Dreamgirls
Book and Lyrics: Tom Eyen; Score: Henry Krieger. At: Porchlight Music Theatre at Stage 773, 1225 W. Belmont Ave. Tickets: 773-327-5252 or PorchlightMusicTheatre.org; $35-$51. Runs through: May 22
Trash
Playwright: Johnny Drago. At: New American Folks Theatre at Den Theatre, 1333 N. Milwaukee Ave. Tickets: NewAmericanFolktheatre.org; $20 Runs through: May 15
The pursuit of fame and celebrity can be nasty and heartbreaking. That's apparent in two current Chicago shows: Porchlight Music Theatre skillfully crams the R&B/pop epic Dreamgirls into Stage 773's thrust space, while New American Folk Theatre is making a pigsty of an upstairs Den Theatre studio with the Midwest premiere of the camp-drag comedy Trash.
Both shows have great potential to attract audiences identifying as gay or queer. But it's Dreamgirls that largely impresses throughout while Trash disappoints on multiple levels.
A smash hit since its 1981 Broadway debut, Dreamgirls has taken on even more pop cultural currency thanks to director Bill Condon's acclaimed 2006 film adaptation. Fans of the musical will forever be debating the starry vocals ( such as Jennifer Holliday vs. Jennifer Hudson singing "And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going" ) as they all played women in a fictionalized girl group modeled on The Supremes in the 1960s and '70s.
When held up to these Broadway and Hollywood greats, the Porchlight cast can't compete even with all of their impressive vocal gymnastics. Nonetheless, director/choreographer Brenda Didier's ambitiously scrappy and smooth production for Porchlight shows that a big musical like Dreamgirls can still wow on an intimate scale ( especially in Henry Krieger and Tom Eyen's original stage version ). Most of the budget looks to have been lavished on Bill Morey's sparkly period costumes and Kevin Barthel's numerous wig designsespecially since audiences can fill in the scenic blanks for all the musical's many locations.
The leading Dreamgirls trio of Candace C. Edwards, Katherine Thomas and Donica Lynn all give hard-working performances, particularly Lynn as the Florence Ballard-inspired character of Effie White. And Dreamgirls also allows for many great male performers to shine, which is the case with Evan Tyrone Martin as the manipulative manager Curtis Taylor, Jr., Gilbet Domally as the songwriter C.C. White and especially Eric Lewis who sings and dances up a storm as the hard-driving soul singer James Thunder Early.
Very few good things can be said about Johnny Drago's Trash. It's the kind of campy show you'd expect from Hell in a Handbag Productions, but they would have had the good sense to reject it due to Drago's weak script that revels in Southern stereotypes before it veers unconvincingly into Greek tragedy.
The shriek-filled performances, under director Derek Van Barham, are also marred by poor comic timingparticularly Anthony Whitaker in drag as the overweight former Hollywood starlet Jinx Malibu, who rose to fame via a series of exploitative "Pussy Rocket" sci-fi flesh films.
Just what Trash is trying to say in terms of mocking washed-up celebrities and their clueless families is baffling. Alas, Trash is a fitting title for the show in more ways than one.