright: Jeffrey Mangrum At: Steppenwolf Studio, 1650 N. Halsted St. Phone: (312) 335-1650; $18-$27 Runs through: Aug. 25   BY MARY SHEN BARNIDGE	Will Malnati and Tim Edward Rhoze in Wendall Greene.
The universe of Wendall Greene encompasses two worlds: the wooded domain of the title character...an old Black farmer replanting his fields with trees. And a commerce-driven realm populated with greed-obsessed people...some stupid and cruel, and some all this, but even more so for their awareness of a better way and rejection of that path. It is in the latter that storekeeper Pritchet schemes to steal Greene's land, and a superstitious gambler Cooch seeks to reclaim his lost luck. Surrounded by these ruthless men is single-mother Cindy and her teenaged son, Jimmy. Author Jeffrey Mangrum has always displayed a keen ear for the speech, the phrase, or even the single word that distills a personality to its essence with the unmistakable clarity of a police photograph. Shaping these insights to the restrictions of modern dramatic practice had so far proved elusive, however. But under the mentorship of the Steppenwolf New Plays Initiative, Mangrum crafts an elegant parable steeped in American myth that seduces us with the florid vulgarity that characterizes the speech of its region ("That boy couldn't keep his mouth closed if his head were underwater"), infecting us with a growing sense of horror whose suspense builds in intensity to blossom seamlessly into magic realism, with, literally, Fire From Heaven revealing to us that more than one soul has been tested by these events. Rondi Reed directs an ensemble that embraces present-day Poinsett County, Ark., with a clasp like Delta quicksand, each personality so immersed in its environment that we can almost smell the Mississippi mud. At the center of this world premiere production is Mariann Mayberry's achingly vulnerable Cindy and Will Malnati's poignantly adolescent Jimmy. Exuding menace from every pore are Darrell W. Cox and Wesley Walker as country-creeps Terry and Meredith, Joe Forbrich as city-slickster Cooch, and Robert Breuler, whose sly Pritchet reflects the corruption that comes of petty power. Terry Berner endows the mild-mannered Seamus with a Teresius-like transcendence, while Tim Edward Rhoze renders the mysterious Greene a figure as eerie as he is benevolent, much as Brian S. Bembridge's scenic design invokes the pantheistic shamanism lurking beneath the most humble shotgun shack.
2 The Hot L Baltimore Playwright: Lanford Wilson At: Mary-Arrchie Theatre Company at Angel Island, 731 West Sheridan Road Phone: (773) 871-0442; $10-$15 Runs through: Sept. 1   BY MARY SHEN BARNIDGE
You know what you can do in a play that you can't in movies or television? You can have two, three, even NINE people ALL TALKING AT THE SAME TIME and still understand what EVERY ONE OF THEM are saying...just like in REAL life! Few playwrights nowadays write this type of polyphonic harmony, preferring to mimic the serial-dialogue structure of electronic media. The Hot L Baltimore is such a play, however, with the focus of Lanford Wilson's story lying its milieu...in this case, a shabby hotel whose sign sports the burnt-out neon letter giving the play its title...rather than in any one of the individuals who dwell therein. This cross-section of America includes a few citizens content to stay put...the hotel personnel, a pair of retired residents and a hooker cheerfully resigned to her livelihood. Then there is everybody else: A social crusader encumbered by a delicate brother. A rich boy searching for his long-lost grandfather and his own roots. A weary nurse to three generations of crippled men. A young prostitute still vulnerable to false promises of domestic bliss. And a stubbornly independent hoyden who finds her romance in long distances. For this Mary-Arrchie production, David Cromar's sensitive direction well-serves a text that, in less competent hands, could easily be reduced to a nebulous sprawl. Robert G. Smith's Art Deco lobby, Sarah Pace's poly-knit costumes, Stephen Arnold and A. Cameron Zetty's flickering fluorescent lighting and Joseph Fosco's score of tinny top 40 radio ditties pinpoint the period with museum accuracy. Within this faded grandeur, the players retain a firm grip on characters common enough to decorate a WPA mural, distinctive enough to be commemorated by statues in Washington, whose tragedy is their haste to declare themselves unworthy of happiness and thus abandon the quest and those who would keep them company thereon. "Nobody has the conviction to ACT on their passions!" scolds a nameless waif as yet unimpaired by inertia. As we stand on the brink of a troubled chapter in our history, we do well to heed Wilson's documentation of the enervation at the end of another. This show runs 2-1/2 hours, but never has time passed so quickly.
3 End of the World Party Playwright: Chuck Ranberg At: Bailiwick Arts Center Phone: (773) 883-1090; $20-$30 Runs through: Sept. 8   by Jonathan Abarbanel
Dramaturgically speaking, this isn't a stellar year for the Bailiwick Pride Series. The plays aren't very good. There's nothing of the intellectual (and compassionate) stature of last year's Corpus Christi. Nothing as clever as Naked Boys Singing (continuing at Bailiwick, although not in the Pride Series). Chuck Ranberg's End of the World Party is the best shot, but it's built on stereotypical characters and situations. However, it fits the unspoken theme of Pride 2002: the value of gay friendship over sex or even romantic love; a theme stressed in Fucking Our Fathers and Ice/Age (I haven't seen Southern Baptist Sissies). Ranberg, an Emmy-winning writer for NBC's Frasier, sets his tale at a Fire Island summer house shared by six cliches: alcoholic old queen, HIV poz Broadway queen, aging pretty boy, over-compensating muscle stud, self-esteemless sexaholic, and naïve newbie. Ranberg sketches them with broad and minimal strokes, connects them with an episodic structure, and fills the gaps with gags (many of them good) and a few sentimental moments. All but the newbie are late 30s-to-40s professionals (architect, teacher, real estate broker), yet circuit party behavior and drugs rule the night, giving the play a 1992 feel rather than its 2002 setting. At the end, the newbie declares it his best summer, and one wonders to heaven why. He's spent the season observing or participating in substance abuse, self-abasement, unsafe sex, denial and betrayal. Ranberg's characters aren't given time to bond, and serious issues are restricted to two-minute monologues. End of the World Party is shallow rather than bad, especially compared to Terrence McNally's similarly set Love! Valour! Compassion! Director David Zak hasn't tried very hard. His workman-like blocking and minimal interpretation pretty much leave the players to their own devices. As muscleboy Nick, Chris Kossen provides energy, a limited acting range and possibly the most perfectly sculpted and proportioned body ever seen on a Chicago stage. Michael Hampton as HIV-poz Travis, Patrick Rybarczyk as aging prettyboy Roger and John Francisco as cutie newbie Phil have more to offer than their roles allow. Danne Taylor is master of quips as alcoholic Hunter. Cade Wenthe does what he can with whiney Will, the self-flagellating bag of neuroses. John Kahara is pretty as Nick's trick Chip, a cypher of a role. End of the World Party looks good, thanks to the set by Tom Burch. Working simply and with economy, his angled roof line, white walls and bleached pine trim suggest the light and outlines of a modern beach house, surrounded by a blue sea. Peggy Miller does well defining character through costume, given the limits of beachwear. Hey, Bailiwick, there have GOT to be better GLBT plays out there!
4 Truck in Pieces Playwright: Beau O'Reilly At: The Lunar Cabaret Phone: (773) 327-6666; $10 Runs through: Aug. 18 BY RICK REED
For those of you who don't know, the Curious Theatre Branch has been quietly doing some of the best work in town. Led by Beau O'Reilly, this small, but dedicated group is a powerhouse of originality and craft. For the 10 bucks one normally plays for one of their shows, Curious is one of Chicago's best bets when it comes to seeing performances and creativity that impress and resonate in the mind long after one exits their space. The group's latest effort, Truck in Pieces, is no exception. Penned by O'Reilly, the piece, following a day in the life of a washed-up alcoholic boxer named Leonard Bloom, takes its cues from the works of James Joyce and the opus of drunken poet extraordinaire, Charles Bukowski. Credit Joyce with the philosophy of the piece, credit Bukowski with the milieu of the drunken and disenfranchised, and credit O'Reilly with melding the two and in a superior stroke of artistry, making the piece stand on its own capable legs. Truck in Pieces is tragic, funny, engrossing, but most of all poignant, painting a portrait of a man whose love for alcohol and a fiery temper prevented him from ever finding the love he so desperately sought: in the arms of a "mouse" of a wife, a failure of a son, a flinty, unyielding father, and even in the warmth of a few puppies. O'Reilly plays Bloom with nary a wrong note, creating a character who is at once sympathetic and lost. Bloom is real and we ache along with him as we follow him through the last day of his life, where he attempts to reconcile his memories with a collision course toward a lonely detachment from humanity. Guy Massey, in several amazing thespian turns, plays Bloom's father, a shriveled old man who never knew how to give his son the love he sought, Joey Buzz, a boxing competitor and hero from Bloom's sad glory days, Bloom's seducer in a trip to the Cook Islands, Bloom's son, and a smart aleck bartender, who personifies the ridicule and refusal Bloom must have faced throughout his tragic short life. Performances such as these are rare, and compelling, taking the craft of acting and making it art. Sue Cargill, as Bloom's ex-wife, tied to him by their delinquent of a son, Rodney, is also good. She shows us a frightened little woman who stands outside of life and observes (most of her time is spent drawing cartoons of the action on the stage on a blackboard wall, off to the side). The fact that Bloom can't forget her and continually champions himself for reentry back into her heart make him an even more poignant figure. Anyone interested in how to make a powerful impact with a low budget shouldn't miss Truck in Pieces. The imaginative creative forces behind the show keep things simple, and the few flourishes they do use, such as beer bottles that clink themselves and a bartender represented by a shirt and tie on a string, resound even more because they're spare and impactful. Even the video projections that provide a backdrop to the action work in a sort of eerily beautiful way, especially in the play's final moments. Truck in Pieces is a triumph. The Lunar Cabaret is a small space. If you appreciate fine dramatic art, don't miss it.
5   Everything's Sexy! 69 laughs in 96 minutes Directed by Melissa Young At: Cornelia Arts Building, 1800 Cornelia Phone: (312) 683-5347; $15/$10 Runs through: Aug. 17   By Kennette Crockett		Jennifer Marschand and Fannon Holland in Everything's Sexy!
What is it about plays or musicals relating to sex that conjures the following words in our minds... frolicking, funny, romping, and festive. Try as we might, one can't help but giggle about, well, sex. Backstage Theatre's newest offering Everything's Sexy hits all of the right spots as we find ourselves laughing, romping and frolicking with the talented cast. Everything's Sexy is a cabaret featuring original and classical showtunes, dance and comedy. It opens with a couple seated at a restaurant celebrating their well coupledom. The stage design is a hodgepodge combining elements of a western saloon with a piano player in the corner, a neighborhood bar, and a romantic table for two at a quaint but strange restaurant complete with an inattentive waitress who remarks that she meets more than her fair share of married men at one of the city's most romantic dining places. Director Melissa Young keeps good pacing and the songs and the skits flow well. The couple played by Christopher Kaye and Amy Kaye provides laughter and insight into what couples really find sexy and annoying. Their light banter provides a perfect segway in the opening number, "A Lil' Ole Bitty Pissant Country Place," from The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas. The tune is a great opener and more than gets the audience involved. The accompanist, Michael Osinski, is wonderful and the energy of the cast makes us feel like we are watching a large production complete with a full orchestra. I really liked the "Sonata Pathetique," 2nd Movement it made for a good transition for the scene from The Taming of the Shrew. Fannon Holland and Melissa Young's Petruchio and Kate possessed all of the passion and sharpness that one expects of the famous bard's work. All of the songs deal of course with some aspects of sex, be it the belatedness of "Bring on the Men," from Jekyll and Hyde, done wonderfully by Matthew Kerns, who delivers a funny torch song style to the guys in the cast. Kerns even lays on top of the piano for this one. Or the sexy, playful doubletalk of "The Tennis Song," from City of Angels, provides a light toe-tapping number. The finale of Orgasm Orchestra is definitely one of the funniest moments in Everything's Sexy. Broken into two parts, "What the Woman Wants" and "What the Man Wants" had the audience in tears. Each cast member has their sound or phrase and we are treated to them in a harmonious and hysterical manner. My favorite is a woman saying, "Honey get the vibrator." All I can say is "Honeys, go get your tickets."
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