Displaying items by tag: Den Theatre

Kiss produced by Haven Theatre (and playing at The Den Theatre) is a stealthily crafted play. Delightfully engaging, loaded with laughs, it tells the story of two couples, none married, who double date regularly to watch soap operas at one of their apartments.

Kiss is also a theatrical event for Chicago: the production of a play by celebrated screenwriter Guillermo Calderon. He wrote Sundance winner "Violeta Went to Heaven;" "The Club," a Golden Globe nominee and winner at the Berlin Intl. Film Festival; and "Neruda," another Golden Globe nominee that was also a lauded at the Canne’s Film Festival. His plays are performed across Europe and in New York, including Neva, Diciembre, Speech, Quake, and Escuela.

The play Kiss opens as the good looking Youssif (Salar Ardebili) half of one couple, arrives at the apartment of comely Hadeel (Arti Ishak), the girl from the other couple. The two engage in friendly banter, mostly play-acting lines from the show. After awhile, though, the banter begins shifting to role playing scenes from the soap opera, and the tone gets more seriously heated and amorous, in an over-the-top melodramatic style.

Like the TV shows, Kiss loaded with thwarted passion and impossible liaisons. That familiar soap opera-style music loudly punctuates the scene, as the soap opera jumps from screen to real life. In a real soap opera, the music is intended to conjure tension, or suspense. But here, it conjures up laughs from the audience – who were wildly amused by the overheated performances.

The characters struggle for words – they know the passion, but they don’t have a script. We hear clumsy lines like, “The heart is a big muscle, and yours is larger than normal,” and “You can love two women at a time,” or “I want to watch you eat and then lick your plate when you are finished.”

The role playing seems to be seriously leading to the real thing, and Youssif and Hadeel get there rather quickly: declarations of undying love lead to a proposal of marriage by Youssif, and Hadeel accepts. Then true to form for a soap opera, there is a knock at the door, and Hadeel’s beau, the hapless Ahmed (Monty Cole, who also directs) arrives, determined to propose to Hadeel himself.

Ahmed does, and Hadeel accepts. And so it goes, with complications rising as Youssif’s girlfriend Bana (Cassidy Slaughter-Mason) arrives, angry because she senses Youssif has been untrue. This meta-soap opera grinds on comically, until the action ends, and the actors take a bow. The playwright has drawn us close with this show.

And with us in his clutches, Calderon resumes the play with a faked post show discussion by the cast, and we are lead to another plane of performance that is mind-bending, to say the least. I won’t spoil the last 20 percent of the show, but to see where the mind of Guillermo Calderon takes us under the direction of Monty Cole – it’s well, well worth seeing. Likewise the performances by Ardebili and Ishak are excellent. 

Kiss is also a social commentary. The characters names and the Arabic script on the televised soap opera playing on the set let us know it is set in the Middle East. Information in the lobby reveals it is Syria, where soap operas are celebrated form of cultural expression. They are censored, in that criticism of the government isn’t permitted.

But Syrian actors and scriptwriters insert social commentary subversively. In the lobby you can also learn a bit of famous Syrian actress Mai Skaf, who died in exile two years ago, following harassment for political dissidence. If there is a Jeff Award for dramaturgy, the researchers who brings such scripts as Kiss (and also Pomona) to Chicago are certainly deserving of it. Kiss runs through August 18 at Den Theatre.

The Den Theatre returns to original programming for the first time in nearly five years. Director Lia Mortensen directs their revival of the Joel Drake Johnson play ‘Four Places’. In the intimate space at the Den, ‘Four Places’ gets its first Chicago production since its premiere in 2008 at Victory Gardens. 

‘Four Places’ is a fast-paced one act about two siblings dealing with aging parents. The action is fairly simple; a car ride to lunch, the meal and the car ride back.  Warren (Bruch Reed) and Ellen (Amy Montgomery) are the disgruntled siblings. Throughout, there’s an underlying bitterness between the adult children and their mother. Peggy their mother (Meg Thalken) first appears as any other sweet old lady with a slight distance from modern life. The awkwardness seems merely like a generational gap. Once they begin the lunch, the revelations unfold and we get a glimpse into not only this specific family, but the aging process in general. 

This is a tight-knit cast and the nature of the play requires it to be so. Montgomery and Reed are convincing siblings. There’s a familiar chemistry between them adds a complicated layer to the story. They love each other, but rarely like each other. Reed is the sensitive one and Montgomery is the tough one. Good cop, bad cop. Though, it’s really Meg Thalken’s show. Lia Mortensen’s production is gritty and real. Thalken hits all the comic notes but seems more focused on authenticity. Thalken’s visible and palpable unraveling throughout the play is disturbing and achieves the play’s goal. Johnson’s play is about how uncomfortable it is to age, especially into the twilight years when control and dignity begin to slip away. 

‘Four Places’ is a very bleak dark comedy. It asks what happens when the parental/child roles reverse. Each scene is perfectly structured, the needs of the characters are so clear that the ending sneaks up on you. It is a sit-comish style play that’s easy on the ears, but Mortensen has mined the depths of the script for the universal realities. You may not cry but you’ll certainly wonder, what are we going to do about mom? 

Through June 30th at the Den Theatre. 1331 N Milwaukee. 773-697-3830

The Total Bent is a musical show so delightful I wish I could shrink it down, put it in a shoebox and show it to all my friends. But you can (and should) go see it full scale at Den Theatre, where it runs through March 10.

Ostensibly the story traces a British record producer’s effort to record a Gospel music prodigy in Montgomery, Alabama. But to be truthful the real story told by playwrights Heidi Rodewald and Stew depict with color and verve the personal journey of a creative spirit – Marty Roy (Gilbery Domally) – as he finds his voice and attains fame on a global stage.

All that is set against a sweeping portrait of the tense interplay between black music and African-American culture as the Civil Rights movement seized the day. It is told through the oedipal battle of a father and son who are at odds around matters, spiritual, social and musical.

The Total Bent features Chicago treasure Robert Cornelius as Montgomery preacher Joe Roy who has built his career as a Bible-thumping televangelist and Gospel music recording artist. This role taps Cornelius's wonderfully expressive baritone, and his stentorian delivery in the dialog.

But it is Gilbery Domally, as Joe’s young adult son, who steals the show, channelling the role of Marty Roy. He is dazzling! Domally is more like a force of nature than mere performer as he traverses a role that sees him evolve from his father’s hidden spiritual musical muse, moving across multiple musical styles and stage personae as he navigates toward his creative apotheosis on the world stage.

All this is told with an acerbic wit, and that ironic twist we get from the likes of Donald Glover, Jordan Peel, and Spike Lee.
From the moment Marty Roy prances onto the stage, we are treated to a continuous critique of his father, and an uproarious and irreverent running commentary on the conflicts between those clinging to the status quo in the Jim Crow South, as Black Power emerged.

Joe Roy is celebrated for his inspiring, traditional Gospel songs. But to keep the song mill moving, he relied on his wife, now gone, and now his son Marty, to pen the music. As the social revolution rocks Montgomery and the South, Marty encourages his father to tap into it in his preaching and singing, and provides him a lovely song with a scathing refrain: “That’s why he’s Jesus and you’re not, Whitey.” Marty asks the Music Director (Jermain Hill, who also plays Deacon Charlie, is a stitch) to do a retake: "Try a less church-y sound," he says. "I am such a pest!" 

Siding with social conservatives, “This protesting stuff is going to ruin everything,” Joe Roy tells his son. “Is there any real money in it?” He advises Montgomery's white people to ride the buses to combat the boycott by blacks that was launched by Rosa Parks. “If our spiritual rights were in order, we wouldn’t need no civil rights,” he advises his African-American followers.

Then Marty Roy skips across to stage right, waves his hand, and offers an explanation to the audience (it's hard to imagine today, but most white people regarded Parks as a villain): “This all be the past, and shit.” Rather than labor in his father's vineyard, Marty sets out to become a secular music writer, and we watch him transform in stages, becoming a James Brown soul singer with carefully choreographed back-ups, to a Prince-like apparition who has continuous bookings in London.

The Total Bent is largely a sung work, with limited amounts of dialog. It is the latest theatrical script by the creative team of Heidi Rodewald, and Stew. The two rose to fame with Passing Strange, which won a Tony, an Obie, and a Drama Critics Circle Award in 2008. Stew (he doesn’t use his last name, See) is a singer, songwriter, and leader of a pop-rock band in Los Angeles called The Negro Problem, which recorded Post Minstrel Syndrome in 1997. As this background suggest, Stew mines a rich vein of “detached black irony” in his creations.

The music is wonderful, two band members also characters: Frederick Harris as Deacon Dennis; and Jermain Hill as Deacon Charlie. Outstanding also were supporting cast members Michael Turrentine as Andrew and Breon Arzell as Abee – the duo deftly taking on a variety of comical roles as church ladies and bumpkins.

Among so many striking aspects of the show, we get to see and hear several songs composed, Joe Roy's sacred version, then a retake by Marty Roy in a profane rock style. One such is "Sinner I Know You're Lost." It's a lovely classic hymn as Joe Roy originates it; but it is transporting when Marty Roy redoes it in a swinging rock style, coupled with the refrain, "I gotta get up on the cross." 

The Total Bent is highly recommended on its own merits, and especially to see Gilbery Domally’s amazing performance. Jointly produced by Haven Theatre and About Face Theatre, it features dummer Christian Moreno on drums, Anthony Rodriguez on winds, Derek Duleba on guitar, and Kurt Shelby on Bass. It’s at the Den Theatre through March 17.

In the time I’ve been reviewing theater for this revered publication, I’ve often found myself quietly judging minutiae that’s occurred in productions that coincidentally share personal interests or obsessions of mine. While watching wonderful takes on the Buddy Holly Story or Roger Miller’s Broadway show, Big River, I’ve had to stop myself from critiquing changes made to increase a show’s entertainment and that only offend geeks like me. In a recent example of a show I was not there to review, my wife — as we sat together on a rare date to watch the movie, Bohemian Rhapsody — I was told to stop with comments such as “‘Fat Bottomed Girls’ hadn’t even been written at this point in Queen’s career!”

So, when I entered the Den Theatre to see their holiday musical parody of that Christmas classic, Die Hard, I worried that my personal obsession with said film might color my enjoyment of the show at hand. Thankfully, for you the reader and for the wonderful and enthusiastic cast who are performing Yippee Ki-Yay Merry Christmas from now through January 12, I walked out of opening night with a smile on my face and a spring in my (barefooted and broken-glass-encrusted) step. This show is not only that much fun, but is both enjoyable for the fair-weather fan of the film franchise or those of us who have watched the series’ initial installment (and perhaps some or all of the others) way too many times.

Don’t get me wrong…this is not a careful reenactment of NYPD Detective John McClane’s bloody Christmas Eve high in an LA skyscraper 30 years ago. Instead, it’s an often smart and always smiling holiday sendup of the movie’s most memorable characters, quotes, and moments — all of them done with love, with enthusiasm, and with good humor.

We begin with Bill Gordon as “Bruce McClane” — already barefooted, always sucking down a Marlboro Red, ever reminding us that he’s a hardened New York City cop in California for Christmas and to save his marriage. Gordon’s plays the same gruff everyman that Bruce Willis created in 1988, overplaying it to comic effect. And the same as three decades ago, Caitlyn Cerza’s “Holly Generic” is Bruce’s glass-ceiling-breaking, fax-sending, shoulder-padded-blazer-wearing wife — with her determination to make it in this man’s world no less a point made, even as it makes us chuckle, than it was back then.

The third main character, also defined by the outfit he wears, is Gary Fields’ take on Alan Rickman’s timeless villain, Hans Gruber. The character is renamed here, for the kind of kitschy comic effect that this play’s full of, to poke fun at the overall movie culture of those fondly remembered decades. Fields’ overdone British-doing-German-terrorist accent, his sleek suit (“John Phillips, London,” he reminds us, ad nauseam), and his overall regal ghoulishness not only honor the late Rickman’s genius, but show what fun the original performance was and what an impact it has had on our pop-culture consciousness.

But while the three main characters ground the musical, it’s the rest of the cast (and their songs and shenanigans) that let it take flight. Above, I used the term “enthusiastic” a time or two already. And that’s the word that keeps coming back to me as I remember what I saw on the Den Theatre stage. The cast does show, as so many casts on Chicago stages do, what talent we have in this city of ours. But even more so, the members of this cast show how funny, and how game, our Windy City thespians can be.

I wondered what fun the show might have with Reginald VelJohnson’s Sergeant Al Powell, and I wasn’t disappointed. Terrance Lamonte Jr. plays the character christened “Carl Winslow” (a callout to VelJohnson’s most famous role, and one more bit of pop-culture geekery for the geeks in the crowd), and while he’s fun and funny throughout, it’s a 70s sex jam early on that he sings to a beloved snack cake that brings the house down.

Jenna Steege also steals the show as the movie’s sleezy, mustached cokehead character. Her moment to snort and shine comes with a gospel performance paying tribute to her drug of choice, with powder a-flying, choir a-clapping, tambourines a-clanging and things getting way out of hand in the best way possible.

Nate Curlott as an FBI agent has what could also be the show’s stopper, a boisterous anthem of patriotism, beer, and machismo. And Jin Kim’s Nakatomi landed joke after joke about 80s gamer culture, leaving my gamer brother-in-law who accompanied me nearly on the floor.

But the MVP of this musical is surely Erin Long as tow-headed terrorist siblings, Klaus and Tony. As Klaus, Long is a bundle of constant movement, clever asides, and manic humor. But it’s an early tap-dancing number as Tony where she shows she’s an all-around entertainer.

Again, if you love the movie Die Hard as much as I do, you will love this smart and sassy sendup of it. But if you just want to, in the words of McClane, “Come out to the coast…get together…have a few laughs,” then Yippee Ki-Yay Merry Christmas is also the hilarious holiday play for you. At Den Theatre through January 12, 2019.

Plainclothes has all the hallmarks of a dynamic show – a parade of interesting and believable characters, fast-paced and witty dialog, even a socially meaningful storyline, and great performances by the cast.

Premiering at The Den Theatre and written by Spenser Davis, who also co-directs (with Kanomé Jones) Plainclothes tells the story of the security guards who are charged with stopping shoplifting at a Michigan Avenue store that sounds very much like Macy’s. While the retail areas of the store are elegant and packed with luxury goods, the security detail is squeezed into less-than-savory quarters hidden away from public view.

A retinue of shoplifting types parades across the stage as we gaze on in curiosity. Some truly need or  want the goods, others are habitual offenders, and then there are the dilettantes, more in it for the game than the ill-gotten gains. One recurring offender is the effeminate Jomal (Ben F. Locke), in short shorts and bare midriff, who has been banned from the store. Another is Pete (David Weiss) who is also famous as a YouTube personality.

But the biggest focus is on this plain clothes loss-prevention crew, who prowl the aisles on the lookout for theft by customers, or even by the store staff  - individuals tracked down by “Internal” store detectives.

Cashiers such as Mary (RjW Mays) and other staffers who turn in shoplifters are also given bonuses. We learn that race, gender and age of perpetrators is recorded in statistical reports, a matter that is material to the retailer's consumer relations, and to the plot.

The crew is multi-culturally diverse, which also figures in the plot: Llermo (Alejandro Tey), is a warm, funny young Latino, with an eye for ladies; T (Stephanie Shum), a hot-blooded lesbian Asian also with an eye for the ladies; Alma (Teresa Kuruvilea), a South Asian security officer; Stevie (Kim Boler), an aspiring white police cadet; Bobby (Adam Soule) a young white bro who is on the rise; and Karina (Carmen Molina), a mixed-race guard who keeps watch on the video camera feeds from around the store.

The dialog of the team is fast-paced and laced with the shorthand that those immersed in loss prevention security would know – though occasionally it goes over the head of the audience. It’s also loaded with contemporary dish ("Unfriended, deleted, blocked!") and goofy rankings (Michael Buble versus Brittney Spears). 

We are also faced with unique aspect of a contemporary social issue: this diverse “loss prevention” team is accused of catching too few mature white shoplifters and too many young black teens. The crew objects to the charge, grumbling that their varied ethnicities should protect them from charges of prejudice. “I’m getting profiled; I don’t do the profiling,” objects Llermo. “We get fired; white guys get transferred,” laments Karina.  

Nevertheless, they determine to try for those harder to nab but more prized thieves. Things go awry when rookie Stevie gets knifed by a thief, and the plot becomes complicated – and frankly, it gets somewhat lost in its own details.

Davis has based the play on his own experiences working in the very job the play describes, and it tells. The lingo and setting are convincing, with perpetrators handcuffed to a bench while they either pay fines or await the police. The situations conjured up are spot on, as well. And the tribulations of the workplace resonate with everyone who has been paid for productivity – which in this case means catching more thieves before they get out the door.

Davis says he wants Plainclothes to follow the pattern of Broken Nose Theatre’s production of At The Table last year, which was developed, workshopped, and then produced in New York before moving on to Chicago.

Plainclothes offers plenty of potential but the for such development, but will need some more refinement. There are dozens of memorable lines but some, while entertaining, distract from the advance of the action. There are probably a couple characters too many in the show. And the byzantine array of details and events makes it a little difficult to distinguish the high points in the turns of the plot.

The performances are very good, with Alejandro Tey, Ben F. Locke, and Carmen Molina real standouts. Even stronger are Rob Frankel as Jim, the older white guy from management. Frankel is a seasoned performer, and it shows. And RjW Mays is kind of a scene stealer, amping up her smaller role to something delightful. Shum is full throttle in her delivery, and maybe should vary the volume a bit. 

Plainclothes definitely has legs as a theatrical work, and hopefully it will get some refinements if the producers choose a next iteration. Regardless, this is still a fun show, and with tickets at Broken Nose’s “pay-what-you-can” scale, Plainclothes is well worth a look at The Den Theatre, running through December 15.

A stunning production of a striking play at First Floor Theater, Dontrell Who Kissed the Sea, has the hallmarks of a hit in the making for Chicago. This coming-of-age play by Nathan Alan Davis tells the story of a dreamer, the eighteen-year-old Dontrell, in the summer just before college.
Dontrell Jones the Third (Jalen Gilbert), we learn, is a highly successful student, advanced placement whiz, and accomplished athlete, who has earned his way into Johns Hopkins University. But with all his intellectual accomplishments, Dontrell also remains tapped into the robust imaginary world he has inhabited since childhood.
We meet Dontrell as he lies in bed, dictating a “ships log” into a pocket recorder – a la Star Trek – aimed at “future generations.” He is planning a quest, based on a vivid dream he has had of an ancestor, whom he believes leapt to his death in the Atlantic from a slave ship during the “Middle Passage.”
Contemplating this visions of this heroic journey to encounter his ancestor on the floor of the sea, Dontrell is disturbed as his annoying younger sister, Danielle (Destiny Strothers) calls him to dinner. He must come down on the double, or the two will have to deal with Mom – a force to be reckoned with (as is Shariba Rivers in the role of Mom).
Next scene finds Dontrell diving into the deep end of the pool to teach himself to swim. He nearly drowns and is pulled out, unconscious, by life guard Erika (Kayla Raelle Holder). Dontrell immediately asks his savior to further his quest, and to be his swim coach.

This pair also play archetypes: Dontrell, as innocent youth; and Erika, his mentor (and perhaps, a magical water nymph?). A sleepover at Erika’s soon leads to romance, and revealing stories.
Having mastered swimming, Dontrell decides to tackle diving to reach that ancestor. Erika in tow, Dontrell heads home, and soon enough Mom and Dad (Brian Nelson Jr. is powerful) learn of his plans. Fireworks ensue. Cousin Shea (Brianna Buckley) and best friend Robby (Jerome Beck) ably deliver key roles in this drama. Playwright Davis has thoughtfully given each character at least one show-stopping moment of delivery, offering powerful dramatic moments.
The production of Dontrell, Who Kiss the Sea has received a visionary expression in its direction by Chika Ike, with scenic design by Eleanor Khan and lighting design by Rachel Levy. This dynamic production is furthered by an original sound score (Sarah D. Espinoza) artfully choreographed scenes (Breon Arzell and Gaby Lobotka), and seven players in a movie-star-caliber cast (casting is by Catherine Miller).
The play also glides along on the magical side, with the troupe enveloping the audience in evocative chant and dance rituals, all readily resonate, especially if you have seen Black Panther (though the timing was purely coincidental).
The play has been produced previously in Indianapolis, Washington, Los Angeles and other cities, and was selected to be part of the National Rolling Premiers of the New Play Network. (That program fosters premiers of new plays in multple cities within a 12-month period.) 

Davis also tapped into a trending African-American magic realism, the creative zeitgeist seen in Colson White’s novel Underground Railroad and the current cultural movie phenomenon, Black Panther. Davis, with an MFA from Indiana University, a graduate of Juilliard's Playwrights Program and a lecturer at Princeton, along with the magic, has also brought a kind of classicism and erudition to this script. Hopefully this show will be picked up for a larger venue following its current run. But don't take a chance on missing it. 

Dontrell Who Kissed the Sea comes highly recommended. It runs at The Den Theatre through March 31. 

I was blown away by how great the score, acting and singing were in Griffin Theatre’s new show, Violet. I didn’t have time to learn about it before opening night, so maybe I came away with a completely unbiased assessment: “Boffo!” as the trade rags say for this over the top, top-notch production.

As a recipe for a great musical, Violet can’t miss. It follows a 1964 pilgrimage of Violet (Nicole Laurenzi is excellent) from Spruce Pine, South Carolina to Memphis, where she hopes to be healed of a facial disfigurement in person by a TV Preacher. (Anthony Kayer is so good in this role!). With that geography, and the characters that board and depart the bus along the way, we have a setting that is rife with musical possibilities. And the show exploits them beautifully.

Violet taps deeply into country, gospel, bluegrass, honky tonk, and Memphis blues at towns along the way. As their vintage Greyhound bus breaks in Kingsport, Tennessee, Violet meets a pair of soldiers – Monty and Flick (Will Lidtke and Stephen Allen are terrific), enroute to Fort Smith, Arkansas. Violet has lived a sheltered life, and with her father gone, she is on a quest, and ready to meet the world for the first time.

An what a great score! What hidden talent has been lurking in Chicago, I wondered? Well, after the performance (90 minutes with no intermission) I was straightened out (duh!): this is a revival of a 2014 Broadway Tony-nominated production, itself a reboot of a 1997 Off-Broadway winner of the Drama Critic’s Circle for Best New Musical and an OBIE award for best music. Music is buy Jeanine Tesori, and book and lyrics are by Brian Crawley. 

Having great material to work with, the Griffin Theatre has a delivered a wonderful show. The story line and character development are unusually rich for a musical, and the cast measures right up. Matt W. Miles is a true standout as Violet’s father, with a rich voice and emotive performance. The Young Violet (Maya Lou Hlava) is a very good.

Director Scott Weinstein has navigated pretty well through a complex script, which taps flashbacks and memories. The somewhat spartan staging maximizes the Den Theatre’s intimate space, but it is probably challenging to convey the shifts in time and place – it works well overall.

The music by Jeanine Tesori (she also wrote Fun Home and Caroline, or Change) is loaded with harmonies and counterpoint. The band under John Cockerill is hidden behind a screen, but looms large rich sound, and is revealed when it plays the role of the house band for the Memphis church.

One quibble as a spectator: much of the plot revolves around Violet’s suffering with her disfigurement, a factor that has diminished her self-esteem. It is this emotional constraint that Violet sheds in the course of the play. But that moment of truth did not ring out on stage. And Violet’s makeup does not show a person disfigured – at least from the back row.

This blowout production of Violet is being done also to honor Griffin Theatre’s 30^th Anniversary. What a great way to celebrate! Violet runs through January 13 at The Den Theatre

In 1996 Ragtime made its stage debut in Toronto and a year later it found itself making waves on Broadway. Based on the 1975 novel by E.L. Dotorow, the musical, with a book by Terrence McNally, lyrics by Lynn Ahrens and music by Stephen Flaherty, kept gaining momentum winning thirteen Tony Awards in 1998. Now, to close out its 2016-2017 season, Griffin Theatre Company reimagines the modern classic, thanks to the creative minds of director Scott Weinstein and Matt Deitchman, who adds new music orchestrations to the mix.

Taking place in New York City, Ragtime takes us back to the turn of the century, beginning in 1906, where three families who couldn’t be more different are followed – a young African American couple, a recently immigrated Jewish father and daughter and a privileged white family. As the story unfolds, the families come across one another, but in doing so, and along the way, we see the vast difference in treatment each receives as Ragtime touches on social justice, race relations and immigration. With plenty of parallels in today’s America, Ragtime serves as not just an entertaining musical, but also as a lesson to which we can all learn from.

Throughout the story we also meet a handful of influential historic figures including Henry Ford, Harry Houdini, J.P. Morgan and Booker T. Washington and are reminded of the impact each had made in a rapidly changing America.

Filled with many lively characters such as Coalhouse Walker JR (admirably played by Denzel Tsopnang) who brings "ragtime music" alive with his jazzy Harlem-styled piano playing and Tateh (played with great zest and sentiment by Jason Richards), the colorful Jewish immigrant who just wants to build a life for his daughter, this is a musical that constantly keeps one engaged.

Katherine Thomas makes quite an impression in her debut for Griffin Theatre as Coalhouse Walker’s love interest Sarah particularly shining in numbers “Your Daddy’s Son” and “President”. Laura McClain as Mother also impresses and moves the house during her rendition of “Back to Before”. Other standouts performances include Joe Capstick who undertakes a handful of roles including Houdini, Frederick Harris as Booker T. Washington, a very funny Caitlin Collins as Eveyln Nesbit and an ensemble that truly delivers in every way.

Imaginatively staged at Den Theatre’s Main Theatre, the venue holds a new look as it is transformed into a theatre in the round, the audience surrounding the action. A ragtime band is present throughout the show, two pianos, a clarinet (Dan Hickey) and an occasional flute to giving us a newly-orchestrated chamber version behind the music direction of Jermaine Hill and Ellen Morris, each of whom mans a piano throughout.

There is a reason that Ragtime has won so many awards and has been revived so often by numerous theatre companies. Simply put, the music is outstanding, it’s story is educational as it is entertaining and its message is timeless. Griffin Theatre does justice to this definitive production putting forth a commendable cast, an inviting set, polished music production and lighting and spot on costumes that throw the audience back in time to 1906.

Recommended.

Ragtime is being performed at Den Theatre’s Main Stage and has been extended through July 22nd. For this quality production tickets are a bargain at just $39. For tickets and/or more show information visit www.griffintheatre.com.

Willa is too old to live alone in her flat, and she has “accidents”. That’s why her well-meaning daughter brings her to a suburban London nursing home, “just to try it out”. Originally from Galway, Willa (convincingly played by Belinda Bremner) starts an unlikely friendship with a good-natured 24-year-old nursing home assistant Byron (very talented and highly animated Terry Bell). Byron, an illegal immigrant from South Africa, comes from extreme poverty and family tragedy, but, despite his hard life, he’s kind and funny, and the pair gets along oh so well, always laughing, telling each other stories and falling closer together. Meanwhile, Willa’s married daughter Catherine (Carolyn Kruse) has very little time for her mother; she’s busy carrying on an affair with a younger man. All in all, living at the nursing home wouldn’t be so bad if it wasn’t for the sadistic head nurse Sister Chang (Christine Bunuan). Sister Chang is a colorful character; she likes to “discipline” residents and doesn’t hesitate to go through their belongings to satisfy a sweet tooth.

The My Way Residential is a very charming play; it’ll make you laugh and it’ll make you cry too, but you will not be bored; far from it. The cast is fantastic, and writing wonderful. Not to mention the old-British-TV-show vibe to it that’s irresistible.

Directed by ensemble member Kevin Theis and written by Geraldine Aron, this tragi-comedy is a world premiere from Irish Theatre of Chicago that concludes its 2016-2017 Season. The My Way Residential is currently playing at The Den Theatre (Upstairs Main Stage) through June 25th. For more show information and to purchase tickets visit http://irishtheatreofchicago.org/.

Griffin Theatre’s In To America is a stark reminder of the contributions made by the many immigrants that have come from all around the world and have made the United States what it is today. In writer Bill Massolia’s multicultural story, American history is retold by several immigrant narratives where sixty personal stories are shared spanning over thirty countries. The play begins with the American immigration experience from Jamestown in the early 17th century and covers the 400 years since, many of its stories remarkable as they are daring. 

We hear the good and the bad. In many stories we get a taste of the shameful mistreatment immigrants received upon their arrival, the brave new world of vast opportunity they were seeking no more than a hostile environment that spews hate for the simple fact of being different. In others (not nearly as many) we hear how immigrants were received with opens arms, their dreams fulfilled as their new home offers the new life they had so desperately had hoped for. In this condensed history lesson we also learn the hardships endured throughout perilous journeys in leaving their own countries in daring escapes from their own native countries. 

“We never crossed the border. The border crossed us,” we are profoundly told from Juanita Andersen who portrays a Mexican landowner after being squeezed out by new arrivals during the Manifest Destiny.  

The series of monologues flows quickly as the story follows a timeline that is rich in information covering such events as congress adopting the uniform rule in 1790 so that any white person could apply for citizenship after two years of residency, the Dred Scott decision in 1857 declaring free Africans non-citizens, the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1902, Native Americans made citizens in 1924 and the 1980 Refugee Act that removed refugees as a preference category, reducing worldwide ceiling for immigration to 270,000. Many, many other significant policies are brought to light that have had an effect on immigration.

Artist Director Bill Massolia comments about the production, “In To America owes a great deal of its inspiration from my own family’s immigrant roots.” 

He was also inspired by Ronald Takaki’s award-winning book A Different Mirror where it is stated “In the making of multicultural America, the contingent’s original inhabitants were joined by people pushed from their homelands by poverty and persecution in Asia, Latin America and Europe, and pulled here by extravagant dreams. Others came here in chains from Africa, and still others fled here from countries like Afghanistan and Vietnam. These men and women may not have read John Locke, but they came to believe that ‘in the beginning all the world was America.’ They envisioned the emerging country as a place for a bold new start.”

He further states, “Marginalized and degraded as the “Other” minorities came to believe even more fiercely and fervently than did the founding fathers in the ‘self-evident truths’ that ‘all men are created equal’, entitled to the ‘unalienable rights’ of ‘life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness’. 

In To America also explores the paranoia regarding immigration held by one such founding father quoting Benjamin Franklin, "Few of their children in the country learn English... The signs in our streets have inscriptions in both languages ... Unless the stream of their importation could be turned they will soon so outnumber us that all the advantages we have will not be able to preserve our language, and even our government will become precarious."

The play’s theme is strong in reminding us that America has been made on the backs of immigrants, boasting many great achievements and spotlighting a handful of prominent “new Americans” who have truly made a difference in our country’s progress. In the end we get a picture of hope, unity and promise.

Dorothy Milne directs while the cast in this insightful piece includes Juanita Andersen, Katie Campbell, Jennifer Cheung, Aneisa Hicks, Christopher W. Jones, Francisco Lopez, Adam Marcantoni, Sean McGill, Rasika Ranganathan, Omer Abbas Salem, Scott Shimizu, Jason VonRohn and Elizabeth Hope Williams. Each actor plays multiple characters from all over the world, transitioning very well from accent to accent, adding to the play’s genuine nature in relaying a spirit everyone can identify with.  

In To America is just the play that will prompt many to go back and research their family lineage to discover their own journey to America.

In To America is being performed at Den Theatre’s Heath Main Stage through April 23rd. Tickets are $38 and valet parking is now available. For tickets and/or more show information click here.