The most ardent of musical theater queens can sit through hours and hours (even days) of musicals without breaking a sweat, batting an eyelash, or heaving violently, unlike many people who consider musical theater and film as akin to waterboarding. Ok, so I’m as ardent as they get (sometimes when I’m sauntering down the street, I just feel like floodlights will suddenly blaze on me, a thirty piece orchestra will appear, and I will break into “Maybe This Time” as if on cue- at the intersection of Lincoln and Wilson. Hmmm…that’s a fantasy to be recounted for another day’s blog post). So it was quite the rare and very pleasurable treat, after weeks of seeing Chicago storefront theater drama and bluster, to sit through two musicals back to back last weekend. First, I saw my dear friend Jonathan Verge perform as part of an energetic, committed, very talented cast for Bailiwick’s production of Flaherty and Ahren’s A Man of No Importance. Then, I hopped on over next door to the Theater Building the following night to be enthralled by Porchlight Theater’s staging of Maury Yeston’s Nine, based on Federico Fellini’s cinematic masterpiece, 8 ½. Although both have undeniable pleasures, they also have significant areas for constructive feedback (yep, that’s consultant speak for “you gotta fix this baby”), more problematic for A Man of No Importance than for Nine; on the whole though, they also happen to be worthwhile nights at the theater, even for musical theater agnostics.
Apr 09
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