For me, the dog days of August seem to be almost interminably crawling by, with an overall hazy, languorous feel to them that makes me all the more want to stay cooped up in my air-conditioned apartment watching the men’s springboard diving at the Beijing Olympics (if cutting-edge NASA technology was used to develop the new aerodynamic Speedo body swimsuit the swimmers are wearing, I wonder what technological marvel could have come up with Alexandre Despatie’s diving trunks? Uhmmm…I’m sure you Halsted queen bees have a multitude of theories running through your, ahh, heads…). There hasn’t been a lot of arts and culture events to go to (or at least any that I am particularly interested in), so I have been catching up a lot on news of what’s coming up.
Playbill.com reports that Stephen Sondheim’s latest musical, which premiered at the Goodman Theater in 2003 as Bounce, with Richard Kind and Howard McGillin, directed by Hal Prince, about a pair of turn-of-the-century brothers who cajole, scheme, and bamboozle (also sing and tap dance) their way to fame and fortune, has now been re-titled Road Show for its Public Theater staging beginning October 28. Sondheim faves Michael Cerveris and Alexander Gemignani are now starring, and John Doyle, the brilliant mastermind of the re-envisioned Sweeney Todd and Company on Broadway, two plays where the actors also played the musical instruments, is now directing the show. I’m not really sure if Sondheim, and book writer John Weidman (also Sondheim’s collaborator on Assassins) re-worked the play and the songs for this first New York production, but I certainly hope so. I remember seeing the Goodman production several years ago and being heavily disappointed; I didn’t think Bounce was fresh or original at all, I actually thought it was tedious; and a lot of Sondheim’s songs were shockingly unmemorable. It felt like a play written by someone who had reverted back to nostalgia of an earlier time in his or her career. Hopefully, Road Show will present a reinvigorated Sondheim. Jane Powell played the mother in the Goodman staging and was one of the best things in the show, in my opinion; it’s a pity she’s not reprising her role for the Public. Trivia: the great Deanna Dunagan, newly-minted Tony winner for August: Osage County, was in the ensemble of Bounce. Interesting how time can change everything.
Speaking of August: Osage County, all the theater blogs and arts publications reported in early August that this brilliant drama was being adapted for the screen by its author, Tracy Letts. Super yay! (yep, I was so ecstatic I could have dived off the springboard with Alexandre Despatie!). No word yet on casting or the director, but the blogosphere buzz is that Academy Award-winner Helen Mirren is very interested to play Violet, the matriarch. Hmmm…she’s not the first one who comes to mind for the role, but it could be interesting casting.
More Steppenwolf news: I just read today that the Steppenwolf’s production of Conor McPherson’s critically-acclaimed The Seafarer, will travel to LA’s Geffen Playhouse in the spring of 2009. Steppenwolf ensemble member Randall Arney is directing both productions, which will also have the same artistic designers (costumes, art design, sound design, and lighting). Interestingly,though, only ensemble member John Mahoney has been announced for both productions. In Chicago, ensemble members Francis Guinan, Tom Irwin, and Tom Wilder are also in the cast. I can’t wait to see this.
Chris Jones mentioned it first on his blog several weeks back: the highly-acclaimed British theater company, Complicite, noted for its adventurous, multi-media, highly visual theatrical productions, is making its only North American stop for the world tour of its latest production, A Disappearing Number (which won a bunch of theater awards in London) in…Ann Arbor, Michigan. Not New York City, Chicago, or LA, but at the home of the Wolverines itself. Ok, enough pseudo-intellectual urban sophisticate grumbling - it’s close enough so I can hop on a plane and see it (or take the Megabus, gulp). A Disappearing Number will be at the university’s Power Center from September 10-September 14. This is a really rare chance of seeing a world-class theater group that is not North America based (and I have talked about our, Chicago theater lovers’, propensity to navel-gaze). Go see it!
I did catch a play last weekend. I saw the inaugural production of the new Equity theater company, Route 66, John Kolvenbach’s On An Average Day, starring Route 66 Artistic Director Stef Tovar (also an ensemble member at the American Theater Company) and Johnny Clark, reprising their roles from the LA production earlier this year, as estranged brothers who come to grips with long-simmering fraternal tension. Yeah, when I first read the plot summary, I thought oh, oh this is True West or In a Dark, Dark House redux. Well, I couldn’t really say if it is or it isn’t, because I don’t completely get the play. Is it about abandonment and guilt? Is it about the uneasy incongruity of sibling rivalry and paternalism in brotherly relationships? Is it about stunted emotional growth? Is it about fraternal/male bonding? See, unlike Shepard or LaBute in their plays, I don’t think Kolvenbach has a crystal-clear perspective on his dramatic thesis. The play’s murky, and ultimately, distancing (it also sometimes feels like you’ve seen many of these situations before)…until, the riveting, gasp and wince-inducing, exceptionally choreographed fight sequence. It is a harrowing, emotionally-draining scene and both Tovar and Clark deliver the goods. After you see them sprawled on the ravaged set, both physically and emotionally spent, you kinda want to call 911 (or at least give both of them intravenous bottles of gin and tonic). They both turn in admirably fearless performances, and Clark is especially intriguing as the more psychologically unstable of the two. But as my friend Jonathan and I agreed about afterwards, you don’t want to like a play because you just saw the two lead actors pour their hearts, soul, limbs, and sweat-saliva cocktail into it. I wished Tovar and Clark had more interesting material to work with. On An Average Day runs at the Victory Gardens Greenhouse, 2257 N. Lincoln Avenue, until September 6.
Tags: Complicite, Public Theater, Route 66 Theater Company, Stephen Sondheim, Steppenwolf Theater
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