Displaying items by tag: 4 chairs theatre

Welcome to Southie, a Boston neighborhood where a night on the town means a few rounds of bingo, this month’s paycheck covers last month’s bills, and Margie Walsh has just been let go from another job. Facing eviction, could an old fling who made it out of Southie be a ticket to a new start? Margie is about to risk what little she has left to find out. With his humorous glow, David Lindsay-Abaire explores the struggles, shifting loyalties and unshakeable hopes that come with having next to nothing in America.

Good People is David Lindsay-Abaire's most personal play. Set in "Southie", the working-class neighborhood where he grew up, Good People shines a light on socioeconomic disparities, luck vs. meritocracy, and what it truly means to be "good people."   In David Lindsay-Abaire’s own words, "I have a deep love and respect for the people from my neighborhood. I waited to write it until I could do so responsibly and respectfully, aiming to challenge stereotypes by portraying my friends and relatives as "salt of the earth people”.

Ticket info:

Location of show: Theater Wit (Theater One), 1229 W. Belmont, Chicago, IL 60657

Dates: Running July 17-August 23    Thursdays-Saturdays at 7:30pm and Sundays at 3pm

Opening Day: Sunday, July 19 at 3pm

Cast:  Jodi Kingsley (Margaret), Bryan Breau (Mike), Sandra Adjoumani (Kate), Maggie Cain (Dottie), Wendy Hayne (Jean), Steven Horn (Stevie)

Understudies: Sarah Sapperstein (Margaret), Tim Ashby (Mike), Tiffani Grace (Kate), Judith Laughlin (Dottie) Amber Dow (Jean), Wyatt DeLair (Stevie).

Joining Lauren Berman (Producer/Director), is Beep Trefts (Production Stage Manager), Kevin Rolfs (Set Designer), Levi Wilkins (Lighting Designer), Petter Wahlback (Sound Designer) Anika Splettstoeszer (Costume Designer), Emma Jean Golden (Props Designer), Carrie Hardin (Dialect Coach), Ollie Van Den Heuvel (Assistant Stage Manager), Cammerrron Baits (Social Media Manager),  Brittany Brown (Casting Director).

4 Chairs Theatre’s Mission:

4 Chairs Theatre is a not-for-profit theatre committed to providing a safe space for actors and audiences of all ages, cultures, genders, races, abilities and walks of life.  Our performances breathe humanity, empathy and truth.  We amplify voices that are often excluded and uncover hearts that are often hidden. By replacing "You're too..." and “You'll never..." with "You're enough" and "You will…" we are determined to change the world, one show at a time. Pull up a chair. You can sit with us.

We are all lucky that we’ve gotten to live at the same time and in the same timeline as Stephen Sondheim, possibly the most influential and important composer and lyricist in modern Broadway history. From his most popular musicals — Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Into the Woods, his lyrics for West Side Story — to his more obscure — Anyone Can Whistle, Company, Follies — he’s left a wealth of lyrically and musically rich songs for us to study and enjoy.

The Stephen Sondheim Tribute Revue, directed and produced by 4 Chairs Theatre founder Lauren Berman, showcases songs selected thoughtfully and with care from the catalog of the late, legendary composer, with a talented ensemble featuring Kaitlin Feely, David Geinosky, Lyndsey Minerva, Brian Member, Denise Tamburrino, and Michelle Tibble, accompanied on piano by Tyeese Braslavsky. 

The selected songs range from Sondheim’s early works, like 1962’s A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum and Anyone Can Whistle from 1964, even his very first musical Saturday Night, to his later, more well-known works such as Sweeney Todd and Sunday in the Park with George.

Pictured: Michelle Tibble and Denise Tamburrino

Each of the ensemblists has a clear, powerful voice, creating the perfect canvas for which to display the complex and varied works of Sondheim. Sondheim always emphasized the importance of trained, mindful vocalists throughout his career — he felt that singing should enhance acting, not the other way around. The emotion comes first, always, and the music and lyrics are there to prop up that feeling, take it out of time for a moment and examine it. These actors deliver on just that.

Highlights for me included ensemblist Denise Tamburrino’s solo performance of “Send in the Clowns” from A Little Night Music. Possibly one of Sondheim’s most performed standalone songs, “Send in the Clowns” sardonically comments on the bad timing of love by a woman who’s experienced the ups and downs of it. Tamburrino’s rendition brings the right amount of restraint to the reflective song, letting the emotions on her face and pauses between phrases speak just as much as the lyrics.

Pictured: Brian Pember, Lyndsey Minerva, and Denise Tamburrino

Other highlights were the selections from Company (inlcluding the frantic "Getting Married Today" performed with tact by Lyndsey Minerva, Denise Tamburrino, and Brian Pember) and Into the Woods, Sondheim’s fairy tale-gone-wrong musical from 1987, which included two of the more moving, clear-headed tunes from the show: “No One Is Alone” and “Children Will Listen”, the former sung by the whole ensemble and the latter by Michelle Tibble and David Geinosky.

And finally, another Sondheim gem is uncovered with Kaitlin Feely’s performance of “The Miller’s Son” from A Little Night Music, a song about fantasy and its clash with reality, one of many examples of Sondheim's songs that has stood the test of time and was, in fact, ahead of its time with its witty lyrics and shrewd observations of life.

As Lauren Berman writes in her director’s note, “There are musicals, and then there are Stephen Sondheim musicals.”

The Sondheim Tribute Review by 4 Chairs Theatre is playing at the Skokie Theatre - Performing Arts Center through August 18, 2024. Tickets can be purchased on the 4 Chairs Theatre website.