Yes, my avid blog readers, I have not posted in a week. That’s what happens when you’re thrown into the crazy business travel circuit – I was in Park City, Utah late last week and over the weekend, staying at a faux Alpine lodge resort (incredibly, the resort staff were wearing lederhosen and trilling “Guten tag” during wake-up calls…I thought I was in a really cheesy dinner theater production of The Producers, uhmm, is that you Franz?), then in Cleveland this week, and Phoenix next week. It’s not ideal to be away from Chicago at this time, since there are boatloads of plays opening every week to launch theaters’ fall seasons, but thankfully I was able to see two of the highly-anticipated ones before I got on the first plane out. The People’s Temple is written and directed by Leigh Fondakowski, a co-creator of The Laramie Project, and is the inaugural production in PJ Papparelli’s first full term as Artistic Director of the re-vitalized American Theater Company. Amadeus, Gary Griffin’s production of the acclaimed Peter Shaffer play, opens Chicago Shakespeare Theater‘ s first season after winning the coveted Tony Award for Best Regional Theater last June. Both are strong, notable productions with some really exceptional acting, but with also significant gaps in conceptualization or staging; regardless, both prove that Chicago continues to be the most exciting theater town in America.
The People’s Temple launches the Papparelli era at ACT with a huge bang. It is an intense, compelling, politically and intellectually potent night of theater, drawing on the recollections of survivors and the families of those who perished to reveal why people were drawn to Jim Jones and his People’s Temple, and why, specifically, rational people would make decisions (i.e. drink the infamous Koolaid) that would lead to their demise. Fondakowski successfully, non-judgmentally, and respectfully paints the very human need for a “safe harbor”, an anchor, in a tumultuous, racially and economically-imbalanced world, which motivated many of the People’s Temple followers, a point that is still very relevant today as we reel from the tumult in our financial markets. She is immensely helped by a committed, passionate, truly ensemble cast playing multiple roles. It’s so difficult to single any one out since each plays such a crucial role in the tapestry of the play, but Patrick Andrews (who also wowed me in the ATC production of Speech and Debate) and ATC ensemble member Tania Richard are particularly superb. If I have one bone to pick with the show it is that we don’t see a complete, revealing picture of the complex person that is Jim Jones. Although Darrell W. Cox (whom I have been lukewarm to in other productions) is quite terrific as Jones, I really don’t understand completely the drivers for his megalomania, cruelty, and selfishness. There’s a little tidbit at the beginning of the play when one character says that Jones moved the People’s Temple to Ukiah, California after reading an Esquire article naming it as one of the top ten places in the US safe from an atomic bomb attack, but these little shadings and character clues are pretty sparse for Jones’s character throughout the play. And maybe that’s part of the point- we don’t get to truly understand and know Jones, because there is no true Jim Jones, he is what the person wants or projects him to be, based on his or her own needs and aspirations.
Amadeus, on the other hand, has a pretty complex, riveting, multi-dimensional, highly-engaging central character, and it’s not Robert Sella’s Salieri, but rather Robbie Collier Sublett’s vivid, hard-to-peel-your-eyes-away-from Mozart. It’s a fully-developed, brilliantly-executed performance, which allows us to understand and empathize with Mozart’s emotional journey from confident, petulant child-genius to broken-down, syphilitic man who feels that he has squandered away his life and his talent. Sella, on the other hand, is good, but at very many points during the play, seems to be channeling F. Murray Abraham’s Academy Award-winning performance in the film version (and yes, I have seen the movie version several times). The other wonderful performance that should be singled out is Elizabeth Ledo (who was also terrific in Court Theater’s production of Titus earlier this year), whose Constanze Mozart is a multi-hued concoction: flirty, loyal, shrewd, heartbreaking. My big beef with this production, though, is that it is too plain. You hear Amadeus and you think BIG: gorgeous costumes, eye-popping set design, lush live musical score. The costumes are great (and the wigs should be rightly celebrated, as it was in this TimeOut Chicago article), but the sets look like some accountant, conscious of budget overruns, designed them. And if you’re going to put on a show about Mozart, I think it’s worthwhile to invest in some live music- come on, Chicago Shakes, at your ticket prices, you could have coughed up some dough for a string quartet or a pianist or an accordion player or a group of kids from a bar mitzvah or something. One of the most heinous theatrical decisions, in my opinion, is having an actor sing live over recorded tracks…when Kari Sorenson, as Salieri’s star pupil and Mozart’s mistress, Katarina, starts singing her arias, you’d think it’s a 1990s Saturday Night Live skit with Adam Sandler (instead of Sandler’s Opera Boy, you get Opera Girl, instead). Tacky, tacky, tacky.
The People’s Temple is only running until September 28 at the American Theater Company, 1909 W. Byron Ave. Amadeus, on the other hand, is on at the Chicago Shakespeare Theater main stage, on Navy Pier, 800 E. Grand Avenue, until November 9.
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